Album Club 2019: Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It

Anteater · 01-20-2019, 08:47 PM

Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It

Club Rating: 5.83 out of 10

This could be a fun one. Let's duuuuu itttttttttttttt.

Zhanteimi · 01-20-2019, 10:02 PM

Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It

Thoughts: It starts off with a dreamy post-rock atmosphere, gets into some pretty standard post-hardcore where I could see exactly where each part of the song was going and there were absolutely no surprises, and then the music really ramps up--I mean, just gets so amazing--but fuck me those vocals. I'm just not going to be able to get over black metal vocals, I think. I keep trying, but something inside me hates it. Quite a cathartic album overall. The post-rock moments are spot-on. But this album taken all in all is not my thing. MB will love it.

Rating: 6/10

**Exo** · 01-24-2019, 09:26 AM

I didn't realize this was here. I'll listen and post my review later...

OccultHawk · 01-24-2019, 10:20 AM

When a band incorporates many styles it’s very important there’s no big drop off in quality. Some of the parts with female vocals sound like what I consider “emo”. I love Jawbreaker and I like Jimmy Eat World, I’m not at all an emo hater. But with this band the melodic structure isn’t there and the female vocals are weak. On the other hand, the pure ambient and black metal parts are excellent. My take is a lot like Mord’s in that we both like some styles but can’t buy into the whole thing. What we like and don’t like are different but hey different strokes for different folks sort of like I’m sexually arroused by Dana Plato before her breast augmentation and Mord prefers the post-suicide Plato.

6/10

~~MicShazam~~ · 01-24-2019, 11:07 AM

Extra heavy and harsh math rock/metalcore. A lot like Iwrestledabearonce, but feels more black metal and post rock than those guys, depending on the passage.

Some of the passages have some clever drum rhythms meshing with cold, hard guitar chords, and these parts tend to be the best bits. Mostly not into the softer bits. I'm all about melody oriented music and rarely listen to harsh sounding music, but that also means that I'm not gonna be easily impressed by some pretty sounding soft bits if the songwriting just isn't really there. And it kinda isn't, sadly.

So the heavy bits fare the best, but I find the vocalist to be a problem. She's capable of doing both a pretty, clean voice and harsh black metal screams, but for both approaches, she's rather one dimensional. There's basically no expressive range in any way within either vocal style for her, so she's basically mediocre at two very different things, which I guess is still impressive in some way. Any scream she does one moment sounds exactly like any scream she does at any other moment. Completely one dimensional - and the same goes for her clean vocals, sadly. It's basically that there's no subtlety and dimension to what she does. She has a good voice, but does not have the heart of an artist.

The distance between the best heavy bits of music and the rest makes this one hard to rate. I'm gonna go with a 4/10 since they're very competent. I just find their melodic compositions to be lacking a lot and their singer to put a rather disappointing damper on the album.

Blarobbarg · 01-24-2019, 05:35 PM

I chose this so my feelings will be biased, but here we go.

I'm not surprised this hasn't gone over well. I chose it specifically knowing a good deal of people won't care for it- it's either too experimental, or not experimental enough. There are too many heavy, harsh parts, or too many soft parts. It's got a lot going on.

That said, I LIKE all the stuff that's going on. I think that they successfully switch from soft ambient, to harsh blackened mathcore, to post-rock with pop sensibilities. They turn what could be an entirely unpleasant mess of genres into a beautiful fistful of spaghetti thrown at a wall. If that's your thing (and its mine), it will be wonderful. If you wish they'd just relax and stick to one thing, it will be a letdown.

This is a great album. It takes all the elements that made metalcore popular with teenagers in malls back in my teenage years and improves on it, making an album that is equally poppy and heavy.

I'm glad that everyone is giving it a shot, at least!

9/10

Zhanteimi · 01-24-2019, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blarobbarg

it's either too experimental, or not experimental enough

Yeah. It's not experimental at all. "Experimental" isn't a word that once crossed my mind while listening to this.

Blarobbarg · 01-24-2019, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zhanteimi

Yeah. It's not experimental at all. "Experimental" isn't a word that once crossed my mind while listening to this.

I was more talking about the average music listener, not really our crowd around here. It's mathcore so there's a level of avant garde that's baked into the genre- maybe only in the rhythms and time signatures, but still.

Zhanteimi · 01-24-2019, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blarobbarg

I was more talking about the average music listener.

I'd say it's unlistenable for the average music listener.

Blarobbarg · 01-24-2019, 05:43 PM

Yeah, that's kinda my point. Harsh music is, by default, operating on a level of experimentalism. Tho this kind of music feels pretty normal to us here, it is beyond most folk.

