Label: Self-released
Release year: 2018
Production: Drago Popovič
Album length: 47.42
Genre: Alternative Rock / Alternative Metal
Last year saw the release of the debut from Škofja Loka’s Monsun, titled “V eter”. Monsun are a seasoned six-piece that rose from the ruins of the acoustic combo Candle With Hair and, with a minor lineup tweak, carry on as Monsun. A new musical chapter, then, one that traded the old acoustic sound for an avalanche of distorted flirtation.
The debut “V eter” delivers ten superbly crafted tracks and a little under 48 minutes of top-quality rock. Two guitars build a bristling wall of sound, gripping the phrasing like granite, especially in the choruses. They create a lower-tuned, rich sonic mass and address the listener with avalanche-like, invasive guitar phrases that, in the production, sound raw, greasy and “openly” frothy. Modestly put, downright demolishing. Monsun pour all their energy into creating a predatory yet gloomy atmosphere that hits with bombastic force. They’re uncompromising when it comes to cranking the knobs, but they also make their mildly dark pose clear in the songs: the tracks grow out of minor keys and are wrapped in a feeling of melancholy. The opening track Mars alone knocks you flat with its ingenious moves, which are really the result of deft juggling with minimalism, yet add up perfectly and hand the band a winning poker hand of aces, because “V eter” grabs any listener right from the start. This one song surprises with striking shifts in atmosphere, which the band achieves through contrasting phrasing between verse and chorus, plus a carefully placed modulation (a mid-eight passage) about two thirds of the way in. A track that serves up a proper drama theater from the get-go. Not just in terms of bold composition, but vocally too. Vocalist Matija Krajnik is an outstanding vocal chameleon who, with his passionate fire, brings the poetry to life incredibly well throughout the entire record. The messages touch on personal, intimate confessions and love themes, but they don’t skimp on socially critical bite either.
You can tell the band spent a long time playing songs in an acoustic manner before this. You can hear it in the arrangements. The guitars know how to “lie low” a bit, especially in the verses, and then the spotlight goes (as a contrasting production counterweight, of course) to Matija Krajnik’s wildly infectious, distinctive vocals and a thick, clearly pronounced bass leg of rattling jangle. This is cut through by avalanches of guitar distortion on the way into a new verse, pre-chorus or chorus, and in this way the band very skillfully trades in mood-swing upheavals, which is the essence of the album’s “predatory” quality and its highly dynamic development. The band members are no musical greenhorns, but grown men who spent their teenage years growing up on the MTV boom of nineties bands like Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and early Pearl Jam too. Although those bands belong to the movement called grunge, Monsun don’t indulge in any revivalist nostalgia on the album. Only the influences show in the songwriting and sound, while Monsun develop their own authorial individuality, their self-grown alternative rock attitude, recognizable and belonging to the band alone.
Usually a band’s debut is a foundational step where they’re still searching for their musical style, defining and establishing it only on later albums. “V eter”, though, is already, at its very core, an extremely strong and tightly defined album with an authorial stamp, one that establishes the band’s clearly developed character and expressive dossier. That means the songs developed over a long time before arriving at the studio with Popi, and are therefore ruthlessly optimized. The sextet knows exactly what it’s doing in the songwriting. They know precisely how a chorus has to stand to grab your attention and seize you instantly. They also add vocal harmonies to the main vocal melody with great skill, deepening and contrasting the feelings, while the added keyboard lines, the aforementioned phrasing shifts between verse and chorus, and the extra guitar ornaments above the phrases, which borrow even “arabesques” in their search for melodies, put the dot on the “i”. Solos are pared down to a minimum, if you find any at all and they’re not an essential part of the mid-eight passages. The band bets everything on building a solid, charming yet gloomy atmosphere that comes across as solemn and pompous, and over a good three quarters of an hour paints a proper drama theater of moody predatory energy. You’ll have to pick the album’s highlights and favorites yourself. The choruses are extremely strong and the songs stand shoulder to shoulder in terms of quality. The album knows no dips in quality and keeps an exceptional artistic consistency. Personally, I know I’d pick Zaželen.
Yes. “V eter” is an exceptionally strong debut with a real authorial voice. Committed in its songwriting and as optimized as it gets in arrangement and production. With it, Monsun present themselves artistically as an extremely mature band with a musical character all their own. So what we have here is an exceptionally strong act, firmly rooted in alternative rock (all the way to metal), whose presence gratefully enriches an otherwise perpetually undernourished Slovenian rock scene.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.5 / 10
Tracklist:
1. Mars
2. Sam
3. Slepe miši
4. Nocoj
5. Vojna čustev
6. Zaželen
7. Vila
8. Alarm
9. Momento
10. Drug A
Lineup:
Matija Krajnik – vocals
Marijo Lovrić – guitar, backing vocals
Miran Hažić – guitar
Miha Dolinar – keyboards
Aleksander Šarić – bass guitar
Aleš Avguštin – drums
