Album Review: The Word Alive - Monomania

The World Alive take you on an emotional rollercoaster in their new album, Monomania. The confusion brought about by frenzied thoughts and painful experiences are carefully and cleverly carried by an incomparable audio tale that is told through nu-metal nuances, synthesised beats and a ripping, raging voice.

The pain, the anguish, the sheer power of No Way Out is flooring, and is carried by a sensational force in the vocals and skipping harmonies. Utilising a little 'doof doof' to punctuate the pounding riffs in Greatest Almost really turns up the overriding anger. Monomania could be the love child of a collaboration between Linkin Park and Hands Like Houses – all the grit and bad-arsery in attitude and sound of the former coupled with the emotion in narrative and melody of the latter making for a sublime, beautiful offspring.

Such is the eclectic blend of styles and techniques from a range of genres beneath the hard rock and metal banners that it’s very hard to pinpoint just where you might place this release. It is, however, so coherent and concise in its delivery, production, and arrangement, you’ll find yourself worrying less about how to pigeonhole this release and more about if you’ve missed any of the clever elements deeply embedded in each song.

Whatever your interpretation of this release, know that you will be submerged into a very detailed sonic story, one which The World Alive have left you room to interpret to suit your own thoughts, feelings and direction.