Black Monolith - Demo EP

 I got into crust (specifically, the d-beat style) years ago when I discovered bands like His Hero is Gone, Amebix, and Discharge, but over the years I slowly stopped listening to this style of extremity. I don't know exactly what caused me to move away from crust music, maybe I outgrew it's adolescent ramblings or stopped caring about its political call to arms, but at this point in my life I find myself wanting this genre more and more. Enter Black Monolith.

Black Monolith hail from California and play blackened crust. This is perfect for me because, as you should know by now, I am a sucker for black metal. While Black Monolith play crust clearly influenced by bm (just listen to the vocals), they mostly sound like a crust band, and their 2011 Demo EP is one of the most satisfying slices of breakneck violence to come out of the genre in a long time.

Most of the time demos offer a rough sketch of what a band is trying to sound like. They offer a glimpse into what future full-lengths will offer when the band has put all the pieces together, but on their 2011 Demo Black Monolith have shown everyone exactly what they are, and it's clear that they have no intention of changing. The three tracks that make up the demo are mean as fuck, in your face, christ-killing, blood-spitting homages to the glory of crust's past. Black Monolith are giving their demo away for free, so go grab it.

DL