Review Summary: Lost in the harshness of endless
Rolo Tomassi has always been a strange cookie, an oddball, always hard to define. Starting off pretty ordinary in terms of the genre, they've set sail into an uncharted waters with Astraea album, that was a very hit-and-miss effort for me. With no regrets and no hesitation they've continued on that thorny path and released a masterpiece called Grievances. And I was thinking there's no way they could ever top it, spoiler alert: I was wrong.
First came the singles, I was pretty much prepared for it: nothing is what it seems. I've remembered the previous album where its sum was so much bigger than the parts, and the payoff of experiencing the record in its entirety was incalculable. So I've waited, trying really hard from forming any kind of expectations. Eventually I was right: all the pieces fit perfectly, odd puzzle pieces like Aftermath fell into place flawlessly. The picture was complete.
And it's a weird one. In a way that I'm not perceiving it as a heavy music album, but not as music at all. It's more like a painting, or a silent film, it contains a different levels of depth that are not often found in this genre or music in general. I mean it's not about the music anymore, or the craftsmanship (and believe me it's more than good), it's about something else: the meaning of it all, of expanding one's mind via the art. It may sound pompous, I know, but it's the only way to explain it.
Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It doesn't have songs, it has beginning and the end that intertwine with each other forming an image, an artwork. It doesn't have choruses, or verses, or god-forgive-me breakdowns, it has a canvas, a never-ending stream of consciousness captured in sound. The words are simple, the message in not that complex, but it's extremely sincere, that's gotta worth something. Don't get me wrong, these guys are not some music geniuses that invented a new way of affecting the eardrums. It's their uncanny sense of purpose, sheer determination that gets me, and I get it, I completely understand this band.
In the end what counts are these pure feelings that emerge in you after each spin. For me it's love. With heavy core music there is a common problem many encounter: it's very emotionally expensive, it drains you, and demands for you to invest your strongest feelings into it. It takes. And this album. It gives.
