Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Monads - IVIIV (2017)


Six long years after their last release Monads emerge from their mausoleum in Belgium with their first official full-length album "IVIIV". Their latest work is composed of four colossal tracks of funeral death/doom that ache with tragic misery. This is played low and slow, grinding out abrasive, haunting dirges of doom that will erode your very being. With the occasional blasts of death metal and heart-wrenching tones and melodies that run through every song it really drags you into a world of agony. Tracks smoothly transition from gradual, crushing riffage to howling metal squalor to thoughtful gentle passages and all the way around again. Listening to this album is like watching the process of death in slow motion - from the last painful breaths, to the world going dark, a soul escaping this mortal coil, the funeral wrought with grief, the cackling flames of cremation, and agonizing reflection as those who are left behind stare at the ash of what once was. Although the album progresses and the songs move forward the same pain and emotions come and go in cycles with each new piece. Yet through the misery, there are a few notes of triumph that keep this album from descending into complete despair and help push through the stone wall of anguish. Overall, this is a beautifully melancholic, heavy album that I'll be listening to again and again. -Brandon
 

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