There are some incredibly idiotic individuals who claim that the great age of British heavy metal has died a horrible, quiet death. RAMzine would like to officially announce that those people can go f**k themselves.
Opening to a thunderous wall of noise (kudos to the sound guy, top floor of a pub is a hard sound to get right) singer Peter Ellis hails the somewhat sparse London crowd as though there were over 100 times that number. From then on the set is a non-stop party of true British heavy metallers. Opening song Fatal Attack is perfectly fast enough to drop the crowd straight into what Monument intend to be standard procedure for the next 45 minutes or so.
Sadly there are only a handful of people in the crowd who have listened to the band’s debut EP Rock the Night enough to be familiar with the songs, and where to shout along, but even those who are tragically unacquainted with this band have little choice but to attempt to sing along when surrounded with vintage metal done in the modern day with modern instruments and vintage British spirit.
This reporter is not at all ashamed to announce that when Monument launched into a pretty much perfect cover of Iron Maiden’s Aces High he did lose his sh** a little; but can you really blame me? To those out there wondering if Monument have the metal credentials to be doing such a prestigious song, but if you should need any proof that this band are more than metal enough to be pulling this off then go and see them live.
Follow-up song Midnight Queen went down equally as well; by this time more people had been attracted by the horrendous amount of noise emanating from upstairs and a hefty amount of head banging is occurring right the way across the room. By the time Monument get told they only have time for one song left (queue a chorus of boos) those who were not previously have been won round completely.
With the sounds of closing track Rock the Night still ringing in our ears and the smell of beer and sweat still uncomfortably fresh in our nostrils we wind our way home, safe in the knowledge that the next wave of British heavy metal is only just getting started.
