The various iterations of doom metal that have oozed forth from the vast chasm of metal is an obscenely immense wall of bone heaviness. Bricks upon bricks have been stacked atop the foundation that Black Sabbath laid down with Master of Reality and Vol. 4. In more recent times, the seemingly bottomless bubbling cauldron of otherworldly inspiration has given way at times to severe and stark realness. More recently of note, Cough, Primitive Man, Bongripper, and Indian have all plunged headlong into that vein with full-length albums steeped in existential weight. Given their unwavering consistency and penchant for ruminative riffs, Monolord have arguably produced their most introspective offering to date with this, their latest album, No Comfort.
Much like Sunn O)))’s most recent offering, Life Metal, Monolord’s No Comfort has a distinctively more uplifting sonic texture. It lulls the listener into a sense of false security, as the lyrics pulverize the mind into a hellish void of mind bending reality. It is the sonic equivalent to opening The Lament Configuration and having your soul being ripped apart with a smile on your face because you are some kind of insane masochist. The truth is inspiringly beautiful, yet searingly painful. “When the spirits awake, more decisions to make. All your safety’s a lie. It’s all gone when you die” from ‘Larvae’ claws at the mind, and thrusts a godless reality into focus. The track embodies the unwavering fact that we are, at base value, crawling sacs of flesh going about our business and constantly being fed lies about an existence beyond the life we have. This is the life we have. It is all we get, and Monolord does not back down from that stance in the slightest, and aims to shatter any sense of false security being held.
The title track ‘No Comfort’ is an eerily melancholic yet comforting experience that quietly sneaks up and ensnares the listener in its talons with “destruction, endless destruction, and for the living, it’s coming back ‘cause we are dead inside”. Monolord’s ethereal creation is laced in stark honesty. No Comfort is a testament to the grace, power, and harshness that doom metal has embodied since its beginning.
No Comfort is available now via Relapse Records and can be purchased here.
Words by Garrett A. Tanner
