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Rolo Tomassi - 'Where Myth Becomes Memory' Album Review

Sean Friswell
Feb 13, 2022
2 min read

Tracklist:

1. Almost Always

2. Cloaked

3. Mutual Ruin

4. Labyrinthine

5. Closer

6. Drip

7. Prescience

8. Stumbling

9. To Resist Forgetting

10. The End Of Eternity

I must admit to being a recent convert to large sounding soundscapes but I have been gobbling them up. 'Where Myth Becomes Memory' sets out its stall with its sprawling first track “Almost Always”. Soaring vocals in the style of Sigur Ros (to my ear anyway). Hints of Mogwai, The Twighlight Sad and TVAM, this track seesaws between wall of sound to sparse minimalist.

Track two: 'Cloaked' has a scream vocal with an accompanying melodic vocal, a real beauty and the beast. It’s haunting string section leaves the listener feeling on edge and the drum beat on this track is awesome. 'Mutual Ruin' continues with the screamed vocals but with a more discordant musical accompaniment, hints of Evanescence and Linkin Park. It's obvious how well the band gel together and has come as no great shock to here they have been together for 17 years.

Although Rolo Tomassi have an ability to throw everything including the kitchen sink at their listeners for me their even greater ability is how they use silence, they seem to know when to strip each song back at just the right time. The vocal attack could be quite overpowering if not for the beautiful “quiet” sections that come along to soothe.

Oh my days, “Drip” has just started. An assault on the eardrums, especially after the gentle caress of 'Closer'. It’s also the most schizophrenic song so far. I’m in heaven.

'Prescience' just doesn’t make sense, it manages to make ugly beautiful, I’m not even sure how, but it does.

Okay this is just starting to get ridiculous now, I’m loving the album more and more with every song, my only complaint is that I didn’t know of Rolo Tomassi 17 years ago, all those wasted years... 'Where Myth Becomes Mystery' by Rolo Tomassi gets a well deserved 5 stars from me.