To-Mera
Earthbound EP

Release Date: 2009 | Tracklist

To-Mera came onto the scene in early 2005 as one of the few bright spots in female-fronted metal. Granted it doesn’t take much to be a bright spot amidst all the generic crap, but for To-Mera the praise was mostly justified. It was justified because the band featured a collection of capable musicians that were actually good songwriters as well as skilled at their respective instruments. The problem was that one of the ways they showed it was through extended jams and random transitions. While this worked pretty well for the debut, the band just took it too far on their sophomore release. This lead to an album that was good in small doses but unlistenable in its entirety. Using that logic it seemed that an EP would be the reasonable way to fix the problem since four great songs shouldn’t have time to become tiresome – too bad they forgot the great songs.

The actual fact of the matter is that not only are these songs not great, they’re not even decent. The biggest issue with this album is its complete lack of energy. The band’s previous releases contained tracks that were full of vigor, heavy riffs, and quick (if occasionally superfluous) transitions but none of that is found here. In their place are four songs that can best be summed up as lethargic, directionless garbage. A lot of this can attributed to the repetitive riffs that lack any real power or definition, but an equal amount of blame has to be placed on vocalist Julie Kiss. The band’s previous two albums proved that she is a competent front woman, but that isn’t shown here at all. Here her vocal melodies are weak and her awful, lifeless delivery takes an already mediocre album down to new lows. When this is combined with a rhythm section that seems content to deliver a completely generic performance the result is an album that has absolutely no redeeming qualities what-so-ever.

With all of the talent that this band has (despite line-up changes) it was a total shock to discover that there is not one exciting moment, memorable section or positive aspect to be found on this EP. Instead the band dropped an album full of bland riffs, tedious transitions, lethargic percussion and terrible vocals. Considering the fact that their previous album was already a drop in quality compared to the one that preceded it, this EP is not only a bad release but also a bad omen for the band’s future.

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2.7 average

Rank: #0 for 2009