I've somehow never actually been called out on this, publicly or privately, but I've always noted a dissonance in one of my frequent talking points throughout my reviewing career. I always say that great music doesn't need to be original, and yet I'm constantly giving clone bands shit for being inferior copies of the innovators they imitate. Why bother listening to Encoffination when you can just listen to Incantation instead, ya know? Most of my favorite metal bands are either very unique or are classic innovators of some kind. 70% of all metal bands ever can trace their roots back to Motorhead somehow, nobody on the planet sounds like Gotsu Totsu Kotsu, Running Wild spawned so many imitators that I lost count a decade ago, Blind Guardian absolutely perfected both early speed metal and overblown symphonic power metal, I've written fucking 22 reviews for Gargoyle and I still don't know anybody who sounds like them, et cetera ad nauseam. Whenever I make the "you don't need to be original!" argument, it's always preceded by several paragraphs explaining why whichever band I'm talking about is an exception in one direction or the other.
So consider this a definitive refutation of that hypothetical callout, because Monasterium is 100% nothing more than a carbon copy of Candlemass, right down to Michał Strzelecki being a dead fucking ringer for Messiah Marcolin, and they absolutely fucking rule.
I feel like I don't even need to give this a real review based on that previous sentence, because if you're familiar with classic era Candlemass then you already know what this sounds like, but I can't help but gush over it anyway. Church of Bones is very orthodox epic doom, with every single trope established on Epicus Doomicus Metallicus showcased in full force, from the huge, vibrato-filled clean tenor vocals to the stomping-yet-spirited riff mastery. That's always been one of my favorite aspects of Candlemass's sound, and it's one that Monasterium recreates perfectly. Despite doom metal being so codified by the dark and occult, these guys write riffs that are bursting with life. There's no sense of dreariness or decay in this midpaced dirges, instead sounding like colorful, anthemic celebrations. The closest something sounds to being dark and uninviting is probably "Sleeping with the Dead", which really gives off the vibe of wandering in a long abandoned crypt, but otherwise none of these songs would sound out of place on Ancient Dreams.
Apparently at least a handful of the members also play in Evangelist, whom I have never heard but according to my sources are also a solid Candlemass clone, so everything checks out. I brought up Strzelecki sounding exactly like Messiah earlier, and with that in mind I decided to see if he was in any other bands I might be familiar with, and saw that he was once a member of Sorcerer. "Oh that makes total sense," I thought to myself, "I don't really remember much of that album that got a good amount of hype a while back but I also remember that being epic doom so I guess he's just playing to type." But actually, it turns out he wasn't the singer, he played guitar, and it was a totally different band also named Sorcerer that actually played power metal. That is so fucking wild. It's like some new thrash band cropping up with a vocalist who sounds just like Tom Araya, who also happened to play in Evile but it was actually some different Evile from Brazil or something that actually played black metal and also he was the drummer.
Something that I think helps Church of Bones a lot is the fact that it strikes that perfect balance between having huge standouts while also being strong the whole way through. No songs are truly filler here besides maybe "Liber Loagaeth", but even with all 45 minutes being strong from start to finish, tracks like the opening title track, "La Danse Macabre", "The Order of the Dragon", and "The Last Templar" still manage to stand out as exemplary. The first and last songs are probably the biggest standouts of the bunch, with the title track being unfairly catchy and utilizing that awesome trick of simply playing huge powerchords while the vocals harmonize with them perfectly without straying off at all. That "We are all like stones" part so perfectly reflects the "The battle of minds" chorus from "Mirror Mirror", it's breathtaking in how catchy and massive it sounds. "The Last Templar" stands as the longest and most evocative track on the album, possessing the same immaculate ear for melody as the rest of the album, but it stands out a bit further for utilizing guest vocals courtesy of the vocalist of Forsaken, who provides the only outside influence on the album since he sounds more like a gravelly Rob Lowe than Messiah. But even then Lowe spent three albums with Candlemass himself and is most well known for fronting Solitude Aeturnus, who also kicks immeasurable ass but is basically just "The American Candlemass". Once again the chorus is stunning, and I haven't given them enough credit yet, but it also has probably my favorite guitar solo on the album. These guys implement some of the most simple-yet-effective soaring leads I've heard in quite a while. They're very late 70s/early 80s in execution and composition and I'm just completely in love with them.
I can't stress enough how ear catching and well written this album is. Pretty much every single second is bursting with energy and every riff is stomping and expertly delivered. Yeah it's impossible to shake the comparison to Candlemass since this is a blatant worship act, but like I outlined at the start, this is an example of such a thing working amazingly. I'm just repeating myself at this point so I'll wrap it up here. This is huge, enrapturing, and loaded with great riffs underneath powerful vocals. What more could you really want out of an epic doom release?
RATING: 91%
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