Monolord / Order of the Owl / Dead Now: Live at The Earl
A few years back a buddy told me to check this band out named Monolord (featuring Thomas Jager on guitar/vocals, Mika Hakki on bass, and Esben Willems on drums) from Sweden. They had just released their debut LP, Empress Rising (2014) a few months prior and were about to release their follow up album. I was floored when I first listened to this masterpiece and couldn’t wait for their sophomore LP, Vaenir. Fast forward to the present day- Monolord has released a remarkable third (3) LP, Rust, and has now come back to North America for another tour. While on tour they stopped by one of my favorite spots, The Earl, with Order of the Owl and Dead Now in support. You guessed it. I was not missing my dudes as they rolled through town!
Dead Now features former Torche/Tilts/Riddle of Steel guitarist Andrew Elstner, Derek Schulz (bass), and Bobby Theberge (drums) who are also both in Day Old Man. I will admit that I didn’t do any research beforehand on this band, because I wanted to be surprised. Damn… I instantly became a fan of this local Atlanta trio! The energy coming off these dudes on stage was intense. The crowd could feel every riff and every thunderous beat as it reverberated throughout the tiny space we were all gathered in. Talk about bringing your ear plugs to work for safety! Check out Dead Now’s Official Bandcamp page to hear their critically acclaimed track, “Ritchie Blackmourning”!
Up next were local favorites, Order of the Owl, featuring Brent Anderson (bass/vocals), Casey Yarbrough (lead guitar/vocals), Matt Irvin (rhythm guitar) and Dwayne Jones (drums). Now if you are familiar with some of my heavier music posts, you may remember this band as they have been featured before at various events around the Atlanta area. Well I will say that Order of the Owl is still the heavy, sludgy, grimy, bad ass band that they were before and I thank them for that. I cannot stress how good these guys are live! Check out Order of the Owl’s Official Bandcamp page today to hear their LP, We Are Here to Collect Our Crown.
Monolord took the stage to a packed and very eager crowd at The Earl. We had all enjoyed the appetizers and now we were all ready for the main dish- the mighty doom metal titans, Monolord! They played a good variety of tracks from all their discography and you could tell the crowd was more than pleased with their performance. Check out Monolord’s Official Bandcamp page and listen to Vaenir so you can see what you’re missing out on. Monolord also just released a twelve (12) minute blistering cover of Black Sabbath’s “Fairies Wear Boots”. Praise Iommi!
Don’t forget to check out our new website over at www.concerthopper.com and please tell us what you think! We would love to get some feedback from our readers. ‘Like’ our page on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and stay up to date in 2018 on all music related events/festivals such as: Muddy Roots Music Festival (featuring Sleep, High on Fire, Neurosis, Om, Fu Manchu, LA Witch, Meatpuppets, X, T.S.O.L., Dead Boys, and Mondo Generator), AmericanaFest, Suwannee Hulaween (2018), Jim James: Solo Tour, & Khruangbin: Live at Variety Playhouse by following us on all social media formats: Concerthopper on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also, you can follow my personal concert hopping on Facebook and Instagram for even more photos not available on Concerthopper.com.
Remember don’t think about it, just buy the damn ticket! As always, hope to see you at a show or festival soon!