All We Expected/Raum Kingdom - “All We Expected/Raum Kingdom” Split (Review)

By: Hunter Young

Album Type: Split

Date Released: 14/09/2015

Label: Independent

Split evenly, All We Expected starts the festivities with their two bangers; “We're Not Born To Live Like Brutes” and “Flood”. The first track, “We're Not Born...” is an absolute monster at a run time of 9:31, and even makes it as the shortest track of the album. Both tracks from All We Expected are instrumentals, both simply decimate with heaviness.  Raum Kingdom simple rolls like a 10 ton boulder after AWE finishes up, it’s almost unfair. RK has a vocalist, and he just simply cannot contain the feels! “Grace” is akin to walking into a fight club by accident and they throw you over in the ring, just a punishing series of blows to the head with a vicious streak of enjoyment. It's just simply crunch with blessed moments of "grace", as they give you clean, slow spots of beauty to grasp to.

“All We Expected/Raum Kingdom” Split CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). All We Expeceted – We’re Not Born to Live Like Brutes

2). All We Expected – Flood

3). Raum Kingdom – Grace

4). Raum Kingdom – Lost in the Hunt

The Review:

Splits aren't just for sundaes or little girl gymnastics! A fine example of the shared sonic circle is the new one between All We Expected and Raum Kingdom.

Split evenly, All We Expected starts the festivities with their two bangers; “We're Not Born To Live Like Brutes” and “Flood”. The first track, “We're Not Born...” is an absolute monster at a run time of 9:31, and even makes it as the shortest track of the album. Both tracks from All We Expected are instrumentals, both simply decimate with heaviness. “We're Not Born...” is more straightforward with it's intentions, being darker in tones and just galloping like a herd of beasts to crush the listener. It comes at you with heavy riffs, a vibrant space tone and an almost old country swagger as it lays down some fresh tone-age. 

“Floods” is much more thought out and introspective in terms of feeling, almost melancholy. The flow is more Post-Rock than I usually listen to, but is very solid. They use a lot of effects on the track, giving it some depth and a good feel, but this track is not my favorite when compared to “We're Not Born To Live Like Brutes”. Just personal preference on execution, but I feel it lacks depth, and it's just slightly bland. 

After the AWE, we get Raum Kingdom, with “Grace” and “Lost in the Hunt”. Raum Kingdom simple rolls like a 10 ton boulder after AWE finishes up, it’s almost unfair. RK has a vocalist, and he just simply cannot contain the feels! “Grace” is akin to walking into a fight club by accident and they throw you over in the ring, just a punishing series of blows to the head with a vicious streak of enjoyment. It's just simply crunch with blessed moments of "grace", as they give you clean, slow spots of beauty to grasp to. Its carrot and stick for the post-metal crowd.

“Lost in the Hunt” opens more slowly than “Grace”, with about a minute and a half of the beautiful stuff to bolster you for the crunchitizing to come. The execution is excellent, as with their opener, and really wins me over for Raum Kingdom. “Lost in the Hunt” is the light and dark welded together to form a spear aimed at the listener. They wish to pin you down with tier sounds like a moth to a board, held in fascination and rapture. And it works for them. 

Of the two halves, Raum Kingdom checks all the boxes for a band I would definitely look for after listening to this split, with All We Expected being something that simply doesn't fit my tastes. However, check them both out, and make that decision for yourself! Or Else!

“All We Expected/Raum Kingdom” is available now via their bandcamp pages

Band info: raumkingdom.bandcamp || facebook || allweexpected.bandcamp || facebook