We Came As Romans stand for good metalcore since their foundation and at the latest since their self-titled album “We Came As Romans” (2015) they have found their new sound. Last Friday their latest record “Darkbloom” was released via Sharptone. It is the first album without their former singer Kyle Pavone, who sadly passed away in August 2018.
You never go wrong with WCAR
We Came As Romans have played their way to being a staple of their genre over the years. Hailing from the Midwest of the USA, they are further proof that this area is a hotbed of true metalcore (The Devil Wears Prada – Ohio, August Burns Red – Pennsylvania). Thus, one should be sure to always get good music from We Came As Romans. But how did that work out on “Darkbloom”? How does the band sound now on record without singer Kyle? Certainly the process was not easy for the band and still is not, but WCAR managed to come out of the crisis with something positive. The album opens with “Darkbloom” – the single that has been out a bit longer. Dave Stephens opens the track with his cleans, which are a bit rougher than Kyle’s voice. This makes songs like “To Plant A Seed” or “Cast the First Stone” hard to replicate, but of course that’s not the goal at all. 11 years after the release of those songs, the band is riding a different sound that sounds more mature, heavier, yet continues to experiment with electronic sounds.
“Black Hole” is a good example of this evolution. The structure is much more straightforward and doesn’t jump back and forth as much as in earlier songs. The guitars play whole notes in a sound that can also be found in Beartooth or Of Mice & Men. With “Daggers” there is then again a song that can be imagined well especially live. A driving riff and fast drum parts again and again paired with short breakdowns let the metalcore heart beat faster. With a short rap break of Zero 9:36 WCAR get a fresh element to it again, before it then completely bangs in a half-time breakdown.
With feeling and power through the pain
With “One More Day” and “The Anchor,” WCAR have created two songs through which they scream out their pain. It’s obvious how much Kyle has made up in the band and how much he’s missing now. It’s an ongoing struggle that is also reflected in the lyrics:
“Since the day that you left
I can’t seem to move on
All the weight that I felt
Will I sink ’til I’m gone?
The anchor”.
Fittingly, there are tremendous blasts on all the instruments, hitting us with a lot of energy. Dave Stephens lets us notice noticeably in his shouts how serious it is. But We Came As Romans find a new strength to keep making music. It is a new WCAR that has reflected and arrived at a new destination through much that they have experienced. They stay true to their musical roots and know how to make hard music, but are getting better at combining that with feeling and emotion. Especially the closing song “Promise You” is a stripped down version that captures the band’s vision with Kyle. With this euphoric forward-looking closing note of the album, We Came As Romans point the way to their new future, which they unfortunately go without Kyle, but still as a really good and newly matured metalcore band, which we do not want to miss at all.
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