I, Monarch

Hate Eternal managed to impress me with their thunderous debut, "Conquering the Throne". However, now, I find them quite generic and boring. And there's a good reason why: they're relying too much on their drummer!!! In this case, the only guy who made a big impact on this album was Derek Roddy.

I, Monarch actually starts out very well. Two Demons had this album coming out of the gates fast and furious! They managed to keep it up with the blazing "Behold Judas", which I consider the best song on the album. Great drumming, catchy lyrics, great vocals, and I even found the main riff quite memorable. "The Victorious Reign" is another blazer with many of the same elements as Behold Judas. To Know Our Enemies continues the fury, and then comes the atmospheric intro of "I, Monarch". At first, I thought "Oh boy, with such a great build-up, this song has to be great!"... only to be hit with massive disappointment. The rest of the song is just the same riff and blast beats over and over again. At this point, they fail to continue on their previous momentum, with only "Sons of Darkness" and the instrumental "Faceless One" keeping the second half of the album any more interesting.

I was shocked. How could such an awesome formula fail to keep me engaged in this album any further? The answer was simple: Derek Roddy overshadows everything. I'm a sucker for fast drummers, but sometimes, the constant blast beats and double kicks get quite boring and generic. Same for the guitar riffs: at some points in the album, they are quite memorable, but they are mostly just boring and generic.

Overall, I thought that this album had a blazing start, but the title track broke their previous momentum, and they just started playing boring and generic riffs the rest of the way. But the entire way, even on memorable songs like "Behold Judas", Derek Roddy's drumming just overshadowed everything.

Highlights: Behold Judas, The Victorious Reign