Review Summary: Expertly crafted deathgrind that's easy to forget
For a band as rich in talent as Blood Monolith, you’d be forgiven for expecting something more gripping than what’s displayed on “The Calling of Fire.” That’s not to say this is a bad debut album by any means, just a forgettable one.
In fact, I listened to this album when it came out in May and remember enjoying it before it fell off my radar until a couple weeks ago. Listening to it again several more times over the past few days reveals why.
Blood Monolith wastes no time on this record. At a blistering 27 minutes there’s no chance for niceties, or complex song structures, or memorable digressions. On the one hand this could show a calculated restraint focused only on delivering meat and potato tracks to the listeners. On the other hand, it could show a lack of truly memorable ideas or a fear of experimentation.
There are certainly plenty of things to like about “The Calling of Fire,” especially when viewed as a proof-of-concept album. The songs are dense and punishing and provide plenty of opportunities to headbang. The solos are clean, bite-sized and expertly deployed and the drumming is immaculate.
There’s also enough tasty licks to keep my fellow riff hounds satisfied. Throw on ‘Prayer to Crom’ or ‘Slaughter Garden’ to get a taste of what I mean. But then keep listening, because ‘Prayer to Crom’ provides a perfect example of this album’s flaws. After starting off strong, it settles into throwaway passages for half the track until the solo and accompanying riffs save it. It’s an issue throughout the album and shows a band that's offering both too much and too little – too many strong but scattered licks and not enough fleshed out ideas.
Most of the songs on this record clock in around the three minute mark. It’s longer than your average grind song, but not long enough to allow for the more developed song structures often employed by more memorable death metal outfits. It feels like many of these songs end right when they could have explored new ideas and truly bloomed.
That’s especially frustrating because songs like ‘Pyroklesis’ best showcases what the band is capable of. It’s a catchy slab of brutal death metal that pummels the listener into submission, catches them off guard with mid-tempo blasts and descends into a hellish almost blackened passage. It’s worth noting that it’s also the longest song on the album, requiring the band to actually employ some structure. I’d argue that ‘The Owl in Daylight’ comes close, and at just under four minutes is the second longest track on the album.
The musicians behind Blood Monolith are veterans and know how to write good music. They clearly made a choice to keep the songs lean, but I think this album would have benefited greatly had they decided to allow themselves more space to experiment and chase some rabbits down holes. I’m definitely hoping for a sophomore album, and one where the band allows their songs some space to breathe.
