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!

Rising
To Solemn Ash
Exile On Mainstream

Yes, Rising’s To Solemn Ash was released last year overseas, but since this here is its North American release, I don’t feel tardy in telling you all about its sludgy goodness, dig? Following a four-song EP in 2009 and a 7″ single in 2010, To Solemn Ash finds the Danish trio finally putting a massive effort into a full-length, and oh what a monumental design it be. As though guardians of some Copenhagen castle, gargoyles perched high in the blackest of skies, Rising preside over the kingdom of heavy with a stony, melodic glare. The swirling storm that is To Solemn Ash swells with opener “Mausoleum,” its dark, corpse-painted intro-riffing eerily akin to Behemoth’s “Ov Fire and the Void,” but as the album thunders on, it comes to pass that Rising were not born of the extreme black, but that they are, in fact, doomed descendants of the Baroness bloodline. So they carry themselves accordingly throughout, beset by beasts both basilisk and sharp-toothed hound, themselves grotesque creatures commanding a thick rush of temper-metal weather and spreading brutally fancy dread.

Listen to “Through The Eyes of Catalysis” from To Solemn Ash!

I know I’m getting to the BOM early, but I’m only going to have one more post after this before we move into next year, and besides, I already have the recipients picked out, so I don’t see any need to tarry. Oh, and if you don’t know by now, December is henceforth renamed Decembeard, although I do encourage you to just grow a beard every month, forever and always. Ok?

Now, this month’s winner is whomever this guy is! While I don’t know his name, I do love his beard; I can only hope my beard seasons itself as beautifully as his has. This savory gentleman, who, given the time of year, might be the coolest Santa ever with a beat-up pick-up for a sled, was posted on The Twilight Singers’ facebook page, and not only is it a terrific shot featuring a terrific beard, it’s got Greg Dulli’s fingerprints on it. Also terrific. Anyway, sir, your beard is storm born and wicked as hell, so congratulations!

Oh, and this month’s runners up are Kevin Clark and Tim Herzog from the North Carolina sludge metal band Black Skies. I never got around to reviewing their new album, On the Wings of Time, so I’m making up for it by honouring their singer/guitarist and drummer right here and now. But really, they would’ve made it based on those beards alone because those are some legit fuckers. Sea captain up front, wizard in the rear. Hell of a job, fellas.