EXILE

Here's a puzzler for you: is To-Mera's Exile a progressive rock album with prog metal moments or a progressive metal piece with progressive rock interludes? It's a tough one because the album hangs right on the borderline of the two approaches, with extended passages where metallic riffing is nowhere in sight and an intriguing sort of jazz-influenced new prog with a hint of Magenta and mid-period Thieves' Kitchen is being performed. With various world music influences also added to the mixture, the album showcases some impressive compositional skills and broad tastes on the part of the band. This is the crew's first album since the departure of co-founder Lee Barrett, leaving Julie Kiss as the sole remaining founder member of the project, and she's clearly done well in setting the band's current course. Fascinating from the first one, this one has grown on me a lot already during out brief acquaintance and I'll certainly be chasing up the group's back catalogue, as well as Julie's old work in Without Face.