We Came As Romans are kicking off the New Year by hosting the Darkbloom Tour across the US that spans from Jan-Feb. Kicking off this tour on the 7th date in Charlotte , NC , Brand Of Sacrifice takes the stage with the Pokemon intro. Having no real background knowledge of this Toronto based band, I was quite surprised with their opening track “Dawn”. Frontman, Kyle Anderson, has very deep growls and such raw power to his vocals. Their deathcore style really reminds me of early 2010’s which is really nice to reminisce about . Overall, they were a really refreshing heavy band to kick off the tour and excited to see what they have to offer in the future
Brand of Sacrifice Photo Gallery
Next we have progressive metalcore band, Erra from Alabama to take the stage. They opened with last year’s single “Pull From The Ghost” which is a very nice balance of heavy and melodic. I remember seeing this band closer to their inception when frontman JT left his old band “Texas In July” to join Erra. I was skeptical of their longevity, but very pleased to see how they developed and continued to crush it over the years. Erra had such a great stage presence performing heavy and slower tracks from their most recent self titled album. We Came As Romans did a great job picking their supporting bands for this tour by adding Erra to the bill. Check out their deluxe edition of their self titled album which came out last year.
ERRA Photo Gallery
Since becoming a writer and photographer for Soundlink, I have had the privilege to cover a few amazing bands/artists. This was my third time covering We Came As Romans in less than a year’s time which lets you know how busy of a band they are when it comes to writing music and staying active. Since the last time we saw them, Darkbloom ( latest album release) had not come out yet. This time around, WCAR are showcasing the new album almost in its entirety ( with the exception of two tracks). Unlike some album tours, WCAR did not play the album from front to back, which is pretty refreshing. They sprinkled in some older fan favorites from Cold Like War (2017) and Tracing Back Roots ( 2013). They also let the crowd vote via smartphone to play Ghosts or Fade Away which to my surprise, Fade Away (my vote) won. That was a neat crowd engaging moment that I haven’t seen before . I would expect to see this more in the future. I am always amazed at how far frontman Dave Stephens has come in terms of a vocalist, especially when performing late vocalist Kyle’s older tracks. If I were to complain or nitpick at all, I would have hoped they dug deeper into the catalog and played some songs from the first two albums but that is only my selfishness. Overall, We Came As Romans came and did NOT disappoint as usual. Please check out their newest release from late 2022 (Darkbloom) .
