We Came As Romans marching again
It’s been a quiet year for We Came As Romans — perhaps a blessing in disguise.
Still reeling from band member Kyle Pavone’s death in 2018, the Detroit heavy rock group has used its time in quarantine to focus on home life as well as preparing material for its sixth studio album, which it hopes to start recording early next year to follow up a pair of 2019 singles, “Carry the Weight” and “From the First Note.”
But things get loud again this week as the quintet streams a concert at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, filmed at Sweetwater Studios in Fort Wayne, Ind.
• WCAR frontman Dave Stephens says the group was “pumped” to do the shows after being sidelined in March by the COVID-19 pandemic. “During all of this our fans have been kind to keep supporting the band, buying online merch and requesting more material, getting involved on all our social media pages, being real supportive despite us not having shows or anything really exciting going on. We thought this would be a cool thing to give them. We can’t give them shows or anything, but this is the next best thing.”
• Stephens acknowledges that filming the two shows with all of the pandemic protocols was “Really strange. We were obviously very careful. We didn’t want to spread anything around to or crew or catch anything ourselves. It’s such a weird time not being able to hug or shake hands or get together with people, and when you to do have to have so many rules in place. It was a lot of work, but it felt good to be together with the guys and playing music again. This is the longest time we’ve gone without playing a show in 10 years.”
• The album’s direction, meanwhile, is “kind of hard to tell yet,” according to the vocalist. “It’s definitely a darker vibe, obviously a little heavier tone than we’ve had in the past ’cause we’ve been through more (stuff) lately than we have in our whole lives before it. Nothing compares to the grief of losing Kyle, and this (pandemic) is kind of icing on the cake. I don’t think it would be fitting to release a really happy, fun record. But it feels good to get this stuff off our chest and write about it.”