Reviews: The Monarch, Amerikan Kaos, Empire Warning, Beyond Salvation (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

The Monarch - A Moment To Lose Your Breath (Art Is War Records)

If it's got Chris Clancy in it then there's a high possibility that I'll enjoy it. He's not only a fantastic producer who works alongside the legendary Colin Richardson, the man who pretty much set the template for how extreme metal and more importantly post-2000's extreme metal should sound. Clancy is from the same mould and with Mutiny Within he hit the scene with one of the most impressive vocals I'd heard in years.

From the clarity of his harsh growls, to his soaring highs and cleans his potted projects such as Mutiny Within, Wearing Stars and Invictus all have shown Clancy the musician but many more albums bare his production skill. He's back as the singer of The Monarch, but the production falls to the band and Vincent M. Ippolito, though Clancy engineers his vocals. The record and the band has been created by Dave Kinkade, drummer and animal welfare crusader, founded the band in 2010, but it sat on the back burner as he played drums for Soulfly, Borknagar and others.

However he reactivated it in 2020 releasing a debut in 2021. This second album however builds on the debut with a much bigger sound, higher profile members and much better writing as Kinkade shares the writing with various writers alongside guitarists Marco Martell (ex-Malevolent Creation) and Marc Rizzo (ex-Soulfly/Cavalera Conspiracy). The last member of the band is Tony Campos (Fear Factory/ex-Soulfly) on bass as producer Vincent M. Ippolito brings additional guitars and David Cramer provides the piano before the excellent Soul Collector, the first song written for the album, but he also adds piano to a few moments.

The main part of the music though is modern metalcore/thrash/death which comes out of the American style. It's aggressive but cathartic, the lyrics are all personal to Kinkade taking the listener on a journey, written while Kinkade dealt with the loss of his father it's a dark and brooding release that is emotionally driven by Kinkade's creative minds, a cast of brilliant musicians and a fantastic vocalist. If anything Chris Clancy has been involved with or post-Millennial US metal floats your boat then you'll love A Moment To Lose Your Breath. 9/10

Amerikan Kaos - Armageddon Boogie (Self Released)

Amerikan Kaos is the other side of Jeff Waters. Founder and lead shredder for Annihilator, he's released 17 studio albums alone, toured all over the world and is recognised as one of the best guitar players and writers in the thrash genre due to Annihilators sometimes unconventional style. Now based in Durham England, during the lockdown he sat in his home studio and started to write, but not for his main band, no he started to write music for what he thought would be a solo album.

However as with all creative people left to their own devices, his many musical influences and willingness to experiment with production ideas etc has made sure that Armageddon Boogie is the first of a trio of records releasing over next three years. This first album is influenced by hard rock, blues and a bit of pop too. The major influence coming through being Waters' worship of Van Halen, he of course takes the Eddie role, with Bob Katsionis adding keys, keeping the mid 70's to mid 80's sound, not only with the music but with the production. If you want a VH sound you need a drummer that can play like Alex so Brian Tichy brings his fast feet when they need to get Hot For Teacher.

There's some Stonesy blues vibes two but they don't move too far from hard rock, the soulful vocals of Chandler Mogel ideal for both whether it's the blues gospel infused tracks with Jessie Wagner providing backing or the lightning delivery that mirrors Diamond Dave. Delivered in his own style but with trademarks in place to win over the listener, Marc LaFrance harmonising for those massive FM radio choruses on BTO's Roll On Down The Highway the solitary cover, LaFrance is the drummer for BTO so has a lot of history with this one. Waters is having fun with this record, you can hear it in the songs, paying homage to the bands he loves.

With the next two said to be a rock n roll record and a metal record with different singers and musicians. I'll look forward to that as Jeff Waters has found himself a great little side project here. 8/10

Empire Warning - Destiny (Self Released)

Hailing from London and the winners of the 2019 London M2TM, Empire Warning have been on a high since the then having one previous release behind them but it's with Destiny they look to really show what they are about, as they are an established live act so this will hopefully have transferred this into their recorded output. 

Empire Warning play groove metal, the kind Lamb Of God and Devildriver have been dealing out for years, they blend thrash-like heaviness with some personal lyrics that are shouted at your face from Be My Victim as Destiny? slows things down at the beginning and kicks off again. For me though they do best with Just Run which has a tonne of that bounce groove metal acts have and brings clean vocals as well, Peace In Pain too as that dual vocals dynamic. 

Due to the high levels of performance on this EP fans of groove/thrash and modern metal will enjoy the five tracks here, reflecting the experience of the band on stage. 7/10

Beyond Salvation - A Line In The Sand (Self Released)

A Line In The Sand is a three track EP from thrashers Beyond Salvation. Well they say thrash but I say metalcore, about as metalcore as you can get, in fact I did legitimately think it was one song and then it finished. I listened to it a a second time and managed to pick out some differences in the songs but there still aren't that many. 

Speed is of the essence as they peel away from the opening chords of Ghost Machine, then it's sort of breakdown heavy metalcore all the way for the next two songs. It's all decent but hopefully on any new music they bring a bit of variation as 10 songs of this may be a little taxing. 6/10