Monolithe - Nebula Septem

MONOLITHE - Nebula Septem (LADLO Productions CD 2018)

I can't remember hearing Monolithe music ever before, which is quite shame if you think that "Nebula Septem" is their seventh full length album. Not sure what I've missed, but I somehow doubt I'll ever feel a need to catch up with their discography. Anyway, number seven has a very important meaning for the concept of "Nebula Septem". This is Monolithe's seventh album, it's been recorded by seven musicians and contains seven songs (titled from letter A to G) and each is exactly seven minutes long. With the lyrics about sci-fi things like extra-terrestrial life, you can be sure that it's not the usual extreme metal piece, but well thought through and perfected concept. 

Monolithe plays sort of doom metal, with that powerful and heavy slow paced riffage, which has been very well balanced by the melodic and atmospheric part of Monolithe music. And I like that guitars are able to play so many good harmonies and that the keyboards also fill the music basically all over the album, as it gives the music more interesting and complex feel. More so, I am quite pleased to hear the growling vocals, reminding me the good old days of bands like Opeth (Mikael Akerfeldt) and Edge of Sanity (Dan Swano). Maybe these two bands, Opeth especially, could be also considered as some musical influences for "Nebula Septem", but there are more of them, I suppose. Which doesn't even matter, because I am sure that Monolithe wants to walk their own path. It's interesting also that I've read that the band used to sound more depressive and kind of funeral doom like, while on "Nebula Septem" I don't hear that so much, as this album is just too melodic and atmospheric to have that depressive feel. Which is good, I think, because mostly that depressive stuff makes me feel bored.  

Definitely I listen to music from ambitious people, who rather want to explore, than just use what has already been discovered by vast number of other bands. On the other hand, I'm afraid that I sometimes get bored too quickly with bands like Monolithe, their songs start to blend too much into each other. I'm sure it's just because normally I listen to much more raw and vicious stuff and bands like Monolithe very rarely are guests to my stereo. Which doesn't mean I'm not able to appreciate the music. With songs like "Coil Shaped Volutions" and "Delta Scuti", "Nebula Septem" is a good album for sure. I like that powerful sound, discovered some great riffs, harmonies and passages...  It's pretty different to the usual Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions release, but another worthy piece of their roster for sure. 

Standout track: "Coil Shaped Volutions", "Delta Scuti" 

Verdict: 70/100