(Written by Islander)
In March of this nearly-ended year we premiered a full stream of Ego Sum Dolor, the fourth album to emerge, after four years of work, from the Saint Petersburg death metal band Monastery Dead. It was co-released by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Australis Records (Chile). And today we have a couple of reminders of what a strong album it was (and is), including our premiere of a thrilling full-band playthrough video of Monastery Dead performing the album track “Revelation.”
But the first reminder, if you’ll indulge me, is to repeat a few things we wrote in a review accompanying that album stream last March:
If your Latin is rusty, the album’s title translate to “I am pain”, or perhaps “I am in pain”. Consistent with that title, the concept of the album is described as follows:
This is a story about a man doomed to experience all the suffering and torment destined for him in his life, here and now. He bears the burden of merciless retribution, which, like stigmata, he acquired by birthright, experiences pain and inflicts pain, is obsessed with destruction and destroys himself. His own wounds and those of his victims will never heal and will bleed forever.
Or to put it more succinctly: “The basis of the concept of the release is the idea that the real hell is our current existence on Earth.”
With an inspiration and an outlook such as that, it will come as no surprise that the music itself is tormented, vicious, and punishing on multiple levels. Moreover, the production quality channels the music with both sharpness and distinct separation among the ingredients, but without sacrificing the music’s often brutalizing power.
What might come as a surprise is that this music is about as far from dreary, depressive, or doom-saturated as you could possibly imagine. It is instead an explosive, head-spinning extravaganza, a non-stop spectacle. Indeed, there’s no point of any significant duration when the band ease back on their wide-open throttle, no real chance for you to take any deep breaths or to calmly reflect on the furious extravagance of what’s happening. Yet the spectacle is so… spectacular… that it doesn’t wear out its welcome, even if it might leave you needing a nap afterward.
In March we wrote a lot more about Ego Sum Dolor, but let’s focus now on the song that’s the subject of our video premiere.
“Revelation” has many moving parts, each of them shifting quickly. The riffing blazes, swirls, and darts in frenzies of viciousness and distress, with the bass bubbling and morphing just as quickly. The drums hammer and cavort. A brilliantly-toned guitar solo spirals and contorts in a dazzling display that is somehow both ecstatic and tormented. And Anton Malov‘s ferocious gutturals manage to keep pace with his bandmates’ head-spinning onslaughts.
What makes the professionally filmed and well-edited video such a thrill is that it allows us to see all these technically very talented musicians doing all those eye-popping things, in the flesh:
MONASTERY DEAD is:
Anton Malov — vocals
Kirill Tatarinov — guitars, backing vocals
Vadim Nikolaev — bass
Kirill Zharikov — drums
As we wrote before, this album is likely to appeal to fans of such bands as old-school Suffocation, Immolation, Pestilence, and other bands capable of combining technical mastery and intricacy with savagery, and they bring in proggy proclivities as well.
Satanath and Australis released Ego Sum Dolor in a jewel-box CD edition with a 20-page booklet, limited to 500 copies, and also digitally. The cover art is the work of Ivan Stan. In addition to the links below we’re also including a full stream of the album.
ORDER:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat366-monastery-dead-ego-sum-dolor-2024
http://www.australisrecords.com/
MONASTERY DEAD:
http://monasterydead.ru/
http://monastery-dead.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/monasterydeadspb
http://www.instagram.com/monasterydead