By:
Chris Bull
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 31/05/2015
Label: Independent
A truly superb album from a young band carving their own path in
this crazy world. The apocalypse draws ever nearer, Monolithian are providing
the soundtrack.
‘The Finest Day I Ever Lived, Was When
Tomorrow Never Came’ DD track listing:
1). The Finest Day
2). Shub Niggurath
3). Barren Sea
4). Treebeard
5). Black Flame
Candle
6). Second of the
Istari
7). Though Out Of
Existence
Monolithian is:
Simon | bass and
vocals
Shannon | drums
Shannon | drums
The Review:
The
first thing you'll say to yourself after hearing 'The Finest Day I Ever Lived, Was When Tomorrow Never Came',
the 2nd full length from Falmouth's Monolithian is
"Only 2 people made that noise?" and yes they fucking did. Where
2013's 'One/Zero' focused more on
the doom side of blackened doom, 'The
Finest Day... has one foot and some toes firmly planted in the blackened
side.
Shannon
Green's discordant drums kick things off on opener (and almost the title track)
'The Finest Day' before
Bassist/Vocalist Simon Walker riffs and snarls his way in. The tempo is slow
just to ease us in to 'Shub Niggurath' which
blasts into your conciousness for a solid minute and a half. Brutal. Next track
'Barren Sea' is the track which
mostly resembles 'One/Zero' with its
blackened doom riffing and almost anthemic chorus.
Monolithian know when to let a
song breathe and when to punish. 'Treebeard'
has a wonderful clean bass intro before the distortion crumbles walls and
bellows in tales of Isengard. Epic and lengthy at 9 and a half minutes, it
whizzes by tricking you in to thinking it's only a 5 minute song. 'Black Flame Candle' flickers between
full on d-beat assault and groovy sludge goodness and burns out as quick as it
began. The groove continues with 'Second
Of The Istari' with its memorable chorus and bouncy outro, it's still dark
and sludgy but is sure to get heads nodding in approval. The album shuts up
shop with 'Thought Out of Existence' which
is a near 13 minute epic. The distorted rumbles shimmer in the distance as a
spoken word piece from cult Aussie black comedy "Bad Boy Bubby"
speaks of controlling your own destiny etc. Some horrific harsh noise breaks
down the structure of the song and the beat kicks back in around the 7 minute
mark before a sombre bass line kicks in a minute or so later. It plods along
for another few minutes as the noise swirls around and the final strings are
plucked and stretched and a delayed noise trails off into the distance.
A
truly superb album from a young band carving their own path in this crazy
world. The apocalypse draws ever nearer, Monolithian are providing the
soundtrack.
‘The Finest Day I Ever Lived, Was When Tomorrow Never Came’ is available now as a ‘name
your price’ download here
