DELUSIONS

To-Mera is a rare example of female-fronted prog metal - not the familiar symphonic/gothic type, but of the Dream Theater-esque eclectic variety. Although it must be said that Julie Kiss's pleasant voice, except for the lighter jazzy sections which seems to be her forte, most of the time sounds out of place with music. Members of this project have background in both extreme metal and Gentle Giant-loving prog metal (sister British band Haken), so you can expect some subterranean riffs and bouts of complexity for complexity's sake. The long songs are full of sudden shifts in melody, running from the full gamut of metal stuff to jazzy breathers. So this is pretty complex, at times even weird, stuff, not your standard European prog metal-lite (intro-verse-chorus-bunch of solos-breather-big finish) approach, but, in line with the forebearers of the genre, Dream Theater, they, thankfully, don't let their creativity overrun the listenability.