INTRIGUING SOUNDS — Rolo Tomassi’s New Album is a Spectrum from Soft Indie Pop to Brutal Metalcore

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Few albums have more misleading introductions than this… from the first two tracks, you could think this entire album is clean indie rock / pop. There’s barely even a hint of crunch in the first 7 minutes of the record, and then…

Brutality.

I wanted to feature Rolo Tomassi’s latest record, “Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It”, because it showcases an intriguing trend in metal over the last few years. It feels like there’s a new form of cinematic prog metal that I first caught wind of on Code Orange’s excellent “Forever”.

It’s a spectrum from soft to heavy, as most music has:

In traditional prog metal, the “soft” side draws from classical music, jazz fusion, and nerdy music theory.

Nowadays, bands are finding new ways to represent “soft” in metal music. Whether it’s The Chariot pairing tortured screams against a solo piano on Speak in 2012, or the 2010’s trend of blending shoegaze and black metal (see Deafheaven and Alcest as two examples), there has been fertile ground here.

Rolo Tomassi offers a new shake at it. Their soft end is trendy indie rock, for better or for worse, and their loud end is insanely brutal, moderately technical, and mildly synthetic metal core / prog metal. The strongest comparison I’m hearing on the loud side is Protest the Hero, massive unison guitar riffs paired with breakdowns.

While no one song on this album is a standout for me, the record as a whole represents a fun and unusual musical experience. It really feels like a movie. I wouldn’t watch just one scene.

If you like metal and you like concept albums, do not miss this. And don’t be fooled, or fast-forward, through the intro — let it soak in so the brutality can have the contrast once it starts up.

In spite of what I just said heres a track to whet your appetite:

Insane.

What do you think about that track, or the record as a whole if youve heard it?