Posted in Whathaveyou on June 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Swedish kingpins o’ riff Monolord are headed back to US shores this summer. Following up on their run earlier this year with fellow Gothenburgers Firebreather, the three-piece will be on hand to begin a relatively brief stint at Psycho Las Vegas, making their way to the East Coast for a few dates before looping out to Chicago for Scorched Tundra and finishing at Muddy Roots in Tennessee. Three distinct festivals with three distinct vibes, and no doubt the trio will find welcome as they make their way to all of in continued celebration of last year’s Your Time to Shine (review here).
I’ve been starting to hear more and more bands who sound like Monolord, and it’s becoming interesting to note what that means in terms of a kind of riffing and nodding groove. They have a signature, despite consistently growing from one album to the next. They’ve already put years of road time in to get to this point, and their influence only seems to keep spreading like the fuzz tsunami it is.
They’ll be out with Dorthia Cottrell of Windhand. Dates follow, courtesy of the PR wire:
MONOLORD ANNOUNCE US SUMMER 2022 TOUR DATES
YOUR TIME TO SHINE FULL-LENGTH OUT NOW
Sweden’s MONOLORD announce Summer 2022 tour dates throughout the United States. The 11-date run begins at Psycho Las Vegas and ends at Muddy Roots Fest in Tennessee. Direct support by Dorthia Cottrell (Windhand) on all non-festival dates. A full tour schedule is below.
MONOLORD Comment:
“Now that touring is possible again it feels equally inspiring and unreal to be able to play live for all of you again. To say that we’re stoked to get back to the US for a second round after the world opened up again would be an understatement. See you in August, let’s do this!”
MONOLORD are touring in support of their 2021 full-length Your Time To Shine (physical: https://store.relapse.com/b/monolord; digital: orcd.co/monolord-ytts).
Monolord tour dates:
Sun 8/21 – Las Vegas, NV – Psycho Las Vegas Wed 8/24 – Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye Thu 8/25 – Baltimore, MD – Metro Fri 8/26 – Raleigh, NC – Pour-House Sat 8/27 – Columbia, SC – New Brookland Tavern Sun 8/28 – Atlanta, GA – Bogg’s Tue 8/30 – Columbus, OH – Skully’s Wed 8/31 – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme Thu 9/01 – Chicago, IL – Scorched Tundra Fest @ Empty Bottle Fri 9/02 – Louisville, KY – Portal Sat 9/03 – Cookeville, TN – Muddy Roots Festival
All dates w/Dorthia Cottrell except Psycho & Muddy*
Monolord are: Thomas V Jäger – Guitars & vocals Esben Willems – Drums Mika Häkki – Bass
Monolord recently returned to their native Sweden following their first North American tour since before lockdown. Not a minor advent. Their social media was rife with righteous posts of cities conquered and complaints about gas station coffee — dudes, you can do better; please don’t judge American coffee by Sheetz or Pilot or Flying J, etc. — and in the company of fellow Göteborgers Firebreather, with whom they’ve toured Europe in the past, there was a sense of (one hesitates to say the word) normalcy to the entire affair. It was a tour. They’re a touring band. They toured.
Of course, context makes that a novelty. It’s not the last run that Monolord have planned to support their 2021 album, Your Time to Shine (review here) — which I’m just as happy to tell you is the best work the band has ever done as I was to tell the same to drummer Esben Willems when we talked last week — but even now there’s trepidation in the planning stage. The infrastructure of touring has changed, maybe forever, in some surprising ways, and like anything, it’s a situation for an active outfit like Monolord to navigate. If covid-19 is going to be endemic like the flu, then it will need to be lived with, like the flu.
