By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 18/03/2016
Label: Final
Gate Records
“High Horse” is a rampant beast
which rocks hard at mid tempo. “Moonshine
Medication” positively stomps and swings (hard to do) and has tales of
alcohol soaked glory and despair. “Lies
and Deceit” has an upbeat feel to the riffs and much like everything
else on the record it is more rock than doom. “Tide” continues the record with a bit more of a laid back feel
but then the track brings the doom in with a great feel to it. Hailing from Germany may not give these guys
the cred that goes with a Californian Zip Code, but that does not matter to me;
this is good stuff and ahead of other more hyped acts in terms of production,
delivery and material.
“Mountain” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Mountain
2. Vultures
3. Standing Tall
4. High Horse
5. Moonshine Medication
6. Lies & Deceit
7. Tide
8. Blackbird
The Review:
Traditional
Doom mixed with good old heavy rock is a tricky beast to get right. Go direct
to the source too much, and you may come off as retro hipsters. Try to
modernise and be accused of not being traditional at all! Monolith
tread a careful path here. This is traditional heavy rocking doom but it also
benefits from quite a bright and clean production. The vocals are of the
traditional sung variety (think Ozzy, not Dio) and the drums rumble very
convincingly- it sounds like they were recorded in a good sized live room. You
can hear the hiss over the track at points when the band drops down to bass
only, so analogue points are surely scored as the band lean towards the retro
stylings beloved by some and derided by others.
There
is plenty of doom to be had in the likes of “Vultures”,
while the band make like 70's rock behemoths on “Standing Tall”.
Hailing from Germany may not give these guys the cred that goes with a
Californian Zip Code, but that does not matter to me; this is good stuff and
ahead of other more hyped acts in terms of production, delivery and material.
“High Horse”
is a rampant beast which rocks hard at mid tempo. “Moonshine Medication”
positively stomps and swings (hard to do) and has tales of alcohol soaked glory
and despair. “Lies and Deceit” has an upbeat feel to the riffs and like
much like everything else on the record it is more rock than doom. “Tide”
continues the record with a bit more of a laid back feel but then the track
brings the doom in with a great feel to it. There are strong hooks on this one
and for me it stood out. Acoustic guitars come to the fore on“Blackbird”
and closes the album with three and a half minutes of very seventies rock,
complete with harmonica. It is a fitting coda to an album which falls into the
doom bracket, but also offers much in the way of traditional seventies styled
hard rock. For fans of bands of either genre.
“Mountain”
is available here
Band
info: facebook
