Roman Candle: All Bark All Bite
Three years from stellar EP Discount Fireworks, Las Vegas screamo outfit ROMAN CANDLE make a divinely pulverising return with full length debut album Unadulterated. We sat down with lead singer Piper Ferrari to discuss the importance of intensity, women making their mark in an ever-growing scene and why it’s not a such bad thing to feel a little uncomfortable.
“This needs to be to the point, this needs to be in your face, this needs to be direct, because it is unadulterated.”
There’s a lot to discuss with Piper. While the album sits in the same lane as bands like TOUCHÉ AMORÉ and POISON THE WELL, she also took stylistic inspiration from a few surprising left field artists like ETHEL CAIN for lyrics and CHARLI XCX for their videos. Though a love for metal, outside of the band, Piper makes designs for a multitude of artists and has even undertaken creative direction work for BILLIE EILISH.
This melting pot of inspiration has resulted in an album that has the intensity and ferocity you would expect from a hardcore outfit, but with the extra flavours came a cinematic/poetic injection to draw them away from the crowd.
Please be assured, this is no Brat Summer. Whilst the songs are set to rattle the foundations of any DIY basement show across the land, ROMAN CANDLE approached this album with an intention to stray away from straight up screamo vibes to focus on a more melodic approach.
But when push comes to shove, the catalyst behind this album is fuelled by one clear and direct motive. Feminine rage. “That’s the best way to put it. There’s something about being a girl, you’re just kind of angry. And it’s a different kind of anger that I think isn’t talked about a lot in music.”
Since the band’s inception, Piper has noticed more and more women passing through the door with a shared desire to cause some chaos. While once upon a time she was elbowing her way to the front, Piper is over the moon that there’s an uptake in women moshing, grabbing the mic and otherwise getting the chance to do the things men have always had the privilege of. But at the same time, she doesn’t forget what ROMAN CANDLE is all about.
If anything, Unadulterated is an abyss for hire. You may scream into it, you may take shelter within its walls, you can kick the shit out of it in blind anger. It’s yours to do as you please.
Whilst riding a tidal wave of pent-up anger and fury, there’s a therapeutic element that offers the album a touch of nuance. Listen to Can We Watch Something Happy? and the more anxious reader will relate to the lyrics “5 things I can touch, 5 things I can hear, 5 things I can see” as a textbook coping mechanism.
Meanwhile, she effortlessly explores the depths of spiralling contemplations that pinball between the uphill battle of self-preservation and the double-edged sword of vulnerability as best showcased in this transcendent verse from Lady Lazarus:
“I learned young how to fend for myself
So now my temper will be the reason I end up dead
And I fear no god, just the one in my head
And I fear no man, just the way I was raised”
Unflinching and unnerved, Piper dutifully spills her guts and bares her soul. Whilst divulging in otherwise harrowing themes of violence and abuse there is an overwhelming sense of empowerment that ignites the record and dispels any unwanted pungency of self-pity. Instead, Piper looks the bull dead in the eye, and if you listen closely, you can almost hear its whimpers.
And who needs therapy when you have an outlet like ROMAN CANDLE at your disposal? “I don’t know what I would do to process those things. I don’t think I’d be a very well-rounded individual if it wasn’t for music.”
Self-expression in any public forum is a two-way street. With this in mind, Piper happily recalls moments of women approaching the merch table and letting her know just how impactful the music of ROMAN CANDLE has been for them. Though she feels sorrowful they relate to the subject matter, she recognises the beauty that people find solace in her work.
“It’s cool that I wrote it and you found something to connect to, and it just happened to be my music. That’s such an amazing feeling. But also fuck! I’m sorry!”
Such humbling recognition is testament to the fact Piper has no interest in muddying the waters. The absence of ambiguity unlocks a freedom for the listener to simply experience the lyrics without any restrictions. If you’re looking for convoluted storylines or abstract symbolism, then you best move along. Piper has no time for that.
“My one hang up with a lot of heavy music, it’s either too bluntly angry without any emotion or it’s too abstract. Someone sounds angry but you don’t know what they’re angry about. I wanted this album to be very in your face.”
A great example is simply the track titles. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes or Scooby Doo to have a guess what tracks like My Silence Costs More Than You Could Afford and On Second Thought Maybe Gaslighting Is Real entail.
But her style isn’t as rash as we’re making it out to be. In the process of writing the album, Piper jotted down poems to process how she felt about certain subjects. While the lyrics are intense and brutal, there is a noticeably poetic element that invites contemplation and relatability for her audience.
All the while, there’s a beautiful symmetry to what is being sung and what is being played. Piper acknowledges the almost telekinetic energy between her, Jonas Vece (guitar), Alex Dupis (bass) and Sergio Lopez (drums) that elevates the crushing lyrics.
While it seems strange to say about an established band, there’s a distinguished harmony between the four-piece where each riff and drop is expertly placed to perfection, further enriching the emotional gravitas.
Like Piper says, the album had to be confronting. But in an inspired switch up, on album highlight For Once My Hands Are Still, the narrative is turned inside out with a spine-chilling POV narrative. Here you’re invited to walk the halls of a decrepit house and have a chance to witness first-hand what the rest of the album means to her.
As Piper remarks in the track, “I wouldn’t call it revenge, I could call it peace, but that doesn’t feel right either.” Far from a happy ending for our protagonist, the song is a suitably dark final act and a bloody conclusion to a rampageous album. It’s unnerving, your hairs stand on end and the tension it conjures is not too dissimilar to that of a horror film.
“I wanted people to feel a little uncomfortable. I wanted it to feel like a heartbeat that gets harder and harder.”
Piper admits that the track nearly didn’t make the final cut. It’s surprising to learn as though there isn’t one weak track on the album (far from it), it’s this song that enhances the fierce nature of the rest. If anything, you want to go around again with a much more enriched understanding of the lyrics.
In the spirit of being blunt and to the point, this album has the gravitas, sheer fire power and scare factor to solidify ROMAN CANDLE as one of the major powerhouses in hardcore. Once you’ve had a chance to digest Unadulterated, we think you will feel the same way.
Unadulterated is out now via Sumerian Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS130 here:
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