Black Sabbath was critically reviled after the release of its 1970 debut album, but the long view on them is considerably more charitable. MTV cited the quartet as the greatest Heavy Metal band of all time, VH1 put them at No. 2 in their “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” tabulation and Rolling Stone ranked them among the best bands in the history of Rock. Ever.
So there.
But commercial acceptance and eventual critical acclaim is only part of any band’s success. The real measure of a group’s mark on the legacy of Rock is the rippling effect of their music on subsequent generations. Monolord is a great example of how Black Sabbath continues to directly and indirectly inspire bands in the new millennium.
Hailing from the Metal hotbed of Gothenburg, Sweden, Monolord displays some of Black Sabbath’s most identifiable characteristics: vocals seemingly shouted from the other side of the studio, downtuned guitars, bleak lyrical subject matter, a thunderous rhythm section, blistering volume. At the same time, Monolord inserts a good deal of its own innovation into the monolithic Riff Rock arena, from an epic Prog approach to individual songs — there are only six tracks on the band’s most recent album, last fall’s Rust, with the last two comprising over half of the album’s 55-minute length — and dynamic chord shifts to an almost Jazz-like nuance among the Stoner Metal tumult.
Perhaps the most surprising elements in Monolord’s bio are the fact that its black hole heaviness is achieved by the power trio of guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jäger, bassist Mika Häkki and drummer Esben Willems, and that the journeymen musicians have only been together in the Monolord configuration since 2013. In that time, the band has produced a trio of dense and dramatic full-lengths (2014’s Empress Rising, 2015’s Vaenir and last year’s Rust) and a two-track single, all of which shudder and shake with Sabbathy goodness.
If you’re looking for great depth and ranging variation, Monolord is probably not going to tweak your radar. But if you’re an old freak who’s worn out several vinyl copies of the first four Sabbath albums, or if you’re a youngster thrilled by volume, deliberation and the first four Sabbath LPs, Monolord is this week’s best ticket.
Click here for tickets/more show info.
This article appears in Aug 15-22, 2018.
