REVIEW: rozemary - it's harder now to breathe

ROZEMARY have moved fast. Formed on the Wirral in 2023, the band went from unreleased local buzz to a widely praised debut EP, the lies they made me believe, in the space of about a year. They've picked up comparisons to LOATHE along the way, building a reputation as one of Merseyside's most exciting heavy exports. it's harder now to breathe arrives less than a year on from that debut, and the title alone hints at a band digging further into the tension that made their debut so compelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzLvWJeYtrg

bleed me dry punches you in the face from the opening bar, downtuned guitars chugging beneath a bone-shaking low end. It's riot grrrl refracted through metalcore, worn with a confidence that makes the fusion feel entirely ROZEMARY’s own. Izabel's harsh growls collapse into a clean chorus of real melodic tenderness, and the juxtaposition between the two is satisfying every time it recurs. The breakdown that follows is ridiculously infectious, all sharp edges and barely contained fury. It's a track that finds its beauty precisely in the anger rather than in spite of it.

CALCINE's feature drops straight into a siren-like riff on anguish, all alarm and no warning. The tension it creates works entirely in the track's favour, bracing you for chaos before the pit's even opened. There's a sense of claustrophobia woven through the track that feels inspired by VEIN.FM, the anxiety of being boxed in and unable to breathe until it lets you. Once more, it's the contrast that lands the hardest, demon noises dissolving into a chorus pretty enough to pass for relief.

Fuzzy distortion opens i won't change..., angelic vocals cutting briefly through before being dragged back into harsher territory. The whiplash is utterly visceral, mirroring the push and pull between vulnerability and aggression that the whole EP seems to be wrestling with. When the clean section breaks through, it arrives like a window thrown open mid-storm. There's an emotional heaviness to the mix reminiscent of LOATHE's own more devastating moments, threaded through with a shoegaze-inspired metalcore quality that sets the track apart from the rest of the EP.

lost dives straight back into the demon noises, and it's welcome after the brief calm of the last track. Rapid-fire and melancholic, the track's clean sections play like a furious ballad, the anger never fully letting up even when the volume drops. Shay's drums do a lot of the damage here, burrowing under the skin in a way that's uncomfortable by design. By the time it ends, there's barely any time to catch your breath before the next track pulls it away again.

i won't change... left a sentence hanging, and ...if i don't try answers it with a deeply emotive catharsis two tracks later. It's a soft acoustic track that has no business working as well as it does, the range on display across it's harder now to breathe genuinely astounding for it. Izabel's vocals here are gorgeous and vulnerable, pouring her heart out in a way that feels like intruding on a private moment. Few bands would risk something this stripped-back three tracks into an EP. Fewer still would land it this well.

The EP ends on rock-inspired, softer ground with no flowers bloom. It's heartfelt in its own sincerity and full of feeling even when the harsh section eventually breaks through. The heavier sections throughout act as a counterweight to the dreaminess, giving the softer moments something to push against. Meanwhile, the chorus already sounds too big for the venues the band are currently playing. It ties in the push and pull together perfectly, the beauty found somewhere inside longing and anger that bleed me dry promised. It fades out slowly, asking you to sit in the quiet it leaves behind.

Tenderness and brutality feel like two halves of the same nervous system here, each one sharpened by the other. it's harder now to breathe earns its title by the final track, and confirms ROZEMARY already know exactly what to do with the attention they've been building. With a slot at RADAR Festival confirmed at the end of this month, that attention is only going to grow. Catch them now, before the rooms get too full to get your foot in the door.

Score: 9/10

it's harder now to breathe will be released on 8th July 2026.

Words: Adrian Chapman

Photos: Richard Mukuze