Monuments - Gnosis review

Year : 2012
Genre : Progressive Metal, Djent with Alternative Metal tones
Label : Century Media
Origin : United Kingdom
Rating : 7.0 / 10

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Monuments' Gnosis is a direct-, competent variant on the (re)forming shape of music eminently proposed by Periphery or Hypercube. What. The intricacy of the rumbling rhythm pattern is bread, butter, blood and adrenaline in this whimsical music niche, and now it is safe to say that the tendency to counterpoint the aforementioned exquisitries with alternative metal affectations on a "Toolesque" register, now has become so called common sense, and, also, a current unfortunate limitation of this still new genre, that is out to seek its vistas via releases like this right here. Seeking vistas is not a bad thing to do, but it does not mean that everyone has to find the SAME one. I like this disc, though it weighs in super-reminiscent to Periphery's latest when evaluated for its mere character. Read on to find out more about your mom.

The Gnosis LP comes to you with a sober length of 41 minutes, which, in my opinion, is just the right amount of time to provoke the music on display for. The song structures are pretty orthodox "Djent with Alternative Metal tones" in character, with a bit more pronounced affection cultivated for a Ceterum/folk/Tool tonality that I care to raise too much eyebrows at now, that I have been conditioned to decipher them on the fly. I tend to think that the folkish alternative metal choruses brought by this spin are the least convincing aspects of the contribution, and not when scrutinized for their production values, either : those are beefy, relentless and ballsy all over the place. It is the anatomy-, the efficiency level of the folkish alternative metal overtones themselves, that fail to touch me in a way that would honestly connect with me. I have a feeling that the band wants to pay me out rather cheaply with the choruses, whereas I'm content with the complex rumbling rhythms in the verses/intermezzos. On Periphery's latest, I can name a bunch of choruses  I'm happy with. But what about the chorus of "Doxa", for example? I like the radical production decision on exhibition, but the chorus itself is a parody of Tool/Ceterum : this isn't at all enigmatic folk music as it wants to project itself, this is the music for a middle eastern execution in Iran, and nothankyou.

Now that my ranting regarding the sub-par chorus work has been analyzed and dismissed, I'm happy to report that I find myself delighted with the rest of the package. Djent needs to show mean, I mean : meeeean granite balls Meshuggah style, or, OK, at least, needs to show the will to do so (one day), and it is without question that the band members have put a healthy amount of effort into sculpting out flamboyant passages of the eloquent rumble, and those segments are definitely worthy to revisit. To be just, it needs to be said that the disc manages to come up with a harshly limited-, nevertheless existent set of thrilling mid-tempo riffs, like the ending pattern of "Regenerate", narrated all in the spirit of ObZen era Meshuggah. For the Periphery enthusiast, alert, gimps! Spencer Sotelo lends his top of the heat voice talent to the last track on the release, and I must say he sounds pretty b4d4ss, and this isn't dogma.

Rating : 7.0 / 10

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