We Are the Romans | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 1999 [1] | |||
Recorded | June 29 – July 8, 1999 | |||
Studio | Studio Litho (Seattle, Washington) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 52:35(original release) 47:24(2022 reissue) | |||
Label | Hydra Head | |||
Producer |
| |||
Botch chronology | ||||
|
We Are the Romans is the second and final studio album by American metalcore band Botch. It was originally released in November 1999 through Hydra Head Records. [1] Since its release, it has been seen as an influential album on metalcore and hardcore music. [2] [3]
In 1999, Botch recorded some live demos with Matt Bayles for their second studio album and follow up to American Nervoso . Two months later, Botch returned to Litho Studios with Bayles to record what would become We Are the Romans. The group only had approximately one week to track the album, and according to Knudson, the group "[rushed] to get everything done and do it as well as we wanted to." [4] As a last minute addition to the album, Botch rewrote and rerecorded the song "Frequenting Mass Transit"—originally released on a split release with Murder City Devils—and changed the title to "Frequency Ass Bandit". [5]
The title of the album was derived from the lyrics to the album's closing track "Man the Ramparts". According to Verellen: "Brian [Cook] thought it'd make a great title, but I thought it was a totally silly gladiator song. The riff is kinda huge, so I was thinking about chariots and fire and stuff like that. It sounds like I pulled the words out of Conan the Barbarian . But then we started talking about the social decline of Western civilization, and how Americans are the new Romans—it's all slaves and Caesars. So we made it work." [5] Bassist Brian Cook, who determined many of the song titles, credits J. G. Ballard's book The Atrocity Exhibition as inspiring themes of "the human body as a landscape, and the way that culture and environment sort of dictates the human body and vice versa." [6] "C. Thomas Howell as the 'Soul Man'" has been described by the band as satirizing Racetraitor and "other bands with these very lofty political ideals that seemed like more a marketing tool for the genre of political hardcore rather than a sincere agenda" (Brian Cook). [6]
We Are the Romans was released in November 1999 through Hydra Head Records on both CD and double LP vinyl formats. [7]
Botch's first show in support of We Are the Romans was the final show for the Seattle venue Rkcndy with The Blood Brothers, (the Blood Brothers known for their fondness of the devices rode Segueways on stage for the first time during this show. This trend would continue up until the bands break up several years later). Playing Enemy and Kill Sadie in October 1999. The club was an all-ages venue that was being demolished to make way for a hotel. Verellen expressed his admiration for playing all-ages shows stating that, "People go to all-ages shows to see the bands, but people will go to bars... and while they're at the show, they're just hanging out with their friends. That doesn't mean all bar shows are like that, but that's what makes me not want to play bars, basically." [7] In 2000, Botch toured Europe with The Dillinger Escape Plan, and also went on a smaller North American tour later that year. [8] On July 28, 2001, Botch performed at Louisville, Kentucky's hardcore festival Krazy Fest 4, [9] [10] which also featured Coalesce, Converge, Poison the Well and Harkonen among others.
A remastered two disc edition was later released on September 11, 2007. [11] A Hydra Head repressing of the vinyl was released on October 25, 2011. [12] The repress sold out on pre-order in under 20 minutes. [13]
On November 4, 2022, Sargent House will reissue We Are the Romans following the collapse of Hydra Head Records. The reissue notably features the newly written and recorded bonus track "One Twenty Two" . [14] [15]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [16] |
Drowned in Sound | 10/10 [17] |
Exclaim! | favorable [18] |
Kerrang! | [19] |
Punknews.org | [20] |
Stylus Magazine | B+ [21] |
Sputnikmusic | 4.5/5 [22] |
The album achieved critical acclaim upon release and would become an influential work of music on the mathcore and metalcore movements. [22] [23] Loudwire named the album fifth in its rankings of the 25 best Metalcore albums of all-time [24] and Metal Hammer magazine named it one of the 20 best 1999 metal albums in a 2021 list. [25]
In November 2005, We Are the Romans was inducted into the Decibel magazine Hall of Fame, with Decibel naming it one of the most influential hardcore albums of the 1990s. [26]
All songs written and arranged by Botch. [27]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "To Our Friends in the Great White North" | 5:10 |
2. | "Mondrian Was a Liar" | 2:41 |
3. | "Transitions from Persona to Object" | 6:04 |
4. | "Swimming the Channel Vs. Driving The Chunnel" | 4:30 |
5. | "C. Thomas Howell as the 'Soul Man'" | 4:44 |
