CoC : Era Vulgaris - What Stirs Within : Review

Era Vulgaris - _What Stirs Within_
(Open Your Ears Music, 2007)
by: Chaim Drishner (2 out of 10)

Era Vulgaris, Latin for the civil year's calendar, is anything but exciting. Their self-proclaimed "progressive" metal is ultimately a basic thrash metal offering with a sub par production. Sure, they occasionally throw a neo-classical guitar solo here and there, but that's hardly enough. _What Stirs Within_ serves as Era Vulgaris' -- an Irish outfit -- debut effort, and this reviewer is afraid the band will fade back into obscurity if their reputation and fan-base would solely lean on the existence of this release, because it is not good enough, on any given account.

_What Stirs Within_ is a linear and predictable piece, with the wrong sound and many flaws; the real problem lies within the fact none of the flaws is being compensated by an antagonizing positive, which is what eventually makes _What Stirs Within_ the Pizza Tower of metal, so to speak: it gets more and more annoying with each spin of the disc.

The weak, unimpressive vocals are buried way deep in the mix and are hardly ever heard; and when they are, their uncharismatic character drowns what little impact they cause. The guitar work follows familiar patterns of somewhat "classic" thrash metal, and the progressiveness factor is nothing more than an occasional resemblance to Dream Theater or a slightly more raunchy version of the aforementioned.

To sum up: no genuine progressiveness and nothing in the realm of revolutionary ideas here. This debut leaves much to be desired.

Contact: http://www.eravulgaris.com

(article published 9/9/2007)