Monarch (in the U.S. often stylised Monarch!) was a French doom metal band from Bayonne, formed in 2002. History The band were formed in 2002 in Bayonne, France. In 2004, they released their debut, a double CD with three tracks. Since then the band continued to release albums, various EPs, singles and splits with Moss, the Grey Daturas and Elysiüm. Monarch have released with various labels, mainly with the Spanish Throne Records and have signed with US label At A Loss Recordings, which released their album Omens. In the beginning of 2010, Monarch played alongside Wolves in the Throne Room in Australia, and toured North America, Japan and Australia between 2010 and 2011. Music The band states doom metal and sludge metal bands like Noothgrush, Corrupted, Burning Witch and The Melvins as main influences, but emphasizes with the note "but mainly Black Sabbath" the special importance of the classic metal band. Their 2010 album stresses this through its title, Sabbat Noir, French for Black Sabbath. Eduardo Rivadavia from AllMusic sees their sound as similar to drone metal like Khanate and Rigor Sardonicous, but often harsher. British magazine Rock-A-Rolla considers the band to be rooted in modern doom metal. Monarch have also shown appreciation and claim to be influenced by Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone, and several D-beat bands such as Discharge, Disclose and Aghast; and covered songs by Turbonegro and Discharge, among others. Concept Since their founding the band's concept did not change drastically; guitarist Kaïdine described as follows: "The main idea was to play slow and loud as fuck. We were all playing in fast bands so we wanted to play something very different, something new and challenging for us." Monarch tracks are quite long, roundabout 20 minutes, and to date the longest is the song "Amplifire Death March", which is 58:27 minutes long and was released in 2006 as part of a split. The track length caused the band to release albums almost annually for a period. Songwriting Their songwriting is not systematic, leaving room for random events and improvisation. Bassist MicHell stated regarding the amps, "The raw material we work with emanates directly from our amps. […] In that sense there’s actually a physical dimension in our songwriting: seeing how the amps will respond differently according to how we position ourselves in front of them to achieve, for example, a more droning effect, or harsher feedback… So