Review Summary: Lordi present a 50/50 mish-mash of karaoke-style hit songs and a half-baked concept. It doesn't work, but it does have its moments.
A decade. It's been a decade since Lordi achieved what virtually 90% of the metal bands in the world could only hope to achieve in their career, scooping an award as a result of winning Eurovision in 2006. The real question is however, what have the band actually done with that particular achievement in their legacy? Sure, there was a Finnish town eventually named after this marvel in the metal world, but it seems that Lordi have since remained in the shadows, and creatively, become shadows of their former selves. Indeed, the albums since that all too familiar hit tune "Hard Rock Hallelujah" have gradually fallen into a state of stagnating similarity, proving the band's sources of inspiration and innovating to be lacking. Thankfully, Lordi return this year with an album which has been put together rather oddly. Latest effort
Monstereophonic (Theaterror vs Demonarchy) is a clumsy fusion of the most basic songs you'd expect Lordi to write given their signature style and a half-baked concept which isn't really that outstanding when matched against the better albums from the shock rock field. But it's Lordi guys. The fact that they haven't accepted any hype or remarkable achievements is reason enough to deem them a humble collective, and that should be motivation to at least give
Monstereophonic a passing listen.
As said before,
Monstereophonic falls flat because of how it has been clumsily put together. The first seven songs are ridden with unashamed pop aesthetics and fist-pumping albeit very simplistic riffs, but never hampering Lordi's ambition to develop the impression of a band embarking on a stage-show. After the weird Zappa-aping intro, things thankfully go from bad to actually quite decent quality. "Let's Go Slaughter He-Man" is frankly a poor decision for a first song proper. Christ, even the title is woeful. It doesn't help that Mr. Lordi's seemingly clean vocal style lacks any enthusiasm and falls ultimately flat after the first verse, and the lack of any real crunch in the rhythm section renders the song utterly useless. There's not even a hint at bombast, and instead it seems the band were content to let this monstrosity (compulsory 'see what I did there?' meme needed here) run its course. And then things get better somehow. The hooks in "Hug You Hardcore" and "Down with the Devil" are largely accessible, "Mary is Dead" gives the band room to breathe some versatility into the mix, and "Sick Flick" even takes a passing stab at trying and almost succeeding at aping soundtracks to the most famous Italian zombie films of all time. But alas, it all seems like a mess, even when you try to concentrate your thoughts on the apparent singular concept running through the album. There's never a moment when it's clear that the "Theaterror" part of the album unfolds itself, instead relying on any half-baked innuendo suggested from the lyrics.
Well, let's move on to the "proper" concept part of
Monstereophonic. Yeah. It's not that much clearer as a concept here, save for an increase in theatrical bombast and Mr. Lordi trying to narrate his way through hook-laden riffs. Once again however, Lordi seem to make it work, at least for the most part. The album's second half features lengthier, more complex songs, and even represents the band's more metallic influences such as Children of Bodom and Nightwish (strangely enough both from Lordi's native Finland too). The only song which marks any relevancy to the "Demonarchy" concept is the title track itself, and even then you're left wondering where it all fits into place. That said, it should be duly noted that Lordi automatically sound a lot fiercer and more convincing in the "Demonarchy" part than in the album's shoddier former half, but it's still all a bit of a failure. Whether it's the wobbly instrumental balance on songs such as "Heaven Sent Hell on Earth" or the lackluster compositions in "And the Zombie Slays" and "Break of Dawn", something just doesn't work in the second half. Even the band's frequent attempts to expand horizons and give the listener some versatility to appreciate (check the practical Cooper-worshipping closer in "The Night the Monsters Died"-it blows everything that came before out of the water) doesn't quite get up to standard, and we're left with a second half which is almost as confusing as its predecessing half. I can't quite pinpoint what went wrong after "Demonarchy" in all honesty, but the songs just never "fit" until "The Night the Monsters Died" is performed.
Sure, it's eventually better in comparison with its former half, but "Demonarchy" never really connects with the listener. Just like the first. And
that is exactly why
Monstereophonic presents itself as a record which was never destined to fail as a completed record, but ends up doing so anyway. Maybe Lordi are going to build on this direction in the future, and present to us something much grander and more sensible. No one knows what Lordi will do, but if there's more albums to come with the same shoddy quality of
Monstereophonic, the band's career will probably be heading for an early grave.
