Era Vulgaris were formed in Dublin in 2004 and instantly set about creating the kind of music they wished someone were writing. Recruiting drummer Chris Con in 2005 gave them a further unique sound, a drummer with a new found passion for metal whose only prior drumming experience was break beat, jazz and electronica – things were starting to get interesting. Their debut album, What Stirs Within, was entirely self-financed and then released through Open Your Ears Records, a label started by the band to gain the attention of distributors and press who would otherwise have passed them off as another unsigned metal band.

 

Now that’s what I call a smart move! And I’m so glad they did it! ‘Cause this album sure isn’t something to be passed off by the press. This is an album full of surprises that touch the boundaries of lots of different styles of metal. The overall style seems to float somewhere in between heavy and thrash metal, played with a strong progressive approach. Actually, one may see it exactly the other way around; progressive metal with heavy and thrash influences. And for some reason I can’t help but letting Mastodon spring to mind as well. But personally I’d prefer Era Vulgaris of the two. For the real fans of progressive metal I’d recommend them to listen to ‘I Must Have Your Brain’; great work with some nice bass loops.

 

Every now and then one might hear some Mudvayne screams on the album too. Which is cool ‘cause this music is completely different from Mudvayne’s. But in the same song one hears melodic vocals, whispering, hard-/metalcore-like screams and whatever else you can recognize in there. Exactly, the vocals on their own are worth a lot already! Combine them with the great progressive approach of this music and you've got yourself an album that can end up quite high in the year lists. I’d also like to warn the people that are not into progressive metal to not put this album aside too quickly ‘cause this one isn’t like most others. This one’s actually very accessible. Era Vulgaris is the kind of band where heavy metal fans, as well as a thrash metal fans and metalcore fans can bang their heads to alongside each other.

 

There really isn’t much to complain about on What Stirs Within. The only thing I find a little bit annoying are the melodic vocals in the track ‘Fate Draws A Curtain’. Too bad they start with that song on their MySpace! But for now I’d say: Just go check out their MySpace website. There’s 4 out of 8 songs of the album on it! Era Vulgaris has something for everybody!