Resolve: The French Revolution Is Here!

For 10 years in the 18th century there was significant political and societal upheaval known as the French Revolution – perhaps you’ve heard of it? Well, fast forward to 2016 and French metallers RESOLVE decided that the current metal scene was not going to work for them and planned to buck the trend of quick-release records followed by break-ups, in favour of finding their sound and some sense of permanence.

After putting out a couple of EPs, it wasn’t until 2019 that the trio had felt they had honed the sound they were holding in the back of their heads well enough to put it all down in the form of the debut album, Between Me And The Machine. After all, how often do you get a first impression? Or a debut record in this case.

“We wanted to take our time with the debut album as it is a very important one,” says bassist Robin Mariat. “We have seen a lot of small local bands or people from our area just getting together and making an album without thinking. And you have to take your time to find your own sound.”

The original plan was to release in 2020 after a respective four years becoming skilled Resolv-ians, but you know what happened and they decided to take the extra time to perfect the writing and the production into the masterpiece that finally felt the freedom air on its digital face on November 29th 2021, rather than letting their egos dictate a quicker release for that endorphin rush of seeing your baby on the world’s airwaves.

“Some bands managed to release music in 2020, and they did great because there was not a lot of things being released at the time, so looking back maybe it could have been to right move to release it in 2020, but we would have had to rush it a little bit if we had done so, so I’m glad we waited, for sure,” Robin says. “It gave us six month’s worth of work to fine tune it and it was all for the best in the end. There was no real rush aside of us just wanting to get music out there as we love writing music, but we also love releasing it as it’s always a cool rush of good feedback; it’s fun. Realistically it could also be something for our own ego in a way, and if we want this band to be professional, we must act as so, and sometimes put our egos to the side.”

And despite the hard work and thought that went into the 11-track record, Robin says he was seeing comments from fans complaining that five of the tracks had been previously released as singles in the run up to the big day, which Robin says he understood but while the industry could wait a few years for an album, it still had to follow some rules.

“You must understand that these tracks are there for new people to hear about you, not just your fans you have now,” he implores. “You I wish people had been able to wait to listen to the full album as it was intended to, but we need to stay up to date with the industry.”

And what’s better than staying up to date with the industry and how music is made, than writing and recording a classic piano solo for Forever Yours on Garage Band on your iPhone. Recalling being in the studio, Robin says, “we were finishing up the track and we thought it would be really cool to have something like this. Me, personally, I am not the best musician and all the band was here so I told them, ‘okay you have 30 minutes – everyone get either a computer or your phone or something and everyone writes a cool piano solo’. And 30 minutes later everyone stopped and we just really loved Nathan [Mariat, drums]’s one so that’s the one we ended up choosing. But there were so many versions that will probably never be heard.”

While the majority of the songwriting is done by lead vocalist Anthony Diliberto, Robin is mostly in charge of the production and sequencing of the band’s releases, a job which he notes is unusual for bassists. And as they look on at other bands’ success with bigger and better production for their music as well as their stage shows, Robin sat there and said he was merely dreaming of playing 15,000 capacity venues across France, like fellow French heavy metallers GOJIRA, or even just supporting BRING ME THE HORIZON. And this humble dream resonates in the fact that the three of them work regular jobs, with Anthony a musician for corporate events, and Robin and drummer Nathan Mariat working in a metal fabricators bending, cutting, and soldering day in and day out.

RESOLVE are heading out on their first headline tour across France before joining LANDMVRKS on their European and UK tour. While Robin is happy to be out supporting the album, he wants to make sure the second album is not far behind. “We are definitely going to start writing pretty much as soon as the album drops as we want to keep going once we’re in the groove,” he says, but that next year “is going to be a live year, which we definitely want as we have an album to showcase. So we’re going to keep writing and playing as many shows as possible, and keep having fun with this.”

RESOLVE have built the foundation to their own French Revolution over the past half a decade as they grew, not only in popularity, but in skill and maturity, and it can be seen in Between Me And The Machine, as well as their support slot with LANDMVRKS, another modern French metalcore band, who have grown in popularity in recent years. And long may it continue. Viva la France!

Between Me And The Machine is out now via Arising Empire.

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