Robin Brock, one of Canada’s independent artists from the beautiful B.C. mainland has released her newest album, Monsters. After taking six years out of the producing climate, it might be thought that Robin might be a little bit rusty, but I can assure you this is not the case. The album is quite professionally done and the work that has obviously gone into producing it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Unfortunately, while Robin and the band may not be rusty, Monsters does come up short.

Composed of 10 songs and only reaching a mere 40 minutes in length, this album harkens back to the days when songs were short and sweet. Admirably, none of the songs feel hurried or rushed, making for a nice album with music you can definitely rock to. The guitar riffs are well done, showing the skill of her guitarists. Unfortunately, the songs don’t seem to follow any pattern themselves and in places they are undoubtedly plain. The album can’t quite decide what style of Rock it is, diving confidently from modern to classic to electronica to metal with hardly a pause between. While this may show off the diversity of the musicians and Robin herself very well, the styles jump around too much to work as a whole. This is one album where you might be better off throwing the whole album into your shuffle pile instead of listening to it all in one go.

Dyonisis has been described as a Goth-metallic and Goth-rock. I do not see the metallic aspect, but yes the rock beat is definitely there. I hear more New Age/ Rock.

The first song on their new CD is “We Are”. The flange/phase and drawbars at the beginning draws you right in. The dreamy quality of the chimes right before the vocal is a nice touch. The vocals good quality, you can make out the words which is not always the case with some Goth sub-genres. Its abrupt ending is sweet. I like the percussion on “Of The Fear”. The ethereal vocals layered over top and the construction of this song with the way it builds throughout is awesome. The undertone of the rock beat carries this song to places which the lyrics wishes the listener to go. The first two songs have many similarities.