Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It

Rolo Tomassi
Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
2018
Spotify

Rolo Tomassi is a name you are likely not familiar with, i know i certainly was not until I did a google search for "best albums of 2018". This record appeared at the top of Metacritic.com and I had not heard a peep about it up until now. The English band have been around for about ten years, working in the nintendocore space, but listening to this album you would really expect it. The album opens with the expansive synth drive "Towards Dawn" more of an intro than a proper song even though it is a full song length that suddenly shatters into lead single "Aftermath". It's a beautiful song that soars and sails through the clouds only to be harshly dispersed for the aggressive hardcore "Rituals". It's almost like the band lulls you into submission before banging you over the fucking head. You simply don't expect the album to have double bass and then gentle keyboards, the two shouldn't match up but with Rolo Tomassi, they do. Not many bands can shift between ambient synths and hardcore music but here it feels effortless and totally natural. "The Hollow Hour" vacillates between Eva Spence's soft sweet vocals and James Spence's Hardcore ones which gives the album this incredible push and pull between softness and aggression. I don't want to lead people astray here and pretend like this is not a super hardcore album, because it certainly is, but just when things become a bit to much they shift gears and throw something completely different at you. The hardcore moments are not just a piece to get through though, they have character and emotion all their own.

"A Flood of Light" is so interesting because it builds this tension through the synths then allows them to fully explode into hardcore rock. The song surrounds you and only let's up as it gently fades away.The drums truly shine throughout the record creating this pounding heartbeat that is inescapable. You really get a sense of the early Mew records here but with the intensity pushed up to 11. Instead of breaking with Indie sort of anthemic rock this band allows the darker more deep down feelings bubbly up to the surface. Incredibly it is the longer songs where the band can really stretch out and find new areas in which to infuse their personality. "Contretemps" is the best example of this going over 8 minutes while shifting and changing throughout. Usually Hardcore like this feels punky and small, but with Rolo Tomassi it absolutely soars to incredible heights. It takes hardcore from out of the basement and puts it front and center on a festival stage. You'll likely have a hard time explaining this record to your freinds, or really even understanding why you like it, but res assured Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It is an absolutely stellar outing.

8.7 out of 10