Eleventh studio album for Galahad... Welded around the pair Stu Nicholson (vocals) / Dean Baker, the English band delivers at the end of 2022 "The Last Great Adventurer" which follows the huge "Seas of Change" released four years before. The formation is stable with notably Lee Abraham titularized in the post of guitarist.
The recipe used by the quintet did not vary much since its beginnings: the keyboards always have the power, as the long instrumental intros testify ('Omega Lights', 'Another Life Not Lived'), however the guitar manages to place well felt soli ('Alive', 'The Last Great Adventurer') on a voluntarily dynamic background, Galahad venturing more rarely (and with less success) in the territory of the ballads ('Normality Of Distance'). As in "Beyond The Realms Of Euphoria", the electro sounds succeed rather well to the English ('Alive', lively), especially when Galahad has the audacity to couple them with Middle-Eastern sounds ('Blood, Skin And Bone') or choral sounds ('Enclosure 1764' with superb slow harmonies).
The method works, Galahad has reached a balance that allows them to make one efficient album after another, with tracks oscillating between sympathetic energy and sensitivity (the sincere tribute to their late guitarist Neil Pepper in 'Another Life Not Lived'). "The Last Great Adventurer" remains however a notch below the ambitious "Seas of Change" and above all, a bit like Arena's recent "Theory Of Molecular Inheritance", this album assures the band's know-how without taking any risk. The disadvantage of succeeding a great work like the previous opus...