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Label: Island Records - Rating:
Some music needs to be played loud. Some bands sound the best with the volume all the way up, all the time. One such band is the five man group Monty Are I from Cranston, Rhode Island, and their newest record Break Through The Silence plays fast and loud, and does so to great effect.
Break Through The Silence jumps right in. The first track, the title song, drives hard and loud, showcasing right from the get go Monty Are I’s ability to layer guitar tracks, manipulate vocals, and tie everything together with a strong steady back beat.
Monty Are I doesn’t slow down a beat for almost the rest of their record. Four tracks in, the band drops “One In A Million,” Break Through The Silence’s first single. “One In A Million” has all the characteristics of a single. Clean production, and big guitar swells, that invoke visions of outdoor rock festivals with throbbing crowds of head-bangers, not unlike the Warped Tour where Monty Are I have been on the bill for five years.
The slowest song of the first half dozen follows “One In A Million.” “Making Sounds,” shows off the vocal ability of Monty Are I. Steve Aiello is listed as lead vocals, but as “Making Sounds” unfolds Aiello is joined by the backing vocal efforts of Andrew Bornstein and Ryan Muir for the albums most densely layered vocal track.
Break Through The Silence’s most inventive song comes just before the album takes a one-song slow-down. On “Kaleidoscope,” Monty Are I still plays fast and loud, but the band throws in a few tricks, most notably a couple of sweet horn breaks, that add a previously undiscovered dimension to the song, the album, and the band.
The only slow song on Break Through The Silence, “All Of You Tonight,” comes in as the eighth of twelve tracks. Markedly different, in both speed and tone, than what has come before it, “All Of You Tonight,” gives the listener a chance to catch a quick breath before the final four explosive tracks.
Leading of the last four tracks is the song “On The Wire,” which after a few times through the record is my favorite track from Break Through The Silence. “On The Wire,” plays directly to the strengths of Monty Are I. The effects that have carried the record up to this point, strong guitar riffs, rising and falling vocals, and pounding drum lines, come together in “On The Wire,” better than any other place on the album.
Monty Are I knows how to start a record, putting their best foot forward, but they also have a good sensibility of how to close out an album. Along with “On The Wire,” the last three tracks, “Desert,” “Mirage,” and “Convoy Of Angeles,” brings Break Through The Silence to rest with the same ferocity it had when the record started.
Turn your stereo up loud when Monty Are I comes on, and it will soon, and they will not disappoint.
Like Monty Are I? Check out: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, 30 Seconds To Mars, My Chemical Romance
