Review: Homecoming ‘Those We Knew’

There is no ideal time to do what I am about to do, especially when it comes to bands that are from my hometown, because I love to support the French scene from afar (and UK-based bands when I talk to my friends back home), but when you get to the point when you start disliking an album the more you listen to it, I feel like you need to tell it like it is.

It wasn’t easy to come to this conclusion, especially because I have heard nothing but great things about my fellow Parisians from Homecoming. Their first LP from late 2019 was actually pretty promising and ambitious, so needless to say I was genuinely hoping for an evolution on their part with their sophomore album Those We Knew… well… that didn’t happen.

It did not happen with album opener Tell Me Something, which was incredibly disorganised and messy, preventing us from taking all in or simply being transported by the melodies, the riffs or the rhythm section. One time it sounded like a cheap version of Karnivool, another like early Opeth and Gojira, but none of it felt authentic. It just felt like too much but was willing to give it another go and keep the album another shot. Unfortunately, the only constant I’ve found with this album has to do with inconsistency.

Not everything in the album was bad, don’t get me wrong, these lads are clearly passionate, and it shows, the grit is there, the passion is there, but cohesion remains to be seen on their end. It just wasn’t coherent enough to be entertaining, catchy or interesting. Like in Red Rose where the quartet display more complexity in the lyrics and the structure of the song, a positively decent prog-rock song with a twinge of growls, and that in itself is perfectly fine… but this is not sludge.

I fail to understand why it was presented and advertised as such because I see no sludge on any of the songs structure or the themes used in this album. The same could be said of Blood Of My Blood, which features wonderful harmonies but doesn’t have that thing that keeps you intrigued, or Gift Of Eyes that could potentially do wonders live.

I still believe that Homecoming is a band worth checking, but don’t get fooled by the sludge etiquette associated with this album, because it is not sludge. It’s prog. Good prog, interesting prog if that’s your thing, but it’s not really mine, hence why I would still recommend this album but only to those who will be able to see and appreciate this genre much better than I ever will.

Label: Copper Feast Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Scribed by: Nessie Spencer