To-Mera - Delusions

[Dolamite S. Biffle]

TO-MERA were a band that I got turned on to a little while ago. I didn’t find their debut "Transcendental" to be that exciting. Honestly after listening to this album I had to go back to revisit "Transcendental", because I was so shocked by some of the aspects of this album. So, yeah, this album was a big surprise to me.

The band began with Julie (ex-WITHOUT FACE) and Lee Barrett (EXTREME NOISE TERROR) in 2005. They would have various lineup changes over the next year before signing with Candlelight in 2006. They have since opened for various bands such as EMPEROR and INSOMNIUM.

This first track just put me into utter shock with how good it was, I didn’t remember TO-MERA having a sound like this at all. There was some crazy and bizarre jazz timing in middle of song that I would never expect to come from a band with a singer like Julie. The guitar solo at about 3 minutes with the blast beats from the drums was very unexpected. The epic keyboard part at about 5:45 is just jaw dropping. The intro to track two is great with the odd timing and the keyboards possess a certain flare that is hard to place. Once Julie’s voice kicks in the odd timing stops very abruptly and you are just left with an enchanting vocal arrangement. The middle of the track is really solid sounding; the almost whispered vocals with the really thick sounding guitars complement each other wonderfully. The layering of the keyboards towards the end of the song is very impressive as well.

"The Glory Of A New Day" is a really interesting song with an almost Groove Metal/Thrash vibe to the intro, to a small hand drum part and from that directly into the typical TO-MERA sound. Then the horns (or horn sounding effect from the keyboard) that pop up about another minute further added a nice flavor to the track. Also present in this track is about a 2-minute section where the music is really calm and serene to, which it goes jolts back to the Groove Metal sounding riff. The Glory Of A New Day is really such a diverse song I don’t see how I could get bored with it. The opening riff from the next song is extremely catchy and should immediately get your nodding. The guitar sound throughout this song is just so right on the money as far as a Prog guitar sound goes. The instrumental mid-point of the track that seems to become customary on this album is nice and technical; got to love the organ sound of the keyboards in this part. "A Sorrow To Kill" begins with a slow to moderately paced intro that doesn’t really pick up until about the 4-minute mark. The pace is picked up considerably with some the fastest parts on the album not to mention a keyboard solo that is face melting. The song slows down again, but then cranks it up one more time for ending.

The keyboard sound on the sixth track is almost like an organ but not quite; it is a very complex sound. The vocals once again are amazingly done. The keyboard solo is very interesting with the saxophone chiming in at the end, very Prog! The previously mentioned highlights only accent the song and make the TO-MERA sound that much more complex and enjoyable. The chaos that is going on around the 4:45 mark is so sweet that is almost indescribable. "Fallen From Grace" calms it down more and I found more similarities to their last album here. The song has a very haunting vibe to it. The finale starts off pretty slow well really slow actually. The riffs come at you for about a minute following that. The transition back to the mellow sound is more interesting on this track and is not so abrupt.

The TO-MERA sound that talked about it in the review is very widespread and they are a band that is recommendable to a lot of people. If you like older LACUNA COIL, CYNIC, or ECHOES OF ETERNITY you might enjoy TO-MERA. The song structures with varying jazz scales, the angelic vocals of Julie, and the "can’t miss" attack of the drums and guitars are hard combination not to like.

8/10