Day: January 22, 2016

The fifth album of the French Monolithe shows its element of novelty already from the title, which goes to interrupt the numerical sequence that has been going on since the debut in 2003. In addition, even in this case for the first time, we have three tracks of a quarter of an hour each instead of the canonical and endless single track, but also from a purely musical point of view the changes are significant, although less obvious. The evolution started with III has progressively distanced the Parisian band from the more orthodox funeral, making the sound more peculiar and increasing exponentially the cosmic component that, previously, was found more at a conceptual level than in the substance. The music of Monolithe now has a solemn pace, which instinctively leads back to the immensity of the universe rather than the evil of living, as the coordinates of the genre would like, but certainly does not diminish the sense of transience of existence, represented by the dismay of man in front of space-time dimensions that the intellect of an insignificant mortal being is prevented from imagining. As always, the voice of Richard Loudin intervenes effectively without ever overflowing, leaving the music to have the upper hand over the words. Epsilon Aurigae is full of moments with a high emotional rate, enclosed in a mature and at the same time peculiar sound context and, ultimately, is yet another great album by a band that, along with few others in the doom field, is able to exhibit a stylistic figure almost unique.

2015 – Debemur Morti Productions