“Stab me through the heart and bleed me dry.”
Festival season in the UK is well underway, and as its current climate inches closer to resembling a fiery hellscape by the day, the accompanying music seems to follow suit. With many larger mainstream festivals now out of the way, we’ve turned our gaze to the UK’s underground, where many of the scene’s grassroots metalcore and hardcore acts are still knee-deep in wreaking havoc, despite the ever-present, nauseating heat wave having a similar idea.
Merseyside’s rozemary are just under two weeks away from embarking on a run that will take them across every corner of the UK in support of their new six-track affair titled, it’s harder now to breathe. The successor to last September’s the lies they made me believe, this sophomore EP displays rozemary’s penchant for powerful, heartfelt sung choruses while also sporting a heightened, sharper sense of aggression, with a higher quantity of harsh vocals and blistering mathcore guitar passages. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s all neatly laid out across an enhanced mix that sees all of the band’s sonic intricacies ring all the more clearly.
“bleed me dry” is an introductory high note that exemplifies the very best iteration of the band’s sound thus far. Refusing to toe the line between notions of new and old-school, rozemary are an amalgamation of various strands of hardcore and metalcore; soaring choruses and melodic seven-string riffs adjacent to those on Thornhill’s The Dark Pool coupled with the pummeling, panic-chord driven beatdown sections shared amongst their touring peers make for an introductory statement that bears a lasting impression. “anguish” is another dose of downtuned syncopation with deeply contrasting and trance-inducing melodic segments that make for another engaging four-minute stretch.
“i won’t change…” is a brief stray from the established fifty/fifty ratio of heaviness to heavenliness to focus more on the latter, as this cut is comprised almost entirely of clean singing courtesy of vocalist Izabel Lavin. This is a bold shift that complements the gaze-tinged nature of this track. “i won’t change…” is soaked in reverb and dreamlike ambience, contrasted with classic melodic metalcore riffs in its loudest moments that once again make for another special moment among an already strong tracklist thus far. While its composition may be a little more predictable than its frenetic predecessors, it is by no means any less impressive or memorable, and serves only to diversify the EP further.
“lost” opens with an explosive intro that’s heavy on the low end before transitioning into what may be arguably the greatest chorus on the EP. Catchy and tuneful vocal melodies atop technical guitar passages make for what may be my favorite standout moment on it’s harder now to breathe, where competition has thus far been fierce. “…if i don’t try”, which can only be surmised to be a conceptual follow-up to “i won’t change…”, is a stripped-back and unplugged acoustic track that is simple, yet effective in its execution. While its simplicity and predictability contrast with the enigmatic compositions of the EP’s introductory leg are liable to place the track on the lower end of rozemary’s as-of-now brief discography, it’s difficult to call it a bad track when the singing here is as remarkably strong as it is.
“no flowers bloom” is a full-stop send-off that is heavy and transcendental in equal measure. The guitars here are more mid-range heavy than ‘tune low die slow’ heavy, but they remain heavy nonetheless, and the EP’s diversity in the instrumental department makes it all the more difficult to pigeonhole rozemary into one specific metalcore and/or hardcore niche. As such, it’s harder now to breathe, as well as rozemary as a project at large, are far more engaging and inspired than some of their contemporaries who merely rehash the same sound they admired seventeen years ago. Put simply, there is nothing else out there that quite sounds like rozemary, and it’s harder now to breathe is a decorated sophomore effort that’s sure to curry favour with those who yearn for something fresh as part of their growing metalcore palette.
