Canada's Romancer Offer Brilliant First Taste Of New EP With 'Nausicaa'

17 November 2017 | 7:51 am | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

You know that awesome feeling you get when you find a great new band for the first time? That's Romancer.

You know that awesome feeling you get when you find a great new band for the first time? That's Romancer.



Canada's Romancer are a little bit of an odd band, truth be told.

As the four-piece themselves put it, "Romancer has one goal; to bring the fans a sound that toes the line between soft intimacy and explosive aggressiveness." And these Ontario lads do just that by merging elements of fabled 2000's emo/rock and driving pop-punk and then inject what can often be such stale sounds these days with wonderful, dynamic moments of post-rock and hazy ambience; breathing new life into the often drab sounds of a now bygone era. Solid proof of this comes with their latest song, 'Nausicaa'.

Tremolo guitars fly past you as fast, punk rock drum beats race away underneath within seconds of the song starting, all before jangly post-hardcore guitar leads kick off a bright, energised chorus that sounds like it was ripped right from any early 2000's emo/alternative band's romanticised back catalogue. But that's nothing to the dreamy, reverie-like instrumental section that later concludes the piece - for how this song begins is very different from the way it ends. It's like a die-hard Jimmy Eat World fan was suddenly blooded on Alexisonfire and Moneen for a few months; all making for one fucking stimulating experience from the song's post-rock-meets-punk beginnings, right up until it's ambient and lavish finale.

Of course, to some,'Nausicaa' might feel stylistically messy and all over the place, but I actually think that's what actually makes this song work so goddamn well. There's a real sense of variety, a sense of dynamic and flow that I don't think would be as potent if the band had opted to just be a pop-punk/emo band or just a post-rock band. Meeting in the middle of these various sounds was a stroke of genius.

The band's second and latest release is the upcoming 'Honeybee' EP - which follows the release of their debut EP, 'As We Both Close in on the Water' last year - and it drops next Friday, November 24th. Romancer's lead vocalist/guitarist Adam Horrocks said of the upcoming record that:

Honeybee is our most lyrically honest, and experimental release to date. I am so proud of us this time around, and I can say with confidence that we’ve all reached into the depths of our musicality and creativity to bring out the best in each other and this record”.

With the group's genre-splicing songwriting working well and with lyrics like "I'm asking are you proud of all the distance that you made/there's room for two inside this grave" and "my soul prepared to evacuate but it won't", it sounds like these guys have very good reason to be confident about this new EP!

Go see what the fuck I'm rambling on about below.

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