ADEMA — Unstable (review)

ADEMA — Unstable album cover Album · 2003 · Nu Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
martindavey87
Adema’s 2001 self-titled debut was released at a time when nu metal was one of the biggest musical genres in the world. However, it was also short-lived, and with only minor mainstream success, the band was unable to make a big enough splash to help carry them through the subgenres demise. And so by 2003, musical trends have already shifted, and the Californian five-piece would get one final chance to either release an album that’ll see them transcend the dying fad, or forever remain one of “those bands” that were good “back in the day”.

And sadly, despite a marked improvement in writing and more confident performances, ‘Unstable’ just wasn’t good enough.

Displaying a nice mixture of heavy, groove-laden and energetic tracks, with some melodic, sentimental and emotional songs, ‘Unstable’ shows a band that has really improved and matured since their last outing. Vocalist Mark Chavez (who was originally only noteworthy for being half-brother of Korn main man Jonathan Davis) has proven himself a competent frontman, and while the instrumentation is fairly straightforward, the band have become adept at using multiple layers of simple melodies to accentuate a warmth in their sound.

But with that said, there’s still only a handful of notable tracks here. ‘Unstable’, ‘So Fortunate’, ‘Co-Dependent’ and ‘Promises’ are all pretty amazing to be honest, and definitely shows a band who certainly had the potential, but sadly never lived up to it. ‘Stand Up’, ‘Blame Me’ and ‘Let Go’ are also fairly decent, but nothing worth getting overly excited about.

Much like its predecessor, ‘Unstable’ does have some moments of absolute genius, but sadly most of it gets lost amongst an abundance of fairly average songs. It’s a good album, but in 2003, with nu metal on its last legs, “good” isn’t good enough, and while it’s certainly worth a listen or two, it’d ensure that Adema will forever be nothing more than another nu metal nostalgia band.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed