Sacred Monster - Worship the Weird (2019)
We last heard from Sacred Monster back
in the days of 2015, with the two tracks of their sophomore EP,
Monster Double Feature.
Nearly a decade into the band's tenure, they're releasing their first
full album, bearing eight tracks fusing groovy heavy metal with a
broad range of horror influences and black/death metal-styled vocals.
The riffs are fun and lively, the spikes of embellishment done with
high style (check out the harmonized peaking in “The Wraith” when
you get a chance), the rhythms both solid and fluid, and it's clear
that the band had fun devising the assorted ways of communicating
horror flavors and occurrences in musical form.
The
melodic flavor of “Waverly Hills” (one of the tracks based on a
horror story of the band's own devising) brings Ghost to mind, to an
extent, but for the most part, it's hard to pull comparisons to other
bands for the songs. You might think 'Oh, there's some Motorhead,'
or 'That feels kind of Quiet Riot-ish,' but outside of the band
leaning more towards '80s heavy metal than the more occult-flavored
'70s groups, their influences seem too diverse to pin down. The
guitar-work leads most of the songs, and the guitarist does a great
job of coming up with ways to keep the character and approaches of
his role fresh, going from bluesy to thrashy to old-school heavy
metal on a dime. The rest of the band meshes into it superbly,
ramping up and toning down as the tone demands, and the band as a
whole does a great job of keeping consistent character going without
tiring it out by riding one atmosphere through the full album. The
full thing drops on March 1st,
with digital, CD, and T-shirt versions available, so be sure to check
it out if you've been looking for some hard-rocking metal with a nice
splash of variety to it.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Below, Dr. Living Dead!, Lordi, Merlin, Pilgrim
~
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