Monosphere have been synonymous with high conceptual vision and chameleonic genre fusion ever since their 2021 debut album The Puppeteer. Their adventurous merging of various musical influences coupled with ambitious conceptuality was taken a step further on their 2023 follow-up Sentience, leading to their newest effort, Amnesia, which presents a tighter, more streamlined approach to their artistic vision. In between releases and as soon as the post-pandemic live music industry allowed it, Monosphere have been touring relentlessly. Honing their craft, introducing crowds to their singular blend of heavy music genres gravitating towards the “progressive” and most likely learning new things along the way as they got the opportunity to open for some of their core inspirations such as Between The Buried And Me, Rolo Tomassi and The Ocean only to name a few.
The band’s proven record of playing shows alongside bands that exist in completely separate stylistic fields (take Cradle Of Filth, Wage War and Car Bomb for instance) not only shows a willingness to play live as much as possible as an independent outfit, but the fact that none of these inclusions on such a diverse selection of lineups feel awkward or out of place for Monosphere is testament to how broad and eclectic their musical appeal really is, and Amnesia certainly backs that statement.
As soon as the album opens up with ‘Collapse’, it’s hard to really pin down any one all encompassing specific genre or sub-genre to describe what it is Monosphere really do. Electronic synth arrangements breathe life into atmospheric post-metal riffs before the urgency of metalcore and djent take over while the vocals could easily belong in a deathcore register, propelled by furious blast beats and dramatic background orchestrations. As vocalist Kevin Ernst goes into his clean register in the second half of the track while the instrumentation takes a more introspective, almost post-rock attitude, the stage is already set for the remainder of the album; nothing stays in place for too long and mood shifts will be a-plenty and yet, there is also a focused steadiness to it all and the songwriting structures never really veer into chaotic unravelings à la BTBAM, making what Monosphere have to offer on Amnesia more accessible and palatable upon first listen to wider audiences.
Amnesia could be visualised into two different parts, with a first half of short tracks that seamlessly flow into each other for the most part, reaching its dramatic standout midway point with ‘Idiomorph’ before going into its second half of two longer tracks bordering the ten minute mark, separated by a short transitional interlude. Interestingly enough, the band’s amalgamation of various influences shines best during those shorter tracks as it creates a more cohesive and immediate ensemble, whereas the album’s lengthier songs ‘Zenith’ and closer ‘Dissolve’ can feel as though their longer run time and its potential for deeper experimentation isn’t exploited enough and slightly suffer as a result.
That isn’t to say there isn’t any interesting crossover action happening on these tracks. ‘Zenith’ comes close to what an imaginary collaboration between Silent Planet and Hypno5e could sound like and ‘Dissolve’ leans into more furious progressive death metal territory where main composer and drummer Rodney Fuchs really gets a chance to shine, along with frantic, spasmodic sections that bring Native Construct to mind. However, both tracks lose some of their momentum in their respective second halves once they start focusing on building tension and atmosphere, losing some of their initial impact as well as a result; although ‘Dissolve”s dramatic, Leprous-like conclusion brings a satisfying close to Amnesia‘s musical journey of piecing back together its narrator’s memory.
While Amnesia might not be as eccentric as its predecessors with its approach to genre-fusion, it greatly succeeds in making it feel much more approachable and seamless, condensing a big chunk of what earns progressive music its label into more easily digestible bites and re-imagining the nerdiness of prog metal under the guise of its (arguably) cooler metalcore and deathcore cousins.
‘Limbic’ for instance is a great example of what gives bands like Between The Buried And Me some of their appeal in terms of technicality, heaviness, originality and scale but captured within a three minute track rather than a sprawling twenty minute epic. ‘Idiomorph’ is also a strong case of genre-fusion done well without being on-the-nose or disrupting the album’s flow and being key to its narrative, resulting in an impassioned hybrid of flamenco, alt-pop and intricate progressive metal.
It’s not quite metalcore, deathcore, prog or post-metal ; it’s Monosphere, and while it may not fully re-invent or break the wheel, Amnesia is modern progressive heavy music executed cleanly with heart and the band’s ongoing hard work deserves the attention of alternative music enjoyers regardless of their preferences.