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Dracma — A Fine Stormy Weather
(Musea FGBG 4188.AR, 1996, CD)

by Mike Grimes, Published 1997-05-01

A Fine Stormy Weather Cover art

The second album by Dracma is a fairly straightforward neo-progressive symphonic release along the lines of bands like Cast, Pendragon, or Marillion. There a lots of alternating soft and loud sections, fast and slow parts, and electric to acoustic changes. The group uses the acoustic instruments, primarily guitar and piano, quite a bit. Two tracks on the album, "Portrait of Falgars" and "Arenys," are actually completely acoustic instrumentals and many of the "electric" sections of the other songs have acoustic guitar strums or piano in the mix alongside the heavier instruments. The music is melodic, with the lead guitar often playing single note patterns over keys / bass / drums backdrops. The two longest tracks on the album, "Inner Castle" and "Inside Out," are the best ones — they summarize all the best elements of Dracma's sound pretty well. However, a few of the tunes, especially "The Mask," are pretty weak and uninteresting compared to the longer songs. Overall, A Fine Stormy Weather isn't especially good or exceedingly bad. It's a middle-of-the-road, unobtrusive neo-prog release that fans of other current bands of this genre might want to check out.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 12, 1996 releases

Related artist(s): Dracma

 

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