Monstrosity - Spiritual Apocalypse
Ex-Members of Atheist? Cannibal Corpse? Cynic? And this band are from Florida you say? When I first read of Monstrosity upon receiving this album I was more than a little excited, and I'm sure you can excuse me for that. For a band with such a talented roster both past and present, and one who I had heard so many things about, Monstrosity ended up disappointing me more than slightly.
Musically speaking it is an album of contrasts - neither between different genres, nor even between "heavy" and "light" passages but instead between good and low quality. Songs such as the opening title track 'Spiritual Apocalypse' begin with so much potential, before turning into boring faux-screamo tracks halfway through. The band clearly have talent, the song writing has obviously had effort, time and money put into it, yet they still seem to lack something that will gel together all the different sections of their songs and dispel the obvious disparities within each song. It's really hard to come down with a verdict on this.
The "mixed bag" effect of this album is best summed up in singer Mike Hrubovcak's performance. His performance varies between a sort of rough yell you'd expect from a metalcore band, which is quite frankly no good for the style, to a thick bestial [I]roar[/I] which wouldn't sound out of place coming from someone such as Mikael Akerfeldt. The poor performance for the majority of the songs in some ways is made worse by the fact that Hrubovcak's vocals clearly can be very good indeed.
Unfortunately, overall, there is little to distinguish 'Spiritual Apocalypse' from its competitors. Monstrosity show hints that they could be quite a powerhouse death metal band, but instead are squandering their obvious talent on so-so songs, which don't justify or live up to the band's obvious skills. Far too often you are hit in the face with a powerful section, or technical riff which then simply devolves back into meandering chugging. If you love death metal, you might like this, if you don't then this isn't going to convince you otherwise. When 'Spiritual Apocalypse' hits the spot, it really does, when it misses however, it is much worse.