Live Review : Monuments + Heart Of A Coward + I Built The Sky @ Rebellion, Manchester on March 3rd 2020

I’m delighted that this two-date stop-off in the UK for Monuments is taking in Manchester, especially as they have Heart Of A Coward in tow, with both being in my list of favourite bands of recent times. This is in fact the second to last date of a pretty gruelling tour, including across Europe for the past month. There’s little sign of weariness from any of the acts though, as they bound around the venue checking out each other’s sets and soaking-up the atmosphere. They all seem buzzing to be here for tonight’s gig, and the anticipation from the crowd matches that atmosphere.

First up though is I Built the Sky, an instrumental tech-metal act from Melbourne, Australia. The band is fundamentally Rohan 'Ro Han' Stevenson who writes, records and produces the whole thing. However, he does have a couple of friends helping him play the material live, and this tour sees him ably accompanied by Andrew Scott (drums) and Werner Erkelens (bass). Ro is undoubtedly a fantastic composer and guitar player, busting out fretboard skimming, open chord arpeggios and blisteringly fast tapping, but he also demonstrates an energetic stage presence. There’s uncomfortable silence between songs (I mean…deathly silence) but there’s no doubt that everyone in the room is astounded by the performance. Often I find instrumental tech-metal bands hard to remain engaged with, but with I Built the Sky I stayed captivated for the entire set. It’s inventive and interesting, and most importantly the songs matter more than the individual elements on display – if the song demands that the guitar eases back and allows either the listener room to breathe or the rhythm section to drive forward then it does. I really hope Ro can make it back across to the UK in the near future so more can catch his fantastic talents and songs live.

Next up are ROCKFLESH favourites Heart Of A Coward. They strut on stage with workmanlike purpose and genuine confidence, and as always they smash into the set musically like a juggernaut. Their heavily processed guitars and bass attack like thrashing barbed wire and brutal futuristic sledgehammers - signature high-gain, low-pitch guitars layered over pounding drums. Vishal “V” Khetia strikes defiant poses as he hammers away at his bass, with frontman Kaan violently screaming and growling when not providing clean melodic vocals. The band have truly settled into the material from last album “The Disconnect” and Kaan now seems completely confident and assured in his place on stage. There’s been a reassuring coherence to their live performance throughout, but it feels like Kaan is leading the band now rather than purely providing the vocals. The performance of ‘Hollow ‘ demonstrates how much stronger his voice is live (even after a long tour) and how he’s taken ownership for performance of both the back-catalogue and new material. Classic closer ‘Deadweight’ goes down a treat as always, and leaves everyone eager for more.

Last time I saw Monuments was their headline set at Tech-Fest 2019, a performance at which they’d had to call in a last-minute temporary vocalist Andy Cizek to fill in for the sudden parting of ways with Chris Barretto. Since then Cizek has become their permanent frontman and I’m eager to see how they are now that he’s had some time to settle in. The short answer is – brilliant. As a band they still deliver the proggy, djenty, groovy Metalcore, but with Cizek’s vocals you feel the dynamics are even more stark now. His melodic vocals are somehow cleaner and more vulnerable sounding, which contrast sharply with some impressively deep guttural bellowing and forceful vocal shredding. Yes, the vocal parts don’t sound the same as Barretto’s, but nor do you feel Cizek is trying to replicate them anymore – he’s found the right balance between remaining true to the songs but delivering them in his own way. The rest of the band blast through the songs with enthusiastic professionalism, and for a group of individuals who’ve had some tough times as a band they still perform like it’s the best job in the world. They provide a generous wall of sound behind those varying vocals, with generous use of palm-muted riffs, intricate finger-tapping and jagged guitar stabs alongside deliberately syncopated drumming and thunderous bass tones. The crowd go wild for every song, but the encore of ‘A.W.O.L.’ and ‘I, The Creator’ absolutely blow the roof off Rebellion. Things are finally looking up for Monuments, in fact they’re looking decidedly awesome.