ROME - Reversion

Artist/Band: ROME
Album: "Nera"
Released: 2006

ROME is a Luxemburgish neofolk/martial industrial band and for the most part served as the moniker behind which Jerome Reuter released his songs (who has, as of 2008, been joined by co-producer Patrick Damiani as a full member of the band). Jerome has been involved with other genres of music in the past, namely punk and rock subgenres and this started out as a solo project for him to explore vastly different soundscapes.

ROME signed to the Swedish label CMI in 2006 to release an EP titled "Berlin" (June 2006) and the albums "Nera" (November 2006), "Confessions d'un voleur d'ames" (April 2007), "Masse Mensch Material" (March 2008). In 2009 ROME got signed to the german label Trisol and released the EP "To Die Among Strangers" (May 2009) and the album "Flowers From Exile" (June 2009). In their earlier work ROME mixes influences of Industrial and Neofolk with Experimental and Electronic Pop. The traditions of (French) Chanson and (American) Folk are becoming more and more influential in their current work.

"Nera"
"Nera" is a fresh combination of sounds: great guitar work, martial percussion, pop melodies and dark crooning, capture the listener and transport them into a different world. On occasions, the guitar sounds are so full of beauty and longing they almost hurt to listen to. It opens the more guitar-oriented songs a possibility of jumping into the indie world -and that, perhaps, offends some more traditional dark folk followers. On the other hand, there are many compositions that are constructed only over ritual and repetitive percussion, moving the songs deeper into desperation and darkness. Some of the songs even move closer to dark wave than to neofolk though the combination of guitars and synthesisers.
The overall atmosphere is at the very least dark and cold, if not completely hopeless and devastating. There may be a great deal of repetition here but a few background gimmicks and sparse piano notes always manage to elevate the compositions to another level before they have time to become self-indulgent and devour themselves. There's a redeeming quality in the way everything falls into place, creating a perfectly crafted storytelling of the most desperate qualities that define humanity. The whole album reeks of humanity and humbleness.

One of the peculiarities of ROME is its polyglot nature. Not only in the titles, it falls into the lyrics and, over all, into the samples. German, Italian, French, Spanish... Europe is represented plethoric, even though English is chosen as the universal language. The other amazing feat of this record is that, not only it contains excellent songs in themselves, but it is also though out as a whole. The songs make perfect sense one after the other. The listener is swayed into one sensation into another - the introductions to the songs are connected to the ending of others.

"Reversion"
"Reversion" could have been a ballad from its soft chords' beginning. But it grows in strength and passion - it stops to pick up impetus and develops into quite a vibrant song that can't shake its brooding melancholy off its bones.

Jerome Reuter is as much a poet as he is a musician. His way around words is astonishing. He's not blunt or cruel but he brings a sort of urgency to the surface using the feelings of the listener himself, making him consider the possibility that all these words Jerome speaks, he wanted to have spoken first. And the vocal delivery is very heartfelt and sincere.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.myspace.com/romecmi
http://www.last.fm/music/Rome

Lyrics
We toss and turn
We need a new man
There is nothing left but fear here

Into the sea
Into this life
Contemplate
Treading water

All is sacred
All is green
Under the belltower
Under my skin
We have reached a new line
We have come to an end
Now tell me this wasn't fun

"Niemand zwingt mich in die Knie"

Each and every face is cut to match
So we all fall into sweet silence
This life's reversion
This summer's plague
Don't you ever try to warm my mind
Would you heed my words?
Would you slay for me?
Would it be of any value?

-All the material used in this video, is property of the artist who recorded this material. No copyright infringement intended.

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