We Came As Romans Feat: Currents, After the Burial, Johnny Booth

Phantom Light Media
Aug 22, 2025
2 min read

Johnny Booth kicked the night off at Roseland Theater in Portland, OR with an in your face heavy sound. The pit was alive with 2 stepping and other forms of violent dancing. Setting the atmosphere for the nights show. Waiting for doors, I was looking forward to some AC inside the venue. This was quickly lost from the body heat put forth by the crowd. The mood from the music was didactic with the bleghs and hard rock screams being contrasted by an almost soft rock like back tracks that were compatible creating a symbiotic relationship of sound. As I wrote this the lead singer during the last song of the set decided to go for a ride on the palms of his fans.

Following Johnny Booth was Currents, definitely a favorite of the crowd. They brought a sound similar to that of Sleep Theory with maybe more gutterals. This band brought the crowd surfing. Had been cognizant of that while shooting photos. Their music was good and they performed well. As I said before they have a very familiar sound. I enjoyed them but wasn't drawn into it. The stage presence was great and crowd interaction was good and not over the top. If they come through Boise I'll definitely go and see them.

After The Burial took the 3rd spot on the bill. They brought a solid deathcore feel. Heaviest of the night so far. This was the first time I heard the crowd sing back to the song. There were not nearly as many crowd surfers; then there came a song Death Keeps Us From Living and all that changed and there was a steady wave of surfers. There still was plenty of action in the mosh pit. When it came to their sound the riffs and breakdowns were absolutely killer. The show up to this point has been stellar and at this point I'm itching for We Came as Romans to come on.

That itch was scratched when they opened with music off their new album “All Is Beautiful…Because We're Doomed” coming out on the 22nd of August. They weren't the heaviest of the night, that honor goes to After the Burial. They did bring a great sound with harmonic vocals mixed in with screams and deathcore gutturals. The guitars and the breakdowns hit hard even being down a guitarist who flew home to be with his wife who is having their new baby. They put on a great performance with a great light show; active, dancing hard while they play. Pleasure for the eyes as well as the ears. The lead singer, David Stephens's vocals are on par with Jonny Hawkins of Nothing More. Honestly, tonight's show has been one for the books and was worth the drive from Boise to Portland.