Review MONOLORD ‘Your Time to Shine’

Sweden’s doom metal powerhouse Monolord put together a new album over the past two years. ‘Your Time to Shine’ is the title of the fifth album of the doom metal heroes from Gothenburg. With five songs, the album does not pour itself in epic lengths, which is also reflected in a playing time of 39 minutes.

However, it does not always need quantity. Class is much more important here. Undoubtedly, we can already state that ‘Your Time to Shine’ is built on class and quality. Right from the opener ‘The Weary’ it is obvious that there are tons of heavy riffs, which will make the heart of doom fans beat faster. With almost monotonous precision the song pumps through the first third before slowly a melody line joins the mix.

Monolord, that is strongly down-tuned guitars and a leaden heaviness that seems to be created with playful ease. ‘I’ll Be Damned’ shows this principle in perfection and what is also noticeable is that trio uses quieter passages. ‘I’ll be Damned’ is enhanced by this interaction and the same goes for ‘To Each Their Own’.

With the title track and ‘The Siren of Yersinia’ the three Gothenburgers have put the highlights at the end of the track list. As if the first three songs were only a kind of prelude, so the end of the album unloads the entire creative power of the trio. Rock, metal, alternative and psychedelic, it’s all represented by the title track and it’s this special blend that makes listening to Monolord to a great sound experience for listeners. While ‘Your Time to Shine’ makes the calmer and melancholic tones shine, it is the heavy start of the closer ‘The Siren of Yersinia’ that adds a contra-point to the flow on the album. The song doesn’t stay that mighty over its entire running time. Calmer and atmospheric, these are keywords which describe the song too. There is a balance though with the snail-paced outbursts, metal that is forged with help of hammer and anvil.

The album is nicely rounded off by a very touching artwork. Death and pain is what is also musically reproduced on this record. But there is no suffering without also hope and happiness. Well, the latter comes on ‘Your Time to Shine’ perhaps a bit too short, but still resonates with each of the tracks. If you listen to the album a few times, there is only one obvious conclusion – it’s ‘Your Time to Shine’ Monolord.