The Monarch — Shardana
- polsty00
- Sep 5
- 2 min read
Shardana – The Monarch
Out now via Rude Awakening Records.
Italy’s Shardana have always carried themselves like Sardinian pirates who swapped cutlasses for guitars and barrels of wine for blast beats. With The Monarch, their third full length, they’ve forged a blackened death metal weapon that’s as savage as it is unpredictable — a record that drags you from atmospheric whispers straight into the jaws of guttural fkn chaos.
This thing thrives on dynamics. One moment you’re floating in a bleak, mist soaked soundscape, like on the haunting openening lines of “Awakening” or the eerie passages in “Rei De Sonnu” – and the next you’re bludgeoned senseless by blast beats and throat ripping growls that sound like time itself coughing up blood. Tracks like “Iron Will” and “The Monarch” don’t just hammer you, they collapse on you, while “S’Inferru” roars with the weight of history, balancing atmosphere and sheer violent drive in perfect tension. It’s the aural equivalent of being lulled into a false sense of safety before someone kicks your chair out from under you and screams in your face.
And that’s the point — The Monarch isn’t just heaviness for the sake of it. The band weaponise silence, space, and melody as much as distortion and fury. The softer, atmospheric lows pull you deep into Sardinian folklore and cultural memory, while the highs are a full bodied detonation of rage, anguish, and ritualistic defiance. It’s this interplay that gives the record its bite, without those lows, the highs wouldn’t fkn floor you the way they do.
Lyrically, the record stares down “Time” as the great deaf bastard that doesn’t care about your prayers or screams. There’s no comfort here, only the reminder that we’re all destined to rot, but Shardana make the decay sound heroic. Produced by Lorenzo Mariani and mastered by Brad Boatright, the album sounds feral yet cinematic, every dynamic shift hitting like waves on a blackened shore.
At just under 38 minutes, The Monarch is lean, vicious, and layered. It’s a record that rewards repeat listens, each spin pulling you deeper between its atmospheric lows and gutter born highs. Shardana aren’t just retelling history and modern topics, they’re writing their own in riffs, roars, and blood soaked anthems.
A dynamic, crushing storm of heritage and heaviness 8.5/10 🤘🏾
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