Willems — who also runs Berserk Audio and is joined in Monolord by guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jäger and now-it’s-a-band bassist Mika Häkki (you’ll get it when you watch the interview — talks below about that and about Your Time to Shine, about being on the road for the first time with a crew, about the comfort in the familiarity of having past-Euro-tourmates Firebreather along, about new projects at the studio, his own very drummerly sense of restlessness, and much more. I’ve been fortunate enough now to chat with him a couple times over the years — last time was Jan. 2021 — and it continues to be a pleasure.
Hopefully you enjoy it as well. Thanks for reading and/or watching:
Monolord, Interview with Esben Willems, April 6, 2022
Monolord’s Your Time to Shine is out now on Relapse Records. Tour updates coming soon. More info at the links.
Posted in Reviews on October 21st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The difficulty in talking about Monolord at this point is doing so in non-superlative terms. Your Time to Shine is a tale of Monolord and Monolord. There is Monolord, the Gothenburg trio whose riff worship across now-five full-lengths has cast an influential net that spans every continent they’ve touched on tour and then some. The three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jäger, bassist Mika Häkki and drummer/engineer Esben Willems, who since their 2014 debut, Empress Rising (discussed here) have done nothing other than dominate the heavy underground, tonally and in work ethic. Monolord the beast. With a sound that seems infinitely imitable — as the lumbering hordes in their significant shadow prove — but unable to be reproduced verbatim.
Your Time toShine is a tale of this Monolord. With Häkki‘s altar-worthy bass tone and the immediate stomp of Willems‘ drums at their foundation, from the very outset of opener “The Weary,” Monolord offer a clarion to the converted and those who might not know yet they’re ready to be indoctrinated. These slams — they need no context. Do you need to know that 2019’s fourth LP, No Comfort (review here) — also their first for Relapse Records after beginning their career with RidingEasy — was the best album released that year? Nope. By the time Jäger is swagger-riffing through the measure-breaks in the first verse of “The Weary,” it couldn’t matter less. If you’ve never heard Monolord, there is zero barrier to getting on board with Your Time to Shine, and the band’s non-aggro heft only makes them more accessible to a broader audience sphere.
This Monolord runs rampant through the urgent nod of “To Each Their Own,” with rips through a slow-motion triumph in its late-stage lead guitar after crafting a seven-plus-minute progression that leaves one aching to hear it at full-venue volume, tempo trades between pummel and plod after the quiet beginning leads to the first surge executed with fluidity that’s immersive enough to fucking drown in. Not just repetitive, not just heavy, but telling of the otherMonolord throughout Your Time to Shine. That second Monolord alluded to earlier, which is waiting in the background to more fully reveal itself after the outright crush of “I’ll Be Damned,” a centerpiece that sets its hook as much in its main riff as its subsequent chorus.
Airy guitar fills out the midsection after a chugging verse opens to the chorus — a simple recitation of the title, teased instrumentally the first time, delivered in full the second — taking the primitivism that so many identify as crucial to who Monolord are and running with it, not repeating past accomplishments or forgetting them but casting a familiar and welcome revelry. The solo winds back to the chorus, that central riff builds out through a finish and sudden stop — the feeling structured, composed, masterful in its way. The superlative Monolord writing pieces they knew they’d be able to take on stage, wherever, whenever. They just might be damned. So might we all if they keep opening chasms as gargantuan as they do here.
Which is where that other Monolord begins its tale. Because Your Time to Shine isn’t just the celebration of impact that the double-kick-and-riff combo after the six-minute mark of “I’ll Be Damned” represents. It’s not just “The Weary.” It’s also the weariness. Side B departs in structure and form from the album’s first three tracks, bringing “Your Time to Shine” (10:40) and “The Siren of Yersinia” (9:24), as two longer-form pieces that are nearly an album unto themselves and whose intentions go beyond what the band have done before in terms of atmosphere and depiction of mood. The title-track is laced with bitter irony, as sad in its procession as it is cavernous in its space, and in its minimalist stretch that ends its second half, it willfully pulls away from the expectation of who Monolord are and what they’ve done to this point in their tenure, pushing outward even from No Comfort in its readiness to be and do something else.
