''Romulus'' is the debut full-length album by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

death metal band

Ex Deo Ex Deo is a Canadian death metal band formed in Montreal, Quebec in 2008. The band is a side project of Kataklysm frontman Maurizio Iacono, and is based on the history of the Roman Empire. History Ex Deo was formed in 2008 as an artistic proje ...

. The album was released on June 19, 2009, through

Nuclear Blast Records Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

. The album was recorded with producer and Kataklysm guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais. The album title refers to Romulus, the traditional founder and, according to the legend, the first king of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Recording and production

On December 5, 2008, the band announced they signed to Nuclear Blast Records for a record deal. This was the beginning of the creation of the forthcoming album. Shortly after, on December 31, 2008, the band announced they would air the first track of the upcoming album on January 11, 2009. The first track they aired was a demo version of ''Cry Havoc'', followed by enthusiastic feedback from their fans on their MySpace page. Since February 20 the band started a weekly studio

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

to keep their fans in the loop while they were working on the album. The blogs also included a special section called ''Do you know Rome?'', which contained a weekly historical fact about the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. In total there were about 5 fact posted on their MySpace page. By the time they posted their second studio update the band already recorded most of the music and even completed the song ''Storm the Gates of Alesia''. During the time they posted their third studio update Iacono announced he completed the vocals for the album. In March the band announced both the album's release dates and track list. They also announced the album was completely recorded. On April 22 the band announced that Nergal,

Karl Sanders Karl Sanders (born June 5, 1963) is an American singer and guitarist, most widely known as the founding member of the ancient Egyptian-themed technical death metal band Nile. Early life Before creating Nile, Sanders was in a thrash metal ...

and Obsidian C. would make guest appearances on the album. The band also posted another track called ''Legio XIII'' on their Myspace page. A song in honor of Rome's most devastating and lethal legion ever assembled; the 13th Legion which helped bring

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

to power." And on June 15, 2009 the band announced they were streaming the entire album on their MySpace page, just before it was released on June 19, 2009.

Track listing

*All songs written by Maurizio Iacono.

Notes

# A

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

for the title-track ''Romulus'' was shot. It was recorded in Belgrade,

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

by director ''Stanimir "Staca" Lukic''

Personnel

;Ex Deo * Maurizio Iacono - vocals * Stéphane Barbe - guitar *

Jean-François Dagenais Jean-François Dagenais (born October 16, 1975) is a French-Canadian Juno Award winning record producer, mix engineer, guitarist and songwriter specializing in the rock and metal genres. Born and raised in Canada J-F is now a naturalized citize ...

- guitar, producer * François Mongrain - bass guitar * Jonathan Leduc - keyboards * Max Duhamel - drums ;Guest musicians * Adam Darski – vocals on ''Storm the Gates of Alesia'' *

– guitars on ''The Final War (Battle of Actium)'' * Arnt Ove Grønbech – guitars on ''Cruor Nostri Abbas''

Music video

On January 30, 2010 the band announced they were going to shoot a video for the track ''Romulus'' in early March. The video was shot and directed by renowned director ''Stanimir "Staca" Lukic'' in Belgrade,

. In March Iacono announced the video for ''Romulus'' was shot and that he was very happy with the outcome. Though the video for ''Romulus'' was already completed in March, it didn't air until May 12. But the band received tremendous feedback from their fans on their MySpace page shortly after. Another music video was shot for the track "The Final War (Battle of Actium)".

References

External links

Ex Deo
on Myspace
Romulus E-Card at Nuclear Blast

Encyclopaedia Metallum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romulus (Album) 2009 debut albums Ex Deo albums Nuclear Blast albums