Youtube comments. Blog posts. Conversations in your local McDonald’s. We all know how fruitless it is to debate musical genre with someone who listens to contemporary heavy music. Melodic death metal may mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so for a bit of foundation to Kill the Romance’s 2011 release, For Rome and the Throne, let’s use the term “Gothenburg.” For those of you unfamiliar with the significance Sweden’s second-largest city, let me momentarily explain. Site of an annual film festival, and home of Volvo cars since 1927, Göteborg, as it’s known at home, has special meaning for European metal. The collective home of At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, and In Flames, it’s like a sort of pilgrimage site for those who love melody and carnage in the European metal scene. Swedish bands in the area often have role models in these early pioneers, and by sheer proximity, Finnish bands follow suit. One such example? Lahti’s own Kill the Romance.

“Fall of the Empire” fades the album into sonic focus. Okay, history tells us that we are meant to concentrate on a time about 476 AD, the fall of the Roman Empire, the end of the old world and beginning of the new, right? Cool stuff. Big orchestral swells and authoritative, yet simple drums accomplish this quite well. But it doesn’t quite sound like the Kill the Romance I loved on their last album, Take Another Life. It HAS been 4 years since they’ve completed a record, so I suppose they could have changed.

You sly dogs. The album’s title song, which follows next, rudely assures me I was wrong. A smile came to my face instantly, upon hearing the squealing pinch harmonics and smooth hammer-ons that delighted me years ago. The album is definitely somewhat of a concept effort, as the titles would suggest, and the lyrics further enforce. “Blood Bell” hints at plots, murder, and impending doom. Paired with a power metal-quality iconic melody and driving rhythm, and it’s an instant Kill the Romance classic. “Avalanche,” too, has the old pandemic catchiness of guitarists Tomi Luoma and Ville Patrikainen’s six-string sensibility. Rather than delving further into classical chord construction, these particular Finns shape the powers of groove and rhythm to their melodies, in a beautiful testament to the original Gothenburg giants.

But this is what they were always known for. Especially channeling In Flames, Kill the Romance is polished off by the vocal power of Ville Hovi. This particular singer shows his skill in variation on 2011′s For Rome and the Throne, with more clean singing, deeper lows, and more raspy highs. Doubled/harmonized singing and chants over choruses can even be heard. This is probably the band’s most valuable change since 2011, as it really does make Kill the Romance more versatile, while still staying true to metal.

And even later in the album, the metal intensity is still there. “Late Night Void” is mean as it is eerie. “Traitor” pummels you with the kind of head-swinging precision only Gothenburgers understand. “In Our Holy Grail” opens with the sort of thing one would have never heard from Kill the Romance, until this album: clean acoustic instrumentals. Well-executed, and well-implemented, they set up the album’s closer, as one would expect. But Kill the Romance is not the sort of band to just fade out, even if the album is about to end. Dissonance, thumping bass, and epic vocalization goes out with a bang.

In short, this is exactly the kind of album one hopes for, in watching a band break out, mature, go it alone, and live to the tell the tale. Oh yeah, by the way, Kill the Romance is UNSIGNED. With that in mind, the production, self-done by the band, is fantastic. If you’re a label owner reading this review, I suggest you make an investment here. A vital show of Gothenburg power, even during the reign of American-style metalcore in the world, and a head-banging ass-kicker of an album, For Rome and the Throne shows Kill the Romance at their best.

4.0/5