WE CAME AS ROMANS SELL OUT THE HOUSE OF BLUES IN CHICAGO

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY JIM HELMECY

This tour was listed as one of the top 25 tours to go see when it was announced at the beginning of the year. It was certainly time for an album release tour with the ‘Darkbloom’ album arriving in stores in October 2022. We can understand why this tour has sold out every show with a lineup that includes Brand of Sacrifice and Erra. To document the enthusiasm, we traveled to a Chicago House of Blues which was completely sold out.

You could feel the excitement as the audience packed the floor. The house lights went down, and Brand of Sacrifice took the stage with their opening song “Dawn,” from their 2021 album ‘Lifeblood’. I could feel the floor flex and bounce as the crowd moshed to the first guitar riff.

Brand of Sacrifice performed songs from their ‘Lifeblood’ album and ‘The Interstice’ EP, as well as the track “Exodus” from their upcoming new EP ‘Between Death and Demons’, which is set to be released on April 21st. The entire set was non-stop moshing and crowd surfing, setting the tone for a wild night.

The progressive metalcore band ERRA took the stage next. They opened their set with “Pull from the Ghost,” which got the crowd moshing and the floor bouncing. We can see why this band has such a massive following with such an intricate light show, combined with J.T. Cavey’s brutal low vocals and Jesse Cash’s cleans and blistering guitar riffs. The House of Blues reverberated as the breakdowns and bass drops hit.

ERRA provided us with great songs such as “Divisionary,” “Vanish Canvas,” “Gungrave,” and “Snowblood,” to name a few. The crowd, which never seemed to tire, was into this one from start to finish.

We Came as Romans took the stage after a brief intermission with “Daggers,” and as soon as vocalist Dave Stephens hit the stage with the opening line “With my back to the wall,” the crowd responded in unison with “I WILL CONQUER!!!,” you knew this was what the crowd had been waiting for.

As smoke cannons fired and confetti rained down, it was time to start the party. The crowd jumped and moshed from the start, and there were so many crowd surfers that it felt like we were going to be flooded out in the photo pit. Playing great songs from the Darkbloom album, some oldies like “Cold Like War “and “Lost in the Moment”, having J.T. Cavey from ERRA out on the “Doublespeak”, along with Kyle Anderson from Brand of Sacrifice on “Darkbloom”.

This was a fantastic set for We Came As Romans. From start to finish, the crowd sang over Dave Stephens’ vocals from the stage. With phenomenal lighting, great stage showmanship, and just a great crowd-to-band interaction, we could see why every show on this tour sold out. If you didn’t get tickets, you missed a fantastic tour.