By Draven Copeland, Editor-in-Chief
With the recent release of her debut album, Hollywood Forever, Romy Flores, known by her stage name DeathbyRomy, has brought her unique combination of societal rage and danceable metal-inspired beats that she has used in previous singles and LPs into a full-length epic, quickly becoming my favorite new artist.
Following along track by track, listeners are treated to an artsy self-proclaimed autobiography of Flores’ life in Los Angeles as she grew into her stage name and persona. Along with a few perfectly chosen featured artists, she describes her turn from lonely woman into celebrity in a way that is both brutally honest and explicitly critical; she simultaneously praises and loathes the city that made her into who she is today.
Interestingly, the album is titled after the historic Los Angeles cemetery of the same name, critiquing the idea that Hollywood will live forever while eulogizing its many victims. Try to keep up as I give you my best effort to figure the whole thing out.
- “SEE U ON THE OTHER SIDE”
“If there is a Hell, I will be there waiting for you / With a drink and a smile, I will be there waiting for you”
Singing beautiful melodies over a dark and foreboding bass beat, Flores addresses the audience and compares them to herself, showing that their story could be—and possibly is—the same as hers… either way, they will meet in Hell, if there is one. While a fun and re-listenable song on its own, the track serves as an introduction to the overall feel of the album, as well as Flores’ dark yet often relatable storytelling.
- “LA LA LAND”
“It’s a dog eat dog world, god eat god world”
Shifting into a metal guitar riff and more bass-heavy dance beats, Flores explores the culture of her hometown, describing the many ways that people have to adjust themselves to fit in with everyone around them. From “fake tits” to “fake friends,” she feels that people “fake” so much of their life to fit in that they’ve become “slaves” to the culture. She briefly compares this to the culture of religion, saying that it’s a “god eat god world,” hinting at her later comparisons between the two throughout the album.
- “YUNG N RICH” (feat. bodyimage and WARGASM)
“Woah, I did it again, I said too much / Now you won’t pretend we’re best friends”
Along with verses by longtime friend, the artist known professionally as bodyimage, and English band WARGASM, Flores describes the young rich kids that she grew up around while “hustling to make ends meet,” as she stated in her featured interview with Kerrang! magazine. Flores herself never directly lashes out at these kids, instead leaving that to her featured artists, showing that, while she may have feelings of anger towards them, she is mainly focused on her jealousy of their lifestyle.
- “XXXHIBITIONIST”
“I wanna die when the camera’s flashin’ / I’ll do anything, just call action”
With creepy horns and heavy guitars backing her up, Flores explores the ways that sex and exhibitionism are used to draw celebrity in today’s society, often at the expense of the individual. While the lyrics never directly disparage this, the tone of the music is unsettling, angry and dark; although she doesn’t say that she hates it, the tone of the song makes you feel like she definitely does.
- “CITY OF ANGELS”
“You swear you were made for this / I think you’re full of shit”
In one of the more traditional hard rock songs on the album, Flores speaks of herself in the second person, mocking the way that she felt people around her talked about her. Instead of support, it seems that people put her down and mocked her, as she says the city is full of angels “with tar covered wings,” keeping themselves from their own potential by putting those around them down.
- “CALIFORNIA BABY”
“Bleed out for me, don’t cry / Bleed out in the sunshine”
The most introspective track yet, Flores switches perspectives again to describe herself in the past tense, stating that she “died young before [she] grew old.” Throughout the song, her cynicism towards the world around her is clear, as she describes the fights and losses she had to go through to get to the point of celebrity, with the overall cost being, effectively, death. It seems that, in the context of the album’s plot, she has finally achieved the celebrity that she has dreamed of as a “California baby,” but she now feels soulless.
- “CALIFORNIA DREAMING INTERLUDE”
“I’d be safe and warm / If I was in L.A. / California dreamin’ / On such a winter’s day”
In an abrupt and timely shift in perspective once again, Flores talks as her past self, “dreaming” that she would “be safe and warm / if [she] was in L.A.” Being the the shortest track and only interlude on the album, the shift from sharp criticism to admiration and hopefulness is brief but impactful; while she feels jaded now, she realizes that she is living the life she thought she wanted.