6. | "Saint Matthew Returns to the Womb" | 3:04 |
7. | "Frequency Ass Bandit" | 4:26 |
8. | "I Wanna Be a Sex Symbol on My Own Terms" | 3:35 |
9. | "Man the Ramparts" (song ends at 9:54 and is followed by a minute of silence) | 10:50 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
10. | Untitled (hidden remix of "Thank God for Worker Bees") | 7:27 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
10. | "One Twenty Two" | 2:16 |
No. | Song title (working titles in italics) [27] | Notes [27] | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "To Our Friends in the Great White North" (demo) "Canada Song" or "Tasting Like a Hot Lunch in Amsterdam" | We Are the Romans demos Recorded live on Digital Audio Tape by Matt Bayles at Studio Litho May 31, 1999 | 5:17 |
2. | "I Wanna Be a Sex Symbol on My Own Terms" (demo) "Latin Song" | 3:41 | |
3. | "Transitions from Persona to Object" (demo) "Circus Song" or "Saturn Aligned with Mars" | 6:34 | |
4. | "Mondrian Was a Liar" (demo) "Bam Bam and Other Assorted Onamonapeia" | 3:02 | |
5. | "Saint Matthew Returns to the Womb" (demo) "F.I.M.D (Top Secret! Don't Ask!)" | 3:21 | |
6. | "C. Thomas Howell as the 'Soul Man'" (demo) "C. Thomas Howell as the 'Soul Man'" | 4:25 | |
7. | "Man the Ramparts" (demo) "Man the Ramparts for There Are Fair Maidens Aplenty" | 6:33 | |
8. | "Saint Matthew Returns To The Womb" (live) | Live in Seattle April 21, 2001, at Graceland | 4:20 |
9. | "Vietmam" (live) | 3:13 | |
10. | "Transitions from Persona to Object" (live) | Live in France November 11, 1999 | 6:01 |
11. | "Hutton's Great Heat Engine" (live) | 6:19 | |
Writing, performance and production credits are adapted from the album liner notes. [27]
Earth Crisis is an American metallic hardcore band from Syracuse, New York, active from 1989 until 2001, reuniting in 2007. Since 1993, the band's longest-tenured members include vocalist Karl Buechner, lead guitarist Scott Crouse, bassist Ian Edwards, and drummer Dennis Merrick. Their third and current rhythm guitarist Erick Edwards joined the band in 1998.
Metalcore is a fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, that originated in the late 1980s. Metalcore is noted for its use of breakdowns, which are slow, intense passages conducive to moshing, while other defining instrumentation includes heavy guitar riffs often utilizing percussive pedal tones and double bass drumming. Vocalists in the genre typically perform screaming; more popular bands often combine this with the use of standard singing, usually during the bridge or chorus of a song. However, the death growl is also a popular technique within the genre.
Calculating Infinity is the debut studio album by American metalcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan. Recorded at Trax East Recording Studio in South River, New Jersey, it was produced by engineer Steve Evetts with the band's guitarist Ben Weinman and drummer Chris Pennie, and released on September 28, 1999, by Relapse Records. Calculating Infinity is the band's only full-length album to feature original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, who left the band in 2001.
Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signatures, polymeters, syncopations and tempo changes. Early mathcore lyrics were addressed from a realistic worldview and with a pessimistic, defiant, resentful or sarcastic point of view.
Converge is an American metalcore band formed by vocalist and artist Jacob Bannon and guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou in Salem, Massachusetts in 1990. While recording their landmark fourth album Jane Doe in 2001, the group became a four-piece with the departure of guitarist Aaron Dalbec and the addition of bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller. This lineup has remained intact since. The members have also been involved in various side-projects and collaborations, including the bands Supermachiner (Bannon), Old Man Gloom (Newton), and Mutoid Man (Koller). With their extremely aggressive and boundary-pushing sound, rooted in hardcore and heavy metal, they are pioneers of metalcore and its subgenre mathcore.
Botch was an American mathcore band formed in 1993 in Tacoma, Washington. The band, featuring Brian Cook, Dave Knudson, Tim Latona and Dave Verellen, spent four years as a garage band and released several demos and EPs before signing to Hydra Head Records. Through the label, Botch released two studio albums: American Nervoso (1998) and We Are the Romans (1999). The group toured extensively and internationally in support of their albums with like-minded bands such as The Blood Brothers, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Ink & Dagger and Jesuit. Botch struggled to write a third studio album, and in 2002 the group broke up due to tensions among the band members and creative differences. Hydra Head posthumously released an EP of songs the group had been working on before they split titled An Anthology of Dead Ends and a live album documenting their final show titled 061502 in 2006.
