Hey there, tech fiends. It's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual weekly reminder that if you're looking for even more sick bands to hear, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
Are you ready for another sick exclusive today? I've got a really good one for you and do click the link above if you missed the last three columns which each featured an exclusive premiere. Today's premiere is an early album stream of Roman Ring – The Halogen ahead of its release this Friday, March 20th. As usual, you can immediately scroll below and hit play or read on to learn more about the release and the band.
As is often the case, today's early album stream is special for me as a longtime fan of the band it's for. I first covered the Chicago-based guys in Roman Ring way back in 2014 over at No Clean Singing after they released their 2nd EP, Babel.
It's taken a number of years for a follow-up effort to come out and now the band's debut album, The Halogen, is finally upon us. What makes The Halogen and Roman Ring so special is the immense scope and endless variety found within their music. This is a band that really loves death metal and extreme metal of all stripes and have found their own way of synthesizing so many different styles of death metal and more into a sound that is not easily explained.
So, I figured I'd let the band offer up a list of influences and sources of inspiration that may cue you into what the wild ride you're about to hear combines into forms all their own. Roman Ring drummer Jason Nitts (Warforged) said: "I would say that Roman Ring is definitely influenced along the lines of bands like Animosity, Meshuggah, Into the Moat, Hate Eternal, The Red Chord, Ion Dissonance, Suffocation, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Nile and Necrophagist."
There is a concrete eloquence to the balancing act the band pulls off between so many different worlds throughout The Halogen. One that is a rare treat to hear and is owed in no small part to the impressive line-up of Roman Ring. The band's powerhouse vocalist is none other than Danny Rodriguez from Through The Eyes Of The Dead, the band's guitarist Bill Fay and Nate Madden (Immortal Bird) have incredible chemistry and are quite creative, bassist Franco Caballero (Wounds) adds another level of intricacy and beauty throughout, and drummer Jason Nitts (Warforged) is his usual beastly self behind the kit tying it all together. The Halogen also includes guest spots from Warforged vocalist Adrian Perez on on piano and composition help for "White Noise" plus a guest solo from Silverlace/ex-Warforged guitarist Paul Aluculesei on "Flesh Dispel".
For a bit more information on The Halogen, Roman Ring was kind enough to offer up a release statement, sharing that: "We’re proud to finally release our first official full length titled “The Halogen”. This is the first Roman Ring album where each band member contributed throughout the songwriting process and we feel like we succeeded in blending various genres of metal together while also maintaining a dead atmosphere throughout each track.
The composition reflects a concept created by our drummer and vocalist, which involves a U.S. soldier being part of a failed secret military experiment and the aftermath that followed. The concept itself is the skeleton of the album and each song represents a part of the storyline as it unfolds. The intentions of this also pay a bit of a tribute to some of the great metal concept records out there, and it was a lot of fun as well as a bit of a challenge approaching this music with that type of creative focus. The ideas within "The Halogen" were inspired by various movies and books that had struck a chord with us. We feel like we have achieved our goal with this record and hope that it resonates with anyone who takes the time to listen to it. Overall, this is a death metal record, made for death metal fans, and we hope the listeners enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating this and watching our vision come to life! So sit back, smoke a bowl, drink a beer, and drift into your own journey with "The Halogen"!"
As usual, definitely check out the music being premiered below, you won't regret it. This is certainly one of the best tech-death releases I've heard this year and one I'll keep coming back to. If you're enjoying The Halogen album stream, you can order the release via Bandcamp. You can follow the group over on the Roman Ring Facebook Page.
