Another year, another plethora of stunning death metal albums seem to pour out like a tidal wave. The latest in this seemingly unstoppable surge in quality is Monokrator, the third album by London death thrashers The Bleeding. Active since 2010, the band’s 2019 album Morbid Prophecy was strong enough to feature in Worship Metal’s top 20 greatest UK thrash albums of the past five years in 2022. It’ll be unsurprising if this latest release isn’t pushing at the door for the next top 20 list, for it is as ferocious an album as you’ll hear all year.
Part of the success of this band is the combination of talent on display. The drumming of James Loh is phenomenal, a powerhouse who drives each track with pneumatic accuracy. His power and control are simply stunning. He’s accompanied by the blistering groove of Jordan Muscatello’s raging bass lines and the chopping, laceration of guitarist Tasos. This provides the platform for Jamie Stungo’s visceral vocal assault, and as the band’s press release states, he really is the combination of Jeff Walker and Chuck Schuldiner but very much with his own style.
It may not be the longest album, but the savage nature of the delivery is such that you genuinely cannot withstand such an onslaught for longer. It’s a feral, punishing ride that brims with the horror infusion on tracks like “Chainsaw Deathcult”, the blistering opener “Chemical Lobotomy” and the piledriver of closing track “Throes of Revulsion”.
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If you want an album which is relentless from start to finish, then Monokrator is the one to pick. The brutal pace rarely slows, and even when it does, such as on “Mutation Chamber”, the sheer intensity of the song ensures that the heaviness is completely maintained. Even when the tempo does slow, it’s fractional, rather than by any real amount. Thus, the pace never really slows, and as a result, the effect of the constant hammer action is such that you’ll be aurally concussed within minutes, left reeling from repeated blows, but still wanting to stagger back for more.
At just over half an hour, The Bleeding’s main weapon in their arsenal is the sheer impact that each song makes. By the time you get to the Slayer-infused “On Wings of Tribulation”, (and there are still two songs to go),there is no hiding place, it’s time to man up and brace for impact. With a combination of death and thrash, it’s no wonder that the comparisons to legends like Exodus, Sadus, and Demolition Hammer come to mind. Monokrator is a sublimely brutal album. One that has been on repeat for weeks, and which is likely to remain there for much of 2023.
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Monokrator is out on June 9th
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