MONOLITHIAN – “THE FINEST DAY I EVER LIVED, WAS WHEN TOMORROW NEVER CAME”

Out of the darkest depths of Cornwall Monolithian are a band with one of those over the top logos, you know the sort I mean, at first glance difficult to read but you know more or less what to expect when you press play – and it isn’t going to be songs about all things fluffy and nice.

Even when singing about “The finest day I ever f**ckin’ lived” on the albums opening track the misery couldn’t be more apparent, this is doom at its finest and where most two piece outfits still feature a guitarist when it comes to Monolithian it’s all played on bass alongside the drums to create something dark and sinister.

There are no frills here as “Shub Niggurath” kicks in with an almighty scream and some heavy speed drumming, whilst the intro for “Barren Sea” is a bass-line in danger of shattering your rib cage if played at the right volume.

The distorted bass turned up to eleven for every tune provides a rumble of pure evil, whilst the drumming is more than just there to keep the rhythm and vocally there’s no high pitched wailing as with other death metal bands, but Monolithian have a deep baritone straight from the belly of the beast.

Even when we reach the hard going mid-album track of “Treebeard” which provides nothing more than an unnecessary headache, there’s still more to come as “Black Flame Candle” is closely followed by another bass intro that will destroy small buildings on “Second of the Istari”, before the album has it’s epic instrumental in closing track “Thought out of Existence”.

With a long thought provoking sample, it’s a mammoth way to end the album coming in at almost 13 minutes, again the spoken words may be about life and the theory of our being however it’s intentionally depressing which just makes for a fitting end to the album as it descends into a noise driven jam with special guest Dean from Knifedoutofexistence, creating a perfect soundtrack to the evilness that had come before it.