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Review Summary: A requiem for Mono's better days One popular pet peeve about the band Mono is that the Japanese quartet creates the same albums over and over again. This opinion is often pressed upon the genre of music that they belong to, which is post rock, as it’s a genre of music dedicated to building intense climaxes by way of repetitious and/or obscure instrumentalism, which for some only yields a drowsy and bored reaction. While Mono’s overall strategy varies little on each release, their approach of creating these intense emotions does differ, as demonstrated on sister albums “The Last Dawn” and the brooding “Rays of Darkness”; each release is just a different leaf grown from the same root.
And the root of Mono’s music lies with their ability to craft immersive music that hooks onto your heart and never stops pulling on the strings. “You Are There” and “Hymn to the Immortal Wind” were definitive post metal albums as they nailed the technique in creating prolonged intensity and pinpointing when a crescendo should be triggered for maximum effect. However in the 7 years since “Hymn to The Immortal Wind” was unveiled, Mono has been sounding a bit too familiar for anyone to get excited about. “Requiem for Hell” is Mono’s ninth album and finally sees them beginning to flaunt their majestic mastery once more.
“Requiem for Hell” is based on Dante’s epic poem “Divine Comedy” that tells the tale of the poet travelling through ‘Hell’, then ‘Purgatory’ and finally ‘Heaven’. The album shares qualities of the poem whereby Mono lead us on a sonic journey through a range of subtly different moods. The journey begins with “Death in Rebirth” which features the typical timbre guitars of Taka and Yoda for the entire span of the song. It’s textured with gloomy bass, refracting guitars, angelic choirs and fretful drumming that all increase in tempo to create a fearful atmosphere. ‘Ely’s Heartbeat’ follows a similar song structure as everything past the spacey introduction is one massive crescendo. Although it’s a hypnotic song, where the ponderous piano beats in time to a steady, literal heartbeat, there are no new ideas in this song that we haven’t already heard from the rest of the album, let alone Mono’s career.
At nearly 18 minutes, there is a lot of pressure riding on the title track. While it could do with serious trimming off the first and final third of the song, the soothing melody that Mono massage into your brain at the start is gorgeously infectious. The mid paced groove that follows eventually glides into a spacious synth setting that clearly resembles Dante’s ‘Purgatory’. Once cleansed, the docile guitars turn to darker territories. Worry leads to fear, fear leads to panic and panic leads to sheer terror; if claustrophobia had a sound then this would be it.
As a standalone album, “Requiem for Hell” is an engaging, mesmeric album that develops various emotions through its undemanding 45 minutes. However, compared to what we know Mono is capable of, the album is unadventurous, unsurprising and only refracts past ideas. Despite the great potential “Requiem for Hell” has, it can’t seem to claw its way to the emotional summit that Mono left their mark on in their glory days.
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the album artwork is from the same set of illustrations for The Divine Comedy that Funeral Diner's "The Underdark" artwork is from
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fun fact:
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thanks sach bby
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
great review. i was gona review this too but never got round to it. glad theres a place to discuss it finally. i give it a rating of "good" because i just love mono's style above most other bands. the way they make sounds is exactly how i want a postrock band to make sounds. so im gonna find something to like for that general reason. also the first track is so adrenaline-pumping with its increasing tempo that just keeps going and going getting constantly more energetic and exciting. but other than that its still by far one of mono's least exciting albums. mostly is a retread of their last two albums (meeting them square in the middle) and kind of comes across like they werent really trying to be honest. its a pretty lazy album, compositionally. and the first track sounded better on the split EP as well cause it didnt have that annoying wall of fuzz on it that completely obscures the awesome drums like on this version.
i give it a good rating because i love the sounds that the band makes... but its really hard to objectively praise this album considering it is nowhere near as thoughtful as their past works, and isnt even as good as either of the albums they brought out two years ago, despite sounding exactly like them.
calling DarkNoctus for his thoughts.
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I have moved on from this band. When I need this kind of over-the-top, bombastic post rock I listen to In Each Hand A Cutlass. Excellent review and thanks.
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I like this release, not sure how much. But I like it all the same.
I'm seeing Mono with Alcest in a few weeks. That should be a really good evening.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Good review, although reads like a 3.5 - 4 to me. I'm enjoying the album very much, can't wait to see them live in Leeds next month.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Not bad but most of this is so soulless and unimaginative, unlike Hymn, which really takes my mind to unexpected places. First half of t/t and Stellar are awesome though.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
really nice to hear Steve Albini back on board, his sound is unmistakable with these guys
t/t kinda meanders to me but I love the rest of this and I'm glad they kept things relatively concise after that double album
| | | Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off
It's only 46 mins long so I know what I'm jamming today.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
enjoyed this much more on second listen
the back half of the t/t is the only real weak spot for me, and I feel like that sticks out for most people since it's arguably the big centerpiece of the disc, which is kind of a let down
but the opener and Ely's Heartbeat are some of the best songs they've done post-Hymn, and the closer isn't too shabby either
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
"Hymn" is the best post-rock album ever, for my money. "Parents" was not far behind.
So everything they've done since then has not been the same, although the last album was still also terrific.
This, unfortunately, is a definite step down. It is still not really enthralling me aside from select moments, a lot of them on the title track. Stellar is a nice tune too.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off
calling DarkNoctus for his thoughts.
hated it
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
As I've said before most post rock is hard for me to hate, cause it's just one of the most pleasant genres ever created, for me at least, but this just lacks everything that makes a post rock album great.
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so this band is pretty much dead now eh
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they have been since '09
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Yea they haven't made any breathtaking songs like Pure As Snow ever since
| | | Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off
idk, they stripped away the only thing i thought was really captivating and unique about mono, as a straight-faced post-rock band they've always faltered, there are far too many bands who do this brand of post-rock way better
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
What was that something for you?
| | | Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off
the way that the orchestra took over a lot of the melody and made it so cinematic and massive
i practically dropped of the face of the earth when listening to this, found it so boring, i may give it another try but i can't really see repeated listens changing my mind
tbf 1.5 is too harsh, it wasn't offensively awful in any way, bumping to 2
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