What to tell you about Monarch? Well they're from France, which is good, because France to me is responsible for the BEST outsider metal music. They have an amazing little chanteusse for a singer, who screams like hell is erupting from her lungs but looks like the timid little indie goddess i wish would fall in love with me. They play SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW and agonizing doom metal in the vein of Khanate, Atavist, Burning Witch, etc. And of course, they're pretty damn awesome. I don't say this lightly, especially within the very limited confines of the extreme doom metal genre, cuz there really isn't that much variety among any of these bands. You get slow, atonal/chromatic riffs and some pretty harsh screaming, and that's about it. What i enjoy about Monarch's delivery is the urgency of it-there are no tricks in the recording or their setup-they tune down, yes, but they're not overloading the recording in bass or tracking a thousand guitar layers for the added heaviness-they're just plugging in and exorcising some doom demons through caustic death sludge. This is a reissue on Crucial Blast consisting of two out of print earlier vinyl releases, which i actually don't possess, so it was a welcome release from the Blast. Alas alas Monarch have broken up now, but this early pairing definetely shows you a band that really had mastered the genre pretty quickly and perfected it a few albums later-their last record consisted of one astonishing 60 minute song that is very difficult listening indeed. It's just oppressive, even for me, and i enjoy this sort of thing. Here Monarch deliver five songs unto thee, all of them hovering in the 20-25 minute range, and all save for one fuzz slabs of hateful, epic doom. One of the tracks takes a quieter ambient approach and allows you to cuddle up to the very pretty accented voice of the little French girl who fronts the band as she whispers some sort of horror story about mythical things or seajourneys gone wrong or some sorta weird Melville-esque rant along those lines. Totally essential listening for those bored of Sunn 0))) (and jesus christ, who isn't by this point) and those lamenting the dissolve of Khanate, or maybe for those people like myself who wish that Charlotte Gainsbourg was into more metal.
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