DELUSIONS

Approaches like this followed in TO-MERA's Delusions are quite rare in today's progressive metal. At my first acquaintance with the band, I was pleasantly surprised at the mixture of influences, the heaviness and the carefully-worked gloomy atmosphere.

Indeed in this album, there are several musical paths that the band takes and executes the various pieces with splendid musicianship. TO-MERA is arguably a somewhat different female-fronted band to the majority of those in the scene. Even from the beginning of the album, The Lie summarises what is to be experienced in the rest of the record; sophisticated prog-metal mixes with jazz, gothic, avant-garde and extreme metal. The result should not leave the listener untouched. Although there is a strong resemblance to Dream Theater riff-wise (especially in the opening track), the band expands to sounds that remind of Machine Head, Mekong Delta, Symphony X, Rush, Emperor, Lacuna Coil, Nevermore, Arcturus - really a coming together from all the aspects of modern metal and in no particular order.

The sequence of styles is actually random, with jazz or acoustic breaks following extreme metal blast-beats. The voice of Julie Kiss gives a more gothic, atmospheric tone and blends nicely with all these styles and at no point it sounds distant from the musical style. I do not feel there is a need to expand to particular tracks as there is an unexpected cohesion between the tracks (although not necessarily within them!) and no real weaknesses. If I had to pick highlights these would be the opening track and Inside the Hourglass, with its magnificent and compelling twin-guitar main theme.

Definitely one of the most interesting prog-metal albums of the last few years, Delusions is a "must" for the demanding fan and is probably worth more than the 4 stars I assign...