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by Vincent Chen Published: August 15, 2001
 I was able to get a prerelease studio cut copy of Adema's self-titled debut album. The album will be released everywhere on August 21st, 2001. Adema's single "Giving In" is playing now on rock stations across the country. The band plays rock; heavy enough to stay away from pop stations and yet not heavy enough to avoid going mainstream and staying underground. The band sounds a lot like Linkin Park and KoRn. However, unlike those two bands Adema doesn't turn to rap's style when they're asserting their lyrics. Rather, they turn toward an odd melodic raw sound. They take elements of Electronica, Metal, Rock, Hip-Hop, and Techo and mesh it together to create their style: powerful, pushing, emotional, and melodic. The band originated from Bakersfield, California. That very city has spawned bands like KoRn and Videodrone. In fact, the band's frontman Mark Chavez is KoRn's Jonathan Davis' half-brother. Mike Ransom (Guitar), Tim Fluckey (Guitar), Dave DeRoo (Bass), and Kris Kohls (Drums) complete the five-man outfit. Chavez's relationship with Davis may raise a few eyebrows and bring the band some popularity but the band doesn't need to use that to keep a fanbase. Adema's stuff is good enough to make a fan out of the curious rock listener checking out their single because their lead singer is Davis' half-brother. The album is divided into three types of songs. There are the uniform and cliché heavy rock songs, the middle tier stuff, and the good songs with the unique Adema sound. Two out of every three songs are good, meaning there are a lot more of the latter category than the two aforementioned categories. There is the occasional bad filler song ("Do What You Want To Do" and "Drowning") but for the most part the album's songs are of good quality which makes it easier to ignore the bad ones. The lyrics of the album speak pretty loudly. Chavez sings a lot about life perspective. The album kicks off with "Everyone", a song mocking those who are quick to blame others rather than themselves. They claim, "Everyone is the same/ Quick to point the blame/ All I know is that life is a struggle" meaning sometimes it just isn't anyone's fault and bad things do happen, it's a part of life. "Giving In" talks about succumbing to addiction in general, to Chavez it referred it to his alcoholism. Chavez describes his addiction, "Caught up in life losing all my friends/ Family has tried to heal all my addictions/ Tragic it seems to be alone again". The rest of the issues Adema sings about boasts variety. They sing about the feelings of dejection because you didn't take the path everyone wanted you to take, losing close friends, confusion about love, pain from just dealing with daily life, and reflection on your life's present situation. Most of the choruses of the album are extremely catchy and will make the band's songs hits. They just fit together in a good beat, creating a distinguishable melody limited to only Adema. The album is a good one. The album sounds off with great guitar riffs, complemented with Chavez's throaty yet eloquent voice and techo-esque sound effects. The bass roars and the drums give the songs good beats allowing you to nod your head along with the beat. The album will not disappoint the veteran hard rockers. The music is probably too heavy for a contemporary audience. But the music still finds a level in-between that could lead to mainstream play. The whole listening experience is like dropping into a trance filled with the sounds of blazing guitars and cries of exclamation. The filler songs are just your everyday songs of the frontman yelling his lungs off with power chords from the guitars, power bass, and insane drumming. They only hurt the album because they're so out of place. There is also a slower paced song in the album, "Speculum". This song is rather good but it seems alienated from the other songs. This is the debut album so the band is trying to find its identity and it seems to have two directions to move towards. It should stay the way they are with most of the debut album's songs: a rare breed of heavy guitar mixed with thoughtful lyrics and Chavez's distinguishable voice. It could go down the road of the heavy life and become just another head-banging band among the already crowded (and boring) crowd. The potential is there for this band to become an innovative group of musicians. So we'll see what happens when they sit down to make their follow-up album (Which will happen because they already signed a three-album deal with Arista Records). Teamed up with KoRn they could create a new variation of rock. We may soon be mentioning Bakersfield New Age Rock with Seattle Grunge and San Diego Punk Rock. Adema debuts with a solid effort. They show the potential to be a truly great band with some maturation and a clearer sense of genre. Those both come in time, of which they possess plenty. During the wait we have a not brilliant, but certainly commendable album. Overall Rating: B |
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