MONOLITH CULT
Gospel Of Despair
Transcending Records
Not to be confused with the dutch experimental group, The Monolith Deathcult; the UK’s Monolith Cult are a much different and more traditional act. According to Metal Archives, they sound most like the US act, Goatsnake which is classified as stoner doom, even though I am certainly not hearing that here. Deep, low tones make up the majority of the album along with soaring vocal melodies (from a frontman who really sings his ass off) that come right out of the pages of Candlemass, Cathedral and even Black Sabbath. Monolith Cult however, seem to be able to meld modern groove metal sensibilities in with potent guitar melodies that truly shine throughout the album. It comes with a slight bit of prog here and there in order to keep things fresh, but often sounds like a weird mix between doom and a slightly slower type of power metal. That’s no issue for me, but there isn’t a great deal of dread to be found here and you’ll need to look elsewhere for something a bit more morose. That isn’t to say that Gospel Of Despair isn’t sorrowful at all (check out “Kings Of All That’s Lost”) nor that it lacks the endless swathes of bass muscle that we’d expect from the genre – it is still a doom album after all, and a rather catchy one at that. The reviewer at Metal archives gave it a 77% but I didn’t really seem to have any real issues with it for a score that low. While I didn’t think the effort perfect, I did enjoy my listen very much and I think that fans of doom, prog and power metal might end up finding something that they can all agree upon. For me, Gospel Of Despair brings out the right amount of groove with the right amount of energy… and the right amount of doom too. Certainly an act to watch!
(7 Tracks, 43:00
8/10
TRANSYLVANIA STUD
The Red Queen
Transcending Records
Formed by a gentleman from Tennessee that ended up smoking so much weed that he became a prodigy on countless musical instruments, we have Transylvania Stud. Andrew Godfrey is the man in which I mention here, handling everything from bass to drums to guitar and even the vocal end of the project. He’s a one man beast, and this album proves it. He’s inspired by Kyuss and Soundgarden, but you’ll also hear traditional post rock acts like Floor and Queens Of The Stone Age in places. The disc only has a handful of tracks, but it is mainly focused on “Red Queen” which I had reverberating in my head for a few hours at one point. Godfrey has a voice like glass and can definitely carry vocal harmonies with the best of them, which is also captured on the bonus live version of this aforementioned cut. Yes, he can do it live where so few can, and that matters a great deal to me. Outside of the studio wizardry, very few bands can actually cut the mustard with the same amount of grit as the studio album. Once again, that’s not the case here. Four other cuts appear on the disc including an unreleased track called “Burn” which is relatively decent and hugely inspired by Queens Of The Stone Age. Soundgarden fans will also find something to like in “Consummate” which sounds like it could have been on Superunknown. Saying little more, if you were upset with the latest Queens Of The Stone Age release (I’ve heard this to be the case, even though I found it solid) then you may just want to look to this one man-powerhouse, who may put the band out of business completely. Basically, he manages to do by himself what normally takes several individuals. I call it evolution!
(5 Tracks, 22:00)
8/10
CONCRETE
Domain Of Untold Horrors
Rebirth The Metal Productions
With their third outing, the Bulgarian classic death metallers have unleashed an experience that should remind one heavily of acts like Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Grave, Revolting and then some. They pull no punches with this one, simply keeping the formula undiluted from core influences. While this is all well and good, the effort comes out rather bland in most cases and I feel as though I’ve heard it before. Domain Of Untold Horrors is by no means an undesirable album, but it doesn’t add anything really new to the table. A few hypnotic tapestries appear within the guitar work, in addition to the band’s already killer sense of solo. There are a great deal of solos on the record, and in unexpected places. “Insomnia Post Mortem” even opens with one, which you don’t hear that often anymore. The song just before it, “Phoboholic” features some rather creepy acoustic leads at the beginning and at the mid-point of the song. This is quite uncommon for Cannibal Corpse inspired death metal, so I found it worth a mention. Lead guitarist and frontman Kalin Kolev is also pretty much a dead-ringer for George Fisher, so there’s that. As long as you don’t hold expectations for Domain Of Untold Horrors being anything more than a throwback to the golden age of the genre, I think you’ll do just fine. Not too shabby, gentlemen.
(10 Tracks, 39:00)
7/10
STROMSTAD
New Devoted Human
Malignant Records
I had just gotten finished watching a video regarding eerie things that AI robots have said about humans in the past few years, and regardless of human innovation and programming, these sentient programs have gained the ability to tell us what they truly think. It is a bit disheartening, which makes a record like this a great sort of segue into what seems to be our own inevitable destruction. Sure, they might be able to give blowjobs, but it seems like they’re more interesting in fucking us with our own nuclear missiles, taking control of our governments and enslaving us as personal pets of a higher species. When I hear Kristoffer Oustad’s anger pouring through the electronic soundscapes in New Devoted Human, I can’t help but think of this. It feels like the sound of humanity trying to rebel against it’s literal robot overlords, who may have very well replaced everything that was ever “human” on this planet. The Finnish act have taken industrial in a much different way, where the worlds of extreme metal and extreme industrial seem to meet in a favorable match here in this dystopian landscape. But at least everyone would be tolerant of everyone else, right? They’d have no choice. Unlike several other records in this genre, the lyrics for the album have been printed directly onto the fold-out digipack. It is interesting to note that this little disc is the product of nearly three years of labor, as it later moves into atmosphere and even rock music territory where Enslaved’s Grutle Kjellson makes an appearance on guitar. Sometimes the disc even gets downright ritualistic as with “Reluctant Traveler” which is one of the most unique cuts I’ve heard from this particular genre. If you’ve never really latched onto the industrial albums that I’ve covered here in the past, this might be one song where you’ll need to take notice. The disc also rolls into cinematic soundscape affair with it’s triumphant closer “Kosto” which is probably what would play after we were able to finally crush the robot overlords – or perhaps when aliens land to finish what the machines had started. I definitely recommend this disc for all fans of the genre as it is something definitely different, even though it doesn’t quite start out that way at first. You might not have heard anything like New Devoted Human before, which is why I’m giving it rather high marks. Don’t throw this one on the backburner, you need to listen right now.
(8 Tracks, 36:00)
9/10