MONSTER MAGNET – Monolithic Baby!

Oh, no! It’s not as good as I’ve hoped for! I’ve really been looking forward to this release, but I have to say I’m quite a bit disappointed. But what could I, or you, expect this time? Monster Magnet’s two previous recordings, Powertrip and God Says No, were so utterly great, that it might’ve been just too much to ask for that they would come up with something even half as impressive.

Monster Magnet’s main man, Dave Wyndorf, is something for himself. That has made all the band’s earlier recordings something you’d never heard before. This time around the new album, Monolithic Baby!, sounds like everything you’ve heard Monster Magnet do before. But not as good.

Wyndorf gets too typical himself on this one. Once again we get this like-singing-through-a-phone-mixed vocal, the wiping shouts, and the personal and global hell-focused lyrics. I question if the coolness of these effects are important enough to make them even more central now than ever before. Above this, buy this album and you’ll get several songs with great and groovy intros and openings, but Wyndorf doesn’t seem to know very well how to end a song any longer. Several of the tracks on this album just don’t sound complete. The way songs on this album end is by far as sophisticated as the way they start. The band tends to have nothing better to do towards the end of some of the songs than jam and “noise” them dead. If I want to listen to songs crash land, I’ve got a heap of Iron Maiden live-albums to stick to.

Still, there are several good songs on the album. “Unbroken (Hotel Baby)” and “Master Of Light” are strong reminders of Monster Magnet’s enormously kick-ass-potential. None of them will do the band’s career as good as e.g. the Powertrip-singles, but they’ve got what they need for their live set.

“On The Verge” is ( even though it crash lands… ) the album’s most interesting tracks. Wyndorf pronounces the words right into your brain and veins, and there’s a certain dramaturgy to the composition that is sadly lacking on major parts of the rest of the album. Even a rhythm piano stress out the personality of the song.

The sound is not as good as expected either. Parts are drowning. I do miss some more variation as well. Even the track “Too Bad” is close ( but then again just a blueprint of earlier efforts ), the album lacks tracks like for example “Blow ‘Em Off”, “Baby Gotterdamerung” and “Take It” from their previous three recordings.

The positive surprises this time are the cover songs! Two tracks from the 70’s are included: “The Right Stuff” by Captain Lockheed and The Starfighters and “There’s No Way Out Of Here” by David Gilmour. “There’s No Way Out Of Here”, a brilliant song, is from Gilmour’s first solo album outside of Pink Floyd. These are two complete songs, and therefore they stand out on Monolithic Baby!. The latter “succeeds” in making me rather want to listen to old Pink Floyd albums, rather than Monster Magnet. …the reviewer was very sorry to say.

Monster Magnet has always put tons of self irony to their rock & roll. Monster Magnet will probably, despite bad reviews or whatever, get away with their demons and leather pants, shades and poses, and stay cool forever. And very soon they are hitting the roads in Europe. Hurray! Stay tuned for live report in March!

( Norwegian Gluecifer will be joining Monster Magnet as their support band on this year’s European tour. Metal Express will soon provide you with a review on Gluecifer’s newest release, “Automatic Thrill”.)

Monolithic Baby! – track list:

1. Slut Machine
2. Supercruel
3. On The Verge
4. Unbroken ( Hotel Baby )
5. Radiation Day
6. Monolithic
7. The Right Stuff
8. There’s No Way Out Of Here
9. Master Of Light
10. Too Bad
11. Ultimate Everything
12. CNN War Theme