‘Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It’ is not designed for any mainstream distribution. These songs won’t even feel satisfying outside of the context of the album. It’s gripping in the same way that ‘The Last of Us’ isn’t a game you can simply pause and carry on with another day. And with each listen, Sheffield curveballs Rolo Tomassi take a tighter hold of you and drain you of every last emotion.
For the most part, ‘Time Will Die…’ is a bombastic and punishing record. Tracks such as ‘Rituals’ and ‘Alma Mater’ specialise in sonic assaults of frantic hardcore drum and guitar arrangements with buzzing synthesisers bubbling underneath to add a coating of uncertainty and menace. As frontwoman Eva Spence screams about waves of doubt that hold her back, these towers of abrasion become characteristic of the raging storm of anxiety and paranoia.
But the attention to detail in the songs’ craft is one of the album’s most staggering features. From Eva’s bewitching vocal harmonies between riffs on ‘The Hollow Hour’ to the delicate flourishes of electronica that alight opening track ‘Aftermath’, every second of this album has been carefully worked over to provide as much impact as possible. This craft pays off on ‘A Flood of Light’, which uses trance synthesizers to create a plasma-textured wall of sound, building in tension to end with Eva’s refrains of “but there you are, always”. It’s a moment soaked in pathos that is sure to hurt anyone listening as much as it did it’s creators.
As otherworldly as ‘Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It’ often sounds, the human emotion it pours and brings out in listeners is what makes it a record worth cherishing. Rolo Tomassi have worked fear, regret and loss into this album, and the result is something powerful, unmoveable and unforgettable. This record is going to ruin your life, and the only thing you’ll want to do once it’s over is play it again and again and again.
5/5
‘Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It’ by Rolo Tomassi is released on 2nd March on Holy Roar Records.
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Words by Andy Davidson (@AndyrfDavidson)
