Band:	Rolo Tomassi
Album:	Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
Style:	Math metal, Experimental rock
Release date:	March 02, 2018
A review by:	RaduP

01. Towards Dawn
02. Aftermath
03. Rituals
04. The Hollow Hour
05. Balancing The Dark
06. Alma Mater
07. A Flood Of Light
08. Whispers Among Us
09. Contretemps
10. Risen

Light and dark. Black and white. Yin and yang. Balancing the dark is something often searched for and Rolo Tomassi's fifth album does it.

It's amazing how much Rolo Tomassi have accomplished in their 10-year run, taking their base of chaotic mathcore and constantly refining and pushing it in as many directions as they please, whether jazzy, electronic, poppy, or punky. While only the Spence siblings remain from the lineup that released their first two records, the band sounds amazingly tight and orderly.

Diving into the album, you might think you have mistaken this record for another, as the first two tracks are eerily uplifting and serene, and, sure, you might expect that from an opening intro track, but the second one, "Aftermath", is a full-fledged song and there's no brutality to be found in it at all, just a beautifully airy and almost poppish song. By the time "Rituals" arrives, the restraint in the foreplay makes the first roars of heaviness so much more anticipated and rewarding.

Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It jungles around with a lot of sounds, from the ever-so-obvious metalcore to death metal tinges to piano ballad-ish and synth ambient moments to post-rock-ish and dream pop-ish forlorn and pensive stretches and from serene clean vocals to ferocious shrieks. And Rolo Tomassi is extremely dynamic and versatile in seamlessly interplaying with all their sounds and painting them together into uncluttered songs without sounding artificially glued together. This can be best felt in the build-ups of the longer songs, especially "Contretemps". The album's closing track, "Risen", mirrors the opening two, as it is also completely clean but rather post-rockish and built around Eva's vocals in a strangely life-affirming manner while still sounding melancholic.

Rolo Tomassi did well in showing us how exciting it is not to overstay a sound's welcome and to make an album flow despite its grand diversity and without sounding at all forced. Already at their fifth record, they show no signs of settling for a generic sound.

Embrace the flood of light.