Review of Tears - Emptiness

I believe Emptiness is the second demo from Greece’s Tears (I’m having difficulty finding a current website), and it’s one of the more unique demos I’ve heard. Unique ain’t always great, and in this case, it’s damn strange. I’m not sure if you can call this power metal specifically, there are many prog’ elements present, but these guys definitely know their stuff musically and perform a more finely-spun, fragile type of metal. They also take a couple odd missteps, but it’s nothing that can’t be worked out with more experience.

Sophistication and grace is an obvious goal, but the music here dances on that thin line of being epic, and sounding theatrical. The vocal patterns are a little on the hair-blowing-in-the-breeze side, riffs gallop by at a fairly peppy and energetic pace, but there’s this weird early 80’s electropop feel with some the material for scant moments. It’s just enough to catch your attention for a split second and go ‘huh?’, and the peppering of piano also causes the same sort of attention-grabbing effect. All the songs are connected thematically, and the lyrics appear to be about some sort of betrayal and breakup of a relationship and friendship, but I’m hoping there’s something a little less literal going on than what I’m hearing.

The musicianship on Emptiness is topnotch all around, tight drumming, fantastic virtuoso guitar and piano playing, and I think there might have been some bass somewhere in there, but not too much. The whole damn thing only lasts about 10 minutes though, with only two tracks which can be called proper songs, and while this brief encounter does make an immediate and lasting impression, it’s because of the peculiarity of the songwriting, vocal arrangements, and instrument choices. Perhaps if the piano had a richer tone and didn’t sound so much like a toy the songs might have had a fuller feel to them, and if the vocals were a little less melodramatic, I’d be a little more enthused by it. But of course, it’s just a demo, and it sounds good for one, really.

There might be a few labels who specialize in prog’ & power metal who might be interested in Tears and what they have to offer, which is, for the moment, very editorial, ambitious, somewhat overdone power metal. With a little checking and balancing, they might come out with something truly inspired if they had a bigger budget to play with, and a clearer idea as to specifics that will model their sound a little more individually in the future. Quirky, a little too ostentatious, but not terrible overall.

Release Details

Tears

Emptiness

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