Monuments
| Monuments | |
|---|---|
 Monuments at Summer Breeze 2016 |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Progressive metal |
| founding | 2009 as Elements |
| Founding members | |
| John Browne | |
Electric guitar |
Josh Travis (until 2010) |
| former members | |
singing |
Neema Askari (2010-2011) |
singing |
Grep Pope (2010-2011) |
singing |
Matthew Rose (2011-2013) |
Drums |
Mike Malyan (2010-2015) |
singing |
Chris Barretto (2013-2019) |
| Live members | |
Electric guitar |
Paul Antonio Ortiz (2010) |
Monuments is a progressive metal band from London , England. The band was founded as a side project under the name Elements by the former Fellsilent guitarist John Browne and Josh Travis (at that time still with The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza ) and is one of the greatest representatives of the Djent scene alongside Periphery and TesseracT .
The name is inspired by monuments like the pyramids of Giza , the ziggurat of the moon god Nanna or the mass grave Pumapunku in the ruins of Tiahuanaco .
history
The foundation
Monuments started, back then under the name Elements, in 2009 as a small international music project by ex-Fellsilent guitarist John Browne and Josh Travis, the guitarist of The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza at the time. Shortly before Browne's former band Fellsilent finally announced their breakup in the spring of 2010, he rearranged the Monuments line-up so that the two-man project became a full-time band. With Neema Askari (also ex-Fellsilent) and Grep Pope the positions of the singers were quickly filled. Adam Swan took on bass, while a talented young drummer was found in Mike Malyan. With the material collected a year earlier, the band played their first concerts, for which Chimp Spanners guitarist Paul Ortiz was won over as an active live member for the second guitar. In addition, the band was able to negotiate a record deal with the London-based label Basick Records . In October 2010, the band took part in the sixth edition of the Euroblast Festival and headlined alongside Chimp Spanner. A month later the band released their debut EP We Are the Foundation , which the band distributed itself and was only available at concerts or in their own bigcartel store.
Changes in the line-up
In early 2011, the band announced guitarist Olly Steele as a new permanent member, whom the band became aware of after he played with his band Cyclamen as the opening act for TesseracT, which he left shortly after joining Monuments. Steele had previously helped out as a live guitarist with Monuments on the The League of Extraordinary Djentlemen tour after guitarist Paul Ortiz could no longer play for Monuments due to lack of time. In May 2011, the band announced that they had split up with both Neema Askari and Grep Pope. The reason for the separation was given that both singers did not want to take the musical direction that the rest of the band thought was right. The band also announced that they have finished recording the instrumental parts for the upcoming debut album . After almost a year of unsuccessful searches and many auditions, the band found a new singer in Matthew Rose in early 2012, who was part of the drum and bass group The Qemists . This was followed by the recording of the vocal parts for the first album, which was to be released via Basick Records. In May the band announced that they had signed a record deal with the German label Century Media and that their debut album Gnosis would be released there.
Publication of Gnosis
On August 24, 2012, the band's first studio album, Gnosis , was released in Germany , which was released as a stream on the Internet portals of Visions and Rock Sound one day before it was released. More than a month later, the album was also available in North America . In addition to two newly mastered versions of the songs Admit Defeat and The Uncollective , which were already published on the first EP and only provided with new lyrics, there were seven other new songs on the album. The title of the album refers to the gnosticism , which the band interprets as a kind of higher level of spiritual knowledge in which questions about the reasons for one's existence are null and void. The band gives the message from this in their song Doxa , in which they respond to not always being influenced by others, but rather to form their own opinion. The other songs on the album also deal with humanity and people themselves. Furthermore, the texts are influenced by literature , by Noam Chomsky and Christopher Hitchens , among others , as well as poems by Allen Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac . In October 2012, the band posted a remastered and rewritten version of Memoirs , the third track from the EP We Are the Foundation , on bandcamp , which was available in digital form for £ 2. All proceeds from the purchase went to Laura, a good friend of the band who suffers from the rare disease PMP , which is usually fatal.
Latest developments
In late March 2013, the band split due to internal differences between the singer and the rest of the band from Matt Rose. As a result, the band put instrumental versions of the songs Doxa and The Indulger online for free download, which applicants who were supposed to meet certain criteria could deposit their singing and apply to the band with them as singers. At the beginning of June the band announced that they had found a new singer, who should be presented at the Ghostfest at the end of June . However, a few days earlier, live recordings of a concert in Croydon appeared, where the band performed under the name The Indulgers with their new singer Christopher Barretto , son of the well-known jazz musician Ray Barretto and previously with Periphery .
Discography
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EPs
- 2010: We Are the Foundation (self-distribution)
Albums
- 2012: Gnosis (Century Media)
- 2014: The Amanuensis (Century Media)
- 2018: Phronesis (Century Media)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Interview with John Browne from Monuments on mixcloud.com; Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with John Browne from Monuments on venia-mag.net; Retrieved January 20, 2012.
- ↑ a b Interview with Matthew Rose from Monuments on metal-experience.com; Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ↑ Monuments present new song Admin Defeat on got-djent.com; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Band presentation of Monuments ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on got-djent.com; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Flyer from Euroblast 2010 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on euroblast.net; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Olly Steele from Monuments on thedw0rd.wordpress.com; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Review of the LXD tour at Underworld in Camden on heavyblogisheavy.com; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Monuments separate from both singers ( Memento of the original from 23 August 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on got-djent.com; Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Monuments at the Euroblast 2012 on powermetal.de; Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ↑ Monuments sign a record deal with Century Media on blabbermouth.net; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Monuments stream new album Gnosis on centurymedia.com; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Memoirs von Monuments with reference to the description on youtube.com; Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Monuments are looking for new singer on vampster.com; Retrieved April 7, 2013.
- ↑ Monuments will reveal new singer at Ghostfest on centurymedia.com; Retrieved June 8, 2013.
- ↑ Monuments: live footage reveals Christopher Barretto as new vocalist ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on got-djent.com; Retrieved June 28, 2013.
- ↑ DE
