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Rock and Reprise.net |
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Album Review |
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ERA FOR A MOMENT lives on the edge but, man oh man, it is a sweet, sweet edge. EFAM fans probably think that is reference to the sinister yet sensuous Shelby Carcio, who smooths that edge with a voice (and, from what I've read, a presence) perfectly fit to the band, and they would be partly right. Ladies who really rock are few and far between in the music biz. There are very few, however, who fold themselves within the cloak of a band so well. And what a band they are. They are good enough to have won awards, landed major concert slots behind major acts, and released an outstanding first album, 2005's Realize, which received rave reviews and gained them airplay on XM Satellite Radio as well as numerous regular and website stations. They are good enough to have been voted the Best Female-Fronted Band of 2006 by the denizens of Z-98 Underground Radio. They are good enough to have won a full-endorsement from Lightwave Guitars, and if you don't think that's important, wait till you hear these guys play! I know. 2006. Yesterday's news, right? You are so wrong. I would say that they are back this year with a vengeance if they had ever left (they had not) and if they had a smidgen of vengeance in them. They may have attitude and drive, but these guys leave vengeance to the amateurs. They come to play! Hopefully, they'll be playing a lot to support their new album, When Earth Meets Sky. When Earth Meets Sky, it begins with guitar fade-in, short and sweet, which gives way to the possibility of hard rock madness, and it would be in lesser hands, I am sure. These guys do not crunch just to crunch, though, and turn left at soaring and punchy, guitars and Carcio finding what has become one of EFAM's many moments of magic. Those moments fit the album's title to a 'T', earthy rhythms and ripping guitar giving way to floating guitar solos and Carcio. The whole album is a highlight, but if one had to pick out high moments, they would be the hard rockin' What If, the Heart-ish (but much louder and better) Thrive with its monster and all-too-short guitar solo (Wishbone Ash in their prime would have been envious as hell), the multiple-layered Revel (the rhythms make the song), and the hard rock makeover of Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me, for those not already burned out from hearing it in TV commercials. The standout track, though, has to be the ethereal Last Lesson, the vocal harmonies downright unearthly in their beauty and effect, Carcio singing ?This is why I'm ready? on top of heavily reverbed guitar and mild mid-tempo rhythm. I return to this track again and again and it is not even beginning to get old. EFAM is one of those why-haven't-more-people-heard-of-them bands (my list gets longer every day), but they are also very special. I stopped listening to hard rock when it became more fashionable to write for guitar and the song be damned. These guys write for the song. And every time I hear them, I can't help but wonder what they are like in concert. On a humorous note, they have this Street Team guy in Fremont, Nebraska who drove all the way to Massachusetts just to see them play. Guy's nuts, I told a friend of mine, or one huge fan. My friend said what's the big deal. Now if he had walked... Me, I;m not that cynical. It is a long way from Nebraska to Massachusetts. That guy's a fan, and he knows good music too. I salute him. Frank O. Gutch Jr.
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