THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT — Tetragrammaton (review)

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT — Tetragrammaton album cover Album · 2013 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Tetragrammaton" is the 4th full-length studio album by Dutch death metal act The Monolith Deathcult. The album was released through Season of Mist in May 2013. It´s been 5 years since the release of their 3rd full-length studio album "III: Triumvirate (2008)", but The Monolith Deathcult did re-record parts of, remix, and remaster their 2nd full-length studio album "The White Crematorium (2005)" for a 2010 re-release with the title "The White Crematorium 2.0", so they´ve kept themselves busy in the intermediate years.

Stylistically the music on "Tetragrammaton" is technically well played and relatively brutal death metal. That´s the band´s core sound, but they add sci-fi lyrics, samples, keyboards, and industrial ("H.W.A. (Human Wave Attack)" sounds a bit like Ministry with death metal vocals) and groove metal rhythms (check out "Drugs, Thugs & Machetes") to that basis sound, which make their music quite a bit more eclectic than your regular brutal death metal album. These guys are definitely out to test conventions and stretch boundaries.

This is by no means an avant garde type death metal release though, and you´ll still mainly be exposed to brutal growling vocals (only partially intelligible), brutal riffing, and mid-paced- to blast beat rhythms. The keyboards and the samples create an alien sci-fi atmosphere, that you won´t hear on many death metal releases out there, and the industrial and groove metal elements are definitely not "regular" death metal elements either.

The 7 track, 53:49 minutes long album features tracks between 6 and 8 minutes long. While the relatively long track times provide a platform for track development and semi-progressive ideas, the tracks often feel unneccesarily long. There´s no denying that The Monolith Deathcult have many intriguing innovative ideas, but the songwriting could have been a bit more concise for stronger and more immediate impact on the listener.

The album features a professional, powerful, clear, and very detailed sound production, which suits the layered music well. Personally I think the drums sound a bit too digitally processed and the same goes for the vocals, but I´m sure that´s a matter of aquired taste. So all in all "Tetragrammaton" is a strong release by The Monolith Deathcult although I have a few minor issues and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rot Stink Rip Death Metal
TOMBSTONER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 5 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed