Monoliths
| Monoliths | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Paris , France |
| Genre (s) |
Funeral Doom (early work) Death Doom |
| founding | 2001 |
| Website | monolithedoom.tumblr.com |
| Current occupation | |
Vocals, guitar |
Rémi Brochard (since 2017) |
Drums |
Thibault Faucher (since 2015) |
Electric bass |
Olivier Defives (since 2015) |
Keyboard |
Matthieu Marchand (since 2015) |
Guitar, electric bass, keyboard, programming |
Sylvain Bégot |
Electric bass, guitar |
Benoît Blin |
| former members | |
singing |
Richard Loudin (Until 2017) |
Electric bass |
Kristofer Lorent (2003-2005) |
E-bass, keyboard |
Marc Canlers (Until 2003, 2012) |
Keyboard, programming |
Sébastien Latour (2012 - 2015) |
guitar |
Nicolas Chevrollier (until 2003) |
Monolithhe is a funeral doom and death doom band founded in 2001 . Since its inception, it has gone through various personal and stylistic changes.
history
Sylvain Bégot founded Monolithhe in Paris in 2001 from an impulse while making music. After he decided to publish the resulting music under his own band, Bégot considered Monolithhe initially as a studio and solo project.
"The other members of Monolithe are session musicians, I asked them to play on the album because they are friends and / or because of their musical skills."
“The other members of Monolithhe are session musicians. I asked them to play on the album because they are friends and / or because of their musical skills. "
In addition to Bégot, musicians such as guitarist Benoît Blin and singer Richard Loudin were named as members of the band despite this restriction. Loudin was replaced by Rémi Brochard in 2017. In addition to Blind and Bégot, who took over this function in phases, Kristofer Lorent and Marc Canlers were part of Monolithhe as bassists. Similar to Bégot's role of keyboardist, which was taken over by Canlers, Sébastien Latour and Matthieu Marchand. In particular, the decision to perform, which Bégnot initially refused, brought lasting changes to the band structure, which has since alternated between Bégot and Blin.
The band made their first appearances in 2015, since then Monolithhe has appeared internationally, and has toured Japan and Europe. In addition, the band has performed at festivals such as Hellfest and Motocultor in France, Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic, Metal Days in Slovenia, Dutch Doom Days in the Netherlands and the Swamp Festival in Berlin.
Work and effect
| Discography |
|---|
|
Studio albums
EPs
Compilations
Live albums
|
The first four albums were released as Monolith I through Monolith IV between 2003 and 2012. Monolith I was released in 2003 through Appease Me Records . Monolithe II 2005 via Candlelight Records , Monolithe III and Monlithe IV 2012 and 2013 via Debemur Morti Productions . In the meantime, the EPs Interlude Premier and Interlude Second were released in 2007 and 2012 . The EPs were re-released under the title Monolithhe Zero , which was released as a compilation by Debemur Morti Productions in 2014. Up to and including Monolith IV , the albums had no title subdivisions and presented music of over 50 minutes as one continuous piece. In 2015 the band changed their approach. The albums Epsilon Aurigae and Zeta Reticuli , recorded at the same time , each presented three tracks of fifteen minutes each. Both albums were released six months apart in winter 2015 and summer 2016 via Debemur Morti Productions. The double of Epsilon Aurigae and Zeta Reticuli was followed in 2018 by the seventh album Nebula Septem , which presented seven tracks of seven minutes each. The album was released via Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions . The publication was then supported by a tour, the beginning of which was recorded at the Festival Les Feux de Beltane and distributed as a live album by the band. With Okta Khora , the eighth album followed in 2018, which the band self-published via Bandcamp as a download. Continuing the deliberate variation of the number of tracks and the length of the individual pieces, the band presented sixteen tracks on Okta Khora with lengths of 8:08, 8:04, 4:08 and 4:04 minutes.
concept
Bégnot describes monoliths as a lyrically conceptually linked project to science fiction . He subordinates the first albums and EPs to a coherent science fiction story, which he calls "The Great Clockmaker". According to Bégnot, Epsilon Aurigae and Zeta Reticuli can be attributed to the same “universe”, but deal with a different story. With Nebula Septem , the band began to deal with topics beyond the concept of "The Great Clockmaker", but remained true to science fiction as the framework-defining lyrical main theme.
