AN NCS PREMIERE: MONOLITHE — A TEASER FOR “ZETA RETICULI”

Only six months ago we were privileged to bring you the premiere of a full-album stream on the release date of Epsilon Aurigae, the the fifth album by the remarkable Parisian doom band Monolithe. But that album was only the first part of a two-album conceptual work, and the second part — entitled Zeta Reticuli — has now been scheduled for release by Debemur Morti Productions on July 8. As was true of Epsilon Aurigae, the new album is composed of three long tracks, and today we’re helping share a video teaser that will begin whetting your appetite for the full experience.

In my review of the last album, I attempted to describe the experience as something akin to “diving into a deep blue hole, with crushing pressures and glowing phosphorescence all around you, or perhaps like a venture into the cold void of space. Either way, you really lose the sense that you’re standing on solid ground.”

That album was brimming with dark atmospheric music, incisively textured and powerful in its emotional impact. But for all of its alien ambience and bereft melodies, the album was also a heavyweight crusher, and one of the most mesmerizing doom albums of 2015. Understandably, I’ve been eager to discover the second half of this musical saga.

Monolithe 2016 – photo by Alain Epron

The following teaser is less than three minutes long, but long enough to give a sense of the spellcasting that takes place in this new work. Appropriately, the music is accompanied by cosmic vistas, shaded in blue and black — because the music itself is immense, vast, and shining with the glow of celestial bodies in the void.

As noted, Zeta Reticuli will be released on July 8, 2016, by Debemur Morti. Initially, it will be available on digipack CD and digitally, and those can be pre-ordered via the first link below. In addition, the label plans to release a trifold 3×12″ LP regrouping both of the albums, Epsilon Aurigae and Zeta Reticuli together. Pre-orders for that will begin soon.

http://www.debemur-morti.com/en/48-monolithe-discography

https://www.facebook.com/monolithedoom/