From Nu-Metal/Rap Rockers to Melodic Magicians, Adema has come a long way since the early 2000s. With lead guitarist Tim Fluckey taking the reins as the band’s frontman for their new album, “Topple the Giants,” the band has transformed their sound.
They’re basically a completely new band.
Fluckey’s voice is eerily reminiscent of late Boston frontman Brad Delp; quite the difference from Mark Chavez, who sang the band’s two chart toppers “Giving In” and “The Way You Like It.” Although the album’s gritty guitar work will appease many longtime fans of the band, they’re a different animal.
The track, “Rely on the Lions” is proof of that. Gone is the angst that powered their first few albums, replaced with confidence and experience. In the ballad, Fluckey sings about learning from mistakes and the understanding that the fight for happiness is never over.
“It’s one of those songs where I feel we are taking a chance,” Fluckey said. “It’s melodic and I wanted to do something vocally that was challenging and maybe people haven’t heard from Adema. It’s also one of those songs lyrically where the first time you hear it you go ‘What does that even mean?’ But after you hear it a few times you’re like, “Totally get it, that’s me.'”
The song was written thanks in part to a random phrase and some intriguing chord progressions.
“It all started with the phrase ‘She rides the lion.’ I thought it sounded cool and I was thinking why is she riding a lion? Chicks riding lions made an interesting metaphor to me, ” he said. “The guitar parts where rad to me too. With they way we tune our 7-strings, I can come up with new chords and positions that just sound different. No one’s playing them like that.”
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
From Nu-Metal/Rap Rockers to Melodic Magicians, Adema has come a long way since the early 2000s. With lead guitarist Tim Fluckey taking the reins as the band’s frontman for their new album, “Topple the Giants,” the band has transformed their sound.
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