Norway’s Monograf are a Post-Metal/Folk band who are equally influenced by the roots of Norwegian Black Metal and Prog. Their sound is a swirling, coalescing soundscape of doom-laden anthems, fit for Ragnarok.
The band’s progeny began as the one-man project of Erik Normann Sannes Aanonsen: the former bass player and acoustic instrumentalist of Christian Extreme Metal band, Antestor. Aanonsen is a polymath who seemingly excels in any instrument, sound, and vocal style he applies himself to.
Image Credit: Monograf / Overhead Productions
Erik’s fusion of musical disciplines and influences bleeds the genres of old Norse Folk and Black Metal, resulting in a sound which is both devastating and hauntingly beautiful.
‘Occultation’ is the band’s second full-length album, and it features traditional Folk instruments such as the fiddle and nyckelharpa to accentuate its uniquely ‘folkloric’ sound.
Aanonsen brings a distinctive flair to his musical alchemy. With a background in both the underground Black Metal scene in the 1990s, and in film soundtrack scoring, the vocalist straddles the boundary between Kvlt and commercial atmosphere, resulting in a hybrid sound which is simply too vast and too intricate to be labelled as any one genre.
Image Credit: Monograf / Overhead Productions
‘Occultation’ opens with ‘The Prophet’ – a sludgy, doom-heavy war cry against false idols hiding behind a false veil of holiness, which conjured to mind Opeth’s sound during their Progressive Death Metal phase in the early 2000s.
The song’s phonaesthetics conjure imagery of a hulking Behemoth crawling across the horizon, bringing devastation to anyone in its path.
The album seamlessly flows into track 2: ‘Cripplegate’, a more restrained musical piece where Aanonsen’s guttural, pained vocals take precedence. Traditional Norwegian instrument nyckelharpa carries the chorus into ethereal realms.
The track is both beautiful and heartbreaking, where the vocals alchemise the song into a sorrowful funeral song with lyrics alluding to the dangers of consumerism, greed, and corrupt figureheads who hog their wealth like greedy Tolkien dragons.
Image Credit: Monograf / Overhead Productions
Erik’s sound is elevated by his current band members: Sunniva Molvaer Ihlaug on vocals and violin; Hanna Sannes Aanonsen on bass and backing vocals; Thomas Anda on guitars; and Erlend Markussen Kilane on drums.
Together, these individual musicians fuse Norwegian Folk music and Progressive Rock and transmute them into a genre-defying concoction.
The third song on the album ‘Ashes’ is a testament to the way in which Monograf effortlessly weaves in and out of different time periods. Its sorrowful resonance stirred something deep within me.
‘Ashes’ invokes the primordial isolation one may feel when tending to barren land at the cusp of winter, as the perpetual night encroaches.
Monograf have been building their sound since 2013, and ‘Occultation’ feels like the culmination of years of building upon a solid Folk foundation whilst striving for a heavier, sludgier sound, and the result is an album which one simply cannot categorise.
Aanonsen’s blistering vocals are reminiscent of Henrik Sunding AKA Lustre; both artists merge guttural Black Metal singing with clean, almost ethereal choruses, and both comfortably straddle the boundaries of evoking both darkness and light in their songs.
Monograf aren’t here to be neatly pigeonholed or to be restricted to one single musical discipline. While they may draw upon traditional, Norwegian Folk roots, their sound can feel equally at home in a Folk-Horror film or as the soundtrack to an open-world video game.
‘Occultation’ is a meditation upon the human condition, and perhaps how far we have strayed from our roots and from our own heritage, encompassed in seven powerful tracks.
With the decay of winter rasping upon our prone necks, and as the skeletal remains of gnarled tree branches scratch the horizon, Monograf provide a warm hearth for listeners to fall into.
‘Occultation’ is achingly beautiful, hypnotic, and it provides an escapism from the trappings of modern life. In a world drowning in the digital, Monograf are here to remind us that we, too, are part of the soil, and to the soil, we all shall return.
Monograf’s latest album proves that there is still room for renewal and regrowth within the Black Metal genre; like the precious flower which blooms from the rot of decay, ‘Occultation’ blossoms in a musical landscape which is fervent for original, raw artists to grow.
Monograf’s ‘Occultation’ was mixed by Rhys Marsh at Autumnsongs Recording Studio, and mastered by Jeff Mortimer at JM Studios in London, and is available now via the band’s Bandcamp page.
Follow the band’s journey on Instagram here.
Featured Image Credit: Monograf/Overhead Productions
