Behold! The Monolith
Defender, Redeemist
BTM Records
As proven before, Behold! The Monolith’s stoner sludge is for subhumans only, and it is on Defender, Redeemist, their second full-length, that the LA trio delve further into the subterranean, digging out their descent with sledgehammers, not shovels. Defender, Redeemist is rife with ground and pound riffs, and tracks like “Halv King,” “Desolizator,” “We Are the Worm,” and “Witch Hunt Supreme” are a glorious feast of mud pies and smegma cakes, each one belching out High On Fire fury amidst tremulous and atmospheric aggression. However, it’s on the album’s three longest songs, “Redeemist,” “Cast On The Black/Lamentor/Guided By The Southern Cross,” and “Bull Colossi,” that the band is at its most heinous, laying down an ageless, soul-sucking black metal doom that ebbs, flows, and screams in myriad glorious ways. Add to that Billy Anderson’s production work and Dusty Peterson’s art work (which kind of reminds me of a re-imagined Screaming for Vengeance), and Defender, Redeemist is one hell of a monster on so many different levels.
Listen to “Halv King” from Defender, Redeemist!
Posted by Jeff on Jan 16 2012 in Reviews Tags: ageless, aggression, atmospheric, Behold! The Monolith, Billy Anderson, black, BTM Records, Cast On The Black/Lamentor/Guided By The Southern Cross, Defender Redeemist, Desolizator, doom, Dusty Peterson, fury, glorious, ground, Halv King, heinous, hell, High on Fire, LA, Metal, monster, mud, pound, Redeemist, relentless, riffs, Screaming for Vengeance, shovels, sledgehammers, sludge, smegma, soul, stoner, subhumans, subterranean, sucking, tremulous, trio, We Are the Worm, Witch Hunt Supreme