They answer this with a more immediate shove on “The Siren of Yersinia,” but by the time the closer’s first minute is done, it’s being lead by a drifting, standalone guitar and Jäger‘s far-off vocals, making use of the emptiness that might otherwise be filled by the onslaught of a piece like “To Each Their Own.” There’s a hit right around three minutes in and a heavier roll ensues as Häkki and Willems rejoin, but the prevailing sensibility is as close as I’ve ever heard Monolord come to classic-style doom, even amid the Sabbathian foundation of their sound or their earlier Electric Wizard influence. Yersinia, incidentally, is a parasite. A tempo shift returns some bookending cowbell or woodblock from “The Weary,” and even as the band stomp and crash their way to the song and album’s end, the underlying mood is maintained.
This Monolord is the one able to say they feel it too. The anxious uncertainty. The restlessness. The feeling of loss that comes with having lived through this time. If the first half of Your Time to Shine is a reminder of the glories of such weighted aural impact, the second is the reminder of the world in which that impact is happening. No Comfort also took its title from its longest track, and in that and in other ways, Your Time to Shine is a consistent step forward following on from that album and the progression that began to make itself felt on 2017’s Rust(review here) after 2015’s Vænir (review here) affirmed the drive of the debut. But one of this collection’s chief accomplishments is its ability to bring together the two sides — the overwhelming assault and the identifiable expression. They make those sounds and then they use them to fucking say something.
It’s not just about heavy grooves and melodic vocals. Looking back, I’m not sure it ever was. And as much as Monolord are recognizable through that in the influence they’ve had, their work has never been broader than it is here or more refined. At 39 minutes, Your Time to Shine is the shortest album Monolord have ever done, and they did it at Willems‘ own Studio Berserk. Perhaps it is in finding the essence of who they are sound-wise, the Monolord and the Monolord, that they’ve become all the more essential and united in their purpose. See what I mean about the superlatives? Recommended.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 14th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
New Monolord. Yeah. What? Oct. 29. Okay. I know. Tour too. And there’s a video up. And it’s heavy. I know. Unalloyed good news. Yeah. Write it in your diary so you remember later.
Your Time to Shine is available for preorder now. Monolord will follow their upcoming European run with Blackwater Holylight with a US one importing fellow Goteborgers Firebreather. The track they’re streaming is called “The Weary.” It’s the opener, and I’d expect they push further out from its relatively straightforward roll. In any case, I’m feeling it. It hits me right here. That’s about as much insight as I’ve got on the subject. I want to hear the rest of the album. I want to interview Esben Willems again and talk about the record and getting back out on the road. I’ll make sure the volume’s up this time.
There’s a ton of info below. Some of it you need, some of it I guess you probably don’t unless you want to order a specific version or you happen to be at Rough Trade in the UK the day the thing comes out. Which I guess is possible. Okay.
Fresh off the PR wire:
MONOLORD ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM YOUR TIME TO SHINE OUT OCTOBER 29; PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE NOW (PHYSICAL/DIGITAL)
Gothenburg, Sweden – Monolord return with their enthusiastically-awaited fifth album, Your Time To Shine, on Oct. 29 via Relapse Records.
A preview of the 5-song, 39-minute collection, which was recorded by drummer Esben Willems in their newly founded recording space, Studio Beserk, arrives today via the soaring, fist-raising album opener, “The Weary” (link). “‘The Weary” that’s us telling a story to future generations that we are sorry but we fucked it all up” says Guitarist/Vocalst Thomas Jäger.
Never ones to shy away from sharp social commentary, whether it’s about the global climate crisis, the destructive nature of religion, or the isolation endured during the pandemic, drummer Esben Willems says of the new collection: “To me, it’s an honest representation of how I feel about the current state of humanity.”
