Monster Magnet - Monolithic Baby!

*=Staff's pick	Slut Machine Supercruel* On The Verge Unbroken (Hotel Baby) Radiation Day* Monolithic* The Right Stuff There's No Way Out Of Here* Master Of Light* Too Bad Ultimate Everything CNN War Theme

Genre	Hard Rock	Dave Wyndorf	Vocals
Tracks	12	Dave Wyndorf	Guitar
Runningtime	55 Min.	Phil Caivano, Ed Mundell	Guitar
Label	SPV	Jim Baglino	Bass
Release	18 Feb. 2004	Bob Pantella	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

After a trembling start with the dirty sounding Slut Machine the album kicks in with potential hit song one after the other for the first half of the album. All based on the same structure that gave Monster Magnet their big breakthrough, basic rock 'n' roll riffing that are topped with simple but intriguing guitarlines, nothing fancy, just rock 'n' roll.

Monolithic, Baby is more energising then their last album God Says No (2000), actually it is better in all ways but not as nearly as interesting as Dopes To Infinity (1995) or as raw as Powertrip (1998).
The music is still groovy and somewhat rough but it feels to adjusted and polished, almost as if the album feels to clean and light. Nevertheless how much of repeated riffing you get served or that many of the tracks are to similar to one another with a feeling of sell-out, simple hit-friendly tracks on the verge of being to commercial, it simply don't bother me, I noticed it and Im aware of it but Monster Magnet are great with its simplicity, you cant help but being sucked in and devoured by their music, even though I miss their more space out music as on Dopes.

Monster Magnet mastermind Dave Wyndorf has been joined by some new members, I have read much about how that has effected the tightness in the music and breathing new energy to the band, I don't disagree with that but would say it is the quality of the songs that are the biggest improvement, the songmaterial is better, as simple as that. Master Of Light is a pretty good proof of that, and that must also be one of the bands best songs, powerful groove with great guitarplaying and Dave Wyndorf singing sounds more genuine than on the rest of the album.

The album dies at the end with the last three track that unfortunatly are all bad, Ultimate Everything and CNN War Theme are both spaced-out enough o fit in on Dopes but they are just not good enough, in likeness with the track Too Bad they are too weak, sadly enough really not good enough for any Monster Magnet album. The cover of Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters song The Right Stuff falls under the same category, an endless repeating song that are no more than boring.
Two covers might be one too many but There's No Way Out Of Here fits perfectly in to the album and into the Monster Magnet sound, a really powerful track originally done by Pink Floyd vocalist David Gilmour back in 1978.

In the end Monolithic, Baby should fit most fans of Monster Magnet, I for one like it even though it is a bit plain and I misses their sound from Dopes To Infinity. The track Unbroken ( Hotel Baby) that has been released as video and single should serve pretty good as a measure for this album, if you heard that one you have a pretty good picture on how the rest of this album sounds.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	7	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Thomas