Album Review

Romeo Must Die - Hardships in SeasonRomeo Must Die – Hardships in Season

I discovered Romeo Must Die as the opening act on Sanctity’s 2008 UK tour with Evile when they first released their debut album “Defined by Enemies” which was a delightful album of thrash infused metalcore and was a refreshing release of that year. Finally in 2011 they have returned with a follow up! I had no idea it was even in the works until it got delivered to my door!

This second release is a bit of a different approach for the band but its significantly better than “Defined by Enemies” it’s more of a groovy thrash album sprinkled with metalcore elements which is a swap around with styles but it pays off for them in a very good way.

There are some songs that are pure head banging, fist pumping, punch a guy in the face heavy that it’s hard not to appreciate how good they are; songs like “15 Minutes of Shame”, “Survivors Club” and “Narcissist” follow this kind of aggression but they don’t just go for the standard aggressive metal approach like some bands they also try to add a distinctive style. To add this style what they do is add a certain groove and bouncy edge to their sound in songs like “Better off dead” especially there is some really dirty riffs and vocal lines throughout that song. This is also reflected in “Let Them Hate” and “Slow Motion Catastrophe” making for a very interesting sounding brand of metal. The vocals for this band are less on the new era age of high pitched squealing and are genuinely deep growls that just sound British, I can’t explain how it sounds British but you can just tell.

One thing I don’t understand and I’ll say this about a few albums I’ve noticed recently, they had 3 interlude songs in there that are a minute long. I can see the purpose of an intro and ending if they infuse with a song but these just don’t flow into anything so I can’t understand why they’re on there.

I’d say the definite softest song on the album is “Breathing fire” but even that’s quite heavy it’s just the tempo isn’t on drugs like the rest of them are with ridiculous thrash speed. And the song most like anything from their first album would be “The Rust of Life” more on the metalcore side of things but still a fittingly brutal track.

This new album was definitely a step in the right direction for Romeo Must Die, I will be attending their tour with The Defiled and if they can still bring it live after all these years then I can see them making a name for themselves if they keep this up.

5/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Adam Frakes-Sime
Paul Fletcher
Aaron Darling
Ben Frost
Will Romain
 Track Listing
1. Hardships in Season
2. Let Them Hate
3. Time – The Great Vivisector
4. Survivors Club
5. Better Off Dead
6. 15 Minutes of Shame
7. The Fall of Man
8. Slow Motion Catastrophe
9. Breathing Fire
10. The Rust of Life
11. Narcissist
12. All Life Ends in Failure
13. New Begginings
 Band Related Links
Romeo Must Die Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?