#5. Empathy Test - Monsters
Empathy Test is one of those bands who had percolated around my radar before this year but never really did anything to jump out and smack me in the face. The band started six years ago in London as a two piece, with singer Isaac Howlett handling the writing duties and producer Adam Relf handling the technical sides of everything else. Over time they've evolved and added live drums and synths to flesh out their sound. You can definitely feel the progress on their newest album, showing the writing abilities of their two newest members, drummer Christina Lopez and keyboardist Oliver Marson, who was already a successful solo artist before joining the outfit.
Having additional musicians definitely helped Monsters feature a much heavier focus on drums and synth layering. Rather than just using pedestrian drum machine beats, many of the tracks feature elaborate fills and cymbal crashes. Of course, the main feature of the group has always been Howlett's mournful voice and higher register, not entirely unlike his boyhood idol Robert Smith of The Cure. If nothing else, the album focuses on depth, playing out like a collection of electrically charged singles, like "Incubation Song" and "Empty Handed, the latter of which I thought might be featured on this Countdown. However, as time passed by, it seemed that several months of this summer simply rotated around me singing "Baby, I've got the monsters again".
That of course is the chorus line of the title track. The band says it was the first song written by all four of them, and that an early recording of it gave them the direction they needed to write the new record. The crashing drums at the beginning definitely drive the song forward, while the double-edged synth sword slices to and fro throughout, equally lifting your ears up before driving them back down. Once you hear Howlett's higher-than-high pitch, it's already too late, and you're hooked into the entire song. It really is one of those perfect songs, from start to finish that shows no weakness. The video for the song is quite unsettling, featuring an arguing couple who is confronted (in their car) by a blue clad dancing monster which evokes emotional responses from their past. I'm also going to include the lyric video in this post, as the official video should be labeled with a seizure warning as well.
All things considered, the song has over 200k streams on Spotify, with the album as a whole racking up over 630k. I definitely enjoy the sound of this album more than their prior works, and am looking forward to seeing what a COVID-free slate will do for the quartet.
Favorite Line: "Baby, I've got the monsters again - They're creeping up again"
(official video)
(lyric video)
Title: Monsters
Artist: Empathy Test
Album: Monsters
Previous #5s
2019: Within Temptation - In Vain
2018: Andrew WK - Music Is Worth Living For
2017: Chris Cornell - The Promise
2016: blink-182 - Built This Pool
2015: August Burns Red - Identity
2014: Chvrches - The Mother We Share
2013: Born of Osiris - M∆chine
2012: The Shins - Simple Song
2011: Cold - The Break
2010: Matt and Kim - Cameras
2009: Michael Bublé - Just Haven't Met You Yet
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