Melodic Metalcore band We Came As Romans released their
third album on Tuesday, July 23, 2013 titled Tracing Back Roots. I recall hearing their sophomore record Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be and
was floored by the lyrical content and how tight the band sounded. The clean
vocals were so high and clean, and the unclean vocals were rough and gritty.
They were seriously in sync and it quickly became one of my favorite releases
of 2011. But enough about the past, let’s move on to this record. Despite WCAR
releasing three of their singles prior to the album’s full release, I decided
against listening to them in interest of getting the full album experience when
the album dropped. A friend of mine bought it on Tuesday and I was lucky enough
to rip the tracks to my laptop so I could write this review.
The Record:
The album opens up strongly with Tracing Back Roots, a song that predominantly consists of unclean
vocals. It is very heavy, and it starts the album of pretty well. Up next is Fade Away, a track that features David
Stephens singing clean vocals alongside the original clean vocalist and
keyboard player Kyle Pavon. It is primarily a clean song, and it shows the fans
what David can do with his voice when he isn’t screaming. The third track on
this record, I Survive, features
Aaron Gillespie from The Almost. He blended very well in this track, a track
that has a very interesting intro. It has a very hard rock feel to it and it
has a laid back feel to it, minus the chorus and bridge. Ghosts, a hard track
with a very melodic bridge captures a more ambient side of WCAR for a brief
moment before they bring back their heavy chorus filled with double bass and
crash hits. Present, Future, and Past is
a track that is reminiscent of something that would belong on their Dreams EP.
It’s very heavy and in-your-face kind of track.
Smack dab in the middle of this record is Never Let Me Go, a hard rock track that
is predominantly clean on vocals. It feels like it belongs on their sophomore
album Understanding What’ We’ve Grown to
Be, which is never a bad thing since it was an amazing album. Hope, the band’s first single off of
this album, comes up next. It is a crowd pleaser and a motivational song that
reminds you never give up. It’s a pretty solid song, but then again, it’s a
single and it should be nothing but solid. Tell
Me Now feels like a standard We Came As Romans song, and A Moment feels like it’s going to be the
next anthem their fans shout out during their concerts. It has a very anthemic
feel and I can tell it is going to be one for the crowd. I Am Free is a very open, positive track. David shows off his
vocals on this track. This track really stands out, and is tied with Never Let Me Go for my favorite track on
this album. The album closes up with Through
the Darkest Dark and the Brightest Bright, a typical post-hardcore track
stating that they will always move forward and never forget where they came
from.
My Opinion:
I’ll start off with the positive. David’s vocals on this
album made the album ten times better than I could have ever expected. I was
not expecting him to sing so it took me by surprise, but his range and vocal
ability quickly grew on me. The band still has the same tight rhythm as always,
something I’ve always admired. They keep thing fresh in the rhythm section and
the lead guitar (if there even is one), and the keys create beautiful melodies
that make the songs sound full. The lyrics are also positive and refrain from
the terrible lyrics I have seen from other bands. They try to inspire their
fans and motivate them by sending them the message that they are not alone,
something I admire in an age where lyrics are losing value.
With all of that in mind, I’ll progress to the not so
positive. This album did not break any boundaries musically. I am not stating
that We Came As Romans set out to break boundaries and blow everyone out of the
way, but if they tried to do so, they failed. The tracks kind of blended in
together with tracks such as Tell Me Now
and A Moment blending into one track
for me. I felt they should have added more keys into the album to fill out the
higher range more because it feels really bottom heavy. I get that the songs
are meant to be “in-your-face, shake-the-ground” tracks at times, but it helps
to level it off at some points. As previously stated, the band didn’t break
boundaries. It sounds very generic and although the lyrics are positive, they
get kind of stale pretty fast. I felt their previous album was better sonic-ly and it had a larger variety in terms of tracks. In addition, I really didn’t
like the quality of the unclean vocals Present, Future, and Past. It sounded like it was low quality and
not mastered. I am also not a big fan of the vocal drops that were in the song.
I feel that it’s a cheap, over done way to transition to the next part of a
song. I would give this album a 6/10. There was definitely much to be desired
when it came to this album.
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