Tantric meditation

Tantric burst on the scene in 2001 with their self-titled debut album. The band was made up of former members of acoustic rock band Days Of The New until lead singer Travis Meeks fired all of them. The fired musicians found lead singer Hugo Ferreira, and Tantric was born. After the successes of their first album, their second one, After We Go failed to live up to the greatness of the first. Ferreira and the other members of the band parted ways and were replaced with new members for the latest album The End Begins. Most interesting about the change is Ferreira’s decision to add a full-time electric violinist to the band.

One of the most notable songs on the album is “Down And Out,” their first single. The song has an impressive mix of distorted guitar and electric violin, making the song just as original as it is catchy. Rarely is violin integrated into a hard-rock song in a unique way like this, but then again, it’s rare for a hard rock band to have an electric violinist as a full-time member of the band.

Just when you think the filler might unfold, in comes the bittersweet breakup piece “Love Song.” This great song starts out like some kind of alternative blues rock song, then goes to the catchy chorus that might leave you wondering how it got from point A to point B. The song sounds a little bit like the song “Hero” from their last album, and should easily be considered one of their best.

After listening to the first four songs, it seems End becomes one of the most versatile albums of the year. Unfortunately, the filler finally makes its way onto the album and things seem to die down until “Why Don’t You,” another song that could be considered one of their best ever. The filler songs on the album aren’t so bad, but most of them are sappy ballads that don’t deliver.

Although The End Begins isn’t a great album all the way through, there are without a doubt some great songs here.