HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE “The Longue Duree”
Amazingly, everyone who played on HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE’s debut EP is back for the full-length despite their status as ex-members of a large list of hardcore and punk bands. That full-length, the twelve-track The Longue Duree, is a rocking/beautiful offering from the Chicago-based quintet. In the past, one of the major complaints against the band was the lack of cohesion between the band’s musicians – Neeraj Kane, Jay Jancetic, Geoff Reu, and Tony Tintari – and soaring vocalist Emily Schambra. With Longue, however, the band has improved greatly – offering an aggressive, elegant, and often technically-pleasing full-length with tons of showcaseable content. Without a doubt, this record is extremely top-heavy. Opening song “Undeserving You” is a great example of the way the band seamlessly blends post-hardcore, pop, and melodic rock influences; “The Ace” is a hard-hitting affair with the album’s hookiest lead riff; and “An Alliance Of Thieves” features Schambra at her best as she single-handedly pushes the song’s chorus and then some. The fourth one, “Hail Mary,” is probably the album’s poppiest tune as it’s driven with steady plucking and contains one of Schambra’s most memorable lines (“I can pretend if you’ll be me guide/ your special liar”). The very next song, “Our Whole Lives, Waiting,” is where things start to head downhill. While it’s not a bad song by any means, it starts a series of songs that offer hardly any diversity amongst themselves. While closer “Vicarious Haunting” ends the disc on a good note, much of what comes before it can be summed up in one word: skippable. The Longue Duree is wrapped up with classy artwork and a fitting recording job from Neil Hennessy and Matt Allison. If anything, the duo succeeded in making HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE sound more like a full unit. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE have shown they are more than capable of writing several great songs as a complete band, yet with The Longue Duree they’ve come up a bit short in their quest to write a fully cohesive album.
Hewhocorrupts, Inc.
