WE ARE THE ROMANS

Botch played what they call mathcore: take a particularly loud,heavy, and fast take on shred metal and then add more complex time signatures and fast changes than any average tech death band could ever handle. The result is one of the hardest genres of music to ever get into, but those who can listen to it are rewarded with a hardy challenge and a quick moving succession of complex wonder. And bowing out right when The Dillinger Escape Plan was getting started cutting albums, Botch did so with "We Are The Romans", the cream of the crop of the genre. Some of the fastest, tightest, and most complex metal ever was forged by the trifecta of Knudson on guitar, Cook on bass, and Latona on drums. Each played their instruments to the fullest, without flaw. They run rampant through ten tracks of atomic power, each uniquely titled. How can you pass up tracks called "Man The Ramparts", "C. Thomas Howell as The Soul Man", and "Saint Matthew Returns To The Womb"? The epicness and strangeness of these titles is lived up to by the music. Nothing, not even Dillinger, compares. Excellent. Transcendent. The very pinnacle of shred metal.

I remember back in the day (about a month ago or so, maybe two) when this album was on streaming services. Now it's gone. Nice. I don't want to track down a CD because they're expensive, so I listened to this album on YouTube instead of on Apple Music for my second listen. Lame. But anyway, the album.

We Are the Romans is the second and final studio album by the hardcore band Botch. It is a classic of metalcore and hardcore, and it was very influential to development of mathcore. Metalcore bands from the late 1990's such as Coalesce, Kiss it goodbye, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Botch all played a sound that was first labeled as "noisecore." This would turn into what we know today as mathcore. These other bands and of course Botch played a technical style of metalcore that was different from other metalcore bands at the time.

We Are the Romans is one of the best metalcore albums I have ever heard, or maybe even one of the best prog albums I've ever heard. The album is almost an hour long, atypical for metalcore for the time and hardcore, and it is filled to the brim with technical metalcore that is a blessing to your ears. The album would influence mathcore, progressive metalcore, and progressive metal bands in general. It's influence can be heard all throughout the prog and metal worlds.

If you like post metal, metalcore, mathcore, or progressive metal, I highly recommend this masterpiece. Of course, you'll have to listen to it on YouTube or track down a physical copy of it. It is worth the listen though; I can't recommend this masterwork of an album any more than I do now. An all-time great classic masterpiece of metalcore, metal, and progressive music. Classic album.