Albums•November 29, 2011•8,553 views

Tamora There's No Tomorrow Baby, So How About Tonight?

1. Loving Jesus Is Like Kneeling in Vomit 2. Where's Ian MacKaye when you need him!? 3. Art Has the Responsibility to Alienate the Enemy. 4. "I don't mind if you're straight, As long as you act gay around me." 5. It's Hard to Eat Meat with Broken Fingers 6. Burst and Bloom

2004 Happy Couples Never Last Records

Our score 5

by Patrick Kindlon

12/12/2004

Man, talk about an internal conflict. Tamora has given me "reviewers guilt," because as much as I applaud their message and content, the music itself is less exciting. So here I sit, wondering if it's worthwhile recommending this album simply for its heart. Sigh. Tamora fuse the simple riffing and chug-chug of the near-dead "moshmetal" genre with the irritatingly sassy affectations of recent pan-flashers like The Blood Brothers. The result is, as one might expect, a mixed bag. The formula is simple: fast and chaotic rock giving way to straight-forward mosh parts. The breakdowns recall Earth Crisis instead of channeling Norma Jean, which is a nice change of pace in a scene where the turnaround from buying a record to sounding-exactly-like-that-record is less than a week. When the songs catch their breath for a minute, there's some wonderfully stripped-down guitar-work here. Keeping busy without sounding "busy" is something modern metalcore hasn't quite ironed-out yet, so Tamora's mid-90's aspects are actually a breath of fresh air (at points). Vocally, the listener is barraged with two distinct styles: a midrange metalcore scream and a snotty whine. The interplay between the voices is Tamora's strongpoint. Neither vocalist is strong enough to carry the band on his own, but when bouncing off each other, something interesting emerges. Thankfully skirting the metalcore "singing" that's popped up over the last few years, the vocals, at the very least, make Tamora stand apart from the pack. Understandably burnt-out on sassy metalcore Me too. But Tamora managed to wear down my defenses with a neat little trick: good lyrics. Socially conscious and progressive, they touch down on everything from meat-consumption (old topic) to metalcore's underlining hatred of women (long-overdue topic) to accepting all sexual orientations as natural (way, way, long-overdue topic). While they lack the anthem-quality of Earth Crisis and the insightfulness of Endeavor, lyrics such as "I accept myself. I accept love in all forms. So, I don't mind if you're straight. As long as you act gay around me at all times." have an air of satire about them that is sorely lacking right now. It's worth noting that the production on this album is clean and efficient, but noticeably more kind to the chaotic parts than the mosh parts. It lacks the ultra-heavy flavor that the current dance-machine hardcore kid demands on every album. This may be a personal choice on the part of Tamora to define themselves as something other than a clone band. Bottom Line: It used to be that every album I picked up had some bold proclamations about diet or lifestyle. It all became a bit much and I think the focus on romance we've seen in heavy music for the last few years is a response to how overbearing that era became. Tamora embrace both current trends and age-old wisdom on "There's No TomorrowÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â¦" creating something they can call their own. Musically, there is promise shown and I hope for something more profound from their next effort. Lyrically, this band already outshines their contemporaries and offers hope for a typically trite genre.

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juleS_ 12/12/2004 1:07:57 PM

1st post?

Tamora There's No Tomorrow Baby, So How About Tonight?

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