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Promethean - Somber Regards CD (album) cover

SOMBER REGARDS

Promethean

 

Eclectic Prog

3.08 | 6 ratings

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kenethlevine
Special Collaborator
Prog-Folk Team
3 stars Promethean followed their masterful debut just one year later with "Somber Regards", a lesser effort that sees the band dropping many of its dynamics in favour of a more consistently downbeat sentiment. Perhaps they saw the end near, for they were to disband within the year, and they rushed out a half baked collection of outtakes and outcasts from "Gazing the Invisible".

Allowing for the inevitable disappointment, the overall sound is still intact, even if harder rock elements are fast encroaching on tracks like "Rat Dance" and "Spiderland", and they sound as depressed as Pink Floyd on "Blazah", while the strings that provided so much relief in every sense of the word have been abandoned. The flutes do remain, especially effective on the two highlights, the back to back brilliant folk rocker "Selfportrait" with its sad yet shape shifting and uplifting tune, and the mostly acoustic title cut, with an intensely tragic character succinctly explaining his plight as he closes:

"They say that I'm cold and I do plead guilty. But you cannot blame me you don't know what I've been through"

Again Promethean closes with the longest cut, and this one is better than the ultimate epic on the previous album. "Pennywhistle" starts off like one might expect given the title, with an almost jig like quality where even the vocals almost sound happy, before entering a plodding instrumental section that segues into hard rock nigh metal before closing out with the opening themes.

If only the sophomore jinx could be handled as well by everyone. "Somber Regards" is effectively a sad farewell for this short lived Finnish group, mixed in quality but with plenty of highlights for those with eclectic tastes.

kenethlevine | 3/5 |

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