There are albums you listen to, evaluate, and then move on from. And then there are albums that keep pulling you back, not because they are trying to impress you, but because there is something about them that stays with you. MONOLORD’s Neverending is one of those albums.
This is hardly the first time the Swedish trio has delivered an excellent record. For over thirteen years now, they have been one of the most consistent and respected names in modern doom.
What struck me most about Neverending, however, is that while it sounds unmistakably like MONOLORD, it also feels different. It’s as if the band looked back on everything they have accomplished, reflected on the road that brought them here, and decided to keep only the essentials.
The collaboration with legendary producer Sylvia Massy (Tool, System Of A Down, Johnny Cash, among many others) certainly played a role in that. The sound is still heavy and packed with the massive riffs that made so many of us fall in love with MONOLORD in the first place, but there is a clarity and balance here that I don’t recall hearing to this extent on any of their previous releases.
From the very first moments of “Iodine”, I felt that this time the band had something different to say. Not necessarily musically, but emotionally. As the album unfolded, I increasingly felt that behind the walls of riffs and amplifiers stood three musicians willing to put more of themselves into their songs than ever before.
That is especially evident in Thomas Jäger’s lyrics. Rather than focusing on some of the themes that defined earlier releases, he turns his attention to relationships, loss, personal change, and difficult moments in life. I wouldn’t call Neverending a dark album. I would call it an honest one. And sometimes honesty carries more weight than darkness ever could. The song that resonated with me the most was “You Bastard”. Perhaps because beneath its driving groove and musical power lies a subject that is impossible to ignore.
The perspective of someone left behind after a suicide—the anger, the confusion, the emptiness. There are no easy answers here, and MONOLORD don’t try to offer any. Instead, they present those emotions in a way that makes you stop and truly listen.
The more time I spent with Neverending, the more it felt like I was listening to the most mature version of MONOLORD to date. Not because they have become more technical or more complex, but because they sound completely confident in who they are. And when the time comes for the album’s closing title track, “It’s Neverending”, another surprise awaits.
For the first time, Thomas Jäger steps away from the microphone, with Jörgen Sandström (Entombed, Grave, Domedagen, Firespawn) taking over vocal duties. His harsh and unmistakable voice adds a darker dimension to the song and provides the perfect ending to an album that offers a few subtle surprises for longtime fans.
After many listens, what stayed with me wasn’t a particular riff or chorus. It was the feeling that MONOLORD created an album that reflects exactly who they are at this point in their lives. A record that isn’t trying to prove anything to anyone. And perhaps that is precisely why it ends up saying so much.
Dinos Karras
8.5/10
