Dark folk act ROME announce new split 7” ahead of new album

Jerome Reuter, frontman for Luxembourgish folk noir outfit ROME recently completed work on two upcoming releases; the split 7” “Ächtung, Baby”, set for release on May 29th and new full length album “The Lone Furrow” which will be released on August 29th, both through Trisol Music Group.

Reuter last year released , “The Dublin Sessions” and “Hinter den Mauern der Stadt” and he appeared on the new Me And That Man record “New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol.1” alongside Nergal, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, Trivium frontman Matt Heafy and Shining (NO) frontman Jørgen Munkeby.

For this first single from the upcoming album “The Lone Furrow”, which will feature a range of interesting guest appearances, ROME has teamed up with metal legend Alan Averill of PRIMORDIAL, whose vocal timbre and delivery complement Reuter’s vocals perfectly.

The title “Ächtung, Baby!” (Ächtung being German for “ostracism”) with its MOTÖRHEAD-style umlaut, is a tongue-in-cheek reference to U2’s 1991 hit album “Achtung Baby”, although it is needless to say that ROME’s musical world is considerably darker in nature. The B-side “Any Other Grey”, is not your average B-side waste management, but a full-fledged rebel anthem with a yet surprisingly nonchalant vibe.

Reuter had this to say on the upcoming split:
“Alan and I have been friends for a while, so I am really glad to finally get this collaboration out into the world. I love this song, actually! And I think our voices work really well together! The dude sure can sing.”

Part of a long tradition of lonesome guitar heroes, outcasts moving about restlessly, pursued by their dreams and demons, dedicated to a life beyond the pale. Reuter takes musical nods from Jacques Brel, Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Michael Gira, Nick Cave – architects of melancholy like these have left their footprints in his artistic expression.

The protagonists of ROME’s lyrical world are history’s forgotten heroes and outsiders, most notably of the 20th century: Anarchist rebels (as on 2009’s “Flowers From Exile”), the French resistance (on 2010’s “Nos Chants Perdus”), Southern Africa’s struggle for freedom (on 2014’s “A Passage To Rhodesia”) or revolutionaries and underground fighters such as those on ROME’s ambitious 2011 trilogy “Die Aesthetik Der Herrschaftsfreiheit” inspired by the works of Peter Weiss and Pablo Neruda among others.

With a new album not far behind the stunning split, some surprises on the horizon and even in troubling times, ROME continue to push on.

Watch the video for ‘“Ächtung, Baby” below.