bassgeezer I don’t think I have ever heard a metal band use dynamics to the extent that this band does on this album. At times they are very heavy metal, at others they are light classical or jazz. If prog metal is “characterised by genre transgression” then Transcendental has that in spades. The To-Mera musicians’ virtuosity is also beyond a doubt. I don’t usually like bands with female vocals as they tend to make it too gothic for me, but this is one of the rare exceptions. They don’t seem to fall into the gothic format. To-mera’s Transcendental is in my opinion a masterpiece of progressive metal.

Andyman1125 The Glory of To-Mera

To-Mera is an English progressive metal group that fuses the great stuff of prog metal with jazz and other adventurous qualities for a great form of progressive metal. "Delusions" is their second studio album, and it certainly a killer of an album. Staggering in depth and maturity, the album mixes a great deal of styles into an eclectic and exciting form of progressive metal. With precise musicianship and swinging styles and dynamics, the album never ceases to amaze me, with countless transitions to mellow jazz pieces and intense metal riffing moments. Rich melodies contrast raging guitar riffs and metallic drumming. Overall the album presents a great new vision for the development of the genre.

The album blasts off with the killer track The Lie. Opening with a growling 7-string riff and reaching into the lower registers with a fiery passion and fury, the song has no shortage of ferocious attitude. Fantastic dynamics and great harmonizations between each instruments keeps the song in a constant groove, with swinging themes and solos flying all over the place. A great jazz breakdown adds a fantastic dynamic to the track. Overall a spectacular opener.

Mirage opens again with a roaring and growling guitar riff. With some nice synth and keyboard work, the song swings in and out of dynamics with ease. Again a strong sense of jazz is present in the music, with some fantastic melodic sections present within the music. Some really nice section transitions also compliment the music, with some fantastic soloing by Tom MacLean. The song really has a nice vibe overall, with some fantastic contrast between the melodic guitars and vocals and the screaming riffs.

The Glory of a New Day rushes in with more low-toned riffing, this time with a great polyrhythmic vibe. Some really nice contrast between the jazz piano and heavy riffing is nice, as well as the ethno-fusion brought in to accent the music as well. The song has some of the best songwriting present on the album, with the band bringing out all of their juicy compositional skill. Mixing in djent to the sound as well, the band has so shortage of tricks up their sleeve for sure. Through the countless dynamic changes and great melodic sections, the song quickly emerges as one of my favorites on the album.

Inside the Hourglass opens with a more ambient intro, the first track on the album not to jump start into a heavy riff session. The song has a more soaring metal outlook, with some fantastic high flying riffing to start off the track. The melodic characteristics of the song are superb, showing the bands more creative side, other than just adventurous metal. The strong metal sense is still present, just slightly muddled by the stronger heavy prog feel. Some great moments emerge in the track, and overall it is one of the better tracks on the album.

A Sorrow to Kill is another more melodic track on the album, with some more quiet and heartfelt moments during the music. It opens with a mellow piano piece, before breaking into a quiet mellow melodic section. Away from this, the song effortlessly transitions into a sweeping solo section, comprising of some of the heavier sections of the album, with some of the best solos on the album. Overall, the song is easily another one of my favorites for the album.

Asylum is one of the more avant-garde tracks on the album. In the spirit of avant masters Unexpect, the song mixes dissonance and atonality with jazzy instrumental work. The song encapsulates the adventurous vision of the band, with some crazy mathcore-esque periods mixing with avant atonality and instrumental prowess, to make one hell of a track. It has one of the most avant jazz solo sections, with an amazing sax solo and some of the best jazz fusion instrumental I've heard in the genre.

Fallen From Grace is one of the more haunting tracks on the album. Opening with haunting organ chords, the band sweeps into a great Opethian section, with really nice use of guitar chord progressions and riffing. The song has some of the most pleasant use of female vocals, and is one of Julie Kiss' better performances on the album. The instrumental section is jazzy and adventurous as always, and has some really nice moments.

Temptation is the beautiful melodic closer to the album. Opening with a sublime piano/vocal duo, the song has a strong feeling of classic jazz. Before it breaks into a haunting jazz metal masterpiece, of course. The song soon transitions into a quickly accelerating (literally, the tempo accelerates) beast of a track. Closing the album with some of the better music on the album (it seems like all the music is the better on the album), it fleshes out what To-Mera is all about, melody, metal, and jazz. The instrumental section is a good summary of the band's great musical vision, and the cool use of dynamic in the exiting vocal and instrumental section shows you what To-Mera is all about.

ALBUM OVERALL: To-Mera certainly knows how to write an album. In the vein of Haken (the bands share two members), the music is adventurous and sweeping in nature, and has one hell of a creative vision. The music has countless dynamic, theme transitions, and other goodies it's hard to comprehend the complexity of the composition. The production may seem a bit muddled at time and the timing not perfect, but the album still presents one hell of a ride. I'm certain that I'll be on the lookout for anything new by this band, and you should too! 4 stars.

adg211288 This is To-Mera’s second album. Their debut Transcendental was, in my opinion, one of the strongest progressive metal albums of all time, not just an amazing debut. But with Delusions, if anything, the band have gone one better and produced a superior album.

Opening with The Lie, it’s good to hear that To-Mera have abandoned the idea of having an intro type track this time around, instead getting straight into a proper song. And what a cracker it is. Hearing a return of To-Mera’s heavy guitar tone is most welcome, but their sound is not a complete recycling of Transcendental (although there would be nothing wrong with that). Singer Julie Kiss has taken up a slightly difference approach to her vocals, heard most well when The Lie takes on one of To-Mera’s jazz sections. Suddenly the album does not sound metal at all, and I can imagine a scene of dimmed lights, a small bar in New Orleans during the time that jazz music originated. Now many metal bands could get away with such a thing (and even less could get away with the jazz section from Asylum) but To-Mera manage it, and they manage it spectacularly.

