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The Monolith Deathcult > Bloodcvlts > Reviews > H_P Buttcraft
The Monolith Deathcult - Bloodcvlts

Bloodcvlts - 79%

H_P Buttcraft, September 16th, 2015

The Monolith Deathcult offers up mammoth-sized slabs of brutality and abominable power with twinges and hints of industrial and electronic music genres. And they do this in a way that is what death metal fans deserve, making the proportions completely biased towards the brutality. If you’ve never had the privilege to listen to The Monolith Deathcult’s music before, just try to imagine Dimmu Borgir if they had somehow managed to retain their credibility mixed with Nile if they weren’t so obsessed with ancient Egyptian culture. And then, on top of that, imagine the vocal duties taken over by Dr. Claw of the Inspector Gadget animated series from the 1980’s. And then, on top of that, just to add a new layer of zaniness to the mix, expect lots of industrial samples and programming.

The Monolith Deathcult come through your speakers like a giant, transforming, android war machine that is well versed in world history but has only one objective: the annihilation of the human race. If this sounds cool to you, go order “Bloodcvlts” this moment!

The songs on “Bloodcvlts” have a lot of what we’ve all come to love about The Monolith Deathcult; the epic symphonic samples interspersed over the chunky baritone guitar grooves, the guitar solos that pay homage to such insane floating tremolo massacres similar to those from Celtic Frost, Nile and Morbid Angel, the ballistic blast beats that sound like titanium machine guns going off. It’s enough death metal for anybody to chew on.

Quite frankly, I would highly recommend The Deathcult Monolith for people who are curious about what death metal is all about or just starting to express interest in the genre. They don’t fit in with the old school bands like Death, Autopsy or Suffocation but if a young boy or girl is looking for a death metal band they can get behind, why not The Monolith Deathcult? They are easily more accessible than a lot of other post-modern death metal bands out there right now that are too weighed down with trying to write the perfect slam breakdown or trying to be pretentious and experimental with the complexities commonly associated with the genre.

Despite being super cool, I do have a bit of a bone to pick with The Monolith Deathcult. The most obnoxious thing about The Monolith Deathcult has got to be their infatuation over EDM. And “Bloodcvlts” was no exception when I saw that they shoehorned a dance remix called “Die Waffe Mensch”. This song is remixing the song “Todesnacht Von Stammheim” from their last release “Tetragrammaton.” There were a few songs in the past that present the band’s inclination to create disingenuous dance music on a death metal record. Just listen to the tongue-in-cheek song “Kindertodeslied” from “Trivmvirate” and you’ll see what I mean.

“Tetragrammaton” was completely ruined by The Monolith Deathcult’s attitude towards taking anything about atmosphere and ambiance seriously. What easily would’ve been a superb follow-up to the beast of an album that “Trivmvirate” was ended up being a huge let down to fans of The Monolith Deathcult and other death metal fans that have successfully developed out of puberty. Even though I was highly pleased with The Monolith Deathcult’s decision to include the talents of Peter Cullen, the actor that provides the voices of Optimus Prime and Tony the Tiger, “Tetragrammaton” was not everything that it should’ve been. I found it humorous for Optimus Prime to be featured on a Dutch death metal album but that joke didn’t need to take five years to be set up.

The Monolith Deathcult score another success on “Bloodcvlts”. Some of my favorite moments of this album would be “Doom of the Tawusê Melek” and the EP’s finale, an unplugged rendition of “Den Ensomme Nordens Dronning” from “Trivmvirate” with a much different take on that song’s original vocals. They may not have fully redeemed themselves after “Tetragrammaton” but this EP is a good start in that direction of becoming the masters of the death metal universe they once were.

Originally published on Metal-Temple.com, 3-23-2015.