The Monolith Deathcult or TMDC for short come from Holland and Trivmvirate is the band’s third and latest album. TMDC started life as a brutal death metal and they were all right as far as brutal death metal bands go but the music wasn’t particularly memorable and the band wasn’t really doing too much that was new. While the music was mostly Nile with some catchy grooves and the delivery was heavy as fuck the only reason I even checked out their last album was because of the band’s ridiculous and pompous image on the net.

Things have changed a bit on Trivmvirate though. The album starts with a techno beat and choral chanting and a slow build up till things explode with a Nile meets Gorefest sound. This in itself doesn’t sound very interesting but where the band gets you is in the inclusion of a full time keyboard and samples guy on this album. It’s the samples and the little embellishments that run through every song on this album that adds to the viciousness of it all. It helps quite a bit that TMDC are adept at coming up with some truly monstrous grooves as well. Album highlight for me is the relatively shorter Wrath of the Baath. A growled chant with no musical accompaniment starts proceedings before the band kicked my head in with some awesome brutal death metal in the best sense of the word. It’s a furious head kicking song that threatens to overwhelm you with its sheer ferocity and Slayer like chaos before coming up with an unbelievably heavy guitar groove that just bought a huge smile to my face. Kindertodeslied is a dark and uncomfortable listen that owes equally to Laibach, black metal and Nile while still remaining quite catchy. That’s the best thing about TMDC really. As heavy and layered as the music gets, the songs never descend to just white noise or even background music. Each song on this album has a memorable groove and a certain uniqueness to it that makes Trivmvirate an album that you can keep going back to.

There isn’t a bad song on this album and the band up the intensity to ridiculous levels like in the opening 4 minutes of Master of the Bryansk Forest before an orchestral sample comes in almost to sooth your slightly frayed nerves. The song ends with an ominous church bell and is followed by the short instrumental MMFD which is the calm before the storm of I Spew Thee Out Of My Mouth hits us. Another lengthy song that reminds me in parts of Nocturnus’ Ethereal Tomb but it’s again mostly brutal death metal with some superb work in the samples/ effects/ electronica department and a couple of insanely catchy and heavy as fuck riffs. Demigod reminds me a bit of Vader at the start but again this band just does the incredibly heavy but catchy as fuck riffing like very few bands before them. The song is immensely brutal and yet has enough moments to really get into your brain. The album closes with the epic Den Ensomme Nordens Dronning which at just over fourteen minutes is the longest song on the album and yet it’s credit to the genius of the band that it doesn’t seem anywhere close to being that long. The inclusion of a melodic clean vocal line is a welcome addition and the song has that whole epic feel in spades.  Truly awesome.

TMDC has made a truly unique and exceptionally heavy album with Trivmvirate. It might not be for everybody and the traditional death metal fan might balk at the use of drum n bass, break beats and plenty of trance-y samples but if you like your death metal brutal as a baby in a blender and don’t mind the odd electronic touch then TMDC will tear you a new one.

All the big talk, the arrogance and the huge ego is backed up by some awesome talent. I honestly don’t see any other death metal band even coming close to this monster of an album this year.

Label - Twilight Vertrieb
Year of Release - 2008