photos by Melissa Petisa
“Apparatus” is the decimating new single from BLOOD MONOLITH – an emerging death metal juggernaut featuring members of Nails, Undeath, Ulthar, Genocide Pact, and other notable bands from across the extreme metal underground – preceding the Profound Lore Records release of their debut LP, The Calling Of Fire.
Formed in 2023 by guitarist/vocalist Shelby Lermo (Nails, Ulthar, ex-Vastum), the goal of BLOOD MONOLITH was to create something even uglier, weirder, and more aggressive operating out of his new home base in the Washington DC/Northern Virginia area. Guitarist Tommy Wall (Undeath) joined Lermo, and the music for the band’s debut LP was soon written. The addition of bassist Nolan (Genocide Pact, Shitstorm) and drummer Aidan Tydings-Lynch (Deliriant Nerve, Brain Tourniquet) rounded out the lineup.
BLOOD MONOLITH’s location ties deeply into their sound, as this epicenter of mass murder and corruption provides constant fuel for boiled-down anger, as well as a rich history of rebellion through music. The album’s title, The Calling Of Fire, invokes the internal and external summoning of rage to spit in the face of that seemingly unstoppable, towering evil, and the sonic excess within lands like a broad-daylight assassination.
Their unique and unconventional concept and aesthetic sets BLOOD MONOLITH apart from the plethora of interchangeable death metal bands currently inhabiting the scene, and their music is miles beyond them as well. There is a DIY mindset and ethic present, but despite the punk and grindcore pedigree of its members, BLOOD MONOLITH plays crazed death metal of the highest order, influenced as much by classics like Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse as modern innovators like Defeated Sanity and Dead Congregation.
Engineered by Shelby Lermo and Matt Michel (Goetia, Left Cross, Antichrist Siege Machine) who also mixed the tracks, mastered by Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Recordings (Ulthar, Maul, Obsequiae), and adorned with cover art by legendary Rudimentary Peni frontman Nick Blinko, The Calling Of Fire is a testament to all things musically frenzied and extreme, a brutally succinct statement of nihilism in a world beyond salvation.
With the brutalizing “Apparatus” track drop, Lermo reveals, “‘Apparatus’ is about the onslaught of technofascism, and how we’re all supporting it to some extent in service of convenience. Chris at Profound Lore hit me up about someone doing some sort of video for it. I occasionally work as a video editor, so I decided I’d just do it myself.”
Watch BLOOD MONOLITH’s “Apparatus” visualizer and stream the track everywhere at THIS LOCATION.
The Calling Of Fire will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats on May 16th. Preorders and merch can be found where prior single “Prayer To Crom” is also playing HERE.
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