Monarch!
| monarch | |
|---|---|
 Monarch! live in Berlin, 2015 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Drone Doom , Sludge |
| founding | 2002 |
| Website | www.myspace.com/ |
| Current occupation | |
| Emilie Bresson (aka Eurogirl) | |
| Shiran Kaïdine | |
| Robert MacManus | |
| MicHell Bidegain | |
| Rob Shaffer | |
| former members | |
Electric bass |
Guillaume (?) |
Drums |
Felix Buff |
Drums |
Guillaume Lestage |
Drums |
Stephane Torre-Trueba |
Monarch! , especially in Europe also written Monarch , is a French metal band that is mostly assigned to the sub-genres Drone Doom or Sludge . The band was founded in 2002 and has released six albums since then.
history
Monarch were founded in 2002 as " Turbojugend Bayonne" in Bayonne in the French part of the Basque Country . Originally they were just a project band with the aim of recording a single record, but they rejected the recordings of the 2003 session as “not slow enough” and continued to work together. A first tour through Europe was largely unsuccessful. In 2005 the band released their actual debut, a double CD with three tracks. Guitarist Kaïdine has also been active as a guitarist for Year of No Light since 2007 .
In the years that followed, the band released new albums almost every year, as well as several EPs and split releases with Moss , the Gray Daturas and Elysiüm . The band releases on several labels, mainly Throne Records and Heathen Skulls . She tours regularly internationally, for example in Australia at the beginning of 2010 together with Wolves in the Throne Room . At the turn of 2010/2011 they toured in North America, Japan and Australia.
After a few line-up changes and relocations of the members, the band was spread around the world in 2011 - only Kaïdine still lives in France, MacManus in Melbourne , Rob Shaffer in Florida and Bresson and Bidegain in Montreal .
The actual band name is "Monarch", but since a band of the same name is active in the USA, they use the name "Monarch!" Unusual for a metal band is the cover design of the publications, which shows motifs such as burning churches or inverted crosses in a Sanrio-like comic style.
music
Influences
On their website the band lists Noothgrush , Corrupted , Burning Witch and The Melvins as influences . With the remark "but mainly Black Sabbath " she emphasizes their importance. An album from 2010 underscores this importance with its title, "Sabbat Noir". Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia sees the band as close to bands like Khanate and Rigor Sardonicus , but emphasizes that they are usually more screeching than these. The English magazine “Rock-A-Rolla” sees them as clearly rooted in modern Doom Metal . The band has also repeatedly covered singles punk bands such as Discharge , Disclose and Turbonegro .
concept
Even when it was founded, the band was subject to the concept that has been pursued to this day, guitarist Kaïdine described it with the words:
“The main idea was to play slow and loud as fuck. We were all playing in fast bands so we wanted to play something very different, something new and challenging for us. "
“The main thing was to play as slowly and loudly as possible. We all played in fast bands, so we wanted to play something very different, very new and very challenging for us. "
The Monarch pieces are quite long, usually around 20 minutes. The song Amplifire Death March , published in 2006, stands out in particular. It appeared as part of a split, but with 58:27 minutes it fills almost the entire CD. The length of the pieces also leads to the high frequency of releases of the band, which has released an album almost a year since 2005 and an additional six EPs and splits.
Songwriting
The pieces are mostly recorded live. Kaïdine described their creation as "a strange process including some abstraction": The band meets and its members bring riffs and ideas of song structures with them, which are then slowed down until they gain the necessary heaviness. As soon as this has been done, it would only be a matter of breaking down the riffs until they became themes and patterns that would be worked with until "we find the right way to Valhalla ."
The songwriting is not strictly systematic, however, there is always room for random elements and improvisation, the amplifiers are so much in the foreground that the bassist MicHell claims a "physical dimension of the songwriting":
“The raw material we work with emanates directly from our amps, […] [We are] seeing how the amps will respond differently according to how we position ourselves in front of them to achieve, for example, a more droning effect, or harsher feedback… So we can't really write a song unless we're in front of stacks of loud amps. "
“The material we work with comes straight from our amplifiers, [...] [we] watch how the amplifiers react, depending on where we position ourselves in front of them, this can lead to drone-like effects or more screeching feedback ... We so actually can't write songs without standing in front of loud amplifiers. "
The band is accordingly quite minimalist in its instrumentation. The instrumentalists work mainly with numerous amplifiers Company Sovtek , Acoustic , Orange , Hiwatt , Sunn and Marshall and Fuzzboxen , the singer with delay and reverb clipless pedals.
reception
For the re-release of Mer Morte , Lords Of Metal wrote about the band that they were "a deep black minimalistic, slow, gigantic Doom monster". Maelstrom called Monarch "upcoming Doom titans" in a 2007 review of "Dead Men Tell No Tales", but also emphasizes that the album should be a challenge for any Doom metal fan in view of the length of the tracks, but it is worth it to ask because it contains fantastic music.
