Charles Dingus of Witch Mountain and Blackwitch Pudding once said to me "I just want metal bands to do something different." Today's review focuses on a group who are nothing, if not totally different. Monsterworks are a band who seem to base their sound on paradigm shifts, the transitions from loud to soft, dark to light. This is a band who can gently ease themselves from Cynic-like jazz-metal madness to much heavier and darker death metal and make it sound natural. There are a lot of strange twists and turns in Overhaul, and making head or tail of them poses an interesting challenge.
Perhaps the best way to communicate how weird, Monsterworks can be, we must first look at how they bill themselves. Their Facebook page claims that the band is "Progressive thrash supermetal" and in this world of psychotropic trips and carburetor dung perhaps that is the only way to refer to this band. There are influences from all over the board on Overhaul and that makes it into a fully immersive listening experience. Monsterworks have crafted a strange world for themselves, one that can use mystical chants and crazed growls, often in the context of the same song. The end result is a record that forces you to think and to try to find where you belong in this crazy old mixed up universe of ours.
Channeling the mysterious might of Overhaul is no mean task. There are twisted riffs reminiscent of Pantera alongside jazzy passages that suggest an impressive musical education. The melodic lines are tight and memorable, forcing you into the strange heap of broken images that represents Monsterworks music. These guys are definitely pretty far 'out there' yet for me that only adds to the beauty. If you can dig Monsterworks you can dig just about anything, simply because they don't feel the need to follow any of the rules or bullshit that dominate so much of the metal world. Overhaul is the sound of freedom, and that is what makes it ultimately great.
Find Monsterworks on Facebook!
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