Review Summary: Delivered with a side of fresh and original instrumentation. If you don't like it, spit it out.
Monuments.
What else can I say? Originally formed by John Browne and Josh Travis (from
Fellsilent and
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza respectively), and now utilizing other members such as vocalist Matt Rose and drummer Mike Malyan, Monuments took a little while to release
Gnosis. In that time, we now hear an improvement in their sound and overall instrumental tone. But the album is still djent.
Since bands like
Periphery,
TesseracT and
Vildhjarta made the
Meshuggah-esque prog-metal tone more popular within the metal culture (not to mention
SikTh or the hundred other bands I missed) and pretty much every seven-stringer and double-pedaller got on the hype, we've obtained some excellent bands such as France's
Uneven Structure, (as I previously mentioned) TesseracT, and
Textures. Even then, however, it's a brand of metal created simply to sound like Meshuggah or reinvent the tone the Swedish metal legend employed.
Onto the actual album. Songs like
Blue Sky Thinking,
Admit Defeat, and
The Uncollective show the more groove-laden side of the album, and showcase the pounding mechanical guitars and Rose's vocals which, somehow, seem to fit in with everything. Then you have the highlights of their technical drum stylings, commissioned by Malyan; they are best shown in songs such as
Doxa,
97% Static, and (again)
The Uncollective.
The whole release is peppered with distortion and impressively well-done guitar downtunings, while the drum fills are seasoned with fast, beating polyrhythmic patterns. And Matt's raw and occasionally melodic vocals are sprinkled over all the other instruments; in various sections they either give the tangy screams of Jens Kidman or leave a bitter aftertaste of Spencer Sotelo. Enough with the hotel buffet metaphors, though. The whole album is performed well: for a release that's labeled "
DJENT" burnt on it with a iron cattle brand.
Speaking of Sotelo in the previous paragraph, one more highlight that seems to spice up the album (couldn't help myself) is album closer
Denial. It features Periphery's somewhat controversial vocalist giving his two cents around the song. If you enjoy Periphery, this song would make anyone who loves djent instantly scream in absolute joy. If you don't...well, you'll view this song as a detrimental fall for Monuments, despite the fact that
Corelia did it too with their song
Treetops.
For all it's worth,
Gnosis is a massive step ahead in the progressive metal genre. It's catchy, groovy, and it succeeds in what it does. But even a perfect bowl of soup has its flies; this album will get drooled upon by djent fans everywhere. However, it is a great album and quite possibly the best prog-metal/djent/whateveryouwannacallit release of 2012. Well done, Monuments.
(I swear I'll stop with the food references. Buy this album, it's worth the 20-something dollars you can pay for it.)
Madz's Overall Rating: A-
