Mistral - Fortunes of War. 1982 USA

Mistral were a band from the north Chicago area who released one album on cassette and disappeared into obscurity. 25 some years later they resurfaced and ultimately reissued the album themselves on CD-R (so still not on CD technically).

It would appear the blueprint for the band would be Saga, who were chart topping during this time. The music has a similar early 80s  MTV rock vibe, with plenty of synthesizer work - and quite good at that. The guitarist has a bit of a hard rock streak especially in the solo department, yet another parallel with those from up north of the border. The vocalist has a strong resemblance to Ian Anderson, and thus the Jethro Tull comparisons are frequent, but honestly the music doesn't indicate otherwise. The shorter songs are pretty straightforward (and dull to be honest), but the longer ones show that Mistral had a few decent ideas up their sleeve, thus earning their progressive rock badge.

Where it breaks down is the production and choice of tones. The drums are horrid sounding, hollow and lifeless. The guitar - other than when soloing - has that toothless riffing that was somewhat prominent in the early 80s FM world. As a veteran of the cassette tape culture that was predominant in England during this time, my ears have built up tolerance for this kind of production. But even by those low standards, Mistral comes up short. It's the worst aspect of the 80s and it's all over this recording like an XLarge dress.

The band talked of reformation, and it would seem that had they pulled it off, their newer recordings would have been so much better. Well, it's never too late...