Rome - Flowers from Exile (2009)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Rome - Mass Mensch Material (2008)

In which Rome (temporarily) does away with dark ambient and industrial, landing closer to pure neofolk than ever before. However, it's easily the most big-hearted, populist neofolk I've ever heard, with crisp, sparkling production to match. And every song is among Rome's best -- the kind of songs that speak to the human condition in such a way as to actually help us to better understand it. Flowers from Exile helped me get through one of the hardest periods of my adult life, and remains an absolute all-time favorite of mine. Like, top 10 material.

Track listing:
- Flowers from Exile -
1. To a Generation of Destroyers
2. The Accidents of Gesture
3. Odessa
4. The Secret Sons of Europe
5. The Hollow Self
6. A Legacy of Unrest
7. To Die Among Strangers
8. A Culture of Fragments
9. We Who Fell in Love with the Sea
10. Swords to Rust Hearts to Dust
11. Flowers from Exile
12. Flight in Formation

For what binds us to our grief
Binds the sculptor to his clay

Also listen to:

Espers -
Espers (2003)

Woven Hand -
Consider the Birds (2004)

Rome - Masse Mensch Material (2008)

One of the biggest names and most innovative forces in the worldwide neofolk scene, Rome is the project of Luxembourgh-based musician Jerome Reuter. His new EP, Hate Us and See If We Mind, is available for purchase here.

Masse Mensch Material, his third full-length, can be heard as a full realization of Rome's early sound, a densely layered synthesis of martial industrial and neofolk enlivened by Reuter's keen ear for melody and swooning hooks. His lyrics, written in English and delivered in a rich, somewhat resigned baritone, deal exclusively with the deepest of human concerns and emotions -- war, love, betrayal, mortality, etc. Of particular significance is "Der Erscheinungen Flucht," an aching, heart wrenching composition that finds Reuter at the height of his musical and lyrical powers and points to the more accessible direction that he pursued on his equally sublime fourth album, Flowers from Exile.

Track listing:
1. Sonnengotter
2. Der Brandtaucher
3. Das Feuerordal
4. Der tote Spielmann
5. Wir Gotter der Stadt
6. Die Nelke
7. Der Erscheinungen Flucht
8. Die Brandstifter
9. Kriegsgotter
10. Wir Moorsoldaten
11. Neue Erinnerung
12. Nachtklang

A rose for the vanquished
A kiss on the neck to be hanged
We're all doubled up with love
A traitor's love
A guardian's love