Behold! The Monolith | website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp |
Released on September 29, 2015 via Independent
There’s no getting away with it really. Heavy metal and all its sub-genres is hardly the most subtle of things and for every band who attempts something a bit more delicate, there will be ten bands who bludgeon it back down with oversized riffs and testosterone fuelled vocals. Like some proverbial, blustering elephant casting all notions of grace to the wind and shitting on every flowery musical notation and earnest lyric. This is METAL and this is how we roll.
Behold! The Monolith are one of these bands. Taking their cue from Mastodon, over the course of two albums they have defined a sound which, whilst not as progressive as that latter band, certainly ensured that there was enough gonzo bluster to impress even the hardened metalhead. Full of bluster and bravado, they encompassed pure metal, doom, death and even elements of black metal into one broiling stew of sound. It may have been akin to being sledgehammered, but it was also considerably enjoyable.
And so with their third album, Architects of the Void, we get essentially more of the same only this time with an even wider scope. If prior album Defender, Redeemist was the starter, this is most certainly the main course and more. This is the point when Behold! The Monolith make their statement on the world of heavy metal. You’ll want them to stick around too.
Slightly more progressive than before, the band throws in many different sub-genre stylistics, often in one song. It’s all part of the bigger picture though and the idea is to let the music consume you and immerse you in its world. From the fantastical cover art to the inviting music, this is the equivalent of a season of Game Of Thrones in one quick sitting.
The band sound like they are having such a good time throughout this album and you can just picture them grinning with glee as they throw another riff into the mix, it’s simply impossible not to fall in line with them. It’s all blatantly over the top, but never feels like it’s outstayed its welcome. In fact the opposite is true and you will find yourself thumping your fist and yelling along as if this is the most natural thing in the world. The band shred through your inhibitions and remove any guilty feelings you may have for enjoying something so easily construed as dumb by a casual observer, leaving a freshly charged mind willing to accept any thematic concerns they may throw at you. Yes, it’s dumbass metal, but it’s dumbass metal for thinkers.
Behold! The Monolith will be your new favourite band after listening to this. It’s an album so perfectly formed and ticking all the right boxes that you simply couldn’t get bored of it. There’s plenty of little nuances and red herrings along the way to keep it well away from sounding derivative and although not really to the fore just yet, you feel the progressive tendencies can only evolve in time. Indeed, we may actually have a contender to Mastodon’s throne here as amongst all the bluster and bludgeoning riffs is a sensitivity and sensibility which allows the music to become something else. Heavy metal has never been so much fun.
