To paraphrase the wisdom of those South Park bastards: If you go into The Carcass Choir by Monachopsis expecting an easy ride you can headbang along to, you’re gonna be in for a bad time.
Let’s be clear about the terms of engagement here. This is an EP that demands immediate and total respect. It’s not about finding a safe pocket of groove and staying there; it’s about engaging with the madness as it moves around you. That’s not to say that Monachopsis don’t write actual, memorable songs, because they absolutely do—hence the Melodic part of the Melodic Technical Death Metal tag. But this EP is fundamentally a technical storm that will happily swallow you whole into its depths if you treat it with anything less than absolute focus.
There’s a critical reason The Carcass Choir is firmly labelled Melodic Technical Death Metal, and that’s because the musicianship on offer is of the finest quality. The execution keeps you perpetually on your toes like a prize fighter in the ring, constantly bobbing and weaving from one jaw-dropping passage to another, almost daring you to drop your guard so it can break your jaw with a complex rhythm change or a blistering scalar run.
This is the beauty and the brutality of the band’s approach. The melodic elements—the piercing, focused guitar lines—provide the fleeting sense of familiarity and structure necessary to keep the tracks coherent. But those brief moments of relative calm are immediately shattered by the overwhelming technical shifts. The rhythm section is working overtime, deploying dizzying time signatures and abrupt tempo changes that ensure the listener never settles into a predictable pace. The drummer is the undisputed champion here, executing complex patterns with machine-like precision while maintaining the furious, aggressive heart of the Death Metal foundation.
The guitars and bass are equally savage, engaged in a constant, intricate conversation. They aren’t just playing in unison; they are chasing, feinting, and striking, often leading the listener down a false path before delivering a punishing, unexpected blow of pure technical complexity. This constant push and pull between the melodic flow and the technical complexity gives the EP its unique, challenging flavour.
Monachopsis has crafted a piece of work that is highly intelligent without ever becoming pretentious or sterile. The aggression is palpable; the fury is genuine. They manage to deliver extreme brutality while showcasing immense skill, proving that technical proficiency and songwriting prowess are not mutually exclusive. The Carcass Choir is a high-stakes, challenging EP, and the reward for paying attention is an explosive demonstration of extreme metal mastery.
The Carcass Choir by Monachopsis will be available November 21st.
CHOICE CUT: The God Project
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: Monachopsis’s The Carcass Choir is a punishing, masterfully crafted EP of Melodic Technical Death Metal. Its finest-quality musicianship delivers a constant technical storm. Intelligent, furious, and demands your absolute respect.
PRESS SOURCE: Imperative PR
