 
I discovered Romeo Must Die as the opening act
on Sanctity’s 2008 UK tour with Evile when
they first released their debut album “Defined
by Enemies” which was a delightful album
of thrash infused metalcore and was a refreshing
release of that year. Finally in 2011 they have
returned with a follow up! I had no idea it was
even in the works until it got delivered to my
door!
This second release is a bit of a different approach
for the band but its significantly better than
“Defined by Enemies” it’s more
of a groovy thrash album sprinkled with metalcore
elements which is a swap around with styles but
it pays off for them in a very good way.
There are some songs that are pure head banging,
fist pumping, punch a guy in the face heavy that
it’s hard not to appreciate how good they
are; songs like “15 Minutes of Shame”,
“Survivors Club” and “Narcissist”
follow this kind of aggression but they don’t
just go for the standard aggressive metal approach
like some bands they also try to add a distinctive
style. To add this style what they do is add a
certain groove and bouncy edge to their sound
in songs like “Better off dead” especially
there is some really dirty riffs and vocal lines
throughout that song. This is also reflected in
“Let Them Hate” and “Slow Motion
Catastrophe” making for a very interesting
sounding brand of metal. The vocals for this band
are less on the new era age of high pitched squealing
and are genuinely deep growls that just sound
British, I can’t explain how it sounds British
but you can just tell.
One thing I don’t understand and I’ll
say this about a few albums I’ve noticed
recently, they had 3 interlude songs in there
that are a minute long. I can see the purpose
of an intro and ending if they infuse with a song
but these just don’t flow into anything
so I can’t understand why they’re
on there.
I’d say the definite softest song on the
album is “Breathing fire” but even
that’s quite heavy it’s just the tempo
isn’t on drugs like the rest of them are
with ridiculous thrash speed. And the song most
like anything from their first album would be
“The Rust of Life” more on the metalcore
side of things but still a fittingly brutal track.
This new album was definitely a step in the right
direction for Romeo Must Die, I will be attending
their tour with The Defiled and if they can still
bring it live after all these years then I can
see them making a name for themselves if they
keep this up.
5/5
Review by James Webb
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