THEN AND NOW

Jeromes Dream was born in 1997 as a result of personal uncertainty, instability, loss, and rage. Jeff Smith (bass, vocals) Nick Antonopoulos (guitar), and Erik Ratensperger (drums) created an aural violence in their dynamic and unpredictable songs. At that time, bands like Orchid, Reversal of Man and pageninetynine were making similarly polemic music. But JD carved its own path and helped to define the subgenre that would come to be known as emo-violence.

The band set itself apart with an enigmatic and visceral approach to hardcore that was markedly different from the other music of its day, culminating in the release of their last record, Presents, in 2001. That same year, JD hung it up and moved on to pursue other personal projects, and after 17 years, the three friends gravitated back toward the shared belief that JD was a sacred space for them to wholly express themselves.

Fast forward to 2018 when Jeromes Dream announced that they would reunite and write a new record together, despite now living on opposite coasts of the US. The response was overwhelming, with fans from all over the world hailing the reunion. In March 2019 the band entered the studio with producer Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Gouge Away, Loma Prieta, Joyce Manor) and created a 12-song untitled LP (to be released on their own label, Microspy, founded by Ratensperger) that forges new creative directions, with expanded lyrical content and the compositional maturity that only experience, tragedy, and introspection can usher forth.

Gone are the youthful jaunts of cynicism replete in earlier lyrical content. JD now mine the depths of a pancultural void of empathy and acceptance. JD attempts to reconcile self-interest/awareness with a pervasive inability to affect the global edifices that dominate and influence our every decision.

The band seems to have spliced the threads of time from 2001 to 2019 creating a straight line with no stylistic deviations or missteps. The songs and performances evoke a band that never stopped working and writing together. Moments of clarity and serenity that poked stubbornly through the surface on past albums are now further realized and given sarcous life and the dynamism of Jeromes Dream is more powerful, raw, and sincere than ever before.

— Connor Woods, May 2019