Style: blackened stoner doom (mixed vocals)
Review by: Jonah
Country: US-IL
Release date: 1 March, 2019
NOTE: This album was originally included in the March 2019 edition of The Progressive Subway
I’m not sure how much it comes through in my reviews, but I’m a vocal-fan first and foremost. I can absolutely enjoy and appreciate a great instrumental performance, but if the vocals aren’t absolutely tight then it just kills the music for me. And thus we find ourselves at Sacred Monster, a band where I love the vocals about 85% of the time and want them to go far, far away from me for the other 15%. Why, you ask? We’ll get to that.
Sacred Monster plays a style of music that I would consider something close to blackened stoner doom. If that sounds weird to you, it is, but it also kind of works. The riffs are thick and fuzzy, the drumming is solid if somewhat uninspired and the bass carries a really solid low-end that drives the album along. Stoner doom tends to fall into a bit of a rut where all the songs sound similar, and lack a certain energy to push the album along. There is no such problem with this album, as each song has a whole lot of bounce to it, much of which is provided by the vocals. Here is where we get to the part of this album that leaves me very, very torn.
The vocals in Sacred Monster primarily consist of a really, really abrasive throat-shredding shriek that I actually really enjoy. I think it adds a really aggressive feel to the album, and it fits the strange, twilight-zone sci-fi themes in the lyrics quite well. However, every so often the vocalist shifts into full-on King Diamond copycat mode and it’s…not that good. The notes aren’t technically wrong, and the performance isn’t technically bad, but I find it incredible unpleasant to listen to and it absolutely takes me out of the song, especially on “Waverly Hills”. Will this ruin things for anyone else? Maybe not, but it definitely makes a few songs rough for me. The production also has a few hiccups, but that’s pretty common for this style so it doesn’t bother me too much.
All in all, would I recommend Worship the Weird? Probably, yeah. I really like quite a lot of it, and as long as the harsh vocals don’t put people off I think there’s a lot to like.
Recommended tracks: High Confessor, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Re-Animator
Recommended for fans of: The Atlas Moth, King Diamond, Hollow Leg
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Sacred Monster is:
Adam Szczygieł – Minister of Screams
Robert Nubel – Riff Finder General
Guillermo Moreno – Bishop of the Bottom End
Ted Nubel – Priest of Percussion
0 Comments