Traces - 3.13
Blood - 5.36
Dreadful Angel - 6.52
Phantoms - 7.18
Born Of Ashes - 7.04
Parfum - 6.32
Obscure Oblivion - 6.17
Realm Of Dreams - 9.44
Julie
Kiss - Vocals
Tom MacLean - Guitar
Paul Westwood - Drums
Lee Barrett - Bass
Hugo Sheppard - Keyboards
Candlelight
Records 
distributed by Irascible
review by Gary Saul ___ 
You will never know what to entirely
expect from track to track
Hailing from South Oxfordshire, England, the quintet gives to us their debut release. Loosely Translated to-mera means "Land of the Pyramid". With a musical approach as every bit as interesting as their namesake this group formulates their own unique sound through out Transcendental . They weave a sonic patch quilt of many different styles of music . With such a wide variety of influences ranging from jazz to thrash the group at times seems almost dissonant and experimental . Upon listening to this release the first time 'round , I must say , You will never know what to entirely expect from track to track. Always keeping it interesting and ever changing they are adept at entangling the listeners interest through-out the entire album. Brett Caldas-Lima Helms the production once again after working with the group on their Demo in July of 2005. This being their first release on a proper label ,they appear to have given it their all. the production is polished and laid down smoothly. The only negative thing about the mix is the vocals. They seem to be more towards the background and not as up front as I would have liked them.
The
opening track entitled Traces is more of an instrumental than a
full song despite a play time of three minutes and some odd
seconds. The first half minute consists of nothing more than
a short A Capella bit by Julie Kiss. With an almost middle eastern
"vibe" going on ,this feeling is reinforced when a sort
of Qatar melds into the mixture. As the song progresses an
electric guitar drum and finally keys stagger their way in one by one.
I'd say this track gives a good idea of the overall atmosphere to the
album. A few other songs of prominence to touch on are blood and
phantoms. blood has a "funky" kind of
riff accompanied by some keys playing in the background for a
better part of this piece. the latter , phantoms , doesnt lean
so much toward a progressive sound as the other track. the first half of
the song has this epic air to it. coupled with some upper tempoed
drumming and pipe organ keys this song makes a good symphonic
metal piece. Of course dont assume that the arrangement isn't without
its "jazzy"" sections ( it seems every song has one even
if briefly).
Over all I would have to say that this album is a decent one. There's something here for everyone I think. If you can handle the sudden shifts in genre and overall sound and then back again one should be able to enjoy this album quite a bit.
rating: 6/10
Gary Saul 19.05.2007
next concerts:
- 28th May 2007 - with Octavia Sperati and Adastreia, Camden Underworld, London
- 9th June 2007 - supporting Dream Theater, Newcastle City Hall
- 9th August 2007 - Brutal Assault Festival, Czech Republic
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