Leaving the line between ‘progressive’ and ‘self-indulgent pretentious bollocks’ so far behind it’s a mere speck on the horizon, To-Mera’s third outing is a horror show of rudderless meandering.
The grooves are passable, and the occasional moody atmospherics of synthesised orchestrals do threaten to generate some atmosphere, but this is utterly lost due to the feeble melodic sense, and the songs lacking any sense of form or structure, one inconsequential passage ending and another that bears no relation to it following.
The ideas do effectively show off the technical aptitude of the musicians – how broad the singer’s range is or how comfortable the musicians are with syncopation – but struggle badly to form emotional connections. Tunes vanish from the memory almost as soon as they’re finished (if not before), solos come and go without adding an iota of articulation or interest to the songs, and it all takes a fucking geological era to get anywhere of interest.
Exile is remote, ineffectual and aimless, wandering between forgettable sections to no lasting effect.
