Coming from the world's capital of sludge and doom metal, New Orleans extreme metal trio, Romasa, deliver an excellent mixture of the aforementioned slow-burning styles mingled with experimental death metal, crust, hardcore and punk. The band's first album, Cheering Death, was released last year, and apart from its genre fusing extreme metal character it also shines for the uniqueness with which Romasa handle those styles and bring them together, with the compositions seamlessly swaying between raw brutality and avant garde wanderings, resulting into something that feels indescribable at first glance, yet, absolutely smashing.
The album was superbly mixed and recorded by James Whitten (Thou, Witch Burial), and it sees the band indulging in dark themes, and coming up with frenzied deliveries on every single one the record's five tracks.
Sepulchral Form kicks off the album in an edgy and rabid manner, becoming an identifying introduction to the rest of the derangement which follows. For its remaining four pieces the fittingly titled Cheering Death gradually becomes more expansive and open minded, and so does the overall engagement, with each song coming lengthier than previous, and consistently expressive of the band's nimbleness. After its conclusion Romasa's first full length certainly shows every sign of an imposing debut, and an affecting listening experience.
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