Musically, the album sees the Swedish trio cultivating the elements that take their monstrous, heavy riffing to new heights with a darker edge. A five-track journey that spans across crushing doom rock to more spacey, groove laden opuses, Your Time to Shine is Monolord at their most unfiltered and focused.
Your Time To Shine tracklist: The Weary To Each Their Own I’ll Be Damned Your Time To Shine The Siren Of Yersinia
Your Time To Shine pre-orders are available now (physical: bit.ly/monolord-ytts; digital: orcd.co/monolord-ytts). The album is available in the following formats: standard vinyl (Kelly green), CD, cassette, and digitally, as well as a smörgåsbord of limited-edition vinyl variants:
Deluxe versions (available exclusively via Relapse.com):
Deluxe mail order version (white, brown and olive green merge with splatter including a specially designed stand up church cutout display piece, and a high-quality Zippo lighter with screen print. 100 available) Deluxe mail order version (100 available – highlighter yellow/orange krush/highlighter yellow three color striped with splatter including a specially designed stand up church cutout display piece, and a high-quality Zippo lighter with screen print. 100 available) Deluxe mail order version (butterfly with splatter – 200 available) Relapse.com exclusives:
Grey inside clear with rainbow splatter – 300 available Yellow and mustard merge – 500 available Milky clear with brown, mustard and orange splatter – 500 available Monolord.com exclusive:
Olive green – 100 available
Retail exclusives:
Mustard yellow – 200 available via Rough Trade UK Milky clear – 200 available, Swedish indie record store exclusive Grey – 300 available, UK indie record store exclusive Brown – 300 available, German indie record store exclusive Neon Orange – 500 available, North American indie record store exclusive Monolord has simultaneously announced a U.S. tour, with the coast-to-coast run kicking off on March 3. The dates (listed below) are on-sale now with all performances supported by Firebreather. A European trek is slated for this November with Blackwater Holylight opening those dates.
Monolord tour dates:
November 6 Mexico City, MX Hipnosis Festival
November 18 Oberhausen, DE Kulttempe November 19 Utrecht, NL dB’S SOLD OUT November 20 Nijmegen, NL Doornroosje November 22 Bristol, UK Exchange November 24 London, UK The Underworld November 25 Manchester, UK Soup November 26 Dunkerque, FR 4 Ecluses November 27 Paris, FR Petit Bain November 28 Toulouse, FR Rex November 30 Madrid, SP Caracol December 1 Barcelona, SP Bóveda December 2 Annecy, FR Le Brise Glace December 3 Aarau, CH KIFF December 4 Vienna, AT Arena December 5 Dresden, DE Chemiefabrik December 6 Berlin, DE Zukunft am Ostkreuz December 7 Hamburg, DE Bahnhof St. Pauli December 8 Copenhagen, DK Spillestedet Stengade December 9 Gothenburg, SE Pustervik December 10 Stockholm, SE Debaser December 11 Malmö, SE Babel December 12 Oslo, NO Youngs
March 3 Berkeley, CA Cornerstone March 4 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s March 5 Portland, OR Dante’s March 6 Seattle, WA Chop Suey March 8 Salt Lake City, UT Metro March 9 Denver, CO Marquis Theater March 11 Chicago, IL Reggies March 12 Detroit, MI Sanctuary March 13 Buffalo, NY Town Ballroom March 15 Boston, MA Sonia March 16 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge March 17 Philadelphia, PA Underground March 18 Cleveland, OH The Grog Shop March 19 Indianapolis, IN Black Circle March 20 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone March 21 New Orleans, LA Gasa Gasa March 22 Austin, TX Mohawk March 23 Denton, TX Thin Line Fest March 25 Phoenix, AZ Rebel Lounge March 26 San Diego, CA Brick by Brick March 27 Los Angeles, CA Teragram
Firebreather opens on all North American dates, Blackwater Holylight opens on all European dates.
Monolord are: Thomas V Jäger – Guitars & vocals Esben Willems – Drums Mika Häkki – Bass
