Album Review: The Monolith Deathcult - The Demon Who Makes Trophies Of Men
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
Having put their own inventive, deranged and sardonic twist on death metal for 22 years, you never know quite what you are going to get when The Monolith Deathcult put out a new album. The certainties you have is that it will be heavy and brutal, full of the band's sense of humour and will also push the boundaries of what the death metal genre is “meant” to sound like. The Monolith Deathcult meet these specifications with their eighth album “The Demon Who Makes Trophies Of Men”.
If you have never heard The Monolith Deathcult before, describing their sound is a bit of a mission as there is always A LOT going on. At their core they are a brutal and groove laden death metal band but add in elements of industrial and electronica, symphonic soundscapes and a whole range of samples mixed in and you have a bare bones description of what makes this band tick.
“The Demon Who Makes Trophies Of Men” is one of the most symphonic albums the band has done with sweeping orchestration elevating songs such as ‘Commanders Encircled With Foes’ and ‘The Nightmare Corpse-City Of R’lyeh’ to new levels of grandeur whilst the brutality of the band can be heard in songs such as ‘Gogmagog - The Bryansk Forest Revisited’ and the industrial and electronic elements are given prominence on ‘Three-Headed Death Machine’. A couple of songs from the band’s previous albums have been re-recorded for this album with ‘Kindertodeslied’ and ‘I Spew Thee Out Of My Mouth’ given a 2024 makeover.
The Monolith Deathcult remain one of the most inventive and most criminally overlooked bands within extreme metal and “The Demon Who Makes Trophies Of Men” is one of the strongest releases from the band in a few years. The band sound in fine form with excellent performances all round from the pounding drumming of Frank Schilperoort, the excellent guitar playing from Michiel Dekker and Carsten Altena (there are some fantastic lead solos throughout the album) and the thundering bass and guttural growls from Robin Kok. The album also sounds fantastic with a powerful mix and mastering. If you want death metal without boundaries or limitations then The Monolith Deathcult are a band that you should definitely be checking out.
