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Monarch! Q&A
For our tenth Q&A, we welcome Basque country sludge-metallers Monarch!  With some of the slowest tempos and heaviest dirges around, Monarch! promise to be a revelation at Supersonic 2011.  Read on.

1. Which five words describe what you know about Supersonic?
Rob Shaffer : Respected international experimental music festival.
Michell Bidegain : Criminally loud public address systems.
Shiran Kaidin : Eclectic, surprising, loud, classy and crunchy.
Emilie Bresson : Fun, fucking good loud music

2. What can people expect of Monarch at the festival?
Rob S. : Extreme nothingness.
Michell : A 13bpm black mass.
Shiran : Slow and loud vibrations.
Emilie : A slow motion march to the end of all.

3. Why make music – what does it do for you that nothing else does?
Rob S. : Music forces one to exist in the present moment, and provides the possibility of expressing true emotion which listeners could choose to feel as well .
Michell : Denim and leather. No explanation as to why, just a constant driving need to make music.
Shiran : Music is the way to express what cannot be described.
Emilie: It makes me be myself and, for a moment, it makes me forget about anything else but the music we play.

4. Who else on the bill are you hoping to see? (And why?)
Rob S. : There are many legendary performers playing this festival, i am hoping to see zombi because their music makes me feel good, electric wizard for their crushing rythm and volume, zu3 for david tibet, secret chiefs 3 for their non pretentious technicality. i hope to see as many artists as possible really.
Michell : Zombi, Turbonegro, WITTR, Electric Wizard, Secret Chiefs 3.
Shiran : Electric Wizard, TRBNGR, Wolves in the throne room, Bardo Pond and Secret Chief 3.
Emilie : Same here!

5. Finally, your essential ‘surviving-Supersonic’ items are…
Rob S : Good friends.
Michell : Beer.
Shiran : Ears and eyes will be enough I think.
Emilie : My ear plugs.

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Monarch.
Described in one review as a “deep black minimalistic, slow, humongous doom monster”, Monarch are not a band for the faint-hearted.  Since their 2002 founding in the Basque region of southern France, the band’s concept hasn’t change drastically – in some ways, it’s the slow, persistent hunting-down of a single thread.  Guitarist Kaïdine says simply: “The main idea was to play slow and loud as fuck. We were all playing in fast bands so we wanted to play something very different, something new and challenging for us.”  The band toured the US last year with fellow Supersonic 2011 artists Wolves in the Throne Room and Village Voice concluded a review of their New York show by saying “a focused, intense performance, utterly lacking the catharsis that’s metal’s usual stock-in-trade”.

http://www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles

You can see that focus in this nicely shot full-length set from Valle de Trápaga-Trapagaran in the Basque region of Spain.  Slow, yes, but also strangely uplifting.

Monarch from Charly Never Scene on Vimeo.

Monarch Part2 from Charly Never Scene on Vimeo.

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Located in the far reaches in the south of France lies Bayonne, a small City untouched by modern architecture and home to one of the slowest, heaviest and loudest funeral doom metal bands Europe has to offer. They call them selves Monarch and they ascended to this Earth in the year of 2004.

Drawing comparisons to the likes of heavy weights Khanate, Burzum, Corrupted and the Melvins, Monarch are a unique band with the pure intent on creating blood curdling feedback drenched physical sound through the use of insane volume and low end frequencies, oh, and with a wall of sweet vintage amps.

http://www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles