I had not heard of them before, but apparently Monox wander around our globe for more than a decade. And what’s more, they were formed by members of notorious acts such as Mass Hypnosis, Gorthaur’s Wrath and Omega Lithium. In 2009, these Croatians released an EP called Ending – Beginning, appropriately entitled this way to focus on a new era to come. Then they played live in their home country and some neighbor countries, and the band started writing and, eventually, recording their debut full length. That album, Perception Changes, was recorded, mixed and mastered by Igor ‘Meister’ Malečić at Meisterwerk Productions, and it lasts for thirty four minutes.
Lyrically, the band focuses on introspection, the daily struggle with inner demons, trust, self-knowledge and comprehension. Those lyrics, by the way, are in English.
The musical angle is not that introspective at all; on the contrary. What these guys bring is a very modern, slightly Thrash-injected and extremely technical form of Death Metal with quite some variation in speed, an inherent cohesion, but also a certain heard-it-before attitude. But I do not care about the latter, for the result is quite impressive and interesting.
A first grandiose thing is the sound quality. I do not consider Croatia as a poor country at all (I will be there this summer with my family for a couple of weeks), but I am truly surprised, and impressed, by the marvelous yet extremely massive production. Everything fits; what a perfect equilibrium in between the different instruments, for example (really great mix!). But what’s more, there is no superficial fakeness either when it comes to the production: no over-polished cleanliness or narrow-minded poppy-politeness… Seriously, the whole sounds powerful and modern, yet with that fine-tuned rough edge, which undersigned does appreciate a lot.
When it comes to the song writing and execution of the tracks, I cannot but express a certain appreciation too. It is not easy to create such powerful mixture of, at the one hand, pretty experimental and progressive techniques (many guitar lines, yet especially the bass melodies, come with a pronounced Funk / Groove-attitude), and quite a timeless result at the other.
I guess it is not unfair to come up with comparisons à la Meshuggah, Gojira, Scarred or Strapping Young Lad, though I guess fans of, let’s say, The Haunted, later Carcass (at least when thinking about the technical-versus-grooving structures) or Cynic for example will appreciate this material as well. These guys are surely able to handle their instrument, and with some better vision on song-writing, they will climb up to… well, whatever. As for now, I will give them the benefit of doubt: promising, but not ‘there’ yet.