Review Summary: The spoils of the mountain climb.
Bands like Mono, Caspian, Explosions In The Sky, 65daysofstatic, If These Trees Could Talk, God Is An Astronaut, We Lost The Sea, Lights Out Asia, Sigur Ros and Hammock never receive conversations or reviews on here anymore. The arguments I consistently see are how they all sound the same or the absurd jab of people refusing to believe new works by these bands could be enjoyable. Would anyone know that Mono happened to release an album that is actually stellar called
Oath recently? The answer is a sad no because very few people give them a chance in fear it’ll sound the exact same as the last. In actuality, it's a sentiment that's understandable due to how fast life moves. However, in an insane plot twist, Mono sounds more invigorated and magical on
Oath than most of their albums.
Oath exists as the set example.
The album is worth the time of day due in fact to Mono’s sheer mastery of their craft. It recalls the simmering Ghibi inspired atmospheric fantasy story
Hymn To The Immortal Wind preaches. It was like climbing a snowy mountain. With
Oath comes a new brand of magical guitar tones and thrilling crescendoes that never fail to inject new life into the genre. This time, it's the spoils of making it to the top of that mountain. It’s the ebbing and flowing whirlpool of otherworldly textures that sets it apart from their other works that miss the mark. Most works past
Hymn To The Immortal Wind were lacking in passion and devoid of pinpointed direction. Little did Mono know that all that was needed was to stay the course and capitalize off that success. No amount of screams and post metal was needed in their sound.
While
Hymn exists as the glorious journey to the top of a magical mountain,
Oath picks up where it left off at the top. The listener is able to bask in it’s allure and light. Imagine infectious and honest positivity. It’s almost as if the objective is to jump off and fly, reveling in the completed journey that was
Hymn. The title track paints that picture brilliantly, with its buildup of horns, strings, fantastic drumming and guitar textures. It informs the listener of a stellar ride to come.
Make no mistake
Oath is also a work of epic foreshadowing throughout. “Run On” has massive drums and touching guitar tremolos that showcase this. It recalls a thrilling prep for some sort of battle. “Reflection” has a similar sound where its wistful ambient atmosphere and elegant harmonics give way to emotional tremolo climaxing. Mono made sure to like their songwriting boil and explode over at just the appropriate time. As evidenced by this, the band made use of the traditional post rock formula and injected tons of magical wonder into it.
Along with intense emotional climaxes comes a larger-than-life sense of renewal and wonder to the storytelling of guitars, drumming strings and bass. “Hear The Wind Sing” Collides all of this together in an earnest fantasy story of triumph. Similarly, “Moonlight Drawing” sees Mono flaunting Kauan influences with propulsive drumming. It sees the band only marching forward with comfortable ease. This is one of the many points the band enters a flow state that is nearly unmatched in their recent works. Mono reminded the listeners they are a rich cacophony of crescendoing instruments.
It’s perhaps “Time Goes By” that reaffirms Mono brought their best post rock foot forward. They managed to bring about earnest feelings of warmth, propulsion, enchantment and happiness to their frozen lake of wintry compositions.
Oath recalls the richness and twinkly beauty of their earlier works while carving an identity of its own within the vast Mono discography. The essence of beauty and massive fantasy atmosphere is a vision expertly realized here. Bloated for sure, but what exquisite works of fantasy are not? If listeners can overcome its length and flow with earnestly healing emotions,
Oath is sure to not disappoint.
