At first glance the name Monsterworks seems like it would be the title for Rob Zombie's greatest hits album or something along those lines. Couple that with the album cover that just screams early-90's computer game and you get an album I would normally pass on. I don't remember when or how I wound up hearing this but, you know what they say about judging a book by it's cover…
What's in a name anyway right?
I came to find that New Zealand's Monsterworks is actually a pretty impressive and interesting long-running band. The band's sound is rooted in a quasi-stoner rock"n'roll, but they have a progressive angle to them that takes them all over the place. It's hard to say if their sound has always been so adventurous in their seventeen years, but their eighth album, Earth, has them touching on just about every subgenre of our beloved metal.
"Late Heavy Bombardment" proves to be a perfect example of the band's diversity. It begins with a solid stoner/doom intro, before wandering into some sludge territory, back to stoner, then prog post-metal, blackened thrash, and ends in a Georgia-sludge-influenced conclusion. All in just over four minutes.
Seriously though, the shortest track on the record,"Bookended By Extinction," is two minutes and seventeen seconds that brings Ihsahn, Kind Diamond, and Pallbearer to mind. That means they created a progressive/black/doom/epic/heavy metal song. That enough slashes for you?
This band has something for everyone at any given time, but not in a way that makes them feel like they lack direction.
There is an awesome sleeper hit of an album on our hands here.
Earth drops August 20th in their store and August 30 on iTunes via Casket music
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G1VV8Qs5A0[/youtube]
