Full disclosure up front: I fancy myself a fan mostly of European metal, or at least bands that SOUND like they are from Europe stylistically. So, when I review a modern metal band from the US, I do bring some biases to the table. With that admitted, where does New York’s Monochromatic Black and their debut album Pneuma fit into the metal landscape in 2019?
Well – after over a dozen times listens to this album from beginning to end – I find myself really appreciative of what Monochromatic Black is trying to accomplish musically, and am impressed with the nuts-and-bolts execution of their debut album. For stylistic reasons this one probably won’t make my list of best albums of the year, but I would still strongly recommend it as quality listening it for any metal head, and especially for fans of the range of extreme metal genres. I’ll touch briefly on a few tracks…
The album opener “Degradation” starts off with chugging, dissonant aggression. Brutal breakdowns, screaming, and the band generally bashing the hell out of their instruments. Predictable rhythms be damned, this track will bulldoze you.
The song “Dream Catcher” alternately bombards you with a slow, heavy attack and a dark, hauntingly melodic, clean vocal line. There’s some great atmosphere on this one, and a bit of a change-of-pace that I really enjoyed. Perhaps the most prog-metalish track on the album.
The vocal work on “Phosphenes” was excellent; killer growls and cool singing augmented by suspenseful, hard-hitting breakdowns. The music really builds on this track in a way I found exciting and compelling. And there’s some really solid guitar-work going on here – not just your run-of-the-mill deathcore noodling.
The album finale – “The Herd” – finishes things off with hints of melodic death metal style. Up tempo, progressive, and frenzied. This was my favorite track on the album – and the kind of song I would definitely want to hear live.
One critique I had about this album is simply its length: at only 24 minutes of material in 6 tracks, it isn’t much more than an EP. Also, there didn’t seem to be much flow from one song to the next on this album, leaving the listener feeling that you could swap out the placement of any track with any other and have essentially the same album. That said, every song has some riff, vocal line, or element that impressed me and I found memorable. The instruments are mixed well, with a solid guitar tone.
There’s a definite hardcore influence to this album – which at times takes it outside my zone of comfort and familiarity – while others will find this very appealing. What Pneuma was trying to deliver in terms of the music, I think it did successfully, but at times I wanted to hear MORE from these songs. There were some interesting progressive elements that showed up here, and I would really like to have heard Monochromatic Black expand on those. I can appreciate quick hitters, but would’ve liked a few songs to have had more length and room for the music to breath.
Ultimately I give this album an 8 out of 10 rating, which is probably undervaluing it. If you enjoy extreme metal styles – and particularly music that doesn’t hold closely to any defined metal subgenre – I anticipate you’ll find it to be a winner.
You can purchase Pneuma from Monochromatic Black – and I encourage listeners to do so – via BigCartel.com as well as the Bandcamp app. And the band will be touring the northeast US this summer – be sure to check them out delivering the brutality live in your city soon.