Very unexpectedly this disc opens up with the nearly seven-minute "The Condition of Being Forgotten", which consists of lush ambient soundscapes and occasional samples of outdoor sounds (birds chirping and that kind of thing) for its duration and makes for quite a relaxing introduction. This song is very chilled out and very fitting of the artwork housing this disc. But after that? Lots of super short tracks that are extremely caustic and abrasive. Seriously, I'm talking ripping chaotic dissonance, chunky discordant power chords, intense screaming vocals, maniacal song structures with tons of changes all over the place in an average of around a minute each, etc. However, despite the fact that some of the riffing is rather typical, I actually think this stuff is fucking great. The recording is powerful, the way they piece things together is more efficient than average and actually kind of has its own feel going on, and the brevity of the songs keeps things rolling through nicely without getting dull. And what's cool about it is that it's totally out of the blue. The band name, the artwork, that opening track... they completely fool you and catch you off guard once things really kick into gear. I mean, technically their general style is chaotic metalcore, but it's really so much stronger than 90% of this style that's out there. The largely instrumental title track drops in the middle of the disc and jumps up to almost six minutes with some slower tempos and spacious riffing that lets the dissonance factor really shine - not to mention spicing up the dynamics with some clean guitars, melodic leads, and more prominent basslines. "Permission Confirmed" is the only other long piece (sort of), which runs more than a whopping eight minutes and is among the more abrasive and irritating of the harsh selections before closing with more lush ambience similar to that of "The Condition of Being Forgotten". After some blank space there are two quirky experimental noise tracks at the end of the disc, but I'm not really into those two at all. I love the sound quality of the heavy tracks, though. The drums are a little taut but do have some thickness backing things up, the guitars have a nasty bite but are still heavy and work great for the chunkier playing, the vocals sound fine, etc. I'm not making out much bass (it's distorted so it kind of gets lost in the shuffle), so more low-end density would fill the gaps well, but other than that they're basically good to go. The disc comes in a super glossy digipack with minimal sketchy artwork and light blue coloring with all of the lyrics packed onto the inside of the cover flap. Despite some mildly silly song titles the lyrics are pretty pointed, at times maintaining a bit of that sarcastic bite, but covering both personal and political issues: "It's getting more and more difficult to walk along this straight line and I could now feel my eyes slowly roll to the back of my head..." I'm really shocked by this one. I have to admit that for whatever reason I thought it was going to suck, but it kept getting better from the moment I popped it in, and I'm really pleased about that. Check these guys out, they have a lot more to offer than most of their contemporaries, and I almost feel like it's an insult to even place them in the same genre as most bands that are playing similar styles right now - especially in the US. These dudes may hail from sunny California, but hell if they don't sound like they'd be more at home in Switzerland, France, or Germany. Great work. I'm impressed.
[Monarchy]
Running time - 32:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Crusty, Bottoms Up, Hugs and Drugs]
Monarchy Music Corp. - http://www.monarchymusiccorp.com