- “CORPSE KISS”
“Sitting in a grave half alive / I know I’m gonna wake up on your mind”
I would say this song is both lyrically and stylistically like Flores’ personal version of Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl;” it’s got a fun beat, sexualizes/romanticizes corpses (in a spooky gothic way, not a genuinely unsettling/disturbing way), and feels a lot like something you’d hear at a club around Halloween. It’s definitely a respite from the very emotionally heavy lyrics in any of the songs thus far, as Flores seems to declare that she’s found love even though she believes herself to be effectively dead. While it’s never made totally clear whether this “undead love” is solely physical or not, her attitude towards sexuality in this track feels positive and even hopeful in comparison to the emotionally negative things she associated it with previously.
- “LITTLE DREAMER”
“Like how you stare right through me / Living on a prayer, getting high on a dream”
In what is easily one of my favorite tracks on the album, Flores speaks both in the first and second person, interestingly shifting tone with each one. When speaking in first person, she is at first nihilistic and upset with her life, as she “[doesn’t] wanna try anymore;” later, she finds a sense of confidence in violence, as she proclaims herself to be “ultraviolence” (a term that originated in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange) as a way to “drown out the silence.” When speaking in second person during the chorus of the song, she speaks to the part of herself that she remembers in the album’s interlude, inspiring herself to move forward with the dreams that she had before she became jaded.
- “BITCHFAMOUS”
“And, still, you kiss me when your lips were drippin’ lies / Laying with me, so vindictive all the time”
With this song, Flores becomes her own “Judas,” saying that she is “a liar and a cheat;” in her own words, she’s “bitchfamous,” referring to the fact that being infamously a bitch grew her fame. The “love” she spoke about in “Corpse Kiss” is totally gone, as she lies and cheats with her “sorry excuse of a lover,” whom she interestingly compares to “Jesus, Mary, [and] motherfucker,” playing both on the fact that her lover may only be known as the lover of a sacred woman and the album’s analogy of fame with religion. At this point, “lust and greed [have] become the same,” another side effect of her rise to fame.
- “KILL OR BE KILLED” (feat. Jayden Hammer and Team Death)
“Devil works hard, but I pull the trigger faster”
In easily the heaviest song on the album musically, Flores and fellow musician Jayden Hammer declare their bloody revenge on “Men [that] say ‘you can’t make a wife of a whore’ / But walk around ran through.” “It’s kill or be killed” is repeated multiple times throughout the song, adapting the “dog eat dog” (or “god eat god”) world into Flores’ vision and mocking the ideology of the men in cultural power now that she has power to fight back with the fame she has gained. I love the entire vibe of this song, it feels a lot like something you might find on a Poppy or Violent Vira album.
- “PRAY TO ME” (feat. Palaye Royale)
“Take my wings and tear them off / Tie my hands to the edge of your cross”
My favorite track on the album, “Pray to Me” is Flores’ final actualization of everything she has built up to thus far; although she is allowing herself to be a victim of fame and is the “reason that you suffer,” she encourages the listener to “worship [her] forever” so she may actualize her dream of becoming an artist and achieving success. In the context of the album’s analogy with religion, Flores has gone from being among followers to becoming the followed, becoming the god that the non-famous idolize and worship. It’s simultaneously a condemnation of the deification of cultural stars and an assumption of the role she plays as a famous artist (echoing the themes of Marilyn Manson’s Mechanical Animals album).
- “IF I DIE YOUNG”
“I hate you ‘cause you bring me to my knees / And it’s hard to pray when you’re falling to pieces”
In the most vulnerable song in her entire discography, Flores declares both hatred and love towards whomever she is addressing; while it’s hard to tell exactly who she’s talking to, possible answers that come to my mind are her city, her life, herself (as she has spoken to herself multiple times throughout the album), or someone she cares for. While she is hateful because she’s overcome with the weight that is put upon her, her love for her intended recipient is “the armor [she] needs,” to get through it. My favorite part of the song is its final bridge, as she sings “If I die young / Burn this city to the ground.” While she accepts her life and her fame, she will not accept an early death because of it.
That’s what everything she says on the album means — to me, at least. The tone and overall theme of the album are clear, even if the plot isn’t as much; she is critical of the culture in Los Angeles (and greater America) while exploiting it to achieve the dreams of her youth at the expense of her own innocence. The overall presence of death in almost every song gives urgency to her message, as the side effects of fame tend to lead to it whether literally or figuratively.
I’m definitely biased, but I’d give this one a 10/10 and recommend it to anyone that likes a good gothic vibe with their music, especially if their music includes modern metal/pop vibes.
