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MONSTERWORKS
Earth

Eat Lead & Die (2013)
Rating: 8/10

I didn’t know what to expect when I saw the band name, and having seen the cover art I was worried that the music would leave me kind of cold. However, this is a really intriguing record to say the least, from a band who originate from New Zealand but have been based in the UK since 2003. In fact, it’s nigh on impossible to put into words how this concept opus works. It’s a real extravaganza which somehow blends classic rock with a stoner edge as well as an oddly progressive doom edge.

For the most part though, the vocals of Jon are rooted in a Sebastian Bach-style of warrior scream. Once stirred however, this is quite a mighty potion that comments on the evolution of earth amid wailing guitars, Southern-edged harmony, and peculiar progression that will leave the listener engulfed.

Album opener ‘From Dust And Gravity’ just about sums up the effortless originality of the band, because it’s such an overgenerous track with its lazy backbeat, which is contradicted by those mesmerising guitars and schizophrenic vocal capabilities.

Even so, these variances do not make for an inaccessible listen. Instead, there’s somewhat sun-blessed warmth to the whole record which changes mood with the seasons. For instance, ‘Late Heavy Bombardment’ has more in common with icy doom, such are the titanic cold riffs and sludge-consumed vocals – imagine Corrosion Of Conformity experimenting with light black metal nuances and doomy thrash!

And yet this ever-changing beast refuses to let us settle, with ‘The Last Universal Ancestor’ breaking through the clouds as a mere wistful acoustic ballad, before becoming engulfed in the black smoke of swirling doom. And just to enhance the levels of confusion, the 70s swirl of ‘Oxygenation’ lumbers from the hills like a black steel horse ridden by Sebastian Bach!

Earth is an unusual yet bombastic record that can only succeed due to its infectious layers, which – when peeled back – reveal so many hidden levels that it takes several listens just to come to terms with the shape-shifting vocals, let alone the kaleidoscopic guitars and tumbling drums.

All eight tracks on offer (plus two bonus tracks on the CD digipak version) will bamboozle the listener, and maybe alienate some. After all, those who’ve become melted by the more groove-based sounds on the record may find themselves irritated by the spiky vocals on ‘Powered By Fate’, which boasts a dirty doom edge as the sneers add extra bite.

Meanwhile, the two-minute thrash workout ‘Bookended By Extinction’ won’t make any friends in the modern metal fraternity, but it’s such a leviathan of a tune that it can’t be ignored in its bleak state.

‘Aeon Of Man’ is another unexpected entry, a summery, blissful tune with a Southern mellow twang which builds to a mid-90s metal cacophony. We reach the end of the path with the ten-minute title track, which begins another silky acoustic tinge that draws us into its citadel of majestic, fluent and catchy doom passages. All stability is lost once again, however, when a mournful piano takes over before we drift off into a grating doom-sludge frenzy of writhing, serpentine guitars.

As Earth comes to silence I can’t quite comprehend what I’ve just heard, and yet so enthralled have I been by this oddity. As a soundtrack to evolution Earth may not fully succeed, but as a project created to draw you in Monsterworks really do live up to their name. This really is a monster of a record, but it may not appeal to everyone.

Neil Arnold

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