Hardly a Copy of Anything

British prog metal goliaths Monuments have released their highly anticipated second full length album The Amanuensis. Started by Fellsilent guitarist John Brown in 2010, he quickly added Chris Baretto (formerly of Periphery and Ever Forthright) to handle vocal duties, Olly Steele on second guitar and bassist Adam Swan. Since then, Monuments have been on the road constantly in support of their critically acclaimed debut Gnosis.

The Amanuensis‘ opening track “I, The Creator” shows off Monuments’ incredible technical ability. Baretto croons and screams all over this track. His clean vocal is tight, in tune and almost soulful in its delivery. His chops are clearly much better than his early days with Periphery. The hook in this song could be better, but to come out of the gates with this track it’s difficult not to keep listening.

“Origin of Escape,” the second track on the record, opens with a signature prog groove. This album is held together by the musicianship. This track in particular contains some fantastic groove drumming by Malyan, and Brown’s guitar work is locked together in machine-like tightness. “Atlas” clocks in at a measly 3:22, but it’s a quick, heavy number that has a beautiful clean break that should’ve been a little longer.

“Quasimodo” is The Amanuensis‘ strongest track. The brutal toughness, even when the singing is taking place, is undeniable. It’ll make you want to punch a hole in the wall and sing along with it all at the same time. The music isn’t as technically profound, but its simple “get right to the point” style is a nice break from the technical wizardry that the rest of this album is filled with.

Progressive metal, sometimes referred to as djent, is hot right now. With bands like Periphery, Animals as Leaders, Scale the Summit and Between the Buried and Me leading the charge, it seems as though the genre is bursting at the seams with bands that are all incredible. It’s exciting to watch them push metal to its limits, creating technical, high-energy music, pushing forward the idea that being heavy doesn’t have to mean that you are screaming all the time and that your riffs aren’t simply a chug fest. With The Amanuensis, Monuments has pushed the genre a touch forward and in turn dared their competition to try and stop them.