These Arms Are Snakes was an American post-hardcore band that formed in 2002 and featured former members of Botch and Kill Sadie. Before disbanding in 2009, they released three studio albums: Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home (2004), Easter (2006) and Tail Swallower and Dove (2008). Former members of These Arms Are Snakes currently play in Russian Circles, Narrows, Minus the Bear, Crypts, Dust Moth, and Hooves.
Harkonen was an American post-hardcore band from Tacoma, Washington, most active between 1997 and 2005.
An Anthology of Dead Ends is an extended play by Botch, released on Hydra Head Records in October 2002. It was the band's final studio recording, and was released after they disbanded.
Racetraitor is an American hardcore punk and metal band originally from Chicago, Illinois. The band attracted controversy in the late 1990s, before any releases, as a result of their radical take on racial politics, which focused on ideas like systemic racism and white privilege before they were widely discussed topics in popular or underground culture. Racetraitor was also a key proto-metalcore act, one of the first few bands to incorporate extreme metal influences, such as death metal, grindcore, and doom metal, into hardcore.
Coalesce was an American metalcore band formed in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1994. They are considered pioneers of mathcore and were known for its aggressive style of music and reckless live shows. The band broke up in 2010 and has performed two reunion shows since then.
Post-metal is a music genre rooted in heavy metal but exploring approaches beyond metal conventions. It emerged in the 1990s with bands such as Neurosis and Godflesh, who transformed metal texture through experimental composition. In a way similar to the predecessor genres post-rock and post-hardcore, post-metal offsets the darkness and intensity of extreme metal with an emphasis on atmosphere, emotion, and even "revelation", developing an expansive but introspective sound variously imbued with elements of ambient, noise, psychedelic, progressive, and classical music, and often shoegaze and art rock. Songs are typically long, with loose and layered structures that discard the verse–chorus form in favor of crescendos and repeating themes. The sound centres on guitars and drums, while any vocals are often but not always screamed or growled and resemble an additional instrument.
American Nervoso is the first studio album by American metalcore band Botch, released in 1998 through Hydra Head Records. It was re-issued in 2007, with five bonus tracks appended to the end of the record, consisting of demos and extended versions. The re-issue includes demos, extended versions of songs and the two opening measures of "Hives", which were accidentally clipped off in the original mastering, and was remastered by Matt Bayles sometime in 2006.
061502 is a live concert DVD of Botch's final show at The Showbox in Seattle. It contains two discs, one for the Concert DVD consisting of 14 songs with a bonus commentary, and a video for "Saint Matthew Returns To The Womb", and other bonuses. The second disc is a CD containing the audio version of the DVD. The set was released on vinyl in 2016.
The Unifying Themes of Sex, Death and Religion is a compilation album by the American rock band Botch. Originally released through Excursion Records in 1997, the album compiled Botch's first two EPs—The John Birch Conspiracy Theory and Faction—with the song "Closure" which was previously released on the various artists compilation I Can't Live Without It.
Until Your Heart Stops is the debut album by metalcore band Cave In. It was released in 1998 on Hydra Head Records. Until Your Heart Stops has been regarded as a landmark release in the metallic hardcore genre.
Drowningman is an American hardcore punk band from Burlington, Vermont, which was active from 1995 to 2005. Formed in the fall of 1995 by Simon Brody, Denny Donovan, Javin Leonard, Dave Barnett and Todd Tomlinson, the band was heavily influenced by a variety of bands including Promise Ring, Sunny Day Real Estate, Deadguy, Unbroken, Shotmaker, Unwound, and This musical amalgamation influenced the modern metalcore and mathcore musical subgenres.
Benjamin James Verellen is an American musician and audio engineer from Tacoma, Washington.
Roy was an American folk and indie rock band. They were formed in 2002 in Tacoma, Washington.
"One Twenty Two" is a single by the American metal band Botch. The song was released as a digital single on August 24, 2022 and was included as a bonus track on the 2022 reissue of Botch's We Are the Romans through Sargent House. The single marks the first and only Botch release since 061502 in 2006 and first release with new material since An Anthology of Dead Ends in 2002. Despite regrouping to write and record the song, the members of Botch have stated the band has not reunited and is not active.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)