UNTITLED

I have known about Tera Melos for a while, but they were only recently brought back to my attention by another fan of experimental, free-thinking music. In fact, those two terms are ones I would first use to describe the music of this Sacramento-based band. Although Tera Melos are a post-rock band, or math rock, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it, there is a much more adventurous spirit in their music than the typical act of the genre that I'm used to hear. While Tera Melos would go to even further lengths of experimentalism in their music with further albums like 'Drugs To The Dear Youth', the self-titled debut meets an agreeable mix of pleasant sounds and unconventional writing.

Like many post/math rock acts, Tera Melos is almost entirely instrumental, and I can only imagine how someone would manage to fit vocals into this music. 'Tera Melos' is a very technical album, and while there are plenty of mellow guitar tones to enjoy on the album, the songwriting is like a tornado, picking up virtually everything it can get within its grasp, and run with it. Each of these tracks are called 'Melodies', an ironic name for the fact alone that most of these tracks have very little in the way of hooks or memorable melodies. Instead, each of these are chapters in a discordant, turbulent journey. Although Tera Melos never reaches the heaviness of metal, much of this music gets distorted and chaotic. To be honest, there are times on the album where things get a little too crazy and haphazard, and by the end of the album, it becomes that much less of a shock to hear the musicians constantly burst from mellow post-rock to pseudo-grindcore. Both the heavy and lighter elements of the band are highly impressive, although the band's forte is with their technical sensibilities.

'Tera Melos' is about as challenging as post-rock will get, and softer-leaning fans of the genre will probably turn their noses in disgust when they hear how bloody manic this thing gets. As someone who has long been looking for something fresh in my post-rock intake, 'Tera Melos' does the trick. Viciously technical, discordant, and just a little bit beautiful.

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