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I'd been looking forward to this ever since I was drawn in by the band's debut album Transcendental, which entirely changed my opinion of female fronted bands with clean vocals. However, when it came down to it, this doesn't quite match up to the greatness of their debut unfortunately. This is not to say that this a bad album however, it just seems a little muddled with too many influences sucked in to the melting pot this time around.

Highly progressive riffage pounds and soothes in equal measures, binding Cynic-like jazziness with late period Emperor-esque controlled disorder. Julie Kiss's vocal work is the calming contrast to the plethora of churning riffs which tumble and fade spasmodically, running in and out of phase with the intertwining lounge and jazz influences that are spattered throughout. Sure, it's pretentious — but at the end of the day, the music contained within this album isn't just the technical display of musicianship that it may be mistaken for upon the first couple of listens. Given the chance to truly sink in, intriguing structures and impressive song compositions seep into the listener's consciousness, planting seeds that begin to flower slowly with every additional listen. To be honest, it pisses me off that some people insist on blindly comparing To-Mera to the likes of Lacuna Coil or Nightwish, as musically they're nothing alike at all (in fact, their brand of music pisses all over the profitable pop metal of those two from a great height in my eyes). There's no blatant stabs at commercialism to be found here which will strike a chord with many, but when they do write a catchy chorus, they don't milk it like many others would, instead letting it linger just long enough to demand another spin.

Anyhow, as good as parts of it are, it does drag on a bit. Although the songs themselves don't outstay their welcome, the album itself runs at over an hour, which in my book is just a tad too long for even the very best progressive metal. Plus, it just doesn't grab you like the debut did. Good stuff all in all, but you're probably better off checking out their debut first if your interest has been piqued by this review.