Random Earworms VII – The Monolith Deathcult – Tetragrammaton
Lo and behold! If it isn’t time for another piece in our series Random Earworm, where our writers come together and share their opinion on one particular band and album. This week´s pick was the Dutch humorists in The Monolith Deathcult and their fifth full length album “Tetragrammaton”. Released in 2013 the album contains 7 tracks of brutal, explosive death metal and has since then, at least for this writer, had a steady, secure place on the playlist.
Band: The Monolith Deathcult
Title: Tetragrammaton
Label: Season of Mist
Release date: 10 May 2013
Country: Netherlands
Julia Katrin
I think what drew me to this band begin with was not only the fluke of seeing them live right after this album was released, but also the way that this band manages to capture the listener. When I dove into this band´s discography I was expecting death metal all the way but to my even further delight there is a strong element of the melodic genre that just fits. read more When a track is 10 minutes long, such as “Gods Amongst Insects” possibility is the listener will become tired and jump over but in my case I sat all the way through and was stunned that my attention was managed to be kept for so long. The countless changes, different segments and intriguing surprises of the track is necessary, and extremely well done. Not to mention not exclusive to the opening track, but the same sort of work can be found throughout the entire album. The only times I have felt like skipping over anything is during the extremely uncomfortable parts of certain tracks, such as “Human Wave Attack”, which makes me feel like there might be some sort of a rotten corpse behind me getting ready to chase and attack me. But I suppose for many bands the aim is so get some sort of a reaction out of the listener, capture some sort of a mood or a feel. And I believe “Tetragrammaton” managed to do that very well. Jammerfal’s rection: Hello, brothers and sisters of metal. For this new delivery of Random Earworms, the challenges it`s an album that, in my opinion, it´s blasting and crushing death metal with some industrial and cinematographic elements. It took two entire listens to catch me up strongly. For some moments you can feel the riffs and the drums beating your head with no mercy. Showing all the strength and the technical side of death metal, some groove sounds appear on the horizon. I must say that I loved the guitar solos in this recording. The first two songs are incredible! read more They are long pieces but they have memorable passages and you do not realize when you are standing in one or the other. Drugs, Thugs & Machetes contain some elements that remind you of old Grave and Nailbomb’s great album, Point Blank. This track is total madness! The next two songs are quite impressive too. Nothing to lose, gaining points to be in my metal listens and rotations.Finally, in the last piece of this great album, you suddenly feel the overwhelming and suffocating strangulation of brutal death metal, with a funny end. Great album! 9/10 for me. Tom’s reaction: Before this latest edition of Random Earworms The Monolith Deathcult was a band who had entirely escaped my attention. From the first moments of “Tetragrammaton” I found myself thinking similarly to Samual L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction “Mmmmm that is a tasty burger!”. Somewhat comparable in style to White Zombie, the music is heavy from the get-go, but always with a groove and a toe-tapping sensibility. Another reference point might be Rammstein. read more It’s all very well produced and sounds BIG, with thunderous percussion raining down alongside fat guitar riffs and growling vocals. Though I’m no great aficionado of the band, the opening track “Gods Amongst Insects” with its slickly delivered brutality feels similar to how I imagine Dimmu Borgir might often be in their unashamedly grand pomp. I have to say I like it, though I don’t know how often I’d choose to sit through an hour of this. For sure this album is very heavy. There are elements of Black Metal, Death Metal, maybe even some Industrial Metal elements too with an occasional chugging Feary Factory feel. In much the same way that I’d never take Rob Zombie too seriously, I’d say that this is fun music, just as long as you’re someone who doesn’t run away when they hear Ministry. Good fun, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to this again and again. The Key Keeper’s reaction: Bummm… I was caught. I remember when this album was out. I remember seeing it in some records stores. I also remember listening to one or two songs. Nothing more. Yes, it’s true. Don’t ask me why only that cause I don’t remember the reasons… read more What I know now, is that I lost a very good album and only after 7 years and a few months of the original release date, and thanks to Julia I’m listening to this album. This time all the album. Eheheh. A very good Death Metal album with some Electronic influences and many samples on the songs. Does it sound not “trve”? I don’t care to be honest. What I know is that I had and will have a very good time listening to this very good album, and was needed so much time to know it. Once more thank you, Julia. Truly Yours, **Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre
Blessed Altar Zine Team
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