The Beautiful Monument Confront Their 'Sins'

18 July 2017 | 4:06 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

Bad pun? Yeah, maybe. But has this recent single from The Beautiful Monument turned me onto their music? You betcha!

Bad pun? Yeah, maybe. But has this recent single from The Beautiful Monument turned me onto their music? You betcha!



Honestly, I've never really cared for The Beautiful Monument. The Melbourne groups recent singles 'Manifestation' and 'Disorder' enthralled me about as much as a no-break Twilight marathon delivered via the Ludovico Technique a la A Clockwork Orange would. Which is to say, not at fucking all. As such, their recently released debut LP, ‘I’m The Sin’, passed me by completely.

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However, in skipping a record whose outlier singles did very little to draw me into its wider confines meant missing out on 'Sins'; marking the first time that I've been genuinely invested in this band's music. Whereas fellow album songs like the aforementioned 'Manifestation', 'Hostage', 'Justify' and 'Perceptions' are merely these trite rock meets easycore/pop-punk templates with the usual hooks, angst and backing synths present and accounted for, the closing track of their new full-length is a whole other beast entirely. Instead, 'Sins' is a slower, gloomier, more dynamic song than what the band is normally known to deliver; one that makes great use of darker melodic undertones in its moody guitar lines and the vocals that weave between moments of soft intimacy and the driving loud dynamics. All of this results in the song being a powerful all-rounder that concludes 'I'm The Sin' on a real high note.

So, that's the song. But the recent single treatment that was given to 'Sins' also came with a haunting, cinematic film clip, one that's a far more engaging watch than any of the band's prior other music videos. 

This song's themes of psychological pressure, broken relationships and the incessant impact of various forms of abuse are not new themes for The Beautiful Monument's music - 'Manifestation' also dealt with similar themes of romance gone horribly awry. However, this newer audio-visual feast takes things in a darker, more theatrical and FX-based twist. The visual narrative for 'Sins' (directed, shot and edited by the usual, prolific suspect, Kieran Ellis-Jones) follows singer Lizi Blanco falling back into a hopeless pattern of emotional, mental and physical torture. In the beginning, you see a shady-looking doctor bequeathing the vocalist with life only to then later attack her behind the façade of a witch doctor mask, before his true identity is revealed as the one who had previously stitched her together; a (quite obvious) metaphor for the transgressions from the very person that Blanco was meant to love and trust.

To some, a relationship going tits up and tales of love loss may be one of, if not the biggest cliches for the creation of music ever, further reinforcing the idea that good music can only come from a form of loss and sadness. Well, shit, with a grand song like 'Sins', that cliche is indeed true but it's also a highly effective one that has resulted in one of The Beautiful Monument's best songs!



The Beautiful Monument will be supporting Tonight Alive on their Australian headline tour this October and November. Dates below with the ticket links included because I'm just such a nice guy.  

Tuesday, 31st October

The Basement, Canberra

Tickets: Live Nation

Wednesday, 1st November

Uni Bar, Wollongong

Tickets: Live Nation

Thursday, 2nd November

Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

Tickets: Live Nation

Friday, 3rd November

Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle

Tickets: Live Nation

Saturday, 4th November

The Zoo, Brisbane

Tickets: Live Nation

Thursday, 9th November (All Ages)

Fowlers Live, Adelaide

Tickets: Live Nation

Friday, 10th November

Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Tickets: Live Nation