If you’re familiar with Monarch, you’re familiar with Sabbracadaver. Since 2002, the French band has been on a prolific seven album scavenger hunt for the most grizzled, colossal and Earth-moving guitar tone. And just when you think their six-string approximation of liquid tar oozing out of a smouldering volcano can’t get any more tectonically sloth-like, they discover new ways of sonically the crushing, killing and destroying.
The formula is simple and enduring: songs commence and are maintained at a slow burn, usually with what seems like either a small handful of repetitive riffs (we’re talking one or two sometimes!) lumbered out with all the subtlety of dynamite imploding an unused office building for upwards of ten unrelenting minutes. Guitarist Shiran Kaïdine doles out a series of spacious blackened chords at a predetermined, percussion-accented pace while vocalist Emile “Euro Girl” Brisson screams and screeches like her hair and nipples are on fire. These moments, like “Louves,” teeter between exploratory and meandering; like you’re sitting in on the longest, weed-and-peyote fuelled improv jam session ever. This is where Monarch! has always been a make-or-break proposition. When they’re on point, they drip sonic sludge in your ears with deliberate aim and direction. “Pentegrammes” ebbs and flows with bubbling intensity, but also gives you something to tap your toes to in the process. Heck, you won’t even notice it’s 17+ minutes long! On the other end of the spectrum, when they get into making noise without cause, the experience becomes a meandering hit-or-miss depending on your mood and whether or not you feel slighted at the prospect of a band going into the studio seemingly without concrete plans and expecting you to plonk down hard-earned cash for the result. But, if you’re familiar with Monarch!, you’re familiar with whether this appeals to your sensibilities or not.
6.5/10
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