romeo spike review on Cosmos Gaming

Music: Romeo Spike: For The Cause
go here to read

Our Take
Started by mutual friends back in 2006 when they started a weekly songwriting competition, Romeo Spike has gone on to become a full band and recently put out their debut album For The Cause. And as one might expect from its origins, Romeo Spike’s music pulls from just about every rock sub-genre that you can think of. And while some listeners may feel that the group is trying to do a little bit too much at once, there are enough noteworthy moments to keep them interested and coming back for more.

While some bands go for repetition and similar ideas, Romeo Spike is always changing their instrumental style on a song to song basis. On the first track, “Spaceman”, the instrumentals take on a space rock vibe while the rest of the album moves between pop rock, hard rock, and everything in between. One might think that this means the band has spread themselves too thin, but this doesn’t seem to be the case as almost all of the songs have noteworthy hooks that are sure to keep listeners interested. But keeping this in mind, I do feel that the group should commit to a couple styles to explore further in depth in the future as I would like to see them fully explore some of the ideas that this album only hints at.

Romeo Spike has a great vocalist that fits with the instrumentals despite the fact that they change so often. The group’s singer has a melodic voice that he is able to alter in intensity and pitch to match up with the particular instrumental style offered on each track. What I really like about this group in comparison to some of the others out there is that they use very subtle and softer singing throughout For The Cause and this really demonstrates that the vocalist has a good sense of dynamics and how to use them as an advantage.

For The Cause is an enjoyable album and a great debut for Romeo Spike. However, as I previously mentioned I think it would benefit the band to further explore some of the styles offered on this release as it feels like the group is just starting to scratch the surface. This isn’t to say that the band won’t succeed if they continue to release albums that are all over the map, but I truly believe that they will reach a new level if they move towards a couple of specialized sub-genres in the future.


Chris Dahlberg
March 23, 2009
band site