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TO-MERA DEFINITELY DO NOT NEED TO SUCK IT

 Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 11:15am by

to-meraIn Axl’s post the other day about chicks in metal who rule harder than Leaves Eyes’ Liv Kristine, he asked our readers to share their favorite metal bands with females… and only ONE of you mentioned the fantastic To-Mera from the UK (clap clap clap for “Choronzon”!). To-Mera easily smoke any of the weak bands you all posted; they’re progressive, they’re inventive, they’re talented, and their singer Julie Kiss is a gifted and unique talent.

To-Mera’s 2008 release Delusions actually received an “honorable mention” in my year-end favorites list for that year; the record is that good. And apparently they just released a new EP called Earthbound. I’ve seen little to no press about this EP which is a shame because I definitely would’ve written about it leading up to its release. Following some investigation, I’ve discovered that the band parted ways with Candlelight Records after Delusions which would explain the lack of promotion behind Earthbound. I haven’t heard Earthbound yet but To-Mera do have the new song “Arcane Solace” and an album teaser streaming on their MySpace page, both of which sound like a logical continuation of Delusions. Gonna go buy the new EP on Amazon now… back for more later. [UPDATE: Apparently Earthbound isn't available digitally. What the fuck?? It's 2009, dudes. You just lost a potential sale, To-Mera. BOO.]

-VN

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jesse-Menard/502061034 Jesse Menard

    Earthbound is just as good as anything you’d expect from To-mera. Absolutely love what this band is doing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kirill-Zmurciuk/100000301731079 Kirill Zmurciuk

    Yep, a great band indeed. As much as I hate female vocals in metal (because it’s usually some goth doom pop metal shit only worth jerkin off to pics) I just love this band! Their first album had countless spins in my playlist when it came out, and the second one made a huge step forward in what seemed to be as already perfect. Too bad the band doesn’t get as much spotlight as many other less interesting and talented bands…

  • bretton

    THE ORDER OF CHAOS

    http://www.myspace.com/theorderofchaoscanada

    growled clean, AND angry thrash vocals!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kirill-Zmurciuk/100000301731079 Kirill Zmurciuk

      Whoa! Tight shit right here! They sure do kick some heavy ass!

    • phale

      thats some old-school hardcore awesomeness. hail!

  • Chris Berseth

    Instrumentally it rocks. Her voice isn’t horrible, but I’m not a huge fan of it and I actually like quite a few female fronted bands.

  • Andy Synn

    Hmmm… they’re a good band and I hope they do well, but having heard their songs and seen them live several times…

    They just come across as very bitty and a lot of their bits aren’t that coherent. Plus her voice isn’t that special. It is very good of course, obviously, just not that distinctive.

    Definitely (so far at least) one of those bands for whom the whole is not greater than the sum of their parts.

  • http://www.hibernum.net hibernum

    These guys aren’t bad. Much heavier than typical ladies’ metal. Has a sort of Dream Theatre vibe, but thankfully no keys, and much better singing :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rik-Powell/286400508 Rik Powell

      They do have keys…

  • attackmole

    Incorrect. Best female band is Gallhammer.

  • http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com Jeremy Rosen

    To-Mera have been on my radar for quite some time and Julie sent me a copy of the new EP last week. Fantastic band and I hope I get to do something with them some day.

  • Dan

    Oh dear. This is pretty diabolical. Jucifer smoke them. Do ANb count now that Kat is in them? Because they’re better too.

    • http://www.metalsucks.net/category/scraping-genius-off-the-wheel/ Gary Suarez

      Jucifer smoke everyone.

      • http://www.myspace.com/uglydirge aaron m.

        listen to drunkdriver.

        • http://www.myspace.com/uglydirge aaron m.

          i’m not saying that because i think they’re necessarily better than jucifer, but i just think you’ll like them, gary.

          http://www.myspace.com/drunkdriverusa

  • DemonicLemming

    It’s too…..unrelated. The beginning sounded like a straight Meshuggah rip, but then everything just randomly fragments off, like listening to 3 radio stations at once. Vocals aren’t bad, but they’re really nothing special, either. To be quite honest, i liked it more during the sessions without vocals, where it’s more of an instrumental jam session…sorta reminds me of Jeff Loomis, for some reason. It just seems more coherent and focused….almost like the vocals just don’t match what the instruments are doing. She doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of range, pretty much the same flat delivery in every song.

    The best female-fronted band, without any competition whatsoever, is The Gathering, with Anneke doing vocals.

  • Ziltoid

    They’re a bit tame for me, but they’re good enough at what they do. Still, I get tired of female vocals really quickly if they’re not balanced with harsh or male vocals, since female vocals in metal tend to to be that varied.

  • http://www.cerebralmetalhead.com Satan Rosenbloom

    I love Julie’s voice for the very reason that I imagine a lot of people wouldn’t — it doesn’t take up too much space. She doesn’t have one of those booming operatic voices (see Luna Mortis) or the belty pop-oriented voices (see Evanescence). Her voice is another instrument, no more or less important as a focal point than the guitars, and her vocal lines feel more like guitar lines than singable melodies. I can understand why that might be off-putting, but I love it. Can’t wait to hear the new release.

  • http://www.myspace.com/uglydirge aaron m.

    okay okay, so i didn’t mention to-mera, but FUCK YOU because i named like, 9 other bands with women who kick serious ass.

  • Dysenteric

    Okay, Axl, you like To-Mera a lot. I’m not overly keen on them, but whatever.

    But did you actually listen to all our recommendations like you said you would? Because I hardly think To-Mera can smoke Aeternus in their black metal days or Bolt Thrower, even if you like To-Mera a lot more. Those two bands most definitely are not weak.

  • Facebook User

    Someone else plugged them in the other post but I’d like to replug Arkona – female frontedd Russian folk metal, and she sings and screams extremely well.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqUHJHDmSiM
    http://www.myspace.com/arkonarussia
    Loved Tantal, Russia’s putting out some interesting stuff

    • DemonicLemming

      That’s surprisingly good, and the videos are insanely well-done for being folk metal (typically have pretty low expectations for those).