ROME World In Flames CD. Digipak

After the release of the enthralling longplayer ‘Gates of Europe’ (2023), a concept album on Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine, and a subsequent extensive European tour, Jerome Reuter - mastermind and frontman of ROME - withdrew from world affairs for a while, only to come back with a fresh and compact musical incursion.

The obvious thematic inspiration of this gem does not by any means diminish its impact on the listener. ‘World in Flames’ is a drastic work that has been reduced to the bare and brute essentials. In contrast to many previous albums, ‘World in Flames’ is not an intimate drama, but rather a ruthless and unsparing dissection of the modern world.

Indeed, much like the world itself, this powerful mini-album is divided into two parts. Brutal industrial sounds meet carefully crafted songwriting endowed with a lyrical quality that has become the hallmark of ROME. In these songs, Reuter meticulously traces the collapse of civilization as we know it. What distinguishes ROME’s artistic soul from other contemporary writers is the unapologetic relentlessness of its very own poetics of the divide.