Thursday, October 12, 2017

Band Review: American Monster


American Monster is a rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. While they have been around since 2015, their new EP, Make It Hurt, has only been out since August 26th.

The title track is aggressively percussive. It kind of feels like this is how the band sees themselves: we are big and bad and we can be obnoxious. All of that makes sense for a band from Sin City, or for a band with their particular album cover (someone's naked mid-section covered only by a strategically placed skull decorated with a stars and stripes motif).

It's not that this is a wrong impression, but it could be incomplete. There is some real beauty and emotion on tracks like "The Hourglass" and "Skies of Fire".

This is particularly true of the guitars on "Haunt Me". They do start pounding and driving, but first they are emotional and expressive. There is some balance.

At least more than you would guess from the album cover.




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