ADEMA - Planets

ADEMA
Planets
Earache Records
7.5/10




Adema is back with a new singer and a much more polished rock sound on their latest, ‘Planets’. The band is clearly shooting straight for the radio with this release, with Luke Caraccioli displaying a rich, tuneful vocal sound that flows with the group’s subtle modern rock approach quite nicely.

You won’t find anything very dangerous sounding here, many of Caraccioli’s vocal lines are played on the safe side as the band deviates between wide-open thick grooves and laid-back, mellow passages on songs like ‘Barricades In Time’ and the album’s opener ‘Shoot The Arrows’. This music is aimed more at fans of Nickelback, Crossfade or Switchfoot, coming off with a bit less heavy feel and a much more commercial focus.

This is easily the most commercial record Earache records has ever released and obviously they see the potential in this music to break through to a large, mainstream audience. Tracks like the leadoff single ‘Tornado’ scream “Put me on the radio – NOW”, utilizing a catchy, power chord backed chorus with a decent hook that would stand up well next to the current radio fare.

One aspect that is somewhat negative is the fact that with Caraccioli at the helm, the vibe of the band seems a bit different, not to mention its overall direction in general. It’s always discouraging when groups change frontmen without changing the band name. Audioslave did this quite successfully, and if that band were still named Rage Against The Machine, it’s doubtful that most fans would have bought into it. The change in Adema is not however as drastic as that which Audioslave experienced, so it is quite possible fans will ignore this factor and embrace the new vocalist with open arms.

The smooth voice of Caraccioli often takes on the phrasing of other currently popular vocalists which shows that the band is certainly paying attention to which other artists are making a success for themselves in 2005. ‘Sevenfold’ sounds like a track lifted directly from the Crossfade album, while the title track sounds like a slightly slower, dreamier Linkin Park without the straight up rapping. Adema pull off these styles fairly well, and any of the first five songs on this sixteen track effort could find their way onto Clear Channel play lists.

Much of the metal has left the band in favor of catchier material, and Caraccioli is certainly not a metal voice by any stretch of the imagination. ‘Enter The Cage’ retains a bit of darkness, ‘Remember’ is more akin to Def Leppard than Deftones and ‘Rise Above’ sounds almost like a country song during the piece’s acoustic introduction’, before treading to waters that are eerily reminiscent of Enuff Z ‘Nuff during the song’s chorus section.

It could be predicted that long time Adema fans will have mixed reaction about the direction of the group upon hearing this album. The band will certainly make up for that, however, if ‘Planets’ explodes all over rock radio.

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