I, MONARCH
If a deep growly Death Metal voice would translate well into text, I would be doing it right here to imitate the vocals on
I, Monarch. Right now, I have to tell you this is just a run-of-the-mill Death Metal album. I have heard of HATE ETERNAL many times before, and although I never listened to them before I was almost kind of hoping I’d get to listen to this album. Much to my surprise Steve C tossed one at me one night and told me to work on it. No, he didn’t really toss it at me, that would cause a fight, and that wouldn’t be good.
(That most certainly would NOT be good. - SC)
Anyway, part of me felt kind of bad always giving reviews that are not so nice to bands like this. Here’s where I played a little trick with my mind. This music is absolutely geared toward angry, teenage males, fed up with high school, looking to vent. Trust me, I went through that stage, I used this kind of music to further seclude myself from the rest of the morons I was forced to be around on a daily basis. So I did some searching deep down to find that angry teen deep down inside that would have loved this album. It took a while but I found him…shaking, in a corner, in the dark with his knees into his chest. I convinced him to give it a listen and he actually sort of liked it. (Think I’m crazy yet? Hehe)
What my former self thought was that I, Monarch is pretty good, it has its downfalls but overall it’s not too shabby, for a Death Metal album. Some of the problems were that once in a while the drums would explode into something totally out of beat from what the guitars and vocals are doing, so it sounds like a total mess. The guitar work is really good, some good solos and real fast rhythm playing, typical of a Death Metal band though. Nothing outstanding, but I have to say that the title track “I, Monarch” is the best, with the final track, “Faceless One” coming in a close second.
There you have it, Current Rob says “Why, God, why?” while Old Rob says “Why not?”
