Okta Khora

Okta Khora is based around the concept of an alien civilization that believes it must bring the universe back to it's primordial chaos. This civilization has a zealous need to destroy everything in order to achieve it's religious aim, believing that they are in their "Eighth Crusade". The concept also encompasses the other races' fruitless attempts to oppose these maniacal zealots. The band have compared this civilization's irresistible crusade against all life as analogous to our current climate crisis and the helplessness felt by individuals in the face of it.

This is Monolithe's eighth full-length album and the number 8 looms large within it. Apart from the title with Okta referencing the number eight and the aliens of the story embarking on their eighth crusade, the album's eight tracks are, cryptically, split into four instrumentals, or more accurately two 2-part instrumentals, of four minutes duration each and four tracks with vocals lasting eight minutes each. This temporal wizardry is not a new concept to the band and, for me, doesn't compromise the integrity of the music.

Monolithe have virtually abandoned the funeral doom of their early works at this point with the focus more on a progressive death doom sound that is reminiscent of classic-era Opeth (especially on third track, Dissonant Occurence, which is somewhat of a departure for the band).

The two parts of instrumental Ignite the Heavens at the heart of the album are where the band really lose their shit and go all out, illustrating the unstoppable might of the psychotic aliens, with wailing jazz-like sax, flute, cello and martial rhythms. The Great Debacle that follows this two-part instrumental is probably closest to early Monolithe in tone, with huge riffs and growling, menacing vocals, although it does feature a guitar solo from guest Victor Gnôle of Ethmebb that is more histrionic than Monolithe's usual style. This track and the ensuing Disrupted Firmament with it's effects-heavy clean vocals provide the climax to the album's concept as the defeated civilizations reflect on their fate and accept annihilation. Ending with part two of the opening instrumental, the loop is closed and, presumably the seeds for the Ninth Crusade are sown.

I love a good concept album and, for my money, this is a great one with complex progressive doom songwriting and lyrics and a concept to rival space opera classics like the Expanse and Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth sagas.

As with some of their prior experiments, French doom majesties Monolithe like to meddle with the uniform math of their song constructs here. There are eight tracks on the CD, all at 4 or 8 minutes in length, although once you join the "Otra Khora" and "Ignite the Heavens" two-parters, all of them are 8 minutes. One has to admire the nerve these guys have in trying to make this all work...does it end up that some tunes are needlessly repetitive, and others cut off before their time? Or are they just so damn skilled as songwriters that they can effortlessly pull this off? I actually feel that the gimmick doesn't always work the best here, with some of the cuts not ending all that wonderfully, the set times a constraint, but it's a small mar on what is otherwise a magnificent record.

This is one dramatic, unique band which perfectly melds the power of melodic guttural-driven doom with more graceful, airy passages that often consistent of cleaner guitars plucking along as they ebb and flow forth from the more distorted chord passages and endlessly beautiful multi-tier harmonies, some of which are more traditional for metal but others almost serve like an ambient, cloudy layer that hovers above it all. There are a few freeform, jazzy influences wrought through the saxophone, but the whole record feels like these repeated rays of lights piercing a foggy, hazy firmament, like a more metallic parallel to some of Pink Floyd's mellow, atmospheric 80s material. There's a near constant sense of elevation through some of the tunes, like "Ignite the Heavens (Part 1)", where it gives the listener the impression he or she has escaped gravity and is floating upwards, floor by floor parallel to some high rise building. It's a bit spotty and messy, especially how the transitions are clipped between certain tracks, but when you're actually embraced in the midst of one of this band's songs there is simply no denying the dazzling array they cast between fits of hope and melancholy.

I'm not a big proponent for all the cleaner vocals, they can get a little warbly or awkward, but they're thankfully not legion throughout this, and the death growl is perfectly placed to add some ballast to the lighter material. Tracks like "The Great Debate" are, well, monolithic, steady and weighted just right to keep the listener engaged even if they move almost entirely at the same pace. There's always some new hint of light, melody or eeriness about any corner of the compositions, a stray melodic note you didn't pick up, a shimmering, radiant atmospheric effect in the backdrop which constantly moves the music in more dimensions than it would have if they used less tracking. It's powerful, poignant, and a record that, like the previous Nebula Septem, which is trying to forge forward in a subgenre that often relies too much on the same old formulas or tricks. There are few if any other groups out there which sound a whole lot like this one, and while there are some stylistic similarities throughout their own discography, each album feels like a statement, an adventure all to itself. Hard to pull off so much character in a catalog that was once dominated by Roman numerated tracks or album titles, but Monolithe succeeds with room to spare.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com