Monuments Megathread

[bozothedeathmachine]

Stupid European timezone. Did anyone record it?

 

[isispelican]

 

[JEngelking]

Was at the show in Chicago last night, can confirm that the crowd was lacking in energy, at least for Monuments. I was also wondering where Olly was. Regardless of the short set, however, Monuments was awesome, along with both of the other bands. Very happy I went.

On a side note, Alex Rudinger's drumming is awesome, and it was cool to get to see him perform live.

 

[Possessed]

 

[Thorerges]

Went to the Monuments show tonight. I have never seen or heard of this band before, so keep that in mind. I was surprised that two of the band members actually had proper afros, you don't usually see that in a metal band.

Frontman was legit, always getting the crowd involved and seemed like a super cool dude. Mad props to him, boundless energy. In fact, the whole band has a shit ton of energy and to see alex rudinger was a huge plus.

However, not sure why there was only one guitar player? The guitars were literally inaudible.

 

[aesthyrian]

Yeah, does anyone know why Olly has been absent this tour?

3/5th's of Monuments is better than no Monuments, I guess.

 

[Curt]

Isn't their vocalist the old Periphery vocalist? I always thought he was pretty good. i'd love if they had a stop near me.

 

[anomynous]

Yeah, does anyone know why Olly has been absent this tour?

3/5th's of Monuments is better than no Monuments, I guess.

Because he didn't have a visa for the US or something

 

[aesthyrian]

That's odd, he managed to make it over for their headlining tour with Polyphia back in September? And that tour was much smaller than this AAL, DTP tour.

Isn't their vocalist the old Periphery vocalist? I always thought he was pretty good. i'd love if they had a stop near me.

Yes, as well as many, many other bands.

Shadows at Noon(Played guitar and sang backups in), Periphery, Haunted Shores, Friend for a Foe, Ever Forthright, The HAARP Machine(tour fill-in), and now Monuments. I may have missed a few haha

 

[Thorerges]

Isn't their vocalist the old Periphery vocalist? I always thought he was pretty good. i'd love if they had a stop near me.

He's pretty good, does a lot of that boy band singing which I'll never like but he has a lot of energy.

 

[Thrawn]

I was at the show last night and asked Swanny, the bass player, about Olly and it turns out that he lost his passport so is currently stranded in Canada.

 

[Thorerges]

Speaking of bass players that dude had huge dreads.

 

[MerlinTKD]

Saw Monuments last night, they put on an awesome show!

Alex mentioned while he was setting up that he was filling in, and only had a limited number of songs learned, but he killed it! I've heard about Brown's right-hand downstrokes, but good god! Chris was awesome as well, really worked the crowd, did a lot of interaction during the longer instrumental sections, was in great voice. Super professional as well: a couple times his mic went out (bad cable connection) and rather than freaking out, he kept doing his thing (even though no one could hear him!), grabbed the cable connect to hold it together, and never missed a note! I was seriously impressed at his cool.

Not sure what the difference was, but one thing I noticed live vs. recording... the tunes just grooved more. I really felt an almost R&B vibe underneath the crazy-technical-prog... might have had as much to do with Chris' delivery, or maybe Alex's playing, or could have been just the songs getting to breathe out on the road. Not sure what, but I'll definitely be listening to both Gnosis and The Amanuensis with a different ear, now.

Nabbed a few (crappy iPhone) pics when I wasn't ruining my upper trapezius muscles

 

[outlawzeng]

Yes, there is definitely an R&B vibe to it. They are pretty heavily influenced by Michael Jackson, as you could tell by some of Chris' stage moves. I saw them last night in ATL and got a chance to talk to John, and he described the combination of the downpicking and chucking techniques as like, James Hetfield(for the crazy downpicking) and Michael Jackson (for the two hand muted strumming stuff).

It's a pretty cool way to look at it, as like summoning different essences of artists to create riffs.

 

[Timelesseer]

I was standing about 5ft to your left at that show Merlin! You pretty much covered it all with your post, Monuments killed it! I expected to focus on Browne most of the show but I found myself paying the most attention to Chris. His command of the crowd was awesome, even for being a slightly smaller show. Gardens and Atlas both kicked massive amounts of ass in a live setting. Can't wait to see them again!

 

[sakeido]

Did Chris bring out the sax for one song? I can't remember the name of the actual song off the top of my head but when they were in Canada they played it... and it was killer! I was hoping they'd do an extended sax solo section but just the intro and outro bits we got were awesome.

Twice I've seen these guys now and they were great both times.. absolutely awesome band.

 

[outlawzeng]

Yeah he did use it twice. Once for a solo in between singing, and again on the intro to...I think I, The Creator. I thought that was pretty awesome too. Maybe we'll hear some sax on the next album.

 

[Devyn Eclipse Nav]

They actually said they were planning on putting some Sax on the most recent album, they just didn't have time, so yeah, chances are we can expect to hear it on the next one.

 

[bozothedeathmachine]

They actually said they were planning on putting some Sax on the most recent album, they just didn't have time, so yeah, chances are we can expect to hear it on the next one.

As a former sax player I wholly endorse this idea. I loved the sax on Altered State and was floored when I found out Baretto played it.

 

[Slunk Dragon]

Chris is proving that sax can fit into metal fantastically! When I saw them live, his playing was flawless.

The whole band was spot on, but with only a half-hour set, I was totally craving more.