Thursday 10 September 2015

Monolithian - ‘The Finest Day I Ever Lived, Was When Tomorrow Never Came’ (Album Review)

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

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





Band info: Bandcamp | Facebook