In a review of the same album, Heathen Harvest stated that the album was not bad, but that Monarch were ultimately only copyists of pioneers such as Boris , Pelican , Isis and Khanate. Metal.de went even further , where the reviewer in 2007 rejected the album “Speak Of The Sea” with the words that it was a matter of “meaningless drone tracks whose basic idea was almost too clear and therefore cheeky stolen from Khanate” and summed up an "inconsequential rumbling without a concept".
Vampster, on the other hand, was impressed on the occasion of the album “Sabbat Noir” in 2010 by the “unwavering path towards the decomposition of all music into noise” and noted that “neither Switchblade nor Black Shape of Nexus , Corrupted, Black Boned Angel , Nadja or Moss deliver more violent anti-music As monarch. ”In addition to the extreme, the reviewer also sees something new in Monarch:“ It is what becomes of Sludge if you go further, even away from Drone Doom, towards something else. […] The fact is that Drone and Doom can't get much more extreme without becoming a pure sound. So monarchs pay tribute to Black Sabbath insofar as they can shake the earth and try something new with a lot of courage and a portion of madness that should not be underestimated.
A concert in New York in November 2010 praised Village Voice as "a concentrated, intense performance that terribly lacked the catharsis that is the usual hallmark of metal".
Discography
- 2005: 666 (album, Throne Records)
- 2006: Elysiüm / Monarch (Split, Throne Records)
- 2006: Speak of the Sea (Album, Throne Records)
- 2006: Swan Song (EP, Throne Records)
- 2007: Monarch / Moss (Spilt, Rise Above Records )
- 2007: The Tonight (Album, Throne Records)
- 2007: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Album, Crucial Blast)
- 2007: Dawn of the Catalyst (Split. 20 Buck Spin )
- 2008: Mer Morte (album, Throne Records)
- 2009: A Look at Tomorrow / Mass Destruction (EP, Heathen Skull)
- 2010: Sabbat Noir (album, Heathen Skull)
- 2011: Sortilège (EP, Heathen Skull)
- 2012: Omens (Album, At A Loss Recordings )
- 2014: Sabbracadaver (Album, Profound Lore Records )
- 2015: Cherry Bomb / Die Die My Darling (EP, Fvtvrecordings)
- 2017: Birushanah / Monarch (Split, Musicfearsatan)
- 2017: Never Forever (Album, Profound Lore)
proof
- ↑ a b Entry on the label website, heathenskulls.com:Monarch Heathen Skulls, Accessed March 2, 2011
- ↑ a b c d e Monarch Interview in: Rock-a-Rolla, # 27, September 2010, rock-a-rolla.com: Monarch! ( Memento of July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed March 6, 2011
- ↑ DX: A French French-Canadian Australian Band Brings Its Doom Downunder. Viceland Today, February 22, 2011; archived from the original on August 13, 2011 ; Retrieved March 2, 2011 .
- ↑ Entry on myspace.com: MONARCH! - Band presence at myspace , accessed on March 2, 2011
- ↑ Entry on allmusic.com: Monarch! by AllMusic , accessed March 2, 2011
- ^ A b c Robyn Morrison: Make way for the Monarch procession. Sludge Factory, February 24, 2011; archived from the original on March 21, 2012 ; Retrieved March 2, 2011 .
- ↑ “deep black minimalistic, slow, humongous doom monster” In: Erik Heylen: Review on lordsofmetal.nl: Lords Of Metal metal E-zine , accessed on March 6, 2011
- ↑ Ryan Loostrom: MONARCH! -Dead Men Tell No Tales :: Maelstrom :: Issue No 54. maelstrom.nu, archived from the original on October 8, 2012 ; accessed on March 5, 2011 : "soon-to-be doom titans Monarch!"
- ↑ Review on hh.heathenhideout.com: Heathen Harvest - Reviews: Monarch - Dead Men Tell No Tales (2CD) ( Memento from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on March 6, 2011
- ↑ Review on metal.de: Monarch (FR) - Speak Of The Sea - CD-Review on metal.de , accessed on March 6, 2011
- ↑ Review on vampster.com: Monarch: Sabbat Noir [12 \ "- LP]. CD-Review @ vampster.com webzine - heavy metal online web magazine , accessed March 6, 2011
- ↑ Concert review on blogs.villagevoice.com: Phil Freeman: Live: Doom-Metal Crew Monarch Lead A Violent Ladies'-Night Spectacular At Cake Shop - New York Music - Sound of the City ( Memento from November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , November 15, 2010, accessed March 7, 2011
Web links
- Monarch at Discogs (English)
- Two-part video of a concert by Monarch on July 28, 2007 in Basetxe, Valle de Trápaga-Trapagaran , Spain: