These Monsters/ Call Me Dragon

These Monsters
Call Me Dragon
(Brew/Function Records)

This is big, bad rock music at its most unapologetic. Milkshake thick bass vibrates and booms beneath duelling guitar solos and…what’s that? Saxophone? Mmm, saxophone – the trumpet’s ugly cousin.
Interesting instrument, isn’t it? The saxophone. It can be such a formidable ally while at the same time dancing a merry dance so close to the edge of cool that it more often than not falls into in the er, ‘shit’ category.
However, I think These Monsters pull it off quite nicely. The secret here is that they don’t let the saxophone take over. It’s not a self indulgent solo performance. There’s no doubt that the guitars are running the show. They’re saying to the saxophone, “you’re not the boss of me, I’m the boss of me, and there’s a pecking order here. It goes bass, drums then guitars. Quit yo jibba-jabber” (this is not based on real conversation)
And combined, it really is quite something.
Don’t expect vocals, because there aren’t any. There’ll be no heavy-metal-opera on this album. Every once in a while you’ll hear something that sounds like singing, or shouting, but it’s buried deep beneath the instruments.
‘Call me Dragon’ is a very atmospheric album, intelligently put together: not falling for too many rock clichés while still having the good common sense to embrace the genre in the parts that count.