Mounument is the second full-length effort from the flying Dutchmen. Their debut, The Art Of Grief, made a strong impression on me at the time. Even then, it was clear the band had its own style and sound. A major role in this belongs to their leader and creative center Marco van de Velde, who sings, plays guitar, and writes all the lyrics and music.
For simplicity, let's conditionally label THE WOUNDED gothic rock and leave it at that, since their stylistic boundaries are blurred enough to resist being crammed into any particular box.
Highly atmospheric and emotional, the material is predominantly sad and melancholic, yet textured enough to avoid being called monotonous. Credit for this goes to the skillful use of keyboards and the inimitable vocals. Incidentally, at times they recall The Cure or a male version of The Cranberries (think of Zombie or Ode To My Family, for instance). The thoughtful and serious lyrics also deserve mention — Child and Monument are particularly impressive in this regard.
The overall sound is somewhat raw, especially the guitars. I don't know whether this was intentional or not, but the sound could have used more polish.
See how quickly we get used to good things. But then again, perhaps among other qualities, this release can stand out from the multitude of polished and cookie-cutter musical brethren.
The material on Monument is uneven in terms of hit quality, which doesn't exactly add points either. But still, in our age of identical clones and ubiquitous integration, THE WOUNDED is a welcome presence.