This on-again, off-again Boston band featuring former members of Black Pyramid and Blue Aside is back on with their second album in the past two years. Though not quite as extended as its predecessor, the nearly-90-minute Apostles of Silence, we still get a solid hour’s worth of spacey prog doom here from Palace in Thunderland.
The album opens with a bass solo—if you can believe that—leading into brief instrumental number “The Owl in Daylight,” a pretty decent cosmic-doom interlude that segues straight into “Beyond the Stars.” Those who dug the first Black Pyramid record as much as I did will instantly recognize the guitar tone, the same crunchy heft that drove that stellar debut. The rifforama continues with some solid double leads on “Awakened Dream” before “The Distant Shore” offers some slightly lighter fare—devastating doom riff right around the three-minute mark notwithstanding.
After the feedback-heavy “Deus ex Machina” and the ground-pounding interlude “Pink Quarter,” things get pretty spacey and a little grungy on “Decadent Decay.” Nine-minute number “Before the Dawn Descends” is awfully reminiscent of Blue Aside in its warm, progressive tones, while equally-lengthy “The Sunfaced Moon” ends the album on a mellower note—I think I even hear a Mellotron!
Suffice to say, this album should appeal to fans of outfits both Black ‘n Blue.
