Immortal Records, 2007

Kill the Headlights, the 4th release from Adema and the first with Immortal Records, is one of the band’s strongest. The band’s sound is often compared to Korn, with good reason, the lead singer, Mark “Marky” Chavez, is the half brother of Korn’s Jonathon Davis. However, infighting and sagging sales caused Chavez to leave the band in 2004. The three remaining founding members, dropped by their label, started from scratch and moved on with a new vocalist. …and then another new vocalist. It seems they have finally found one who could fill the Chavez’s shoes as Bobby Reeves hits the mark with some solid writing and serious power.

This album glistens with several gems that make for one hell of a listen. There are some tracks that don’t measure up to the rest, but overall if you want to do some head banging, you could do much worse then “Kill the Headlights”. There are a bunch of tracks that thump, but the standouts for me are “What Doesn’t Kill Us”, a screamer of a track that talks about making mistakes and lost love, and “Open Til Midnight”, a rambling prose about a one night stand. There are a couple tracks that give you head a rest and appeal to the lighter side of things, such as “Los Angeles” and “Days Go By”. Of course, light does not mean Barry Manilow, more like, Trapt or Cold.

Adema has been able to consistently put out some of the best alternative-metal I have been able to get my hands on. With hard vocals, heavy drums, loud guitar, and everything else that goes with it, they are a stand out in a crowd. They have been largely overlooked since their debut album, which is unfortunate considering the kind of material they have been able to produce, even with all the lineup changes. Even more amazing is the sound is still evolutionary from the first album. Now they are clawing their way back to spotlight and if they keep doing what they are doing, there is no doubt they will make it.