Review Summary: Released less than six months after their formation, Monumentomb have released a complete sounding EP that raises the question; Just how much more will they achieve?
It's hard not to think of
Ritual Exhumation as the work of seasoned death metal veterans, however it would appear that this is not the case.
Monumentomb were formed in September 2013 while, rather incredibly,
Ritual Exhumation was released in February 2014.
Monumentomb's sound could be seen as the culmination of the British and Swedish death metal scenes of the early 90's with a nice dose of black metal atmosphere. A good example of these influences can be found on
Perennial Interment, where
Monumentomb take the pounding aggression of
Bolt Thrower and mix it with the rotten and twisted melodies of
Dismember. However, even with all the mentions of their influences,
Monumentomb are not by any means a tribute act. While formed out of their love for Old School Death Metal, they add a sense of modernity into their form of OSDM through their classy melodic tremolo lines and solos.
The band's overall performance is rather quite excellent with some fantastic guitar work from Byron Braidwood (who also handles vocals) and Alex Brown. While it is not always audible, Gaius Toulson's bass performance provides a great low-end and a thick sound. The drumming from Lee Charlton is also very solid and precise, although, along with the bass, is fairly typical of the genre. They form a solid rhythm section nonetheless. Finally, guitarist Braidwood's low growled vocals are a perfect fit for the sound of the EP, while some higher screams sprinkled throughout, such as in
Perpetual Execution Torment, add some variation that prevents any monotony from setting in.
Ritual Exhumation doesn't have any real low points aside from the possible arguments of it not being the most original release. All of the songs are solid, catchy and have replayability. The highlight of
Ritual Exhumation would have to be the larger-than-life but rather majestic blackened death metal of
Citadel Of The Living Dead that is very reminiscent of
God Dethroned. It is simply a sublime closer to the EP and leaves you craving for more.
Monumentomb are a breath of freash air to the UK death metal scene with their form of melodic blackened death metal. The fact that this release sounds like the work of death metal veterans is a great achievment in itself. If they can produce such a complete EP in less than six months of being a band, then who knows what they'll be able to do for their debut album? It will be interesting to see where they can go from here, and hopefully the best is yet to come.
