Monachus

Artist: 
Album Title: 
Below
Release Date: 
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Review Type: 

Some people take the weirdest names as a monicker for their band, and it occasionally makes one wonder what method us used to chose a name. Take this Swedish Doom Rock/ Metal act, for instance. If you'll take the trouble to search for the meaning of the word “monachus”, you'll find they are a genus of the family of Phocidae (sea-dogs is, I believe, a proper English translation?), and it so happens that there's three species, among which one is now extinct...but neither of those three is actually indigenous to Sweden, in fact the closest monachus species (Monachus monachus) is/was from the Mediterranean area! Now, ain't that weird?

Still, choosing a wacky monicker for a bandname is not that alien to at least two-thirds of Monicker, seeing as brothers Erik (guitar & vocals) and Oskar Karlsson (bass & vocals) were in the band Icos during the '90s, Icos [which was active between 2004 and 2009 (when the band came to an end due to a possible lawsuit about their name) leaving us the 2004 LP Walk With Me (issued through Wasted Youth Records), the 2007 double LP/ CD Fragments Of Sirens (already on Alerta Antifascista), and a 2008 split single with French act Overmars (also on Alerta...), none of which I can claim in my collection, I'm afraid)] in many ways to be considered a precursor to Monachus, so tells us the biography sheet we got along with the download promo of this album. You see, the brothers, along with drummer Martin Bengtsson, took the spirit of their former band (which was rather known for its crushing impassioned resonance), and worked that toward a more ominous, larger, and certainly more considered sound (which might be typified as a brooding Sludge Rock/ Metal), of which a first (still exclusive) sample was displayed with the 8:24 track “February” on the March 2010 released compilation Falling Down (on its second volume, the two volumes containing nothing but previously unreleased tracks, including stuff from Across Tundras, Graw Their Tongues, God Is An Astronaut, Jucifer, Kongh, Mumakil, The Ocean, Ufomammut, and 18 others). Forging on, the band composed four new songs with a length between 10 and 11 minutes, recorded them with engineer Stefan Karlsson (keep it in the family, I suppose) at Bogus Sound Recording (the family studio?) and, with overdubs, mixing and mastering done by Oskar, released those on the May 2011 full-length album Out Of The Blue” (still on Alerta...!).

Since then, the brothers have parted ways with Bengtsson, and recruited David Flood to forge 4 new songs which they again recorded at Bohus Sound Recording with Stefan Karlsson. This time however, the material mixed (with overdubs) by Oskar was handed over to Brad Boatright for mastering at Audiosiege. The album was digitally released in March 2013, and was released on LP (in 3 versions) in early September of last. The material differs at least in one way from the previous, in that two of the songs (album opener “Waves”, and “Circles”) are just over 12 minutes in length, the other two (the 7:42 “Curse” and the 6:25 album closing “Onward”) being somewhat shorter than used of by this band! Another possible new thing is the vocal sample used in the album closing track (from a movie which I feel I have seen, perhaps one with Malcolm McDowell...I ain't certain, and have not found any credits to confirm the possibility, or claim otherwise). The thing is, I could've checked whether the band has used samples before, as all its recorded material (as well as that of Icos) is made available at (http://) monachus.bandcamp.com!

At any rate, the band's new album is a great one, which I hereby catapult into my 2013 year-lists! Having never heard it, I would not never have been able to miss it, but having come across it, makes it to an essential part of my already substantial collection!

98/100