They may be relative newcomers, but Ontario trio Monobrow have their collective hands in a number of heavy rock tropes on their self-titled Meatlocker Records debut. Though the album feels long in this age of attention deficit at just under 54 minutes, Monobrow manage to keep things interesting with a number of different approaches brought to bear, including the occasional jam part, crunching riffs and occasional psychedelic flourishes. Entirely instrumental, their approach won’t seem revolutionary to veteran ears, but as they formed in 2009 and are really just figuring out their sound, they make a good go of it on these eight tracks anyway.

The shortest song on Monobrow’s Monobrow is just over five minutes, and what that means to the listener is that the three-piece – Paul Slater (ex-Sir Hedgehog) on guitar, Sam Beydoun on bass, Brian Ahopelto on drums – allow the material its due time to develop. Right away on opener “Naught Witch,” it’s Slater in the lead, layering solos on top of rhythm tracks with Beydoun and Ahopelto following behind, the former with fills that come out even better on headphones, and the latter driving the turns and changes that the song calls for. The ultimate test for an instrumental band is, “Are the vocals missing?” and indeed there are a few spots on Monobrow where they are – even Beydoun and Slater’s lyrical interplay on second cut “From the Brown Sun” not completely erasing the feeling that more should be there than is.  The somewhat longer “Ministry Queen” (7:53) introduces the more jam-based elements, and it becomes clear through listening that the three players have developed a genuine chemistry between them, especially Beydoun and Ahopelto. Slater’s fuzzier tone, brought appropriately to the fore by Paul “Yogi” Granger’s mix, gives way about five minutes into the song to airier tones and more highlight low end. In the case of trios, and even more so when there aren’t vocals to hide behind, every member has to really contribute, and in Monobrow, each definitely does.

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