Reviewed by Paul Kerslake

Galea is a power trio from Dallas featuring Mary Howell on bass and lead vocals, her husband Chris Howell on guitars and "Duckie" on drums. This is their debut release as Galea, having previously recorded under the moniker of Tellus. This is solid, well rehearsed stuff though the first four tracks are pretty generic rock, coming from the Pearl Jam school of grunge. However track five, "Rescue Me", starts to mix it up a bit with some really nice syncopated drumming and a prog rock feel. Chris takes the lead on "Split", which is a bit too Nirvana for me but then just when I thought it was going to be all distorted guitars and half speed drums, "Departure" lives up to its title with a light, melodic acoustic interlude including pedal steel (played by the drummer!). Galea are not a bad band, but clearly they currently lack creative focus. I hope that their second release will see them raising the bar and producing something that lifts their songs above the average.

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