REVIEW: DeathbyRomy’s ‘HOLLYWOOD FOREVER’ is a Love Letter Written in Blood
REVIEW
REVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
ALT-POP PROVOCATEUR — DeathbyRomy pulls no punches on her new album HOLLYWOOD FOREVER—a record that thrashes, aches and seduces in equal measure. Known for pouring both pain and euphoria into her music, DeathbyRomy blends pop melodies and trap beats with industrial and metal production, anchoring her hypnotic vocals to lyrics that bleed with raw honesty. HOLLYWOOD FOREVER is her most cohesive and cutting work yet: a cinematic sonic diary capturing the highs and lows of growing up in the surreal and often merciless city of Los Angeles.
“I’ve been through a lot to get to this point,” Romy confesses. “I wanted this record to feel like both a reckoning and a celebration. LA is my home, and this album is my love letter to it. It’s about all the contradictions, all the pain, but also all the beauty.”
And that it is. Across thirteen electric tracks, DeathbyRomy dives headfirst into the paradoxes of LA—a city of dreams and disillusionment, glamor and grit. The album title pays homage to Hollywood Forever Cemetery, a hauntingly beautiful space she frequented in her youth, and the perfect symbol for an album about life, death and everything in between. The project doesn’t just chronicle her personal struggles—it illuminates the dark underbelly of the entertainment industry, the emotional cost of chasing fame, and the strength it takes to survive it all.
What emerges is a ferocious reclamation of self. Tracks like “KOBK” and “PRAY TO ME” crackle with defiance and distorted rage, while others like “LITTLE DREAMER” and “IF I DIE YOUNG” tug at the heart with melancholy and vulnerability. Romy’s voice—sometimes whisper-soft, other times guttural and unhinged—guides listeners through neon-drenched memories, dizzying nightlife, and moments of sobering clarity.
The record opens with the hauntingly sparse “SEE U ON THE OTHER SIDE,” a stripped-back piece steeped in DeathbyRomy’s signature dark electronica. With glitchy vocals and a mesmerizing, near-hypnotic atmosphere, the track serves as both a welcome and a warning—drawing listeners into her world with a ghostly hand. It’s an ethereal descent into the psyche of the songstress.
That descent continues—headfirst—into “LA LA LAND,” one of the album’s most biting and standout moments. Armed with razor-sharp lyricism and searing production, DeathbyRomy wastes no time pulling the mask off the myth of LA. She delivers a venom-laced critique with lyricism like “Concrete Cocaine / Fake Tits Migraines / Fake Friends / Fake Numbers”—a bleak yet captivating portrait of a city that simultaneously nurtures and consumes. This song—like much of HOLLYWOOD FOREVER—shows that DeathbyRomy doesn’t just write about LA, she survives and interrogates it.
“YUNG & RICH” featuring UK industrial duo Wargasm and genre-bending artist bodyimage crackles with the unapologetic rage as the track weaponizes stomping basslines and sneering vocals to eviscerate the wealthy LA teens who flaunted their parents’ cash while she hustled to survive.
“XXXHIBITIONIST” is one of the most bewitching and unapologetic moments on HOLLYWOOD FOREVER. Channeling the gritty pulse of 90s industrial music, DeathbyRomy leans fully into her exhibitionist energy, marrying distorted, metallic textures with seductive vocals. At its core, the track confronts the magnetic pull of fame and glamor. Romy doesn’t shy away from her ambition; instead, she thrusts it into the spotlight with lines like “Bury me in Hollywood / I wanna be in Hollywood Forever,” a direct nod to the iconic cemetery that inspired the album’s title.
“CORPSE KISS” shifts the energy of HOLLYWOOD FOREVER into full-throttle Y2K pop banger mode—fun, feral and fearlessly unhinged. It’s a blood-pumping anthem built for the dancefloor, where DeathbyRomy fully leans into her dark electronica roots. The result is a track that feels both nostalgic and futuristic, a flirtation with danger that’s as liberating as it is lethal.
The chorus—“Midnight city’s screaming / I’m another dead girl walking tonight / Corpse kiss leaving you freezing / I can be your dead girl / Bring me to life”—is a twisted take on pop romanticism, blending horror aesthetics with club-night ecstasy. There’s a theatricality to it all, but underneath the gloss and grit is a cathartic release.
“LITTLE DREAMER” arrives as a full-throttle message to all the dreamers and non-believers navigating a world that often tries to crush ambition before it takes flight. Romy urges the listener to hold tight to their vision, even in the face of doubt and adversity. “Don’t sleep, little dreamer,” she pleads. The track explodes with pounding drums and heavy, distorted guitars that create a stormy, cathartic atmosphere.
“‘LITTLE DREAMER,’ is my favorite song on the album,” Romy shared with Luna. “That song is about me, and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to it because everyone has a dream. Everyone who goes after their dream and chooses to try and make it hits walls, hits moments where they think ‘I just cannot do this. It's taking all of me.’ This song romanticizes that fight within myself about wanting to keep going and echoes my mom's voice in my head of always being supportive and always telling me I can do it regardless.”
“BITCHFAMOUS” starts as a simmer—a slow, tension-filled burn that teases vulnerability before erupting into one of HOLLYWOOD FOREVER’s most explosive and infectious moments. It’s DeathbyRomy at her boldest and most theatrical, channeling the high-drama energy of Fame Monster-era Lady Gaga with a sharp alt-pop edge. What begins in restraint quickly unravels into a fierce celebration of self-possession. With its catchy hooks, cinematic build, and full-blown pop ferocity, the track is a high-voltage highlight that showcases Romy's range—not just vocally, but emotionally and conceptually. She’s not just playing the fame game; she’s flipping the table.
HOLLYWOOD FOREVER closes on a deeply intimate note with “IF I DIE YOUNG,” a stark contrast to the album’s more aggressive, high-octane moments. Stripped down and emotionally raw, the track finds Romy at her most vulnerable, with lyrics like “Hell is real and I’ve been there” and “It’s hard to pray when you’re falling to pieces,” she doesn’t just peel back the layers—she exposes the bruises underneath. It’s a haunting and beautiful closer that reads like a final confession, one that echoes long after the record ends.
Even at its most chaotic, HOLLYWOOD FOREVER is remarkably deliberate. The album doesn’t just reflect on trauma—it reclaims it, rewiring pain into power. It’s a record that doesn’t shy away from the ugly or the beautiful, because DeathbyRomy understands that LA is both. The album feels like wandering through a glittering graveyard, where every gravestone is etched with a lesson, a heartbreak, a dream that either made it or didn’t.