Playing on their strengths, the album brings out cracking song after cracking song, using the same formula and yet always managing to make each song have its own unique twist. Guitarist Tom MacLean once again asserts his status as an upcoming guitar god. Whatever may happen with To-Mera, the name Tom MacLean is one to watch. He composed the majority of the music on both To-Mera albums (Julie Kiss writes all lyrics), only aided on occasion by a bandmate, and with only a single song from either album that he holds no writing credit to (Delusions closer; Temptation). Julie Kiss once again displays both talents as a lyricist and a very versatile vocalist. The combined writing talents of the pair has the potential to take To-Mera to vast heights with progressive music’s devotees.

The strongest track here are easily, well actually the listener can take their own pick from these eight beauties. There is not a weak track on Delusions, nor anything mediocre or above average. From start to finish this album is a masterpiece, making that two masterpiece albums under To-Mera’s belt. I’d personally recommend The Lie, The Glory of a New Day and Inside the Hourglass above the others, but it really is hard to pinpoint what is superior when quality is as high as it already is. Consider myself highly impressed.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

arcane-beautiful Wow, these guys take alot of digesting. To be honest, they do confuse me alot, but also they have a certain je ne sais quois that I love about them.

Their abrupt and at times random song structures are made up by their amazing Steely Dan like changing vocal melodies, the odd timing and 7th string chugging you would find in Sikth, and the nice dreamy almost Imogen Heap like vocals.

It is good to hear a female vocalist behind the music, because a male vocalist would just sound weird.

The keyboardist of my band likes this band alot, but she says she can't get into them because their so random and the vocalist sounds like she has to guess the melodies, which is a little true.

Other than that, this is an amazing album, and really does take you on a fractal journey.

1. The Lie - Mixing black metal and jazz (no really, blastbeats and rag time, it's true), this song does wonders for your ear. A chorus also comes up one or twice. 9/10

2. Mirage - My favourite song on the album. That off time groove is amazing, and the vocals are very dreamy. The isntrumental work is flawless. 10/10

3. The Glory Of A New Day - The darkest song on the album. Very eerie, but very affective. 9/10

4. Inside The Hourglass - At times, very dreamy, but the rest is a visceral cerebal groove. 9/10

5. A Sorrow To Kill - Very eeire, but some fierce guitar work. 8/10

6. Asylum - The most eccentric song on the album, with weird circus based riffs, and odd time changes and weird genre touches. 9/10

7. Fallen From Grace - The most progressive song on the album. Quite intricate. 8/10

8. Temptation - The piano intro is beautiful and Julie's vocals add to the solemn eerie beauty of the song. The rest is a complete mind mess. The ending is very epic. 10/10

CONCLUSION: Some people won't be able to handle them, but I see them like sudoko, challenging and exciting.

J-Man A Good Taste of To-Mera

After releasing two successful full-length albums, British prog metal band To-Mera released their first EP with 2009's Earthbound. At only 4 tracks and a running time under a half-hour, Earthbound gives us a good taste of what this band is about without ever becoming overwhelming. To-Mera's varied musical style and constantly shifting moods never fail to impress, although I have a few small gripes that do drag down my score a little bit. Still, if you're into progressive metal and aren't satisfied with another Dream Theater clone, Earthbound may be right up your alley.

The music here is progressive metal, but on the more unique end of the spectrum. I find it difficult to pinpoint any single influence in To-Mera's music, something that's almost always a good thing. As mentioned, Earthbound consists of 4 songs. My favorite song by far is the opening, Mesmerised, although the title track comes pretty close. The last two songs (Arcane Solace and Another World) are actually somewhat drowned by comparison. They're still really good, but never really reach the mark of excellence that the first two songs presented. Compositionally, the last two songs never completely immersed me like the first tracks did.

My biggest gripe on Earthbound, however, is actually the guitar tones. I'm sure many people will disagree with me, but there are actually quite a few times where I think that the guitar is far too high in the mix, in addition to sounding too distorted at the wrong times. One good example of this is in the song Earthbound at the 2:05 mark. The jazzy keyboards and melodic vocals sound silly with the extreme metal guitar style. Of course, some people may like this, but it sounds a bit like an identity crisis to me. I honestly think To-Mera sounds better when they play more melodic progressive rock sections that highlight on the beautiful vocals of Julie Kiss and the atmospheric keyboards from Richard Henshall. I think they should leave the generic metal riffing to a minimum on the following releases. It may sound like an odd thing for an avid fan of Morbid Angel and Death to say, but I honestly don't think the Meshuggah-like guitar distortion fits To-Mera's style most of the time. Of course, there are a few moments where the guitar distortion adds a "punch", but most times it sounds like a lame attempt to get heavy, in my opinion.

Despite that complaint, there are plenty of great things on Earthbound that make it worth a purchase in the end. One of these things is the terrific musicianship. All of the five musicians in To-Mera are extremely talented, especially Richard Henshell on the keyboards and Julie Kiss on vocals. All of the musicians show their chops, though, and manage to incorporate that into melodic songwriting.

The production is okay. I don't have any huge complaints about the sound, but as I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few times where the guitar is way too high in the mix. Other than that, the production is pretty good.

Conclusion:

Earthbound is a very good EP by To-Mera that is recommendable to all fans of female-fronted progressive metal. There are a few gripes I have with this release, but they are (thankfully) relatively small in the big picture. It's apparent to me that To-Mera is much more confident with a full-length album format, but they still managed to pull of an EP successfully. I'll rate Earthbound with 3.5 stars for a solid, unique, and enjoyable prog metal EP.