Era of Ephemeris – Among the Stars [EP]

 I really enjoy how everything flows together on this songs, from Rossana’s vocals to the guitars and drums, to the darkly sounding backing instrumental, definitely my kind of music. The same goes for the atmospheric and brooding “Farewell”. The title track “Among the Stars” feels like the most balanced track on this EP, and has such a groovy bass line to it, giving it depth and intensity, while the guitar solo is just superb. Really a highlight of the album.

On the downside, both “Another side of the same world” and “Ancestral visions”, although pretty good overall, fall slightly out of balance as the chugging guitar riffs and drums overpower the vocals at times, probably because of the mix. Besides, this repetitive chugging pattern on most of the songs just doesn’t add anything to the music, and it feels overbearing. Also, I don’t feel like “Another side of the same world” needed the harsh male vocals, it was heavy and dark enough without them. In theory I understand the role of male vocals in songs that have a female lead vocalist, that is to either give the songs more weight and complexity or to contrast with the female vocals, but here they just don’t offer any of these things. On “Ancestral visions” the guitar lines don’t fit in with the vocals, in the sense that the voice is operatic and the guitars are quite rockish, and are pulling in two separate directions.