Posted on: August 1, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Demetra – S/T / 2007 Self / 11 Tracks / http://www.demetramusic.com /

“Beam Me Up Scotty” is the first track on this, Demetra’s self-titled released. While there are sci-fi beeps and bloops that seem to bring the band into a dance-punk type of style, the female vocals that are present during the track recall acts like Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Donnas, and Battershell. The style of rock music that Demetra play on this album is very hooky, catchy, and will have no problem finding fans. “Girlfight” starts out with a very Bay City Rollers meets Toni Basil sort of cheerleader chant, before going into the slightly harder Ramones-type of instrumentation that first presented itself during “Beam Me Up Scotty”. It is during this “Girlfight” that the vocals start to shift towards a stylistic unity with late-nineties rockers Switchblade Kittens.

The addition of a number of vocal layers to “Girlfight” give the track a fuller sound than “Beam Me Up Scotty”, something that allows Demetra to go into “Make A Scene” with maximum momentum. “Make A Scene” is a track that allows the band to insert emotion into the opening guitars. The addition of this emotional content into the guitar riffs gradually transfers into the vocals. It is with this very emotional sound and evolutionary style that the band hits on early Green Day with this track. The vocal harmonies on “Make A Scene” show an evolution over other Demetra tracks; the band continually modifies and shifts their sound to keep individuals interested.

This experimental tendency of Demetra is further shown during “Earth Meets The Sun”. During “Earth Meets The Sun”, the band goes the Franz Ferdinand route, linking together cold, sterile synthesizer with a disco drum beat, all while the vocals continue their strong and hooky style. The minor touch of ska that makes its’ present felt during “Earth Meets The Sun” is a further cherry on the top of the dessert that is the track; the band can unite disparate style and still make them work. Demetra creates a variant of the Ramones brand of pop-punk that literally thousands of different bands have attempted through the last twenty-five years. What distinguishes Demetra from all of these bands are the fact that the band is never completely happy with how they sound, and that they imbue each of the tracks on the disc with a level of harmony that is equivalent to tracks like “Chinese Rocks” and “Rockaway Beach”. Demetra have a bright future ahead of them.

Top Tracks: I’m Funny Like That, 5-16 Goodbye

Rating: 7.4/10

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