French Metal has a tendency to lean more towards the Progressive side of the genre, regardless of whether it's Metal of the mainstream or Extreme varieties. You only have to check out bands like GOJIRA, PAVILLON ROUGE and VOID PARADIGM to see that the music that comes from this country tends to be more than just your ordinary, straight forward release. Whereas Progressive elements can sometimes be hard to pull off, France's many great bands seem to be able to make music that carves out its own path whilst being simultaneously catchy and interesting. Paris based Progressive Death Metallers KERA are just one band in a long line of bands that are doing this kind of music, as their debut, self-titled EP illustrates perfectly.

The first of this EP's three tracks, "Masters Enslaved", has a very atmospheric intro, which gives way to a very fierce, groove-laden track, with plenty of interesting guitar hooks, vicious drum sections and some really powerful vocals that work very well with the music. The verse riff is a gnarly, steady chug, interlaced with some sweeping, melodic guitars that sound amazing. The band also experiment with cleaner tones and spoken word parts later in the song, to great effect; It only helps to make this song sound monolithic. "Architects of Chaos" is a razor sharp song which sounds brilliant. The riffs are technical, but don't stray into the territories of pointless and boring fret-board acrobatics. The vocals are suitably mighty, and really helps to beef out the sound on the track. This is easily the best of the three songs on offer here. The closing offering, "Silence", is a song that is really made great by the inspired drumming on it, which has more hooks within it than some bands allot to their guitar lines. Speaking of the guitars, they also sound epic, with plenty of cool sections which complement all the other elements on offer here, from the drums and bass through to the vocals. This is where the progressive elements in the bands sound really come to the fore, with plenty of dissonant chords and time changes to keep the sound interesting. The ambient piece towards the end of the song, which backs some cool emotive guitar playing, is another really nice touch that helps to maintain the listeners interest throughout. The music eventually fades away, and the listener is definitely left wanting more.

This EP, although short, is a statement of intent. It doesn't go overboard with the progression, but it's definitely there. This is a good basis on which to build some really awesome music in the future, and it will likely appeal to many. I am not the biggest Death Metal fan, but this definitely caught my interest and made me a fan. This is well worth listening to, and I believe that, if they continue writing music in this vein, they'll go very, very far.