Monarch! - Dead Men Tell No Tales
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This album must be played loud, very loud. Goosebumps should pierce surfaces after feeling Monarch?s 2007 release melt from blaring speakers. The French quartet return with their crushing Crucial Blast compilation Dead Men Tell No Tales. This album refurnishes and compiles Monarch?s two previous full-lengths, Speak of the Sea and Die Tonight. A comfortable chair and kind patience is required for the 1 hour and 34 minutes of Dead Men Tell No Tales. Although long, this release weeps a sedating flavor that leaves a thick aftertaste. Bleak sketches of a sailboat, cute ghosts, hearts, stars, and upside-down crosses splash the album cover. Although cheerless, these juvenile drawings illustrate Monarch with strange femininity. Emilie Bresson is the image of Monarch. Her long, blonde hair, petite figure, and quirky style belie her empowering scream.
We Are the Musicmakers (excerpt)Dead Men Tell No Tales (excerpt)
In ?We Are the Musicmakers,? Bresson roars as if she?s tearing her hair out. A permeating fog grows thicker along with the slowly crawling chords, tamed feedback, and bellowing booms. After about eight minutes of subdued stupor, Bresson creeps out of her silky cocoon, shrieking furiously. The gloomy ambiance is similar to fellow doom enthusiasts Moss, but Monarch lack the thick, grimy undertones. They comprehend this approach, but their delivery is often too crispy clean. Playing Dead Men Tell No Tales loud makes up for the lost gloom. Sure Monarch have thunder, but they also have too much illumination. Striking that perfect, thunderous tone is what makes doom so effective. With her rugged elegance, Bresson frequently overpowers that murky necessity. On the last track, Bresson tells a ghostly bedtime story in a near-silent, eerie whisper on top of looped seaside sounds. The effect is chilling, but ?Dead Men Tell No Tales? secretes Monarch?s thunderous instrumental potential. At this point, my butt is numb, but my ears aren?t quite seeping blood.
