Dracma is yet another in what seems to be and endless flood of melodic Power Metal bands emerging from Brazil. The band consists of Alexander Shultz, vocals, Thiago Medeiros, bass, Ivan Alatxeve, guitar, Leinio Medeiros, drums and Andreas J. Silva, keyboards. From what little information is available about this band, I believe that this is their debut full-length album.

The overall feel and mood that this band creates with their music especially with the extensive use of keyboards, really brings bands like Kamelot Savatage and older Labyrinth to mind with the epic and dramatic flair that each of those bands uses in their approach to writing their unique brand of metal music. Building, heavy and orchestrated riffing dominates the sound of Dracma and even some Iron Maiden style riffs, leads and vocal deliveries creep into their sound. The band has a good solid sound and it seems that they're trying very hard to deliver a quality metal album. Unfortunately, the band comes up short with a number of key elements that are required for any great metal album. Firstly, on several occasions, some of the riffs used have a very familiar sound to them. They're not a direct rip-off of anything in particular, it's just that you get the feeling that you've heard them before. In keeping with the guitar sounds, I found many of the solos to be somewhat weak and even shaky at times with wavering vibrato and even some off-key notes. Solid guitar playing is an absolute must and with so many great players out there, the bar has been raised as to what to expect from a metal guitar player. Another aspect of this band that needs improvement are the vocals. Alexander Shultz has a decent voice and the range and style reminds me of Klaus Meine (Scorpions) and Niklas Isfeldt (Dream Evil). His voice is not as pure and strong as is necessary for this style of metal and his vocal delivery style needs work as well. Many tracks on this album suffer from very weak and very uninspiring choruses.

On the positive side, besides the typical epic Power Metal style as found on tracks like Lavdate, the band does a good job of mixing up tempos and styles and lots of 80's influences such as Dio can be found on Waiting, Mountain and Riders with the typical slow, pounding heavy riffing and passionate vocal style. A couple of power ballads break things up nicely with some very good Queensryche style quiet dramatic guitar parts mixed with heavier passages creating a nice atmosphere. The band even sheds the Power Metal style for a trip back to the 70's with Suffering Violence, using everything from electric slide guitar, a cool slow and heavy beat, all spiced up with some very 70's sounding Hammond organ fills.

Like I stated earlier, much effort has gone into trying to make this a diverse and varied Power Metal album and I give high praise for that aspect. Dracma has an interesting sound and one that is not the typical Brazilian Power Metal sound. Much work is still needed though with the vocal delivery and with the choruses of the songs. A better and much more solid production wouldn't hurt either as the drum sound is a bit distant and not very powerful. As far as the guitar, more work is needed on the solos and especially with the big epic and dramatic sound of this band, killer, expressive leads are a must. I hope this band takes all this to heart. I realize the effort and commitment required for a band to even get this far (i.e. actually recording and releasing a full length album) and I would never trash something that doesn't deserve to be. Let's hope they keep improving.