Power of Metal.dk Review

 
The Monolith Deathcult
Tetragrammation
Rating
Style: Death Metal and more
Release date: 10 May, 2013
Playing time: 59:38
 

Controversial that is a word applicable to the band The Monolith Deathcult. Especially the lyrics are the reason for that. But if you dig deeper you should know better. Arrogance is also something they are blaming the band for, but that is what you get when you take everything the band expresses too serious. If you take the lyrics in the song "S.A.D.M", which stands for Supreme Avantgarde Death Metal too serious, you surely will think they are arrogant. A lot of bands write songs about Christianity and all the wars and destruction that religion created. The Monolith Deathcult are brave enough to bring Islamic problems and stories into the light.

Songwriter Michiel Dekker, who in his daily profession is history teacher and that is something you can read in the lyrics. "Drugs, Thugs, & Machetes" is about the genocide in Rwanda, "Todesnacht vond Stammheim" about the RAF members, who died in a German prison, "Human Wave Attack" about Iranian (mostly) underage soldiers, who had to walk the minefields in the war against Iraq. "Qasr Al-Nihaya" is a song about the torturing of political prisoners in Iraq by Saddam and his son as subject. Finally the song with the longest title is based on a novel by Lawrence Wright called 'The Looming Tower'.

Enough about the lyrics, now to the music. And that my friends is indeed very very good. This album is full of everything; science fiction samples, constantly returning blast beats, howling guitars, techno, pulsating bass, weird keys, bombastic orchestral parts, sound samples, industrial beats, aggressive grunts and so on and so on. The songs are rather complex, but are build up layer by layer and get stronger spin after spin. This album is heavy like a mammoth and leaves everything scorched behind. Ministry kind of beats, eastern sounding samples, German lyrics, spoken parts, grind pieces, doom parts, traditional metal, industrial beats, heroic soundtrack parts - all perfectly embedded in the well written songs, that is what they serve. I doubt if there will be another so complete and impressive death metal album this year!

Mix Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Rammstein, Sepultura, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Nile, Ministry, Laibach together and put a big The Monolith Deathcult influence to it and you have something like 'Tetragrammation'.  I'm sure there will be reviews that conclude it is all too much and too over the top, but in my eyes it is pure art.

If you have to make your top 10 at the end of this year and you haven't at least listened once to this The Monolith Deathcult album, it will not be complete.


Tracklist
01. Gods Among Insects
02. Human Wave Attack
03. Drugs, Thugs, & Machetes
04. Todesnacht von Stammheim
05. S.A.D.M.
06. Qasr Al-Nihaya
07. Aslimu!!! All Slain Those Who Bring Our Highly Respected Symbols to the Lower Status of the Barren Earth
Label: Season of Mist
Distribution: Season of Mist
Reviewed by: Reinier de Vries
Date: 9 May, 2013
Website: www.monolith-deathcult.com