SPILL NEW MUSIC: PERTH PSYCH TRIO MONOTONIC RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM ‘HEAVY METAL’

PERTH PSYCH TRIO MONOTONIC RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM ‘HEAVY METAL’

HIDDEN SHOAL

Perth/Boorloo’s own purveyors of heavy psychedelic sorcery, Monotonic, unleash their long-awaited album debut Heavy Metal‘ The record is being delivered (with a limited vinyl run) care of revered Australian label Hidden Shoal and label head Cam Merton. The culmination of the band’s singular vision, Heavy Metal is an exercise in mind-altering sonic experimentation, the audio equivalent of a one-way journey to the outer reaches.

Across eight tracks, the album delivers a masterclass in psych rock minimalism, where hypnotic repetition and distortion blur the boundaries between groove and atmosphere. It’s a heady fusion of early ’70s dub, space rock and acid rock, with a healthy dose of motorik pulse and lysergic psychedelia. Vocals drift through the mix functioning as a fourth instrument, saturated in as much delay and distortion as humanly possible.

“The broad ambition was to make the entire record literally as minimal as possible in the compositional or structural sense,” explains the band’s Liam Coffey, “but sound-wise completely unrefined, to the point of sounding even a bit obnoxious, hopefully, or at least insouciant. A soundtrack for distractedly picking your teeth on public transport while gazing absently into the middle distance.”

That ethos carries through the entire record. Rather than a collection of disparate songs, ‘Heavy Metal’ unfolds as one cohesive sonic environment, a continuous exploration of texture and tone.

“We very much consciously wanted the sound of the whole album to be of one cohesive, integrated piece, in the sense of arriving at an identifiable sound and pursuing it in a linear way over the course of eight tracks,” Liam says.

Monotonic was formed during the pandemic by veterans of Perth’s golden alt-rock era: Liam Coffey (Header), Allan Balmont (Ammonia), and Jack Lucas (Yummy Fur/Six Mile High). Reuniting decades after their respective bands made waves in the ’90s, the three longtime friends found a fresh creative spark in loose jam sessions that continued to evolve into something greater than intended. Jams turned into songs, and while there were no initial plans to record, they became so committed to the music they were creating that an album eventually became an inevitability.

The album was recorded in 2024 at Aerial Recording, a secluded studio in the Perth Hills owned and run by Ronan Charles, who also engineered and mixed the track, with production by Liam of the band. It was mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios, known for his work with Joy Division, Mogwai, Blur, and Scott Walker, among others

Monotonic
Heavy Metal
(Hidden Shoal)
Release Date: March 27, 2026

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