Review: Hobosexual ‘s Monolith Lives Up To Its Name

Hobosexual is band that has been making themselves heard in the Seattle and greater northwest scene for several years and it seems like every move they have made up to this point has led them directly to and prepared them for the new album, Monolith. Fans of the band have known for a while that with their larger than life sound they were destined to do huge things. Not beholden to anyone or any particular genre, they have made the type of music they want to make, devoid of the need for it to be commercially accepted. Of course like most truthful artists, it’s fine if that happens but that has never seemed to be the solitary reason to make music for them. From the very beginning of the aptly titled Monolith from Seattle’s red hot Hobosexual, one gets the sense that this isn’t going to be just another album. There will be no mailing it in on this one. On the contrary, it’s a epic thrill ride proving that the northwest is still the greatest place on the planet for music. Sorry, this album got me a little hyped up.

Monolith drops the throttle first with the five and a half minute long “Trans Am Sunday” starting out in epic, larger-than-real-life rock and roll fashion with Kingdome filling guitar riffs, spacey vocals and diaphragm jolting drums from Jeff Silva.

With a name like “Monolith” the title track might have been a little disappointing if it wasn’t an absolutely massive face-melter. A gigantic slab of rock if you will. No fucking worries here. Like a medicine ball to the chest, “Monolith” captures the brutal hobotone and slams the listener right in the solar plexus. The spleen-exploding title track starts out heavy as hell with fuzzed out guitars with all the ferocity that Hobosexual is known for. Ben Harwood belts out the reverb-y vocals to first hook and then reel the listener in. It’s a groove-heavy filthy display of just what this band is capable of that should leave any rock fan with a pulse satisfied.

The band dials it down a notch or five for the “VHS Or Sharon Stone” finding them with a spoken word romp but with a psychedelic vibe bringing to mind Butthole Surfers and Beck. “Cincinnati Juggernaut” is a big clean rocker while “Dimensional Beard” is rife with more trademark fuzzed out guitars and a blistering tempo with vocals that will remind all of the 80s metal scene, minus the Aqua Net. Or maybe not minus the Aqua Net if one uses such things on a beard. “Night of 1000 Daggers” starts out with a sort of call out response blues thing going on that dives pretty quickly into a slowed down homage to AC/DC complete with the “Shazbot Nanu Nanu” at the end for good measure. RIP Malcolm Young. “Monsterbater” harkens back to the late 70s and early 80s with monster sized vocals that bring to mind Cinderella with a hard driving hair metal meets classic rock aesthetic.

Monolith was unleashed on the world on November 3rd, 2017 on Kitchentable Records, like, well a Monolith. With the band snagging coveted airtime on KEXP,  they’ve also played Easy Street Records and Mike McCready will be releasing “Monsterbater” on his kickass vinyl label called Hockeytalkter Records. So I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious.

It would be hard to select a favorite on this album but if I was forced to, “Monolith” is as good as anything released anywhere, from any sized band on any fancy label this year. Buy this album and support a killer local band doing it for all the right reasons.

(Listen to a few tracks from ‘Monolith’ below via Bandcamp, where you can also purchase it and you can also get more info about Hobosexual on Facebook HERE or their website HERE.)

UPDATE: Mike McCready’s boutique vinyl label Hockeytalkter Records released a 7 inch with Monsterbater & Sunset Adieu on February 14. You can get that at the Pearl Jam Shop HERE.