Monuments - I, The Creator

     June is shaping up to be a good month for new metal. Yesterday I was talking about Mastodon's new album Once More 'Round the Sun, which comes out on the 24th of June, and today I'm directing you to the first song to be released from Monuments' sophomore disc The Amanunensis, which comes out the day before (in Europe anyways, we'll have to wait a week or two over here across the pond).

     I've featured the British prog djentlemen of Monuments and their first album Gnosis a couple of times before, mostly for their much-better-than-average djentish riffing and miles deep grooves. But "I, The Creator", the first song we heard from The Amanunensis, gets the nod today for throwing a stronger sounding sense of melody into the mix.

     Some among you will of course decry things like an increase in clean singing as being too poppy (or something more colourful). But think about it this way: the formula of groove-centric metal plus catchy melodies is what yielded Australia's Circles. Or Sevendust, for that matter. If Monuments were to evolve in the direction of either of those bands, it wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. Have a listen to "I, The Creator" and see what you think.