The Nacarat

I'd never heard of Monobrow until this, their fourth album, came out this year so I have no idea what the band's first three albums are like compared to this one. Apparently "The Nacarat" represents a change of direction for these guys: there's a dystopian concept of class-based sci-fi fantasy warfare behind "The Nacarat" as indicated by intriguing track titles like "The First Vague Rumblings of Impending Revolution" and "The Decline of the West and other Small Tragedies". Opening track "The First Vague Rumblings ...", appropriately riding on the vague rumblings of a crowd of angry protesters, finally unveils itself as a heavy melodic traditional doom metal song strong on muscular riff hooks and enough pop melodies that all the song needs to transition to potential singles material is some sung lyrics. Heavy brooding bass rumble, menacing guitar grind and occasional moments of atmospheric foreboding put more meat on the song.

Just when you think we're in for some heavy doom sludge graveness, along comes a very trippy psychedelic stoner number, "Capes and Monocles", that has moments of seriousness, but is just as equally light-hearted and loopy in its bubbly effects and jaunty riffs and rhythms. This is quite a long song and the band mixes the light-hearted cosmic bubbles with quieter dark ambient music and sometimes urgent, even desperate prog / hard rock melodies. The trippiness continues onto the next track which boasts a few heavy riffs and runaway lead guitar soloing: while parts are very solid, the overall result seems to be all over the shop going from doom sobriety and brooding acoustic guitar to zany jamming and listeners will be wondering if they're meant to take this song seriously or not.

The musicians finally make up their minds with "Twin Sheiks", a doomy, almost sludge-like track that still breaks out into lighter hard rock grooving and spirals of space ambient drone wash. The noodling around definitely has a serious purpose and sudden frantic lead guitar runs in the later part of the track have the air of warning sirens. The closer "The Decline of the West ..." turns out to be a very complex piece that embraces dark urban blues melodies and atmospheres, but tends to be a bit too busy for a track that ends off an album about a possibly apocalyptic war that rends a society apart.

I definitely think the earlier half of "The Nacarat" is superior to the rest of the album, with the greatest contrasts in style and mood and attitude present in the first two songs. Later songs are not bad but something of the earlier sober attitude disappears and the band seems to fuss and fiddle more with their instruments than to focus on creating and generating definite mood and atmosphere that reflect the album's theme. Listeners who don't care too much about what the album is about will enjoy the roller-coaster ride up hill and down dale through exotic surreal science fantasy realms. The songs might have been improved a bit if there'd been a few sung lyrics at the beginning of each track or at particular points in songs before extended jams. On the whole though, this is an enjoyable work of instrumental doom / stoner rock that just missed the space bus to greatness.