The name is inspired by the 1944 movie "Murder, My Sweet". Original, even if it doesn't exact roll off the tongue. The band was started by drummer, songwriter and produced Daniel Flores. When Daniel came across singer Angelica Rylin things fell into place and guitarist Daniel Palmqvist, bass player Johan Niemann and keyboardist Andreas Lindahl were all recruited. The band's aim is to create a distorted film noir vibe, with this album being a combination of diva, divine and vanity.
My casual glances at the pre-release press had me thinking that TMOMS were some sort of female fronted gothic metal in the vein of Nightwish. It has taken me while to get my head beyond these preconceptions. There are elements of gothic metal here, but this is a real melting pot of styles. There is progressive metal like Lana Lane. There is symphonic metal. There are some modern heavy guitar moments. There are moments that remind me of alt modern rock like Plumb. The choruses are fairly catchy and I can see why the interest from melodic rock label Frontiers comes from. Floating atop all this maelstrom are the soaring vocals of Angelica. Even that does begin to describe the theatrical vibe to the band. Maybe this is the modern day equivalent of Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell. Is this what would happen if Jim Steinman were to produce a Nightwish album?
The music is dramatic and it dips and soars, crashes and roars and each song is a fairly intense experience. In fact, there is too much going on here and it is almost as if the band are trying too hard to craft together all these styles to create their own unique one. The danger with this approach, and one which often befalls progressive rock acts, is that the songs feel like mini-albums and end up all sounding similar. Angelica is a real find in the vocal department, and I would have liked less going on around her to let her vocals stand out more. If you dip in and out of the album and listen to a couple of tracks at time, rather than work your way through the whole thing in one sitting, then you're reaction will be more positive.
As a debut album, it does its job nicely for the band. Even though I don't quite 'get it' this time around, I can see the potential in the band. I guess it might be going against the whole ethos of symphonic metal, but I'd like to see a 'less is more' attitude adopted for the follow up.
Rating: 2 stars
