Monarch! a Ježíš Táhne Na Berlín (feat. BJ Tzarr) v Chateau Rouge

Francouzské městečko Bayonne nedalo světu jen bajonet, ale také jednu z nejxtrémnějších a nejpomalejších kapel vůbec. Muzika Monarch je ultrapomalé všepožírající bahno, kterému vévodí nelidský řev holčiny za mikrofonem Emilie. Odkaz toho nejlepšího z doom metalu a sludge dotažený ad absurdum a ještě s vlastním ksichtem. Vzpomeňte si na Corrupted, Noothgrush, Khanate a díky ženské „zpěvačce“ třeba taky na Thorr's Hammer. Prazáklady v Black Sabbath nebo Melvins je zbytečné zdůrazňovat.
Oproti takovým Sunn O))) jsou Monarch mnohem víc spjatí s původním hardcorovým duchem, ačkoliv i v jejich dlouhometrážních tryznách najdete momenty plné hypnotického „bezčasí“ s vazbením a hlukovými plochami. Lidi z Monarch hráli jinak v různých punkem šmrncnutých fastcorových kafemlejncích (např. George Bitch Jr., Rainbow Of Death nebo Gasmask Terror).
Jejich podladěnou apokalypsu ironicky dotváří infantilně rozjuchaný artwork (a la Hello Kitty) a svérázný image, který si dělá prdel ze všeho od black metalových póz po emo mánii. Muzika samotná ale vtipem není, pokud vám nepřijde sranda nechat se zatlouct do země s husí kůží.
Snad až na cover „I Got Erection“ v podání Emilie od Turbonegro.

Původní deviantně-elektronický projekt Ondřeje Skaly Ježíš táhne na Berlín se v první polovině letošního roku rozrostl na trojčlenný band. Ježíšovo (a)rytmické elektronické běsnění doplnili hráči na baskytaru a bicí (BJ Tzarr, který působí mj. v Nana Zorin nebo Kryptor). S novou sestavou předchozí breakcorovou tvorbu zcela nezavrhnul, spíše jí posunul vně mantinelů žánrových klišé. Z minulosti si do nové tvorby přinesl inklinování k překotným změnám rytmu, zdánlivě chaotickou kompozici skladeb a noblesu delikátního extrému. Dva noví členové zase přispívají říznými kytarovými riffy a hardcorově odsýpajícím drajvem. Připočteme-li Ondřejovy texty plné zneklidňujících nonsensů, jimž na stísňujícím vyznění dodává časté využívání voice delay, je vystoupení Ježíš táhne na Berlín zážitkem, při kterém není těžké zůstat paralyzován se zamrzlým úsměvem na rtech – radost ze šílenství!

MONARCH! a J.T.N.B. vystoupí 11.7. v Chateau Rouge (Praha) od 21:30.
Vstup: 140,- pro ty, co přijdou s růžovým warpaintem (pořádným – žádných pár čmáranců růžovou rtěnkou!) 160,- při rezervaci na mailu ticketsletmonet (popř. při zakoupení na baru v Chateau). 190,- na místě.

http://www.myspace.com/letmoproductions
http://www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles
http://www.myspace.com/jtnb
http://pageperso.aol.fr/sanriosabbath/INDEX/slow.htm

Z tisku:

„Tortuous, impossibly downtuned cacophony slathered with peristalsis-inducing bottom-end and gratuitous layers of cross-talk and feedback. Every once in awhile, it’s hard to predict when, someone will hit a drum a couple of times. Then Emilie, the band’s petite, sort-of-hot in a Heroin-chic-model sort of way vocalist, will howl unintelligible-yet-dangerous sounding lyrics into the mic. Then it starts all over again. The great thing about Monarch! and the majority of their ilk, is that any asshole with a guitar can pull this off. What’s an even greater thing at least from my perspective, is that most assholes with guitars choose not to ... I’d like to meet the person who can look me straight in the eye and tell me that he or she listens to Dead Men Tell No Tales on a regular rotation. And enjoys it. Sure, it’s good for blowing out the pipes on a dark, weird occasional night, but I can’t see anyone bumping this on the car stereo, windows down, sunroof open, your woman by your side. Unless your career envolves embalming, suicide scene clean-up, putting pets down at the local pound, or selling cell phones at Costco, there isn’t a whole lot to enjoy“ unknown source

„MONARCH! unleash a slow motion avalanche of impossibly glacial, blackened sludge and hypnotic feedback, each song a series of epic tarpit riffage stretched out eternally over lumbering drums and the cavernous rumble of speaker cabinets. Over these yawning expanses of black void appears the demonic, throat-shredding shrieks and ghostly singing of Emilie, whose petite appearance belies one of the harshest throats in the underground Doom spectrum. Beyond heavy. MONARCH!'s mega-crawling ambient doom/drone/sludge follows in the grand tradition of fellow tarpit adventurers Melvins, Corrupted, Noothgrush, and Black Sabbath, and accompany their music with an iconoclastic design style that decorates their material with deceptively cute imagery drawing from the collective influence of Sanrio, Japanese animation, European graffiti, weirdo hardcore, and skateboard culture.“ Crucial Blast

„France’s female-fronted Monarch is that country’s entry into the slo-mo nihilistic utterly oppressive doom genre where they’ve distinguished themselves from their peers in both sound and aesthetics.“ 20 Buck Spin

„The light-shirking demons known as Monarch! specialize in improbably slow and sludgy drone-doom, in the semblance of (but often even harsher than) Khanate, Corrupted, and Rigor Sardonicus...
Five protracted super-dirges drawn from all three of their prior releases. And that really does mean super dirges: "songs" so ruthlessly downtuned and terminally decayed that not even the normally applicable "funereal doom" tag can properly describe the 26-minute, sardonically named "We Are the Musicmakers" or the 18-minute "Speak of the Devil, Speak of the Sea." Never mind the funeral -- these things have already rotted their way right out of the cemetery grounds! Along with excruciatingly torpid, second disc bowel movements, these are composed of improbably detuned, feedback laden chords wrung out of groaning guitars, lonely percussive detonations, and the alternating acid croaks and childlike mewling provided by singer Emilie Bresson.“ allmusic.com

