ANAVAN

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While you can get the gist of their concert experience from breathless online reports and YouTube clips, suffice to say, if you don’t want to be covered in more than a few bodily fluids, lift musicians and their equipment in the air with your hands as they play, see flames leap from cymbals (an old trick that’s still pretty dangerous), and stare into the hoary pockmarked face of rock’n'roll itself, then whatever you do, don’t go see Monotonix live. So when it comes to their records, short of the CD spitting on you the moment you crack open the case, it’s gonna fall short.

That said, the band’s debut EP is an inspired slab of no-frills, no-nonsense guitar rock that stands in the shadow of vintage metal while stretching out for a few genuine surprises. For a band that names one of its songs “No Metal”, Body Language sure has its share of palm-muted and bottom-heavy riffs, charmingly over-the-top vocals, and even ominous, maniacal laughter on “Deadly Weapon”. Metal is definitely part of the record’s appeal– most especially for those singeing opening notes of “Summers and Autumns”– but that’s not where it ends. Monotonix certainly nods to a few hip hard-rock influences, from Sabbath to ZZ Top to maybe even a little early Iron Maiden, but there’s more to it than that. They’re far more fluid than most two-man guitar/drums lineups, as guitarist Yonatan Gat slides in and out of solos without ever throwing the rhythm off the rails. There’s serious synergy between him and drummer Ran Shimoni as the latter underlines every whim of the guitar on “Summers and Autumns” while and anchoring every stop-on-dime turn, and maintains this grasp from the sleek and relatively straightforward riffery of “Deadly Weapon” to the go-nuttery guitar of “No Metal”. – Pitchfork

With:
The Mae Shi || Listen
Anavan || Listen