01-20-2019, 10:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
Zhanteimi Mord Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Tokyo Posts: 4,873	Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It Thoughts: It starts off with a dreamy post-rock atmosphere, gets into some pretty standard post-hardcore where I could see exactly where each part of the song was going and there were absolutely no surprises, and then the music really ramps up--I mean, just gets so amazing--but fuck me those vocals. I'm just not going to be able to get over black metal vocals, I think. I keep trying, but something inside me hates it. Quite a cathartic album overall. The post-rock moments are spot-on. But this album taken all in all is not my thing. MB will love it. Rating: 6/10 __________________ Zhanteimi LetsTalkMusic

01-24-2019, 09:26 AM	#3 (permalink)
Exo All day jazz and biscuits Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: NJ Posts: 7,354	I didn't realize this was here. I'll listen and post my review later... __________________ LastFM SUPREME POO BAH MODERATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

01-24-2019, 10:20 AM	#4 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	When a band incorporates many styles it’s very important there’s no big drop off in quality. Some of the parts with female vocals sound like what I consider “emo”. I love Jawbreaker and I like Jimmy Eat World, I’m not at all an emo hater. But with this band the melodic structure isn’t there and the female vocals are weak. On the other hand, the pure ambient and black metal parts are excellent. My take is a lot like Mord’s in that we both like some styles but can’t buy into the whole thing. What we like and don’t like are different but hey different strokes for different folks sort of like I’m sexually arroused by Dana Plato before her breast augmentation and Mord prefers the post-suicide Plato. 6/10 __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

01-24-2019, 05:35 PM	#6 (permalink)
Blarobbarg Do good. Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Posts: 2,065	I chose this so my feelings will be biased, but here we go. I'm not surprised this hasn't gone over well. I chose it specifically knowing a good deal of people won't care for it- it's either too experimental, or not experimental enough. There are too many heavy, harsh parts, or too many soft parts. It's got a lot going on. That said, I LIKE all the stuff that's going on. I think that they successfully switch from soft ambient, to harsh blackened mathcore, to post-rock with pop sensibilities. They turn what could be an entirely unpleasant mess of genres into a beautiful fistful of spaghetti thrown at a wall. If that's your thing (and its mine), it will be wonderful. If you wish they'd just relax and stick to one thing, it will be a letdown. This is a great album. It takes all the elements that made metalcore popular with teenagers in malls back in my teenage years and improves on it, making an album that is equally poppy and heavy. I'm glad that everyone is giving it a shot, at least! 9/10 __________________ https://rateyourmusic.com/~Blarobbarg ｡･::･ﾟ★,｡･::･ﾟ☆　^my RYM^　｡･::･ﾟ★,｡･::･ﾟ☆ (◠‿◠✿)

01-24-2019, 05:43 PM	#10 (permalink)
Blarobbarg Do good. Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Posts: 2,065	Yeah, that's kinda my point. Harsh music is, by default, operating on a level of experimentalism. Tho this kind of music feels pretty normal to us here, it is beyond most folk. __________________ https://rateyourmusic.com/~Blarobbarg ｡･::･ﾟ★,｡･::･ﾟ☆　^my RYM^　｡･::･ﾟ★,｡･::･ﾟ☆ (◠‿◠✿)

01-24-2019, 11:07 AM	#5 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Extra heavy and harsh math rock/metalcore. A lot like Iwrestledabearonce, but feels more black metal and post rock than those guys, depending on the passage. Some of the passages have some clever drum rhythms meshing with cold, hard guitar chords, and these parts tend to be the best bits. Mostly not into the softer bits. I'm all about melody oriented music and rarely listen to harsh sounding music, but that also means that I'm not gonna be easily impressed by some pretty sounding soft bits if the songwriting just isn't really there. And it kinda isn't, sadly. So the heavy bits fare the best, but I find the vocalist to be a problem. She's capable of doing both a pretty, clean voice and harsh black metal screams, but for both approaches, she's rather one dimensional. There's basically no expressive range in any way within either vocal style for her, so she's basically mediocre at two very different things, which I guess is still impressive in some way. Any scream she does one moment sounds exactly like any scream she does at any other moment. Completely one dimensional - and the same goes for her clean vocals, sadly. It's basically that there's no subtlety and dimension to what she does. She has a good voice, but does not have the heart of an artist. The distance between the best heavy bits of music and the rest makes this one hard to rate. I'm gonna go with a 4/10 since they're very competent. I just find their melodic compositions to be lacking a lot and their singer to put a rather disappointing damper on the album.