Moss / Monarch - split

Artists: Moss / Monarch
Album: split
Year: 2007
Label: Rise Above

Genre(s) / Style(s): doomy doom doom

Line-ups:

Moss
Chris Chantler - Drums
Dominic Finbow - Guitar
Olly Pearson - Vocals

Monarch
Emilie Bresson - Vocals
Shiran Kaïdine - Guitar
MicHell Bidegain - Bass
Rob Shaffer - Drums

Tracklisting:
1. Moss - Maimed & Slaughtered (Discharge cover) - 6:12
2. Monarch - I Got Erection (Turbonegro cover) - 3:30


Doom bands gotta stick together, right? At least that's the mentality of these super obscure drone bands and their endless splits (I'm looking at you Moss). But hey, once and a while, these things turn out to be gems. Or at least interesting and/or listenable, like this one from UK's Moss and France's Monarch. This split features both bands covering, of all things, hardcore punk songs.

Like the split with Nadja, Moss starts this bitch off. But they do it correctly here with a cover of Discharge's "Maimed and Slaughtered". This is what you might be expect: a really slow version of a fast song. But the approach is really cool. Instead of just playing the original really slowly, Moss actually play around with it and make it their own. The guitars play the riff at a slow speed, yes, but the drum pattern is very different, simplified, and tom-heavy, so this ends up sounding like a strange ritual instead of a kick in the teeth. This song gets better at the end when the band falls into a headbanging groove and tops the song off with a noisy sample.

The original...

...and the cover.

Monarch, on the other hand, just play the Turbonegro song "I Got Erection", verbatim, even down to the minutest detail of broken English. But alas, they just play the song... and don't really do anything terribly interesting with it. It suits them I guess, considering their grind/p.v. side-project Rainbow of Death, and Emilie Bresson's vocals are as good as ever, but it just leaves a lot to be desired, especially when Moss actually do something right!

This one is pretty much for completists, but it's still interesting. I'd say get it for the Discharge cover alone.

Verdict: 70% - 75 for Moss, 65 for Monarch

Try it. (Megaupload, 12 MB)
Buy it @ Rise Above on 7" vinyl.