ROME – ANTHOLOGY 2016-2025 LP2

Opis

Melancholic guitar chords, introspective vocals, and repeated threatening and energetic outbursts of percussion and staccato. Jerome Reuter, who is now, in 2025, celebrating the second decade of his band ROME, moves between intimate songwriting and soundtrack-inspired pathos.

The Luxembourg band project ROME has thus accompanied the European tragedy for two decades. And while the albums of the first ten years were primarily dedicated to historical themes, the equally productive era between 2016 and 2025, documented on this new “anthology,” also focuses on current and fundamental philosophical questions. ROME has always been oriented towards the bigger picture. Clearly inspired by French chanson, the late Johnny Cash, and Nick Cave, the songwriting also incorporated literary sources from the outset. Even if they aren’t mentioned by name (as is the case with Paul Celan in “The Secret Germany,” the band’s take on Paul Celan’s work), they still resonate between the lines: thinkers of the 20th century and beyond. Philosophical and even occult aspects are reflected on the albums (“The Hyperion Machine,” “Hall of Thatch,” “The Lone Furrow,” “Le Ceneri di Heliodoro”), but time and again the focus becomes concrete, whether with regard to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (“Gates of Europe,” “World in Flames”) or fundamental conflicts interpreted in mythical terms (“Coriolanus,” “Hegemonikon”). The mythical motif of the sun is recurring, as is the case on their most recent work, “Civitas Solis.”

Sometimes as a full band, sometimes as a singer-songwriter, and always in collaboration with other musicians (such as Nergal of Behemoth or Swedish punk legend Thåström), Jerome Reuter is constantly reinventing himself, continually working on establishing a singular voice in contemporary pop culture. Like a Janus-faced artist, he looks backward into the future.