BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH

Behold! The Monolith

self-released

7.5 / 10

Track listing:

01. Battlestagg
02. Battle For Balls Deep
03. Elders
04. Phantasmata/Waking Life
05. Guardians Of the Abyss/Primal Extenuation/Rise of the Brohemoth

In a day and age when even bands as abrasive and drug-imploded as ZOROASTER are inking relatively big record deals, it seems the time is right for West Coast golems BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH to shamble into view. Worshiping at the altar of the riff, possessed of an earth-rumbling tone, and crafting lengthy sludge epics worthy of their hessian ancestors, these guys are a worthy next step in the evolution of the heavy.

While BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH don't really bring anything new to the table, they're quite adept at blending the best aspects of those who came before them. Clearly, bands like SLEEP and WARHORSE are a prime influence, with a bit of HIGH ON FIRE dirt metal and NEUROSIS end-of-the-world bombast thrown in for good measure. Their songs are long, interspersing heavy verses with raspy croaked vocals and long, trippy, jammed-out spacy sections that bring in a little of that desperate, hallucinogenic "Sabotage"-era SABBATH into the stew.

All this name-dropping may make it sound like BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH are mere (children of the) grave robbers, but their genius lies in the melding of their influences into a cohesive whole. Billy Anderson's production is strangely a little cleaner than many bands of this ilk, but remains heavy as all hell, easily as sonically walloping as anything he's delivered for his more well-known clients. On bits like the quiet midsection (around 4:00) of "Battle of Balls Deep", and its build back up to heavy (a little after the six-minute mark),the dynamics of the band really shine through, and any lingering doubts about their relative lack of personality are washed away with yesterday's bongwater.

If the doomed, creaking soul of proto-metal stoner riffs, agonal vocal scratchings, and the lurching throb of big, booming low end appeal to you — basically, if you like any of the above-mentioned bands — BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH are worth seeking out. Their earth-cracking crunge is the perfect soundtrack for these troubled times, bleary-eyed doom sludge as soundtrack to the end of the empire. Recommended.

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