„Bayonne, France's Monarch! bring an entirely new meaning to Basque terrorism with their third long-playing assault, 2007's suitably named Die Tonight...
In the end, sitting through these viscous slabs of creeping seismic activity still equates to breast-stroking one's way through the La Brea Tar Pits; but at least one now feels that Bresson and her charges are living, breathing organisms also treading sludge, instead of rotting corpses merely stinking up the joint.“ allmusic.com

„Quite possibly the world's only female fronted deathdoomdronedirge outfit. An unholy mix of Khanate, Corrupted, Bunkur and Moss, but with a petite young French woman on lead vocals, usually clad in Converse hightops, a skirt and a sweater, hair in a pony tail, no tattoos or spikes or leather, but when she opens her mouth, out comes the foulest demonic shrieks and hellish gurgles you have EVER heard. Certainly from a woman, maybe from ANY one, man, woman or beast.
Then there are the record covers, always covered in grade school like doodles of cute big eyed skulls, puffy ghosts, burning churches, and hearts all over the place. They're like a Sanrio doom band. And not surprisingly are obsessed with Hello Kitty (their email address is sanriosabbath!!). But eyes closed, and these guys and gal can most definitely hold their own amongst the slow motion elite. With the added bonus of a singer who can actually sing and does occasionally, adding a definite creepy melodic moodiness to the music...
A massive pummeling wall of headsplitting ultra doom, an impossibly glacial plodding thud wrapped in ear shredding sheets of corrosive feedback that will tear your insides out and fill your ears with black tar. A gorgeously dense. ultra caustic and corrosive funereal doom that manages to be dreamy and darn near pretty while it's pummeling you to death. Easily one of the slowest heaviest dooooooooom records ever, three looooong tracks. Each so slow it's almost ambient. It's a bit like listening to SUNNO))) or Earth 2 when some caveman drummer decides to crash the party and start drumming slowly along. Riffs stretched out into huge droning smears of black rumble, ringing and reverberating, pulsing and wavering unsteadily before the next ten ton riff drops. Each track is a slow plodding ultradoomscape, like the ultimate doom metal intro stretched into actual songs, smeared across nearly an hour. The vocals don't even come in until the first song is almost over, a shrieking black coda, after twenty minutes of slow burning doom drone tension. The second track features some distant Ozzy-like crooning way off in the distance before the scowling growl kicks in. So slow and heavy. On the AQ doooooomscale, this ranks more O's than we could possibly include in this review!
...and if anything it's everything Speak Of The Sea was and MORE. Heavier (as if that were even possible), slower (ditto) and more blurred out, buzzy and dronelike, with bits of the song so blissed out, the drum hits and chaotic crashes are so far apart, you can almost forget you're listening to a doom band, wallowing in the glorious shimmering drones of the drawn out chords, before a howled shriek and a massive crunch knocks you near out of your seat. There's also more singing, with gorgeous drifting vocals that hover alongside long stretches of buzzing guitar making for haunting harmonies, giving the proceedings brief moments of surprising tranquility. And the vocals continue to twist and turn, from hushed and whispery, to girlish and sing songy to inhuman demonic screech, all the while, the band trudging along dronelike, weaving impossibly pretty soundscapes from downtuned crunch and skull cracking thud.
This is absolutely essential doom. If you like Esoteric, Boris, Moss, Bunkur, SUNNO))), Earth, Esoteric, Skepticism, Eyehategod, Marzuraan, Atavist, Catacombs, Khanate, Pale Horse, Monument Of Urns and you NEED this! And the drifting drone element is in full effect, so those who have yet to dabble in the doom pool, might check this out, the long drawn out shimmers and Niblock like layers of guitar rumble might hit the spot and have you digging deeper for more and more dooooom.“ aquariusrecords.org

„...well, don't hesitate a single second, you MUST own this. You think Khanate is heavy? Well what if Khanate was fronted by a cute French girl with a thing for cute Japanese cartoon characters? Sold yet? You should be.
Monarch are most definitely the slow motionist, crust sludgiest, Satan worshippingest, Sanrio obsessedist, Sabbath fixatedist, cute girl frontedist band in the world!“ aquariusrecords.org

„In a black and sludgy sonic world, they were a little ray of sunshine. Errr. Well, not really. But they did manage to infuse their tarpit doomdeathdronedirges with a goofy sense of humor, without turning Monarch into an ironic pisstake ... so slow in fact it makes Khanate sound like speed metal. Okay, maybe that's stretching it a bit, but this is some seriously slow motion shit. The riffs stretch out for ages, the drum hits are MILES apart, the vocals a screech / howl / moan, a mouthful of dirt and broken glass, a voice so harsh and hatefilled it seems impossible that it could come from Monarch's diminutive sensibly dressed leader.“ aquariusrecords.org

„Monarch, after a misleading ultra slow count in, do "Erection" pretty straight (ahem), the riff immediately recognizable, same with the "woooooah ooooh" background vocals, so it's up to vocalist Emilie, to make "Erection" her own, and she does, delivering the goofiest, most brilliant lines ever, in a raspy feminine snarl "When I dig a hole... Erection!" It's definitely Monarch at their speediest, and certainly most melodic, and we have to say it sort of suits them. Maybe even better than when black metallers Satyricon covered the same track on a Turbonegro tribute disc some years back, and that was pretty killer too.“ aquariusrecords.org