Reviewed by Sagiv Shani

Artist: Monsterworks
Album: Man :: Instincts (EP)
Label: Mortal Music
Release Date: July 10th, 2012

1. The Creation Dream
2. All Suns Die
3. Free Will

Following on from “The God Album”, and taking the listener into a philosophical landscape, “Album of Man” was recorded by London-based band Monsterworks in April 2010, at Earth Terminal Studios with Lewis Childs as engineer. The first EP the band released from the album is Man :: Instincts, and contains three songs: The Creation Dream, All Suns Die, and Free Will. The less the band exposes itself to us the more we are able to appreciate their talent and will to create unusual music. With powerful lyrics that doubt one’s belief, the band’s music is far more than harmony and technique, for it might make a person think and confront himself with things he may consider undoubtedly true.

As for the music, imagine the (stoned) members of Mastodon sitting for a drink with King Diamond and Immortal’s ‘Abbath’ stopping by to say hello.
Yet still, it doesn’t seem the band greatly diversifies its unique style (as weird as it might sound…) but concentrates on the regular song structure formula, only playing with its components such as vocals, solos, and harmonies vs. percussions.

As the band itself writes, it is very difficult to pin it down, with a change of style in nearly every second part of the songs. It might be thrash on one point, then death in another, with low growls wrapping it all up. Not the thing you mostly hear, unless you’re some sort of heavy metal hipster.
Despite the mind-bombarding approach it seems the band is showing, the songs are rather light to digest for some reason, with a conformist song build-up, unlike other versatile extreme metal bands such as Gojira. The Lo-Fi production makes the EP sound as if Bill Clinton was recently elected and the Soviet Union dissolved only a few months ago; it adds a lot to the atmosphere that the band is trying to deliver through its music and throws you back into another world in which heavily distorted guitars and technical drumming is the only law.
Overall, I have no doubt Monsterworks are a special band that despite its seniority (15 years are not something to disregard) gets very little attention, too little in my opinion for such a special band that is has been here for a long time.
I think the band can easily manage itself through the underground metal scene, and I hope we’ll all see it happen and hear more about them and their creations.

https://www.facebook.com/monsterworks
https://www.youtube.com/user/spacialoperations

Monsterworks Lineup:

Hugo: Bass
James: Drums
Marcus: Lead Guitar
Jon: Guitar / Vocals