Whilst standing here, drowning in a sea of faux-pretentiousness, I was wondering what my day would end up like if I suddenly had a wave of fucking rock slapped across my face. It’s always nice to have a band come along and make you remember that music is – shockingly enough – being made by normal people. Like you. Not like me, mind. So in many ways I am grateful for Monuments. It certainly throws out all ideas of pretension.
It’s fucking metal, it’s fucking hardcore, it’s fucking angular, it’s fucking muddy, it’s all the rest of that shit, it’s difficult for my small mind to pigeonhole. Think BoySetsFire running headlong into a knife fight with The Darkness with Scatman John watching from the sidelines. Technically nothing like this record, but a nice thought nonetheless. Though I have heard BSF comparisons. And Earthtone 9. And by “heard” I mean “read on the press release.” I love press releases. According to one I read, Avril Lavigne is like “Dido crossed with Linkin Park.” Laugh? I almost shat.
Where was I?
Ahhh yes – October File. What we have here is a thoroughly decent album. It’s crushingly heavy where it needs to be, it has enough singalong goodness to keep the kids happy and it covers the tuneful sense of things rather well – there’s even inklings of Rise Against here and there, with wonderfully gravely vocals shining brightest in this sea of fury. See it’s a different sea from earlier. There are a few in the world. Do you see?
It’s not perfect and it only verges on great sometimes, but Monuments is damn fun for the 25 minutes it lasts. Intelligent, fun and not in the slightest bit conceited… Maybe we could be seeing the start of a new fashion? I somehow doubt it.
www.octoberfile.com
Ian