(This is DGR’s review of a new EP released earlier this month by the Australian trio Bog Mönster.)
When the collection of everything you intend to review consists of a smorgasbord of EPs and albums, tackling two songs can feel both like cheating and like mana from the heavens. The brain doesn’t have to keep track of as much but also you’re kicking yourself for daring to veer from the intended path. However, sometimes you will have a release that speaks loud enough that it compels you to spread the word about it.
Australian sludge group Bog Mönster’s newest EP Duelling Horrors is one such release, consisting of the aforementioned two songs and about ten and a half minutes of music. Bog Mönster had an EP and an album to their name prior to these Duelling Horrors, and their newest arrives close to two years after their previously mentioned album Servants Of The Necrosect back in 2024.
Bog Mönster have all the appearances of being one of a classic ilk that have inspired generations of the washed-out-in-distortion generation of doom bands but musically are in a different segment of the venn diagram. They are monstrously heavy – great, given the source matter for the EP’s two songs – and are a combination of acidic sludge and death metal on Duelling Horrors.
It may seem like you could track just where opener “Ornstein and Smough” is going to head after its introductory guitar lead, but the concrete-crushing rhythm segment that follows probably isn’t it. It sounds gigantic, with each downward chug resembling an inhuman footfall, and it breaks the song out from a pack that likely expected large bends and swings on the guitar front only to get something intent on annihilating the misery it would normally wallow in, instead. The vocals are a combination of caustic barbarism that fits well with the slow crawl of the music, punctuated by shout after shout that, yes, allows for a good yell of the titular “Ornstein and Smough” characters mid-way through the song.
While it’s not entirely discussing the exploits of the pairing – and who would expect a lore deep-dive – the dual horror of the two coming after you is well captured within the spirit of the song. The groove incorporated here is hypnotic and dredges its way into the lower part of the grey matter. It’s mind-numbingly obvious just where you’ll be headbanging and you’ll still find yourself into it. Bog Mönster be damned for appealing to your base instincts in such a way!
“Artax” is the longer and noisier of the two songs, fluctuating between the heavy groove and thundering drumming of the song before it and a little bit more chaotic on the tempo switching. The opening segue is awash in noise before it congeals into the mighty roars of the first lyrics, which from there settles into the heave and throw of a solid sludge track. Every time the double-bass drum hammers its way through the mid-section of the song, it hits with the impact of a car accident. They happen in flashes and starts, rather than being a constant rumble for the song to settle upon – though you could say that if anything is a constant for “Artax”, it’s the near-non-stop cymbal work that crashes throughout.
Bog Mönster are putting forth tremendous effort in the opening segments of “Artax” before one big, sudden wall of silence that shoves the song into its final, laborious crawl to the end. That final “cut” before the ending riff leads into a quiet guitar section that sails through the air as if wielded by an expert sword fighter. Bouyed by some solid and hazmat-worthy vocals, “Artax” is equally as terrifying as its sibling before it and does a solid job bookending the two song EP.
Duelling Horrors is a fantastic way to start metal’s explorations in March. This pairing of songs is strong enough that you can understand Bog Mönster wanting to release them on their own. Bog Mönster are occupying an interesting realm in the hybrid sludge space, one that is leagues heavier than you might expect off an introductory pass but still has enough solid groove to it that the headbanging is insidiously infectious. You could fight it but it’ll creep up on you anyway, with both songs finding that universal mid-tempo that speaks to a hidden part of the human brain which declares “you will move”.
At ten and a half minutes, Duelling Horrors burns very bright and extinguishes just as fast; at two songs it is well worth the time investment and could easily segue people in both directions of Bog Mönster’s overall career, by signaling that you have been seriously missing out on their previous releases and also hinting at something truly stunning from them in the future.
https://bogmonster.bandcamp.com/album/duelling-horrors
https://www.facebook.com/bogmonsterband
https://www.instagram.com/bogmonsterband