Metalcore legends We Came as Romans are back with their new album Darkbloom, the first release in 5 years and the band’s first album since the heart-breaking passing of the band’s vocalist Kyle Pavone. Many fans, including myself, worried about the future of the band with Pavone’s passing in 2018, but after David Stephens stepped up to vocal duty instead of finding a new vocalist, and the slow drip-feed of singles, I’m incredibly excited to jump into Darkbloom.
Opening the album is the title track and one of the few singles released, Darkbloom, which features many modern Metalcore staples from the jumpy riffs, ridiculous heaviness and electronic voices at the opening of the track and perfectly sets up what is to follow. Plagued brings in chunky riffs and atmospheric verses and explosive choruses, while another of the album’s singles Black Hole sticks to the metalcore formula of slightly slower atmospheric verses, grandiose chorus and a filthy breakdown alongside a great feature from Beartooth’s Caleb Shomo. The next track is Daggers, my personal favourite of the album’s singles with an unapologetic focus on pure heaviness and sounds like a track designed for people to pit to even with the rap feature from Zero 9:36.
Golden is the next track and the first I’m not personally a fan of. The vocal delivery does nothing for me and I found myself waiting for the track to be over more than anything, luckily, One More Day that follows on is a better example of how to do an emotional song and brought the album back for me. Doublespeak brings the focus back onto ridiculously heavy riffs but starts to sound slightly too similar to previous tracks and The Anchor and Holding The Embers are pure Metalcore by numbers.
Promise You is the last track of the album and definitely send the release out on a high note in what is essentially a letter to Pavone that talks about the impact of his death on the band, friends, family and fans. A truly beautiful track that comes straight from the heart.
Darkbloom is a great return for a band that has been through a truly world-shattering event, and the highs of the album are real high points that luckily overshadow a couple of lows completely. Despite the album being pure Metalcore in every sense, that doesn’t take away from the emotion the band have put into each and every track on the album. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for We Came As Romans now.
Darkbloom is released this coming Friday, Oct 14th courtesy of Sharptone Records.
Review: Dan Stapleton
Tracklist:
1. Darkbloom 3:48
2. Plagued 3:29
3. Black Hole 2:59
4. Daggers 3:14
5. Golden 3:39
6. One More Day 4:28
7. Doublespeak 3:30
8. The Anchor 3:34
9. Holding The Embers 4:13
10. Promise You 3:47