There are times when I’m reviewing a particular album that I
\ncan’t get a certain thought out of my head. That happened just the
\nother day, while I was listening to the latest release from Swedish
\nhard rockers Terra Firma. The more I listened to this self-titled
\nrelease, I couldn’t help but think, “Can’t these guys play a song
\nin any chord except D?”<\/p>\n
Granted, they do know more than one chord, but there is a
\npainful lack of variety on this disc, which is otherwise
\nlistenable. In a sense, the band – vocalist Lord Chritus, guitarist
\nFreddie Eugene, bassist Nico Moosebeach and drummer Izmo Ledderfejs
\n– try to mimic the sound that their fellow labelmates Sheavy have
\nput forth, only with more mixed results.<\/p>\n
Terra Firma does have a very poppy Black Sabbath sound to their
\nmusic, though it often sounds like things haven’t quite jelled yet
\nwith the band. Tracks like “Rainbow Ride” and “Goatburn”, while
\ndecent enough to listen to on the first pass, show some weakness in
\nthe songwriting and attempted vocal layering, which doesn’t sync up
\nwell.<\/p>\n
The Sabbath influences come forth the strongest and the best on
\n“…And The 8th Seal Was Her’s”, a track that gives the term
\n“bombastic” a good name. This, along with the acoustic-veined
\n“Separate Graves”, dare to suggest promise for Terra Firma, and are
\nthe highlights of the album.<\/p>\n
But soon, it’s back to business as usual, as well as the
\nuniversal worship of the D chord on
\nTerra Firma<\/i>. Tracks like “Spiral Guru” and “Nimbus” all tend
\nto blend together, simply because the band refuses to play any song
\nthat doesn’t have its roots in the D chord. (Note to the band: On
\n“Nimbus,” just because you play the D chord faster doesn’t mean the
\nkey has changed.)<\/p>\n
So why the lack of variety in the music? It certainly isn’t an
\nindication of Eugene’s guitar skills, ’cause he proves he’s a
\nbetter musician than some of the music tends to lead one to
\nbelieve. Maybe, just maybe, it’s a limitation in Chritus’s vocal
\nrange – though I think there is something more to it than just
\nthat.<\/p>\n
And what is more disappointing about this is that
\nTerra Firma<\/i>, otherwise, is a listenable album that is sure
\nto get people’s manes swinging to the beat more than once. But like
\na magician who knows only one trick, things get real old, real
\nfast.<\/p>\n
\nTerra Firma<\/i> is an okay effort, and it does suggest bigger
\nand grander things for this band – but they need to start writing
\nsongs in more than one key if they’re going to keep my
\ninterest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7397],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38976","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-terra-firma","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38976"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}