Monuments – Gnosis

Djent and its growing number of bands, has been the latest hype (or maybe I should call it trend) in metal music industry. From Textures to Periphery and in between, many bands come up inheriting this music style, of really downtuned 7-strings, 8-strings or maybe more-strings guitars, playing their guts out as long as clever rhytms are concerned combining weird melodies, clean vocals, brutal vocals, poppy refrains, in a progressive metal prisma. I just made my biggest intro for a review that guess what??? Yes, Monuments from UK are exactly this kind of band I just described.

Being in a big record label Monuments’ “Gnosis” was one of the most awaited debuts these past two years. With all this growth this genre has met the promotion and exposure from the labels has made such a great myth around these bands that anyone concerned really can’t be sure who will be the next king…

Following the forms of the genre entirely by letter, Monuments don’t escape the goods it delivers, but can’t as well fail to fall at all its bads… Great rhythmic figures and Meshuggha-ish patterns, with downtuned instruments and a macho production would be some of the characteristics as well as the perfect performance of the members. Ideas that flow like a river although phenomenally sound very difficult. Melodies and many sound effects that have nothing to “be jealous of” let’s say “Tesseract” or “Periphery”.

But there are some elements in “Gnosis” that actually turn me down, with first being their clean vocals which sound too much guided and forced, lacking the freedom of expression, which happens to be one this genre’s characteristcs. The second would be the lack of enthusiasm as long speeds are concerned. Their mid tempo songs seem to be dominating “Gnosis” having the result of sounding somehow the same one with the other so you can’t really tell when a song starts and when it ends.

Being a debut “Gnosis” suggests a pleasant listening for the first couple of sessions but lacks very much in replaying power. You simply don’t want to listen it over and over. Although, not tiring something seems to be missing for the time being. But there’s a big hope that they will make it even better to their next effort. Wait for their second coming it will be something special for sure.