style
The webzine Doom-Metal.com describes the style originally played by Monolithhe as "slow, sad funeral doom with a great emphasis on a majestic keyboard sound". The music has a trance-like atmosphere and is reminiscent of genre performers like Shape of Despair and Morgion with artificially generated “epic orchestration” and “quietly whispered growling ” . From the second EP the band changed their style increasingly to a Death Doom described as "chaotic". Monolithhe continued this development and took on elements of space rock , melodic death doom and dark metal in other publications, especially in guitar playing and keyboard background .
reception
Webzines such as Doom-Metal.com , Metal.de of Metal1.info reviewed Monolithhe's publications. In particular, Nebula Septem and Okta Khora received increased international attention. The reception, however, was mostly positive.
Kostas Panagiotou already declared the debut for Doom-Metal.com "one of the atmospheric highlights of the year". The album was also praised as "art" for the webzine Metal.de. The continuations of the series Monolith I to Monolith IV largely retained this assessment. Only one review of the Burn Your Ears webzine on Monolith II was devastating and described the music as "boring and dreary, downright drowsy". In contrast , Bertrand Marchal called Monolith III for Doom-Metal.com “excellence on a new level” and Chaim Drishner described Monolith IV for the same webzine as a “massive work of beauty and darkness”.
Epsilon Aurigae and Zeta Reticuli were also reviewed positively. The albums were praised as a continuation and at the same time as a further development of the previous releases. In reviews of the Angry Metal Guy and Powermetal.de webzines , it was pointed out that Monoliths with Epsilon Aurigae and Zeta Reticuli would have gained in accessibility without losing quality.
"Anyone who likes dark and independent Funeral Doom should definitely give the album a chance, especially if the band's earlier albums were too difficult to access, because here he could finally find a way into the cosmos of MONOLITHE, a journey which is always worth taking. "
Compared to the previous discography, the reception with Nebula Septem increased noticeably. Ian Morrissey recommended the album for Doom-Metal.com to "any open-minded Doom Metal fan". Other reviews followed such praise and assumed that “technically speaking […] overall […] could not be criticized”, “defects” could not be “discovered”. The production can hardly be criticized either, instruments such as vocals are properly mixed and do not steal the show. ”The album was praised in various reviews as“ a masterpiece of Space Doom ”and“ an often colorful colossus, a death star built by Hundertwasser ” . The Okta Khora , published two years later , also received constant praise. In reviews, the band was attested to having a lasting quality in which monoliths were “impossible to do wrong”. Okta Khora shows that the group operates on a consistently high-quality, stable level.
“Once again, MONOLITHE understand how to prepare their extended Doom in such a way that an exciting adventure is ready for the ear. It takes a while for the songs to take hold, but the French have never made music straight to the head. "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Oliver: Interview with Monoliths. Doom-Metal.com, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c Sylvain Bégot: biography. monolithedoom.tumblr.com, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Aleks Evdokimov: Interview with Monoliths. Doom-Metal.com, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Monoliths. Doom-Metal.com, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Kostas Panagiotou: Monoliths: Monoliths I. Doom-Metal.com, accessed on May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Monolith: Monolith I. Metal.de, accessed on May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Uta. A .: Monoliths: Nebula Septem. Metal1.info, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Marcus: Monolithe: Monolith II. Burn Your Ears, accessed on May 19, 2020 .
- ^ Bertrand Marchal: Monoliths: Monoliths III. Doom-Metal.com, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Chaim Drishner: Monoliths: Monoliths IV. Doom-Metal.com, accessed on May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ El Cuervo: Monoliths: Epsilon Aurigae. Angry Metal Guy, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Raphael Päbst: Monoliths: Zeta Reticuli. Powermetal.de, accessed on May 19, 2020 .
- ^ Ian Morrissey: Monoliths: Nebula Septem. Doom-Metal.com, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Mondkind: monoliths: Nebula Septem. Undergrounded, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Adam: Monoliths: Nebula Septem. Waldhalla, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Tobias Jehle: Monoliths: Nebula Septem. Music reviews, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ WonderBoxMetal: Monoliths: Okta Khora. WonderBoxMetal, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Goat: Monoliths: Okta Khora. Metal Reviews, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ musclassia: Monoliths: Okta Khora. Metalstorm, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ grid: Monoliths: Okta Khora. Bleeding 4 Metal, accessed May 19, 2020 .