Review: We Came As Romans @ The Gov 12/02/2026
We Came As Romans arrived in Adelaide for the penultimate show of their Because We're Doomed and left everyone in attendance wishing the night would never end.
Words & Images Thomas Jackson
We Came As Romans w/Caskets & Headwrek @ The Gov 12/02/2026
We Came As Romans are on their penultimate show of their Because We’re Doomed Australian tour. Tonight they're joined at The Gov by the UK’s Caskets and Australia’s nu metal prodigies Headwreck.
It's a near sold-out room and the biggest headline show We Came As Romans have performed in Adelaide. It's due to their new album, ALL IS BEAUTIFUL… BECAUSE WE’RE DOOMED, an epic metalcore journey that combines cinematic soundscapes and ferocious breakdowns.
Brisbane’s Headwreck feel like they're time travellers from the future who have come back to make sure nu metal survives. Their futuristic sound is based on the champions of the era, Limp Bizkit, but mixed with modern-day metalcore and glitchcore. They've carried the attitude of the early 2000s with them, most notably through the bravado of the ruthless aggression era of wrestling, with their EP Attitude Adjustment - named after John Cena’s signature move - and the WWE logo printed on frontman Connor Hickman’s shirt, accompanied by a big H, forming the initials HW.
Their songs from this EP, like ‘Filet-O-Fish’, ‘BINGO!’ and ‘Plan Z’, bottle this era with rapping vocals, screams and clean backing vocals from guitarist Jamo Benadie. Their set is topped off with a quick interlude into 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’.
Headwrek’s first EP is already making waves, and if they continue on this trajectory, it will be a Headwreck tsunami in only a couple of years. Early investors get in now so you can claim ‘I’ve been a fan since their first EP’ bragging rights.
Leeds melodic-hardcore quartet Caskets are welcomed by a full room by the time they step onto the stage. Their setlist consists of an even split of songs from their three album discography. It’s a reminder of how big an impact they’ve made in such a short amount of time as they perform songs from 2021’s Lost Souls.
It's the epic crescendoing choruses that encapsulate Caskets. Moments like ‘Lost In Echoes’ and ‘Our Remedy’ - written with Australian counterparts Make Them Suffer - have the audience awestruck by Matthew Flood’s soaring clean vocals and leviathan screams. As they end with ‘Glass Heart', Flood climbs into the middle of the crowd and is lifted up by the people with arms outstretched reaching for him.
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We Came As Romans open with ‘ALL IS BEAUTIFUL’, ‘bad luck’, ‘lake of fire’ and ‘red smoke’. The first four songs - in chronological order - from their new album. It's a bold statement and a sign of how confident they are in their new material. The majority of tonight’s setlist is songs from ALL IS BEAUTIFUL… BECAUSE WE’RE DOOMED. It's a risk that not many other bands would be able to pull off successfully, but it’s a rare occasion where everyone in the room wants to hear the new material.
The band is down a member with guitarist Lou Cotton at home being a brand new dad. Despite this, We Came As Romans sound like they have a whole arsenal behind them as they pipe in the extra electronically produced instrumentals as needed, honouring each detail of the album.
Songs like 2022’s ‘Darkbloom' are even more cinematic live as the crowd chants along to the choir vocals. If anything, only having four members on the stage gives the band more space to play with. Bassist and songwriter Andy Glass spins around and swings his guitar so fast that he’s in danger of taking flight.
In a brief moment of calm, singer Dave Stephens takes a moment to speak to the crowd, highlighting how 20 years ago, he never imagined this band taking him halfway across the world to perform to rooms full of people. He jokes that he also never imagined having his hotel room broken into by a thief in Adelaide in 2023 - bassist and songwriter Andy Glass gave The Note the story on this earlier this month.
Stephens encourages all the artists, entrepreneurs and dreamers in the room to not give up: they will fail and it will be hard but as the title of the next song proclaims, there’s ‘no rest for the dreamer’. The last song before the encore is fittingly the monumental album closer ‘BECAUSE WE’RE DOOMED’.
It's a quick but hostile one-two encore with ‘where did you go?’ and their showpiece ‘Daggers’. Tonight proves that We Came As Romans have reached unbelievable heights with this new era.
After two decades, they’ve created a brand new colossal live show that feels like a completely different band that is unrecognisable to the We Came As Romans that last visited Australia just over a year ago.
Want more pics of the gig? Check out our full photo gallery here.
