I'm back pretty early, aren't I? I believe I've posted this EP before, but this time I'll give the lore drop and analysis.
Greg Pope and Neema Askari were a set of vocalists on Monuments that joined after Fellsilent (pre Monuments + TesseracT) fell apart. Neema was on Fellsilent, but Greg was new. This is mostly irrelevant though, as when Monuments released this EP and opened a live show for Periphery with this lineup, it was clear just how well their voices worked together, and how well their (albeit unique) vocals fit over the music. Getting into rumor and/or I'm not sure territory here, but they were both under the belief that Monuments was over, so they "left" the band. Clearly the band wasn't actually done, and they picked up another vocalist (Matt Rose). This led to a song being cut (Memoirs) which they actually tried releasing, but Neema and/or Greg threatened legal action due to the iconic chorus. So, we got Gnosis, with completely re-worked vocals, and Greg and Neema were nowhere to be found.
So where does that leave this EP? Well, it was only released on myspace, so the compression and mixing is kind of raw garbage. Not even good raw, if it wasn't this good I would not be listening to it. But it IS that good. It's catchy, the vocal style is unique and executed well, the riffs are Gnosis riffs so they're good. What's bittersweet about this EP is, this is what Gnosis could have been. This music with Gnosis mixing would have been an amazing debut album, rivaling The Amanuensis. Instead, most people prefer the instrumental version of the album, and rank it lower, if not the lowest, out of all of the Monuments albums.
Before I leave yet again (no I'm not listing singles it's only three songs), I want to discuss lyrical themes. They sound left-wing and political, something that did happen on Gnosis (a bit more vaguely), but just completely died after that.
Let's first look at Admit Defeat:
It's time to open the curtains
Think of our time tonight as uncertain
Anything, everything can happen
Just open your minds to a new plan for mankind
We got a new vision for the future
A new formula to suture
If you live your life by fake laws and lies
There'll never be a future
Why the fuck do we fall to our knees
For the corporations?
Refuse the system because the system will re-use you
We are the foundation
Tear it down
If you do one thing, just think of consequence
Of your life
The answer's inside and now we'll stand together
There's nothing different about me
(Everyone in this life is linked by forces unseen)
And your whatever you see is skin deep
There's nothing to gather
(Fatal lies, just so you feel secure inside)
Just take a look around and you'll get the picture
If we do nothing we can be sure of one thing
We'll refrain; fall into shade
Question your life
Why are we here believing nothing else?
Rise from the system
Into a visions free, free your mind and soul
We got this far just believe we can let go
Why the fuck do we fall to our knees?
Why are we here believing nothing else
Rise from the system into a vision free from this ignorance
We got this far, just believe we can let go
Now let's start digging deeper; uncover what we know
Falling from madness, we'll break through as one
I can tell you this great deception must have an ending
We can make it stop
Everybody's gonna reach out from distress at take some action
We'll restore the features that each of us choose to reap from
We say monuments are the future
Remember your way, just in case our light fades away
Remember your way, just in case our light fades away
Why the fuck do we fall to our knees
For the corporations?
Refuse the system because the system will re-use you
We are the foundation
Like, this is explicitly anti-capitalist. When I heard this I went nuts. Gnosis was vague, but this was much better, especially lines like "Refuse the system because the system will re-use you" and even just "We Are The Foundation".
Next, Memoirs. This song is sad, I've cried.
We can't control our lives
We can just take things one day at a time
Don't look back at our mistakes,
We don't learn from our mistakes
I dare you to open your eyes,
You'll realize it's not the first time
We're here to change, educate not to compete but to put things straight
And we're advancing at a rapid rate
And we refuse to be brainwashed,
By a world that's shaped.
We've wasted time, restrictions on our minds,
And what have we got to show for it?
Mislead from nature,
Tainted with pictures and shaded by our fears
Break through this blind obstruction
Built on lies,
Enslaved in the cycle,
Tainted with pictures and shaded by our fears
Surpass the souls we lost
I'm sick of you
You're not living your livid and you're being used
You're not willing to make a valid point of view
You're the reason that we're here,
Weak people like you are holding us back from this breakthrough
And if the reason we're here is to perpetuate and build
What we haven't got yet and what we, hope to fulfill
Then money is irrelevant, a removed on our path to realisation
Here's something to build and use,
A life once told in religious views if what we're fighting for is money,
Then we're better off with nothing
What the fuck are we gonna do? Regain our goal
We can begin to patch the worlds abrasions after all this
We're better off with nothing
I dare you to open your eyes
The world is decaying its loosing its shape,
We're all on a mission with a brand new vision
Mislead from nature,
Tainted with pictures and shaded by our fears
Break through this blind obstruction
Built on lies,
Enslaved in the cycle,
Tainted with pictures and shaded by our fears
Surpass the souls we lost
This one is sadder to me, because it hits close to home. I thought I knew it all, thought I knew what actually had to be done to help people. Then I learned how the world really works, how things are done intentionally with the knowledge that people are hurt and exploited. Even if we manage to fix a world that's actively decaying, what of the souls lost along the way? What of the souls who we lose every day to the system, the cycle? When will enough people see past the brainwashing, the propaganda, and realize these things, that money is irrelevant, that their worldview is likely built on lies?
Something else lost with Greg and Neema was songwriting. The themes were good, the lyrics themselves were good, just everything about this EP and this band had so much potential, not just to be a good band, but to spread a message. That didn't happen, though. So I'll sit here, still listening to this EP, thinking of what could have been, while appreciating what happened. Gnosis is still a great album, as are The Amanuensis, In Stasis, and Phronesis (except for lyrics on Phronesis, they're really bad). Enjoy this EP, it's quite the gem, even if the mixing is mid.
Vildhjarta's definitely a grower for most people, they have a very odd writing style with riffs having unusual phrase lengths that make sense once you get a feel for them but often aren't on the standard downbeat. They're a lot closer to a -core influenced Meshuggah descendant than a 2000s/2010s metalcore+some Meshuggah influenced bands like Periphery. Their albums Måsstaden and Måsstaden Under Vatten are both concept albums about a kinda dark fairy tale town of critters that gets taken over by a shadowy cult of wolves, and reading the lyrics (or the translation to Under Vatten's since it's all in Swedish) and looking at the accompanying art adds a lot. Some of the music feels almost like a score to a horror movie accompanying the story, the high dissonant guitar parts feel like a screechy violin sting in a horror movie at times.
Måsstaden Under Vatten is one of my favorite albums of all time. The centerpiece of it, Måsstaden's Nationalsang (Under Vatten) is an instrumental medley of a ton of the parts from the first album tied together. This cover of it by Krisse is one of the coolest covers I've seen, a lot of the riffs on that album were written using a Whammy Ricochet with MIDI programming to change tunings in real time for a quick section and go back to the original tuning, but the guy covering just physically tunes lower to do it live. :do-it-live: