Review We Came as Romans - Understanding What We've Grown to Be 2011

Tracks
1. Mis//Understanding
2. Everything as Planned
3. What I Wished I Never Had
4. Cast the First Stone
5. The Way That We Have Been
6. A War Inside
7. Stay Inspired
8. Just Keep Breathing
9. Views That Never Cease, to Keep Me from Myself
10. What My Heart Held
11. I Can't Make Your Decisions for You
12. Understanding What We've Grown to Be
13. Roads That Don't End And Views That Never Cease (live)

Band:
Joshua Moore - lead guitar
David Stephens - unclean vocals
Eric Choi - drums
Brian "Lou" Cotton - rhythm guitar
Andrew Glass - bass guitar
Kyle Pavone - clean vocals, keys, synth

Discography:
To Plant a Seed (2009)

Guests:

Info:
Joey Sturgis - production, engineering, mixing, mastering, programming, keyboards
Paul Romano - artwork

Released 16/92-2011
Reviewed 30/11-2011

Links:
wecameasromans.com
nuclear blast

Americans who desire to be arriving as romans for whatever reason that might be, one thing they haven’t understood though is that it is not the most clever thing to have many words in the band name. And as if it wasn’t enough they also opted for a long album title in case there were people who recalled their name, what’s the name of that band and great album? I don’t recall it was too many words, we came as understandors with the album how great it is to be romans maybe, or something. You see, it is much wiser to opt for something that people can remember that hasn’t to many words and is short and to the point. Another thing a band should opt for is to have a cover artwork that doesn’t look like someone has shat on a piece of paper and then vomited all over it before laminating it. Well, those things are at least what I think, not many great albums have ugly covers and neither do they have long and silly titles. Still, it is never impossible to find exceptions to this fact, wether or not WCAR are such an exception remains for you to read and find out.

Metalcore is the label that will probably be most attributed to these roman wannabees, that is what I come to think of when listening to this album. They alter clean and growly vocals, they also make good use of synthesisers and keyboards to melodise their music a little bit. This kind of music is becoming ever more crowded probably due to success of a few of these bands which sparks many more to want to follow, and it will be harder and harder to stand out in such a crowd. This is something I do not think WCAR is doing, their music sounds more or less like the archetype of the genre. Their production bears a feel of quality to it, it is powerful yet melodic with a really finely polished sound that still retains a sense of rawness. It is an album with thirteen tracks where the last one seems to be a live bonus track, it plays for a bit over 50 minutes.

This album sounds really good, the soundscape is excellent and the production is really good. The songs don’t suck either which is always a positive, they also offer some really nice melodies and the overall sense is quite positive towards this album. However it is only until that this album really does anything for me because despite the overall quality feel they seem to be doing what they can to make it boring. The songs are all of the same character and the first track is the best which is probably only because it is the first one I hear when I play the album, the album plays for way too long and the live track is just silly. The songs feel quite bland and they do not do justice for the quality of the production which in a sense feels like an opportunity wasted.

The band should have credit though for going against the grain writing lyrics of love and of positive things rather than mutilations, maiming and all of which most metalcore bands seems to put in their lyrics. So both positive overall quality of the album and lyrical themes, too band they don’t seem to possess the songwriting skills to really make this album take off in a positive direction, it is alright but it does as much for me as staring into a wall, which is more or less nothing.

So in the end it feels like this album is an opportunity wasted, the good production just makes the songs seem very good at the surface but when really listening you realise that they are just like any other. So a most ordinary and average album by a band that feels very much average as well, good but not too impressive.

HHHHHHH

We Came as Romans Understanding What We've Grown to Be

We Came as Romans
Understanding What We've Grown to Be