To-Mera - Delusions

When checking out To-Mera, someone would assume that is dealing with another female fronted modern atmospheric metal band, so either he’s a fan of this genre, and sees them positively, or he’s not very keen, and rejects them. Correct?
\r\n
\r\nWrong!
\r\n
\r\n\r\nTo-Mera is a ‘weird’ band, in a positive way that provides us with a completely original style combination. Think of a mixture of Meshuggah with Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) on the vocals, with touches of Dream Theater and Symphony X here and there, incorporating some pure Jazz elements along with some Jazz Metal, Sieges Even style, Sophisticated era. The positive thing is that they don’t deny their influences, without copying them though!
\r\n
\r\nMore specific, ‘Delusions’ is their second album (after their 2006 debut named ‘Transcendental’, and a demo a year ago, when the band was formed), and we can definitely say that the band is in good shape. The musicians composing To-Mera are seriously trained and in an experimentation mood, the songs are worked to the finest detail, and it’s a full album for sure, without any filler tracks.
\r\n
\r\nAre all these ingredients enough to create a ‘big’ album? Unfortunately not! Despite the undoubted artistic value, there are some negative aspects as well. The first someone could notice is that the production is very ‘dry’. In an album that there are female vocals and lot of synths (which are more delicate and soft sounds by nature) the approach of a dry production is not the ideal. Especially today, the ‘juicy’ productions are a standard case for such records. The keys are following the typical Prog patterns, and the sounds are quite cheesy and dated. The most negative aspect though is that when you finish listening the album, there’s not a single melody or a chorus stuck in your mind, something that will make you press the repeat button.
\r\n
\r\nConcluding, there should be respect regarding the artistic value of the album, and all the detailed work, but in a generally good album like this, there’s an obvious lack of that extra factor that would make it reach a higher level. There’s a plethora of new releases every day, and this one fails to make the difference. Eventually it’ll be remembered only for the unique style combination that was analyzed above.
\r\n
\r\nTerry Nikas\r\n