PEčET

OTA PETŘINA is a Czech Symphonic band that takes the name of their vocalist and guitarist, who was the leader of the band since the dark days of the Sovietic control of Eastern Europe, who despite the hard conditions, managed to release "Super Robot" in 1978, an album that clearly defines the powerful mixture of Symphonic and ethnic elements from Eastern Europe.

Today we are going to review their second album "Pečet", which despite being from 1983, when the political conditions were less oppressive still presents us a dramatic and powerful sound typical of bands from countries where Rock was close to underground.The album starts with the 14+ minutes epic "Hemingway", can't talk about the lyrics because I don't get a word of Czech, but the voice of OTA PETŘINA is so dramatic and colourful hat the meaning matters very little (still will search for a translation).

His timbre is not spectacular, but the guy knows how to sing, has a very good technique with a moderate vibrato that adds emotion plus a great capacity to go from low to high ranges in fraction of seconds, crating shocking moments.

The work of the band is also outstanding "John Neckar jh" gives a nice support to the vocals with his soft piano and strong synth interruptions, while OTA adds a sometimes distorted guitar which added to the work of the rhythm section provides the Rock flavour. An extremely dramatic song that ends with a an aggressive instrumental section where the band shows us their skills, and a simply delightful .vocal section that closes the track in he vein of GENESIS in Supper's Ready". There seems to be an orchestra or at least a string section, but I don't know if it's synthesized, because they are not credited.

"Cas" is a Power Ballad with special emphasis in the word "Power", because the heavy guitar work of OTA PETRINA adds a new dimension to the orchestral music, like the encounter of two worlds, Classical and Rock, extremely beautiful.

"Odchod" is a short but frenetic song with ethnic elements that blend with the ´powerful Rock in a perfect way, explosive and vibrant from start to end, a create contrast with the soft "Phalaenopsis", in which OTA PETRINA presents himself as a virtuoso acoustic guitarist, if I had to find a word to describe the band would be versatility.

"Kopriva" is more a Folk tune with OTA PETRINA singing as a troubadour only supported by his acoustic guitar and whistle. flows gently from start to end, another beautiful melody.

"Obálka" starts reminiscent of PINK FLOYD, but soon they take a detour towards a dramatic and full of anguish song that I would be able to describe better if understood the album because this is the type of tunes that usually have strong lyrics, due to the energy and sentiment that the singer adds.

But around the middle, "Obálka" changes radically,.because the try everything and cross almost all the genres, from some sort of Avant to a Psychedelic nightmare, this is what Progressive Rock means.

The album ends with the soft and lyrical "Syn" that reminds me of PAVLOV'S DOG and French Chanson, again pure drama and strength with pain and anguish included, great closer even when a bit too short.

Would love to rate "Pečet" with 5 stars, because I enjoyed it from the first to the last note, but I understand is not their strongest work, and I believe they were able to do something even better, so 4 solid stars for a great album.

Excellent addition to Prog Archives, that proves we should search for more bands that defined the genre in different regions because we are missing real gems that never gained fame but presented us a real expression of Progressive Rock.