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Eilera - Fusion
Reviewed by Eddie Risdal in 12/31/2007
Eilera has to be my greatest discovery on MySpace so far, probably ever. In 2006 I accidentally stumbeled across this French woman's page and heard the song "Fusion". During the next few days I must have heard this song a hundred times, I was completely obsessed by this masterpiece. It was a damn good song as well as that EILERA's vocals were hypnotic and wonderful. I had a hard time getting hold on the EP "Precious Moment" where this song was from. Strange, since it is released on the big Finnish label Spinefarm. But finally I found it on a Finnish webstore, and the other three songs also were of very high standards.
I tried my best to keep down my expectations for this album, and was partially helped by the announcement in front of the release that said that two songs from the "Precious Moment" EP ("Fusion" and "The Angel You Love, The Angel You Hate") was included on the album. The songs are great, but I was expecting NEW songs, goddammit! It was still with great anxiety that I put "Fusion" (the album) in the player. And during the next 50 minutes all my scepticism was blown away.
I'll try to give you a hint on what EILERA is all about. It's not easy though. It can easily be compared with femme metal bands like Within Temptation, Evanescence or Nightwish just because of the female vocals, but this does, as I see it, unjustice to EILERA. The way she sings makes me think more about vocalists like Björk, Kate Bush or Tori Amos, not that she is a clone of any of them, but she uses her voice in a lot more interesting way than the "regular female metal vocalist". So if you prefer tags like "metal-pop", "gothmetal-pop" or whatever, this can appeal to fans of both metal, goth and more mainstream pop or rock. There are also influences from folk music on some songs, with the inclusion of fiddle, and I get a little feeling of Irish folk songs.
Back to what's to be found on the disc. The album opens with the rocking tune "Non Merci". It's sung in English, despite the French title. Though, if you don't keep focus on the lyrics (or even IF you do) it can be hard to understand what she sings due to her strange accent. This doesn't bother me a bit, the voice anyway works like one of the instruments, so she could have sung in French or Chinese without me taking notice. Then it's on to "In The Present", the only song with a 6/8 beat, and probably the one that is most comparable with the femme metal lot. Still a great song, and so is in fact the rest of the album as well. Luckily it seems like (the song) "Fusion" is the same version as the one on the EP. It's perfect just as it is, so they have sticked to the saying "if it ain't broken, don't fix it". There are in fact no bad songs here, and it's a very even album.
And I have to mention that EILERA is not a solo project, it's a duo where the other half is guitarist Loïc Tezenas. They are both credited for all music and arrangements, and the latter part is a very important thing here. If you'd played these songs on acoustic guitar most of them would sound pretty ordinary, but thanks to the very clever arrangements and the will to experiment with samples, loops and including strings, it makes the songs stand out as something fresh and original.
Definitely my highlight of the year so far, recommended to all who loves good music!
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