{"id":428,"date":"2011-01-19T05:53:42","date_gmt":"2011-01-19T10:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=428"},"modified":"2026-07-08T08:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:23:09","slug":"album-review-agents-of-mercy-dramarama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/19\/album-review-agents-of-mercy-dramarama\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Agents of Mercy – Dramarama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swedish quintet Agents of Mercy\u2019s<\/strong> album Dramarama<\/em> occupies that curious yet sweet spot between progressive rock and pop-rock. The group\u2019s sonic approach draws on the usual suspects, but if they sound like any other group, it\u2019s post-Peter Gabriel<\/strong> era Genesis<\/strong> before that group went (too far) in the pop direction.<\/p>\n

That Nad Sylvan<\/strong> is a vocal ringer for Phil Collins<\/strong> certainly adds to the similarity. The group\u2019s progressive compositional tendencies are kept tethered to the ground by an assertive yet straightahead rhythm section (Jonas Reingold on bass, and drummer Walle Wahlgren<\/strong>). Renowned guitarist Reine Stolt<\/strong> (of Flower Kings<\/strong>, Transalantic<\/strong> and who-knows-what-else) adds plenty of melodic yet head-spinning licks throughout.<\/p>\n

A track like the album opener \u201cThe Duke of Sadness\u201d moves through different sections; some parts are more pop than others, and bits evoke the style of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway<\/em>, but in the end the track is an exemplar of prog-leaning music that remains accessible to more mainstream tastes.<\/p>\n

Majestic, expressive keyboard work courtesy of Lalle Larsson<\/strong> gives Dramarama<\/em> much of its prog credentials. The liners list his arsenal — grand piano, B-3, Minimoog, Rhodes, Wurlitzer electric piano, synths \u2013 but a keen listener would have spotted most or all of those instruments in any event.<\/p>\n

The melodies across the album\u2019s dozen tracks are all memorable, and various bits will likely lodge themselves in the listener\u2019s memory. Designed as a complete listening experience, Dramarama\u2019s<\/em> songs tumble into one another. But a few tracks do stand out. \u201cPeace United\u201d swaggers like Led Zeppelin\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cKashmir\u201d minus the world-music trappings, then it veers (quite pleasingly) into an And Then There Were Three<\/em>-era Genesis vibe.<\/p>\n

Some lengthy and tasty synth soloing \u2013 coupled with a soaring wah-wah guitar solo — \u00a0is a highlight of \u201cJourney.\u201d The anthemic \u201cGratitiude\u201d sounds like Collins, Rutherford<\/strong> and Banks<\/strong> joined by a fretless bassist. With its Mellotron-ish tones, \u201cMeet Johnnie Walker\u201d may evoke mental images of \u2013 of all things \u2013 Klaatu<\/strong> and\/or Electric Light Orchestra<\/strong>. It\u2019s also a contender for best album track among a bunch of fine ones.<\/p>\n

In general the lyrics on Dramarama<\/em> \u2013 composed by Stolt, Sylvan or (occasionally) both \u2013 concern themselves with upbeat, positive themes. While not nudging the subject matter in quite the religious\/philosophical direction of Transatlantic, it\u2019s mostly about life as a quest and so forth. But here the pop emphasis keeps things nicely balanced; Dramarama<\/em> safely avoids progressive rock\u2019s tendencies toward (on one hand) lyrical self-importance and (on the other) treating the lyrics as an afterthought.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a prog fan who wants to draw a pop-oriented friend into the fold, Dramarama<\/em> is a good entry point, as its charms will give you both plenty to like.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swedish quintet Agents of Mercy\u2019s album Dramarama occupies that curious yet sweet spot between progressive rock and pop-rock. The group\u2019s sonic approach draws on the usual suspects, but if they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31861,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/31861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}