“I dreamt of something bringing me toward a warmth I’ve longed for.”
Screamo is a word that’s been floating around the musical sphere for the greater part of thirty years. It’s a genre that, while you’re destined to be familiar with, is vast. You can have your emo-violence, with classic bands like Pg. 99 and Orchid, or newcomers like New Forms and Calm & Secure. You might start digging into the massive sass subgenre with the Blood Brothers, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, and Circuit Circuit. You’ve even got post-screamo, with Circle Takes the Square and Envy. But what if you meshed all of those sounds together? What would a band sounding like both Envy and I Hate Myself even sound like? This is where EP 2 by upcoming Savannah, Georgia powerhouses Rosemary Nods Upon the Grave answers the aforementioned question.
Rosemary Nods Upon the Grave have already built a bit of a name for themselves within the screamo and Savannah music scene with EP 1 and their split with the Boston emoviolence outfit Heaven Through Violence. With both bodies of work triumphing in their own right, fans of the emotional hardcore outfit were eager to see where the band would take their sound next. Not only has their original sound stayed intact, but they’ve perfectly expanded their sound to include their most melodic and emotional moments to date. And while just four songs and sixteen minutes, that still means there are mounds of material to unpack here.
EP 2 is a release where every single note is meticulously thought out. The band knows exactly where they want to take you throughout their musical journey. Implementing more of a post-rock and shoegaze tinge into their work, they want you to get lost in the more drawn-out sections. This is shown in a track like “Count to Three”, where the band takes us on an emotional roller coaster based around the same passage. They build upon it, they slow it down, they speed it up. The band wants you to feel everything, down to the last second. The band rides this wave for about two minutes before they break into the big crescendo. This beautiful musical expedition is exactly what to expect from Rosemary Nods Upon the Grave throughout EP 2, and it only gets better from here.
After feeling an immense amount of musical satisfaction after “Count to Three”, there is still, luckily, a lot more for the listener to digest. Tracks like “Of Candle, Vessel, Flame” and “Dépaysement” build off the momentum of the previous track. These tracks help wonderfully explore and expand on the band’s ever-growing and unique sound. A track like “Of Candle, Vessel, Flame,” for example, serves as a riveting experience of a slow burn, into a satisfying fade out. While many screamo bands might write with the amount of intent that Rosemary Nods Upon the Grave have, you’d be remiss to find a screamo band writing in this style, let alone as flawless as they are at meshing it all together. And with that, we are left with one final track.
“Like a Willow” is EP 2’s magnum opus, and Rosemary Nods Upon the Grave’s most impressive track to date. “Like a Willow” is a culmination of everything you’ve listened to throughout the rest of the EP and would like from the band, dialled up to one hundred, chocked full of build-ups, slow burns, and crescendos, and even has a beautiful spoken word section to round things out. Whilst it is shown throughout the release, “Like a Willow” is perhaps where the shoegaze and post-rock inspirations are the most visible, with mix and master from Matt Taylor and Will Killingsworth shining through particularly well. A perfect in many ways, it is completely ravishing for even the novice screamo enthusiast.
As striking as the release may be, it can be a lot to take in. From the musical aspect to the lyrics, it’s extremely complex. Take, for example, “Like a Willow”, where the lyrics tell the story of deeply wanting a purpose in life, due to a life’s worth of struggles. “I dreamt of plants growing out of me, building branches and flora emerging from my veins. Desperate to meet a world waiting for them, unintimidated by the possibility of shears coming again.” For the average listener, this is certainly difficult to unpack, but if you put in the effort, there is an array of beautiful and extremely impactful lyrics and instrumentals to unpack throughout the EP.
EP 2 is certainly a force of nature for the screamo genre. Rosemary Nods Upon the Grave has cracked the code when it comes to what they are trying to accomplish. As time goes on, it will show that this band is absolutely a force to be reckoned with. It’s extremely difficult to mesh all the different styles that they’re writing, but they do so with ease and style. The band wears their musical influences on their sleeve, and they created a sound that is greatly needed within the screamo genre. Where you’ve previously seen people state “FFO: Orchid, and I Hate Myself”, you can soon expect to see “FFO: Rosemary Nods Upon the Grave.”
9/10
EP 2 is out now via GALLOWDANCE records, and can be purchased here.