ALBUM REVIEW: From The Fathomless Deep – Behold! The Monolith
It’s been a long and tumultuous road for Los Angeles’ BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH. The progressive sludge power trio have dealt with triumph and loss in their 14 years of existence, and have spent the past six years playing in various other projects and endeavours. But now they have returned with their third album From The Fathomless Deep and re-awoken the lumbering beast within.
Just taking a look at the album artwork (courtesy of Dusty Peterson), you know you’re in for an epic treat, and when you see song titles like Stormbreaker Suite and Spirit Taker, that prediction is only validated further. Sure enough, as soon as you press play, you will be met with ferocious vocals on a bed of long drawn out chords on Crown/The Immeasurable Void. The first riff that comes in shortly after is nothing too spectacular, but it is already clear the sheer influence that the likes of Tony Iommi has had on BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH and guitarist Matt Price. As the song rumbles on, whispered lines of “Obsidian crown / Upon his head / Cosmic rule / Of living dead” add to a disgusting atmosphere that hangs thick in the air, before one final cascade of slow, beefy riffs to set us in good stead for the rest of the record.
BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH‘s debut album Defender, Redeemist was once described as a “musical reincarnation of the Wooly Mammoth” which is actually incredibly apt also for From The Fathomless Deep. There is something markedly Pleistocene about the songs; huge, fearsome riffs and great, infallible vocals are plastered across this atmospheric, explorative record from the opening chord to the last. But there’s also something incredibly industrious about it all, coming in a large part from the drums of Chase Manhattan. The tone he’s managed to produce off of his cymbals and skins manages to sound twisted and menacing, and always cuts through in the right amount. Never overbearing, but always present, it’s a phenomenal performance that elevates BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH on this record.
Spirit Taker is a perfect example of this – a song that has a heavy focus on the guitar, as indeed much of sludge and doom tends to, but Manhattan’s toms are always there holding everything in line, whether it’s the frenetic double time opening, or the main strolling riff. As a highlight of the record, we mustn’t keep the plaudits to one member; this is a spectacular snapshot of everything that BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH is. Price’s suite of solos in the back half of the song, teamed with Menno Verbaten’s ferocious vocals are hard to ignore, and sees the band at their boldest.
The Seams Of Pangaea meanwhile feels like something of a weak link on From The Fathomless Deep. It certainly takes a different approach, with a bass-led intro and sparse, dreamy guitar chords, before launching into a spoken word, gruffer iteration that runs amok from there. Attempts to go a bit more atmospheric are well appreciated, but there’s something of a patchwork approach to a song that tries to do so much, and it would arguably be better off losing the last couple of minutes where they launch back into maximum volume seemingly out of nowhere.
All told, From The Fathomless Deep is a slab of progressive sludge that brings everything you could expect of the genre to the table. BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH don’t try to reinvent the wheel, nor should they have to, and what they have produced here is just a rock solid example of what makes sludge so great.
Rating: 8/10
From The Fathomless Deep is set for release on July 15th via Ripple Music.
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