Rabidfest 2023: “Alone & Against” by Monasteries (Track Review)

When the summer festival season is over and next year’s seems like a distant dream there is light at the end of the tunnel. Scrape together your remaining pennies (or beg, steal and borrow some additional funds) and head down to The Bullingdon in Oxford over the weekend of the 4th and 5th November. That’s were you’ll find twenty bands over two days giving you exactly what you need to chase those blues away. Variety is the spice of life and so there is pretty much something from all sub-genres of Metal for you to witness. That also means you can get your friends and family to get off the sofa and into the venue because from Blaze Bayley to Bound In Fear, the organisers of the fifth anniversary have got you covered! Here’s the line up in full…

Bound In Fear
Blaze Bayley
Absolva
Ward XVI
Mortishead
Tribe Of Ghosts
Gutlocker
Imperium
From Her Ashes
Draconian Reign
Monasteries
Reveller
LestWeForget
Johanna Rey
Cage Fight
Stone Soup
Second Hour
Depolarize
Indecorum
Sworn Amongst

…without any further much ado about nothing it’s time for the main event, the reason you clicked the link having read the headline. A track review for the new single “Alone & Against” from Midlands Technical Death Metallers Monasteries. A band that we’ve witnessed on stages big and small in past, decimating the weak at Tech-Fest last summer and reducing Suburbia in Southampton to rubble with their brand of sonic oblivion. They’re calling the single, their first since last year’s “Lilac“, something from the heavier and more aggressive side of the band… but isn’t that what they all say?

Nu-Deathcore stylings sink their teeth into your eardrums with the new burnt offering having a groove laden verve and swagger while maintaining a firm grip on the Tech-Death riffs they’ve built their reputation on. Haunting programming builds a sense of tension you could cut with a knife, the sinister and menacing riffs attacking in waves. Vocalist Josh Davies has always been a lethal dose pure hatred, capable of throat splitting performances and here he is on fire, showcasing a range from gravelly bowel clenching Death Metal lows to Slam infused moments. The false ending is sheer class… and when the band say it’s the start of a new era it’s not because they’ve made any dramatic style shift. Instead it points a finger at cuts like “Force Fed Apathy” from 2018’s “Pulmonary Failure” as the foundation. You’re going to want to put your drink down somewhere before diving in the pit to this…  [8.5/10]

We’re proud to be a Media Partner of Rabidfest again this year alongside Red Death Media, Moomin Merchandise, Metalplanetmusic, Moshville Times, GraphicsFix, Unearthed Music and main stage sponsor Devolution Magazine. The Festival is all for charity and this year the profits going to the The Sophie Lancaster Foundation!

Rabidfest will take place at The Bullingdon in Oxford over the weekend of the 4th and 5th November 2023:

Get your tickets here -> https://www.rabidfest.co.uk

Get your merch here -> https://shop.rabidfest.co.uk