Here comes summer.
From the opening strains of Monolith Zero’s Monolith Zero (Noise Machine), ‘Seeker (Noise Machine)’ it feels like a drive up Route 1 with the breeze in your hair, the Pacific to your left and mountains to the right. It’s open and airy, full of swirling shades of blue. Monolith Zero has a forward galloping momentum that is infectious. The album gives you itchy feet, you just want to get out and drive (or run, or ride a horse really fast)!
‘Surrender’ has shades of ‘Turbo Lover’ by Judas Priest. The sounds of keyboards create an industrial metal, Transformers: War for Cybertron feel. I suppose this is why ‘Onwards’ sounds like a Nor-Easter: thunder and lightning, wind gusts up to ninety miles per hour, flooding. ‘Manifest’ is sultry, low-key menacing, full of browns and oranges. Listening to Nick Eustaquio’s vocals, I’m feeling very much in a horror movie. ‘Manifest’ is strait up creepy to listen to. In Tannhauser fashion, the next track, ‘Holistic’ lightens the pace. It sounds like a nineties hair metal summer song.
Monolith Zero moves back into the light and airy as a release from the “darker” feel songs previous. The seven minute ‘Happy’ starts with ‘Ace of Spades’ galloping psycho drumming and Mike Rance’s guitar work as a wall of sound. It’s a bombastic Devin Townsend on eleven. The composition is anxiety inducing as it’s that frenetic.
The album ends with ‘And the Rain (Alone)’. It’s plaintive and wistful. The sun is setting into the ocean, the sky full of oranges, yellows, reds, pinks; total ombre. There is an uneasy calmness as the car hugs the curves of the road, until it hugs no more and takes to the sky- flying into the sunset, letting go.
Monolith Zero is all about the feels. The compositions are as pristine as the music is felt inside the soul. The album is rich with colour and emotion. There is a wholeness to Monolith Zero, it feels like a complete album. The album is technically solid, the mix is subtle and sublime, and the production flawless, while the lyrics speak to the listener in heartfelt way.
Buy the album here: https://monolithzero.com/
8 / 10
VICTORIA ANDERSON