If any band portrays a consistency of musical positivity it’s We Came As Romans.
We Came As Romans is a band that prides itself in being the undisputed king of electrically charged eruptions of uplifting motivation while drawing inspiration from the chaos and the dark struggles that we all face on the daily. The band has heart and continues to provide the same constant breath of fresh air through their reminders that maintaining a hopeful mind in life is essential. Their music is a constant reminder that although life can toss you the worst, there is a reason why each and every person has a purpose to live. I could go as far to say that We Came As Romans are a beacon of hope of innovation for the continued success of the post-hardcore/metalcore scene.
Taking a journey back to the past, let’s reflect on the beginning. We Came As Romans was founded in Troy, Michigan in 2005. The band originally formed under a different guise, a different lineup, and the title of “This Emergency”. After a lineup change, a different approach, and a few years of perfecting their identity, the current formation came together to create We Came As Romans. In 2008 the band dropped their first EP entitled Dreams to rave reviews. The lineup consisted of Dave Stephens on vocal screaming duties, Kyle Pavone providing the clean singing, Joshua Moore on the intricate lead guitar, Lou Cotton on the chugging rhythm guitar, Andy Glass slamming the bass, and Eric Choi bashing the drums. The band quickly climbed up the ranks, gaining the respect of their musical peers, and an exponentially growing fanbase. In late 2009, the band dropped their first full-length album entitled To Plant A Seed. The album’s sole theme was spreading the idea of love. As quoted by founding guitarist Joshua Moore, “The whole concept is that hopefully the practice of loving other people will grow.” To Plant A Seed was positively praised, and the band toured relentlessly in support of its release. The highly anticipated sophomore follow-up Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be was released in 2011. Placing at a respectable top 20 slot on the Billboard 200 charts, the band once again wrote a solid well-received record. The record blended the spirit of all the defining elements of We Came As Romans signature formula, while being a departure to the innocence of To Plant A Seed. The band went back to relentless touring and found their way onto the megalithic “Gamechangers Tour” in 2011 with post-hardcore giants A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, and Pierce The Veil. With sold-out-show after sold-out-show night after night, the tour greatly expanded the bands fan-base. Directly after that tour, the band was headlining almost all of their gigs, while only going out to do direct support for some of the biggest bands in the industry. The band continued to tour nonstop behind U.W.W.G.T.B, and somehow found time to write, and record a new record entitled Tracing Back Roots.
Let’s get straight to the point, Tracing Back Roots remains very true to the We Came As Romans formula, and doesn’t make a huge departure of the bands signature sound. The subtle changes keep the writing fresh, and expand on the bands evolution to appeal to a wider audience, while remaining true to their self. If you’re already one of their many die-hard fans, it’s really not necessary to read much further. This record deserves your attention, so go pick it up now! So are you a skeptic, and not convinced? Continue to be skeptical while we sing our praises. While not straying too far from what made the band an up-and-coming champion of the post-hardcore/metalcore scene, Tracing Back Roots retains the best elements of the previous full-length albums, while journeying in a new direction for the band’s unique sound to explore onward. Let’s face it, for ANY band, evolution is essential to longevity. In this day and age, it’s difficult to appease fans new and old while capturing the importance of creative musical identity. If you’re a newcomer to the pleasure of listening to this band, Tracing Back Roots is very much a great beginner’s listening pleasure. The album is delicately balanced in a way that even the slightest heavy music enthusiast could enjoy. It’s heavy enough to keep up with some of the heaviest bands around while delivering a very fair amount of bone smashing breakdowns. Despite the heavy moments of the band’s music, there are plenty of calming tones, and lyrically moving melodic moments throughout every song.
Watch the “Tracing Back Roots” Lyric Video
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At the very beginning of Tracing Back Roots you’re introduced to an aggressively crushing title track. The song is solid, and as aggressive as it begins, it ends with a nice calmly sung exit by clean vocalist Kyle Pavone. The second track entitled “Fade Away” really shows the newer directions the band is going in with a more melodically poppy style. On this track we are treated to some of vocalist/screamer David Stephens first attempts at clean vocals ever recorded. Next up is the song “I Survive” with a nicely-performed guest appearance from Aaron Gillespie from The Almost. Continuing on, the track “Never Let Me Go” emphasizes the band’s new rock direction, without straying too far from their heavy signature sound. The track is also an example of how new listeners (that aren’t necessarily heavy listeners) could easily become new fans of the band, and be introduced to a heavier style of music. Going straight from “Never Let Me Go” is the album’s first lead single entitled “Hope” which was released earlier in January (2013) and packaged with the deluxe edition of Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be. Personally, this is one of my favorite singles from the bands entire catalog. The song is incredibly catchy, and oozes with melody followed by a gang-chant vocal chorus. It’s safe to say that if you get the chance to see the band live, this song probably won’t be leaving the band’s set anytime soon, as it seems to be a crowd-chanting favorite. In fact, if you’re not singing, or humming along by the first couple listens of this track, then you can’t be human. This song is well deserved to make an appearance back onto Tracing Back Roots as it shouldn’t be missed if you didn’t pick up the deluxe copy of Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be. The next couple tracks “Tell Me Now” and “A Moment” both have massive choruses, providing plenty of opportunity for shower and driving sing-a-longs. “A Moment” displays more of vocalist/screamer Dave Stephens’ clean vocals, as this is the first album Dave has pulled double duty as both a screamer, and clean singer. We arrive at “I Am Free” as the beginning of the end of the album. We’re treated to hearing vocalist Dave Stephens provide clean vocals yet again within this track. Why have we not heard this before on previous albums? He has a great scream, as well as a great clean vocal range to compliment main clean singer Kyle Pavone! Let’s hope the band keeps Dave performing double duty with both his singing and screaming abilities on future recordings, as it creates an entire new layer to their sound. Finally, arriving at the very tail end of the album, we reach “Through The Darkest Dark and Brightest Bright” which is perhaps the most diverse song on the record. Chanting over and over “This is our song to remember”, the song is actually as you would guess: memorable. The whole song sums up “We Came As Romans” message as a whole, while neatly packaging it into one song. Within the song the band experiments with different unique sounds, but packs the punch of that same uplifting “go out and do something with your life, because you-have-a-purpose” formula that they have fine-tuned into the spirit of their writing. This track is most certainly one of the stand-out tracks on this very healthy album.
Watch the “Hope” Music Video
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If We Came As Romans stands for anything, it’s to tell a story, it’s motivation, hopeful outlooks, and overcoming darknesses. The band displays a positive moral message to those who listen, and they stand for something more through their musical compositions, and strong positively written words. Heavy bands have a stigma of drawing inspiration out of negative material with little offering of a overall positive message. However with this band, they take a refreshing approach of acknowledging that the negatives exist in life to help you grow in a positive direction. In this day and age, many bands typically lose sight of their message and direction, or struggle to convey an important message, and with that they miss out on truly captivating their audience. This isn’t the case for We Came As Romans as they very much embody the power to continue to grow into a musical powerhouse, capable of evolving into a mainstay band for years to come, and all this grew from simply sharing their ideas of “Planting A Seed,” and “Understanding Who They’ve Grown To Be.”
Connect with We Came As Romans on the links above or below:
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