Crash Monument

Crash Monument show was exactly like the name of the band, it was a crash of haunting vocals, rhythmic guitars, grooving bass and explosive drums....all monumental! We will definitely have them back at the House of Blues again! Loved working with Crash Monument! - Daniel Park, CEO of acropolisRPM & Detour:LIVE

See website for full interview - Slide Musica Visual

Crash Monument is the type of band I find hard to slap a genre label on. Are they alternative? Rock? Punk? Sort of metal sometimes? Leaving behind all labels, this is a band who merely demonstrates that new bands can come out with music that still rocks and writes heart-on-sleeve-lyrics, even in an era of heavy synth and too much auto-tune. While listening to the lyrical content on Life Disconnected it’s apparent that vocalist Brian Slocum doesn’t mind spilling his guts with every word. Personally, I think that makes for a better album. When you hear lines like “I’m drowning in this world of greed/and selfishness is my only weapon” (“Find My Escape”) you can’t help but almost feel guilty, like you’re reading someone’s diary. His cathartic delivery is made even more believable by the huge wall of sound backing him up. The arrangements on the EP are done incredibly well for such a new band, especially in the seemingly random yet fitting moments, like when they throw in a piano in “The Build Up”. The EP begins to gradually soften up near the end, with “Special K” slightly mellowing out both instrumentally and vocally, and “Our Beach” rounding out the EP and bringing it all to a close. This is a band you’ll want to keep in your back pocket just to keep an eye out for future releases, because with a debut like Life Disconnected it’s hard to believe the next step would anything less than enjoyable. Review by Alisha Kirby - Alisha Kirby, likeZEBRA.com

There was a time when the word “introspective” was seldom used in connection with loud, aggressive, hard-rocking bands. Singer/songwriters, folk-rockers and soft rockers were often described as introspective back in the 1960s-80’s, but in those days, loud bands that rocked aggressively were rarely called introspective. However, things changed in the early 1990s, when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Stone Temple Pilots and other alternative rockers combined hard-rocking aggression with introspective lyrics. And from then on, loud introspection has been the norm among hard-rocking alternative rock bands. The loud but introspective approach is very much at work on Life Disconnected, the first release by Crash Monument.

This foursome from Orange County, California (the place that gave us No Doubt, Rage Against the Machine, Throwdown and the Offspring) didn’t exist until 2010, but being a young band does not mean that Crash Monument don’t know what type of sound they were going for. They obviously wanted an alterna-rock sound that was melodic yet hard-driving (most of the time) and punk-influenced; they wanted intensity as well as nuance. And they wanted a great deal of introspection; lyrically, this six-song album gets off to a very introspective start on the opener “Dissolution,” and the introspection doesn’t let up a bit on “Find My Escape” or “The Build Up” any more than it lets up on “Special K,” “Misperception” or “Our Beach” (which is the most reserved track on an album that rocks out more often than not).

This is angst rock from start to finish, but Crash Monument’s youthful, punky angst is not about fighting the power or making some type of political or social statement. The youthful, punky angst that Crash Monument express on Life Disconnected is the type of angst that comes from looking inward and providing a thorough, in-depth analysis of one’s feelings and emotions. Crash Monument analyzes those emotions to death and do so with elaborate detail, which of course, is what so many alterna-rock bands have been doing ever since Nirvana and Pearl Jam laid down the foundation for loud alterna-rock introspection back in the early 1990s. Lead singer Brian Slocum doesn’t hide his vulnerability, his insecurities or his demons for a minute; in fact, he sees to it that they are very much on display. Party music this is not.

Take “Special K,” for example. Slocum opens the track with the lyrics “I feel the weight of the world on my body tonight/And I just can’t find the way out/I can’t seem to reason with myself.” These lyrics are typical of Crash Monument, who rock a lot harder than Sarah McLachlan or Mary Fahl but in their own edgy, forceful way, are every bit as introspective. Crash Monument, however, aren’t heavy enough to be considered alternative metal. This is alternative hard rock with a strong punk influence, but these Southern Californians don’t quite venture into alt-metal territory even though they have cited the Deftones as one of their influences.

Life Disconnected is hardly the most original or groundbreaking release of late 2010, which is not a major problem. Realistically, the vast majority of artists are not going to be groundbreaking, and derivative isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the music is of a high quality or at least a decent quality. This release’s greatest weakness is not its derivative nature, but the fact that it is inconsistent and uneven. Some of the tracks are memorable (including “Special K,” “Dissolution” and “Our Beach”), and others aren’t so memorable. But despite its shortcomings, Life Disconnected has enough going for it to make the listener want to watch out for Crash Monument and see how they develop. There is potential here, and it will be interesting to see what Crash Monument come up with on future releases.

Review by Alex Henderson
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
- Alex Henderson, Review You

This four piece SoCal alt rock band combines just enough driving instrumentals with a little bit of angst for a completely unique, comletely indie sound. Their new EP, "Life Disconnected" can be found at http:// www.crashmonument.com/ - The Indie Music Review