Monastyr is a death metal band that formed in the Polish town of Wałcz shortly after the fall of communism. They released two demos in 1992 before releasing their first (and so far only) full-length, Never Dreaming, in 1994. I heard they're still active, but they haven't released anything since 1996. Anyway, let's listen to Never Dreaming.
It starts off slow, but once it gets going, there's no stopping it. The first thing I must praise is the thick bass line. It helps give the music a dark, subterranean atmosphere. The drums play lots of simple blast beats that have a strong hardcore vibe to them, a style that is quite similar to what is common in the Swedish death metal scene. They also like to play plenty of double bass as well as plenty of more complex beats. They'll also sometimes go into doom/death territory by playing slow, crushing beats that sound like they're drudging through a corpse-clogged sewer.
The vocals consist of a ghastly, burping growl that sounds like it came from that silly looking big mouth demon on the cover. I love 'em. They sound delightfully grotesque, especially when they perform gang vocals in the vein of Deicide. Seriously, their performance on “Suicide Sacrifice” sounds like it came from “Dead By Dawn”. I love the vocals, but what I love most are the guitars. They have this crunchy tone that makes the riffs they play sound so dark and evil. The riffs are quite simple and sound similar to what the Swedes were making, but they're packed full of energy and atmosphere, especially when they play slow. They also play some solos, and although their performance is kinda sloppy, they still manage to sound amazing.
Never Dreaming is dark, disgusting old school fun. I especially love the vocals and the guitars. They just sound so deliciously evil. If you're a fan of old school death metal or Polish death metal, then I highly recommend this album.
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