Like most music lovers out there in the world, Adema was a here today gone tomorrow love affair that peaked with their debut album and pretty much ended there. The band was mostly known, in most circles, as the band of Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis’ half brother Mark Chavez.

Well, come to learn that the band, though surviving under very rocky conditions, hasn’t all but disappeared off of the face of the planet. They put out a follow up album that failed to make waves before they were dropped by their label and lead singer Chavez and guitar player Mike Ransom left the band, reuniting with the band briefly before calling it quits again.

Now, with the last three original members of the band keeping the name alive, Adema releases the EP Topple The Giants. The EP features some new songs as well as some fan favorites that the new line up perform to make them their own, including Unstable and Giving In. Not great choices in my opinion, but never the less there you have it. So how does it sound.

Right out of the gate the EP is heavy, fast, and sounds awesome. Track one, Resolution, is a booming tune that is lead heavily by the guitar/bass tandem. Drums are pretty tame, vocals sound great. There is a Tom Morello sounding moment on guitar tossed in there which I could give or take, but the track is an awesome opener for Toppling The Giants.

The title track follows, sounding old school metal like Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath. The guitar work here again is driving the song. The vocals sound very different from the first track, not bad, just different. It does get a bit shrill around 2:36  for a short held note, but it does remind me of, I want to say Ozzy, but mostly Chris Cornell.

Lions takes up track 3. I thought this track was not in synch with the rest of the album which made it easy for me to quickly label it a throw away track. It absolutely doesn’t fit into the queue of songs on the album and the chorus on the track just doesn’t evoke any kind of connectivity.

Unstable, a song from their 03 album of the same name, performed here by the new line up, is a pretty amazing tune. Mind you, if the band had wanted to get away from it’s association with Korn back during the get go, this song doesn’t help. The bass work here is completely reminiscent of early Korn. Matter of fact, this track could have fallen straight off of any of Korn’s first three albums and no one would really know the difference. Great tune, but very hard to break the connection between its sound and that of Korn.

Immortal is another re-performed track that originated on their Insomniac’s Dream EP. Another great tune, and as most of us stopped listening to the band after the release of their debut album, it’s a fresh track to most ears. I’ve never heard it before. Good stuff, kind of dislike the way the singer says Immortal. For the first couple of turns I thought he was saying I’m never dull. Oh well, still a great track.

Planets comes from their 05 album of the same name. I’m a real fence sitter on this one. The vocals sound really relaxed and the lyrics don’t really connect that well. The production could have been better on this track.

Finally the band attempts to cover their hit Giving In. Bad move. It’s the one track that lives on from the first Adema album and trying to top it or make it their own just doesn’t work without the dramatics of Chaves’ original vocals.

We’ll see if this EP resurfaces the band. I hear a lot of great potential in their sound, but it feels like their trying different things here on a few of the tracks. Their new album should drop soon and we’ll see how they reform with a decidedly more stable band line up.