April 2022 Feature Release – The Fallen Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Fallen has been nominated by myself. It's the 2012 sixth album from female-fronted French drone/sludge four-piece Monarch! entitled "Omens", a record that blew me away at the time of release. I even saw them play live on the associated tour in support of Saint Vitus but strangely have not returned to the record since so it'll be interesting to see if it's maintained it's appeal for me & also what you lot make of it.

https://metal.academy/releases/16810

OK, so I've never even heard of Monarch! before, let alone heard any of their albums, so I went into this completely blind, apart from having an inbred aversion to bands who use punctuation marks in their names. Anyway, not to worry as this is right up my street. Slowly heaving, mega-distorted drone riffs with arresting female vocals, whether they are screaming in red-faced frustration or angelically crooning to the heavens. This is exactly how I love drone metal to sound, with the vocal atmospherics used as a counterpoint to the monolithic droning of the riffing, a siren call of redemption set against the crushing weight of the instrumentation. The almost twenty-minute closer, Black Becomes the Sun, is a fantastic piece of disturbing, droning wonderfulness with a seriously unhinged vocal performance from the terribly-monickered Eurogirl.

Count me all-in on this one and kudos for a brilliant underground selection, Daniel.

4.5/5

Now, THIS.. ladies & gentlemen.. is what I regard as some elite level The Fallen material. It utterly destroyed me back on my solo trip to Europe back in 2012 & it still leaves me completely decimated today. The super-dense & immersive drone metal guitar tone & dark ambience of this release sees me thoroughly captivated throughout & it's only Emilie's sweet clean vocals during the first third of epic nineteen minute drone metal monster "Black Becomes the Sun" that leave me falling a smidge short of a full five star rating, the first two of the three tracks included having been nothing short of perfectly aligned with my personal taste profile. The twelve minute opener "Blood Seeress" is my pick of the three songs offering a cripplingly dark sludge metal assault with Emilie sounding truly demonic as she screams & shrieks like it's her last moment on Earth. Four minute dark ambient piece "Transylvanian Incantations" opts for an alternative approach but is no less emotionally engaging & intoxicatingly cerebral. It's hard to see how "Omens" hasn't made more of a dent of the underground scene but I guess that's just an indication of how challenging the appeal of drone metal can be for your average punter, even those that have been raised on extreme metal. But you know what? Fuck what anyone thinks because this record was meticulously designed for people like Sonny & I (yes, I did pick this one specifically for you mate) & I'll be fucked if I'm not gonna celebrate it in all of it's bowel-movement inducing sludgery & trance-like majesty.

4.5/5

I think it's a pretty safe bet that very few drone metal releases will get much traction with the "average punter". Drone metal is one of those extreme genres that provides greater reward the more the listener is willing to invest and many just can't get past the surface. But for those who are able, when done well, it can be an hallucinatory and revelatory listening experience that is well worth the effort. That said, though, Monarch! do seem to be lacking in exposure, even in a niche genre like drone metal and that is a great shame because Omens is as good as anything the genre has to offer.