Monday 2 September 2019

Monomyth - ORBIS QUADRANTIS (Album Review)


Release date: September 12th 2019. Label: Suburban Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

ORBIS QUADRANTIS – Tracklisting

1.Aquilo 12:03
2.Eurus
3.Auster
4.Favonius

Members

Selwyn Slop, Sander Evers, Peter van der Meer, Boudewijn Bonebakker, Tjerk Stoop

Review

Acclaimed Psych Space/Stoner Rockers Monomyth return with their new album Orbis Quadrantis and it’s a collection of different sounds that only Monomyth can provide. This album has a more unforgiving nature compared to their previous albums with the band playing an experimental and emotionally driven style of Psychedelic Rock with their familiar KrautRock grooves taking time to fully appear.

It’s good to hear Monomyth’s trademark style of Heavy Psych/Spaced Out Grooves told over four epic songs with the band adding elements of Post-Rock to their music.

Opening song – Aquilo – is an almost thirteen-minute epic song with Monomyth taking their playing slowly-played and lush sounding progressive and psychedelic melodies. This song sees Monomyth adding different levels of sonic riffage with a haunting gloomy score being the lifeblood of this entire song. The band bring a heavier perspective on the final stages of the song with the music becoming more aggressive and more doom based as a result. This song reminds me of Monomyth debut album where the band weren’t afraid to explore a more distinctive gloomy style of music.

Second song – Eurus – opens with a more upbeat groove and Monomyth add different instruments to the mix for a friendlier style of Psychedelic Rock. The song is simply played but it holds your attention with the band trying different styles of music that shouldn’t really work but there is a warm addictive groove holding everything together. There are a few seventies/eighties classic rock elements held within this song and it does mean that Eurus does take time to fully come alive and become more involving. However, this a superbly played song from start to finish and shows a side of Monomyth that we haven’t experienced before.

Third song – Auster – is perhaps the most intriguing and exciting song on the album with Monomyth adding eighties Electronica vibes and Synth’s to their music. Auster is quite refreshing to hear though it feels the band cannot decide what they want this song to actually be. Electronica or Heavy Psych. The song fuses both style of music with added Ambient sounds amongst the trippy narrative being played within the song’s nine-minute runtime.

The final song – Favonius – is quite surreal and has an “earthly” Post-Rock approach that you can easily lose yourself in. The guitars are kept to a minimum at first with the other instruments such as drums and synths leading the way. The band start adding heavy guitars along the way and the surreal vibe starts to become distant and replaced with a more “doom and gloom” style of music. The second half of the song is more progressive and the heavy guitars start to dictate the overall flow and atmosphere of the whole album.

Orbis Quadrantis is superbly produced from start to finish and allows Monomyth to play some of their most diverse music to date. This album can be quite challenging to listen to at times but it’s never boring. Monomyth have delivered a rich and emotionally complex sounding album that still manages to leave you wanting more.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Orbis Quadrantis will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl from Suburban Records from September 12th 2019.

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