Monuments - The Only Way We Know
Release Date: January 13, 2012
Record Label: Takedown Records
The band emailed through a package and one of the items in this package, apart from the music, was a little biography introducing the band, and it said,“...Monuments, an up beat, modern run of Pop Punk/Punk Rock music which mixes, balls and determination with catchy melodies, resembling bands such as No Trigger, Lifetime and Living With Lions to name a few, which Monuments refer to as influences.” and I couldn't have said it better myself.
The opening track “Clarity” is a track that can enforce the statement I quoted before. It starts off with a drum beat fading in and out, and then it gets into a really ballsy and the guitar comes in and vocals start powering the song through. It's just so great. The second track “Sleepwalk Talk” starts of with an up beat, drum and guitar combination that gets you ready for the probably the catchiest song, and my personal favourite off the EP. I love it because when you listen to it, it's hard to sit down. It's a song that would definitely pass the drive test. In fact the whole EP would pass the test.
Drive test; if you can drive around with no place to go and blast the music and feel like you're on top the world, then that's good music.
Track three “Mortality” starts off on a fairly steady pace and then gets really, really fast, The track features Dan McMaster and so all through the track, Caz and Dan interchange vocals which makes the song sound really fun, and it's probably a band favourite to perform live. The 4th Track “Mutation” (will probably get shot for saying this) but it reminds me of New Found Glory for the most part, but if Ben Kotin from Such Gold was on lead vocals. I took a risk comparing them to New Found Glory, and Such Gold. This comparison should make any fan of New Found Glory and Such Gold interested in Monuments, and there's no reason why anyone else shouldn't be interested.
The Fifth Track “Species” Is great testament to what this band can really do. Powering melodies, great chorus, catchy bridge, by the end of the song, you'll be singing a long.
Another quote from the package that says, “Monuments are looking to make a name for themselves in a genre that at present is taking over Europe and America and is only a matter of time before it hits Australia hard in the face” For the most part, that sentence made me laugh, but it also holds a lot of truth. I don't want to offend any other band, but the biggest band in Australia is probably The Living End and they don't really come close to this genre of music. Note the “probably” in the previous sentence, it's up for debate. I could say AC/DC but they're based in America now, and again, they don't do anything close to this genre of music.
The second last track “What Do You Call That?” is a short, powerful, catchy track. For a song that only goes for one minute and a few seconds, they sure can power a lot of energy into it, and the last track “The Longest Night” is another one of my personal favourites, word count on 'Catchy'? What can I say? This band knows who to produce catchy, ballsy punk songs, and that's what makes this EP so great.
I was surprised and excited to read that the band has their sights set on a full length to hopefully be released late this year. I'm looking forward to seeing where the band goes after this very catchy 7 track release.
This album is one of those albums, that when's it done, you'll be both relieved and delighted. It's a very solid, catchy EP and after the 7 tracks are finished, you will probably want to listen to something a bit lighter or just listen to it again. Either/or. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the 7 track album, is very solid and heavy. You can feel the energy all through the music, It's almost like you're going through the workout with the men who are performing these songs. Great debut effort, can't wait to see what happens next.
Let me know if you think the RIYL is a correct comparison.
Also, The band name doesn't have a "The" in it at all. Can you remove that please?
Yeah I'll let you know, and thanks again for reviewing it.
As for the "the", not sure why that's in the title (when I posted it up I didn't put "the")... you didn't write it in then edit it out? When that happens it will say that it in the reviews list, but it won't appear in the actual review title. I don't think I can change it.
Yeah I'll let you know, and thanks again for reviewing it.
As for the "the", not sure why that's in the title (when I posted it up I didn't put "the")... you didn't write it in then edit it out? When that happens it will say that it in the reviews list, but it won't appear in the actual review title. I don't think I can change it.
I edited the "the" out of the title myself, but it's still in the webpage and thread title.
I edited the "the" out of the title myself, but it's still in the webpage and thread title.
It's not in the news thread itself (like I said, I know there's no "the" so I made sure I didn't put it there). It's only in the reviews list section if you click on it, which I can't change (but when you look at the review itself, it's not there which is what people will see). Regardless, it only happens if "the" was initially put there but changed later.
Anyway, I'll report back on the music cause I'm excited to hear this.
It's not in the news thread itself (like I said, I know there's no "the" so I made sure I didn't put it there). It's only in the reviews list section if you click on it, which I can't change (but when you look at the review itself, it's not there which is what people will see). Regardless, it only happens if "the" was initially put there but changed later.
Anyway, I'll report back on the music cause I'm excited to hear this.
Ok, Even though the band sent me the music. I decided to buy it, it's that good. Shame my ratings could only get it to 80% average.
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