Monarch - Sabbracadaver review
Band: | Monarch |
Album: | Sabbracadaver |
Style: | Drone doom metal |
Release date: | July 2014 |
01. Pentarammes
02. Louves
03. Mortes
Drone. What is it exactly that attracts fans so to the gargantuan walls of sound and 20 minute notes that lurk deep within the subterranean caverns of this style? I mean, it's not as if it's accomplished songwriting, right? Any schmuck spending 5 minutes on a guitar could just strum the same note for a half hour. Well, if you're of this sort of mentality, you might as well stop reading. We're about to enter the realm of hooded robes and black monoliths, and your opinions have no validity here.
Are they gone now? Ok.
The Frenchy trio that is Monarch are no newcomers to the scenes of drone and dark ambient. Having been around now for over a decade, they have honed their skills in the art of sonic sculpting carefully, and Sabbracadaver, their seventh full length, is only testament to this. Although sticking to more or less the same general model the band always has, Monarch's latest effort also feels somewhat different. Granted, the music is still drone of course, but it seems a tad brighter, less along the lines of haunting Sunn O))) worship and more guided by a tight sense of rhythm and melody than by an ominous cloak of feedback. Opener "Pentarammes" does indeed feel somewhat more structured than is typical for Monarch, with its ending especially bearing more of a likeness to traditional doom riffs than to drone.
But what about those vocals, those ever-so-satisfying vocals? Monarch are yet another band you can (if you haven't already) put down on that ever expanding "Female Doomsters" list. Conjuring thoughts of Bloody Panda's Yoshiko O'Hara, yet still with a sound all her own, vocalist Emilie Bresson weaves shrieks delicately with more relaxed, clean vocals that sound something like operatic whispers. Each delivery is carefully mixed slightly below the music, which works excellently towards giving off a vibe of the vocals being enveloped in this sort of dark veil that the instruments are producing. You need look no farther than the middle of "Louves" to see how skilled this (cute!) lady is with her pipes.
Furthermore, Sabbracadaver stands as a fairly high mark in the chapter of Monarch's gloomy, monotonous saga. While deviating slightly from techniques the band has employed before, but not overly so, the album confronts the familiar/new dichotomy with force, in turn creating something that, while not overly original, is still (for them) relatively fresh. If you're a fan of drone, dark ambient, or especially the sort which employs vocals, you'd be wise not to overlook this one.
Give it a sho)))t.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 9 |
Songwriting: | 8 |
Originality: | 7 |
Production: | 9 |
| Written on 12.09.2014 by Metal Storm’s own Babalao. Comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable since 2013. |
Comments
Comments: 13
Visited by: 111 users
boo-boo |
Tiago Rocha Dark Lighthouse |
Ilham Giant robot |
Tiago Rocha Dark Lighthouse |
Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Elite |
Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Elite |
angel. Evil Butterfly |
Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Elite |
angel. Evil Butterfly |
Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Elite |
angel. Evil Butterfly |
RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff |
Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Elite |
Hits total: 4733 | This month: 10