Via those nice people at Oskar Records on CD https://oskarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/for-the-love-of-drama-cd (and digitally https://pinndropp.bandcamp.com/album/for-the-love-of-drama), we have Polish act, Pinn Dropp, with For the Love of Drama, their second full-length album. The band have supported Marillion on a Weekend out there, always something to be respected in Lazland, and this work is a conceptual piece drawing on archetypes deeply rooted in the human psyche.
It references mythological, historical, and religious figures who become symbols here, attempting to put across universal experiences from the pen of The Hero from Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth, something itself not short of controversy over the years. The digipack is, incidentally, sumptuous.
Quite a lot to unpack, then, in ten pieces of music performed by the lineup of Matt Jagiełło, vocals; Piotr Sym, guitars; Paweł Woliński, bass; Mirek Skorupski, keyboards; and Kuba Mikulski, drums.
We start with First Steps, an instrumental overture to proceedings, soundscapes with children in the background, walking into destiny. Unholy is the opening gambit with vocals, the one who prays to Ra, the hermit recalling his sins in the desert. I played this on my radio show of 8th November (available as a podcast on progzilla.com/podcasts – just go to “Lazland On Progzilla Radio” for all of them). On this, as throughout, Skorupski shines on the synths, and fans of the type of grandiose operatic prog with a metal tinge will find much to like. The music is suitably complex, taking a cue from the likes of Dream Theater but nodding to classics such as Rainbow in the Dio era, and in that vein, Jagiełło is expressive, the riffs thundering, interspersed with quieter interludes, and the first (very good) taste of emotive guitar solo from Sym, Woliński and Mikulski offering a classic metal rhythm section. A tremendous start.
Point of no Return has our hero realising in the desert that all good stems from family and home, the synths mournfully whirling above, with notes pulsing underneath, the guitar moaning, with a short, but clear, reference to Bohemian Rhapsody (He’s Just A Poor Boy & etc. on the piano), and the riffs perhaps a tad more in the background as the vocals take precedence, with some more grandiose synths rising above the fray in the chorus, and then leading us on a bombastic solo, with the closing guitar solo similar as it closes. This is a very catchy song.
Recycled Feelings mourns the loss of the persona, the realisation that he is being taken over, wreathed in a new cloth, but wanting to strip all away to revisit what he was. The opening guitars are bright, the synths rising nicely above them, with Jagiełło showing such a nice, lighter, timbre to the voice, the band proving that they can do moods and that wonderful trick of using a more introspective track to build the emotions and tone as it moves along almost without you noticing. It’s not a ballad, as such, but it is a very good emotional rock song, piano leading the journey, with some nice harmonies in the mix as well. The guitar solo is dripping with feeling.
They Are Here is a short intermezzo, the sounds of night, owls, demons in dreams, and insects intruding on the soul. It leads into Logismoi, “THE EYE IS WATCHING”, confronting these demons via meditation. The title of the track is taken from the Greek, meaning thoughts and actions which take us into sin, and away from Christ. From the start, it is rip-roaring, full of energy and noise. Think of Asia meets DT meets Dio meets Marillion (with a harder edge), and you will be somewhere near an interesting modern heavy art rock song with classic tinges, the voice at times suitably menacing with the confrontation which has a soul at stake. The rhythm section moves everything along at a cracking old pace, the drum work especially pulsing, some of the guitar work is furious, although not losing its fundamental tune at all, and the synths are masterful, this the sound of a band totally at one and dedicated to entertaining us with a massive wall of sound, and Jagiełło also unleashes his inner growl in parts of this (it is impactful, not a distraction). The close is massive, a glorious assault of riffery.
l'illumination (The Illumination) is a lyrical delight, pure intelligent progressive rock where the hermit attains his state of enlightenment (a theme common to most major religions), free from the shackles of the ordinary human existence with its petty travails and worries, and it references the philosophy of Montesquieu. The start takes its reference from the type of music played by compatriots Riverside in later works, and, indeed, fans of that legendary band will find much to enjoy here, but that is not all, because we also have bursts of what can only be described as The Sweet, that venerable 70’s glam outfit, on speed (I kid you not), this yet another surprise on the album. It moves along at near the speed of sound, the power of the state described to good effect, and there is a magnificent bass solo halfway through, which I wish had been longer.
The epic title track has an official YouTube video, and this is embedded below, the realisation that his life was a drama played out on stage. To surprise you even more, this track opens with a burst of pure Americana, which I really never saw coming – on first listen, I had to check the download. As it settles into the main theme, we get a more conventional progressive rock track with some nice funky leanings amongst the symphonic metal with some quite lovely piano work in the subdued early mid-passage, including Woliński and Skorupski channelling their inner jazz demons, to magnificent impact, a pastoral acoustic guitar solo, the eventual closing passage thoughtful and tuneful. Just about everything on this one, a joy to listen to.
Hugag is the penultimate piece, the title referencing a mythical fearsome creature which roamed the North American forests, the theme in terms of our concept being that of alienation, the thought of being a freak of nature, but lacking the ferocity of the creature. There is an inherent sense of sadness to this, the vocals strong, some sensuous guitar work, and majestic synths on a pastoral delight before morphing into something more grandiose, the drums belting out the closing transition to the introspective symphonic discussion between beast and man, the guitar solo plaintive.
We close with Last Footsteps, bringing the album around full circle, the piano melancholic against the sounds of life in all its glory, the violin perfect as a backdrop allowing the listener to come down, take time to think, gently.
For the Love of Drama is an impressive album, yet more evidence, if any were needed, of the sheer weight of inventiveness which is being produced in the modern era. Pinn Dropp very clearly wear their varying influences on their sleeves, but it is all wrapped up in such a unique and diverse covering, and the album comes with this website’s strong recommendation for you to try.