Growing up, drawing the lines between the music you liked and the music you hated was so much easier. If you liked modern guitar music, you were either NME or Kerrang; indie-kid or mosher. It was easy to decide if you liked something or not if you were told what the genre was before.
I’m pleased to say that over the years I have thankfully become more open minded, but it still takes something special for a metal band to break through with me. Whilst often musically elaborate, many contemporary rock acts fall down with whiny vocals that sound like staged pain. But when one does hit the mark, they do it in style (the most recent example being Future of the Left); which brings me to the debut album from prog-metallers ROLO TOMASSI.
‘Hysterics’ is an album that is hard to dissect, as it is very much a whole as opposed to a collection of songs. Imagine Forward Russia but with real rawk screaming. First track ‘Oh, Hello Ghost’ is a low-key start, with a rather stark but atmospheric bass-line running throughout, falling more towards the likes of 65 Days of Static than Slipknot. By the time the song is out, however, the more traditional growling is in place, emulating Bill Hick’s ‘sucking satan’s cock’ routine perfectly.
‘I Love Turbulance’ is a schizophrenic throw-around, with hollering that would leave Gallows quivering effortlessly placed against Eva Spence’s more art-rock vocals. It’s an interesting combination, and it works well in many other places on the album. Nothing has to appear on everything, as demonstrated by instrumentals such as ‘Everything Went Grey,’
Nothing is straightforward – ‘Fofteen’ boasts a section that lingers dangerously close to lounge jazz, a very swift dance part before descending into ferocious chaos once more. The leaps from quiet to loud are effortless, and manage to sound ‘An Apology to The Universe’ is a brief, placid keyboard interlude that introduces ‘Nine,’ which appropriately enough is reminiscent of Forward Russia after one too many vodka-red bulls. ‘Macabre Charade’ begins as a soft duet that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Los Campesinos! album, before building into The Phantom of the Opera having one hell of a hissy fit.
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This is The Mars Volta, only half as self-indulgent but twice as ear-splitting. ‘Abraxas’ combines eighties synth sounds with riffs so strong that Audioslave may retire once and for all. It’s all over in less than three minutes, but you feel
Rolo Tomassi are exemplars of how this sort of thing can be done well. They excel where the likes of Enter Shikari and Hadouken! have failed by dodging formulae and creating something so varied that you can’t help but like at least bits of it. They don’t lurch between toothless screaming and boy-band choruses, or pick a style and run with it. It’s post-rock, but really post-metal – if that exists?
Epic finale ‘Fantasia’ is a neat summary of everything you’ve just heard, played out over quarter of an hour. This is their Mars Volta moment, but this is somehow more satisfying than that. They clearly like to show off, but not to the point of alienating the audience.
Muso’s and metallers can rejoice together in this one – this is the Kerrang band for the chin-scratchers. By pulling in influences from all over the show, Rolo Tomassi have made an album that manages to be all over the place whilst maintaining coherence throughout. Instead of spreading themselves too thinly, RT are working on mastering everything, and this is an excellent debut. Songs range from fifty seconds to nearly fifteen minutes, and combined create something of a metal opera.
It’s an album you want to see played live in order. They’re ticking all sorts of boxes, and they’ve made themselves a very welcome and prominent fixture in the under-populated metal section of my collection.
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