Roseneath "Nowhere Safe"

 

    The upcoming debut full-length album from the Richmond, VA based hard rock/grunge/shoegaze band, Roseneath, is a unique sounding mixture of raw aggression and mesmerizing calmness, thus creating a musical world of constant emotional fluctuation. Titled, “Nowhere Safe,” the band proves to have a strong grasp for writing catchy hard hitting songs, while being able to incorporate some epic melodic touches when needed. 

    I’ve reviewed an EP from this band not too long ago, and I was really impressed with their ability to put together such solid sounding tracks. The band utilizes a variety of creative sounding guitar effects and comes up with these simple yet powerful sounding riffs. On the new album I could tell that the band wanted to put even more emphasis on the chorus sections by constructing some vivid melodic hard hitting riffs to accompany the glossy soaring vocals. The mixture of shoegaze and grunge creates a very atypical sound that I think can appeal to a variety of rock fans. 

    The opening track, "Noisy," is an intense jam with plenty of adrenaline pumping rhythms and bombastic sounding chords, which is of course a perfect way to kick off an album. Roseneath is also able to create very mellow atmospheres where everything sounds so vivid as well as tranquil. I do not listen to this style of music very often, but when I do happen to come across it I always enjoy hearing bands that come up with full sounding guitar and drum arrangements. A lot of the songs on this album do have that full and all encompassing sound which drags you along by offering up a plethora of raw emotional energy. Tracks such as “Free Fall,” “Passerby” and “Over It,” really caught my attention because of the clever chord progressions and consistent drum parts. The music never sounds sloppy in terms of execution, nor does the band seem to be struggling to deliver cohesive sounding tracks. 

    Although the music is not overly technical, songs like “Rolls Credit” and “This Alone,” conjure up these refreshing riffs that at first make you feel at easy, but then can unleash a flurry of aggression. Another song that really caught my attention and ended up being my favorite song off of the album was the last song on the album, “Spill.” The opening melody and synth arrangements at the beginning of the track reminded so much of bands like Depeche Mode and The Cure. Overall the song has a very calming atmosphere along with these extremely catchy chord progressions. 

    Overall, this is an extremely well produced first album and something that can definitely appeal to a wide range of music fans. “Nowhere Safe,” is an album that I would highly recommend checking out, especially if you are looking for a refreshing hard rock release that incorporates shoegaze and post-rock elements to create a very dynamic sound. Roseneath’s ability to write such compelling and solid tracks is greatly welcomed in this day and age when a fair amount of young rock bands have come along to only offer up painfully generic mainstream sounding corporate radio friendly trash. Hopefully Roseneath keeps this same approach to recording music when working on future releases, because I would definitely welcome more music from them instead of some hipster band that plays the kazoos while crying about how the Whole Foods in their neighborhood was shutdown. 

Check out the song "Noisy" below:

Roseneath Bandcamp:

https://roseneath.bandcamp.com/album/nowhere-safe