Monumental Torment - Element Of Chaos
Monumental Torment's debut album, 'Element Of Chaos,' lives up to its name, but it is a beautiful kind of chaos. The death metal here is very technical, and very well produced with a clean slab of vocal work that cuts like a knife without cutting into the other instruments' sound. Expect guitar-wizard level work with the constant change of different notes and signature frets instead of just constant power chords and chugging over and over again... coming at freight train speed. It obliterates in its own way, especially when it comes to a track like "Slaughter House." The jazzy, technical work from the beginning of track that leads into the heavy sonic blast of chugging death metal alludes to the sounds of bands like Dying Fetus or Beneath The Massacre should certainly appease fans. The drums hammer away like jackhammers, but the real beauty in this is the bass which shines clear; something rare in death metal because everything else overshadows it. However, there is a catch. In all of this technical beauty the band tends to limit itself with how repetitive the tracks can get after a while. The energy only entertains the listener so much until it begins to wear thin.
After the album is given a spin, listeners will note only two tracks that really stand out. The first, "Mental Slavery," makes fantastic use of a piano too add to the jazzy technical death metal style and sadly isn't used more on the album. The guitar solo is a bit more melodic and adds some more groove to the music rather than just obliteration and heavy strokes. The other track is "Last Voice Of Future." It's not death metal at all, but rather an ambient, dark piece that features the piano again over ominous droning which suits the atmosphere well, but the track could have probably done better as an introduction rather than an outro. Here it just feels like it would settle into the listener much better in the beginning rather than leave them to settle out, compared to leaving them on a death metal high.
Still, overall this album is very impressive for a debut. Monumental Torment step outside the typical death metal boundaries and create some monumental music altogether even if it does tend to get repetitive at times. Nobody can truly get bored of the technical masterpieces that are put out, just slightly irritated or burned out on them. If Monumental creates another album just like this however, it will not have as great an impact on the listener, so they hopefully will continue to evolve with their jazzy technical death metal fury.
After the album is given a spin, listeners will note only two tracks that really stand out. The first, "Mental Slavery," makes fantastic use of a piano too add to the jazzy technical death metal style and sadly isn't used more on the album. The guitar solo is a bit more melodic and adds some more groove to the music rather than just obliteration and heavy strokes. The other track is "Last Voice Of Future." It's not death metal at all, but rather an ambient, dark piece that features the piano again over ominous droning which suits the atmosphere well, but the track could have probably done better as an introduction rather than an outro. Here it just feels like it would settle into the listener much better in the beginning rather than leave them to settle out, compared to leaving them on a death metal high.
Still, overall this album is very impressive for a debut. Monumental Torment step outside the typical death metal boundaries and create some monumental music altogether even if it does tend to get repetitive at times. Nobody can truly get bored of the technical masterpieces that are put out, just slightly irritated or burned out on them. If Monumental creates another album just like this however, it will not have as great an impact on the listener, so they hopefully will continue to evolve with their jazzy technical death metal fury.
- Nameless One
- Slaughter House
- Lethargic Sleep
- Mental Slavery
- Oppression Submission
- Seek To Destroy
- Paradox
- Millenium Of Death
- Element Of Chaos
- Last Voice Of Future
Label: http://www.sfcollector.ru
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
May 15, 2011
May 15, 2011
Next review:
Battle Dagorath - Ancient Wrath
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