DRAMA - FLYING OVER THE 21ST CENTURY - 1998

Each time I had a chance to listen a French Symphonic band was satisfied with the music and musicianship, in this case the musicianship is as good as ever, but the music is less than inspired in their first album, improves in the second and satisfies in the third.

In their beginnings they tried unsuccessfully to re-create the spirit of the 70's but without inspiration is not much what you can accomplish but they improved with the pass f the years..

The band was formed in the mid 90's in Rouen - France and in 1995 they release their first self titled album with Eric Azhar in the guitars, Jean-François Duboc playing bass, Laurent Guilhot the drummer, Richard Langlois in the keys and Jean-Marc Leclerc adds additional percussion, in track four.(4).

There are a few things this guys should know, not everybody is able to play in the Genesis style and be successful, good instrumental debut but still it was evident something was missing and IMO it was ambition.

For their second release "Flying through the 21st Century" (1998), Jean-Marc Leclerc and Richard Langlois leave the band so Eric Azhar takes the keyboards and they recruit a vocalist named Louis de Fusco.

In the first album the main problem is the lack of ambition, well they went to the other extreme, still keeping the main Genesis influence, they add ethnic influences from Africa, Asia and even the opener named "La Magna Carta" with bagpipes, maybe they should stick to one sound and stop wandering, but still musically is a big evolution.

Now the problem is the high pitched vocalist de Fusco, they should have remained as an instrumental band, the guy really wasn't in the level for the band, the consequence was evident, the critics were devastating but they keep going.

In the year 2000 DRAMA was invited to Baja Prog where along with AFTER CRYING, ECLAT, ISILDURS BANE and PALLAS received the bet critics, surely their sound was already improving more.

In the year 2005, DRAMA surprises us with a their album called "Stigmata of Changes" with a completely different lineup formed by Azhar (Who claims back the guitar) and Duboc from the original formation plus a new keyboardist Ralph Adam and of course a new vocalist named Yvon Lucas.

The change is for good, Lucas is far better than his predecessor, his voice is soft and gentle but serves perfectly for their new material and Adam's keyboards are pretty decent, heavily influenced by Genesis and Pink Floyd again with some bluesy and Folk influences.

This album is pretty good and makes us believe they can keep improving as they done through their career, hope this time we won't have to wait 7 years for a new release.
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