Band:	Monosphere
Album:	Sentience
Style:	Djent, Progressive metalcore
Release date:	October 20, 2023
A review by:	musclassia

01. Preface
02. Borderline Syndrome
03. Smoke & Wires
04. Friends & Foes [feat. Mirza Radonjica]
05. Bleak
06. Ava
07. Human Disguise
08. Living Flame
09. Intermission
10. Method Acting
11. Turing Test [feat. Jim Grey]
12. Sentience

Monosphere’s arrival onto the djent scene back in 2021 with The Puppeteer was something of a breath of fresh air to me; djent, metalcore and prog were already closely entwined by that point, but the idea of adding post-metal to the equation was inspired. On Sentience, Monosphere continue to expand their horizons.

As much as I hope for all my reviews to be representative of my ultimate feelings towards each record, there are some albums whose staying power only reveals itself over time; in hindsight, given the amount of replays I’ve given it, I could probably have afforded to rate The Puppeteer a bit higher in my review. The ebbs and flows, extremities and textures that Monosphere assembled while using what was still a relatively recognizable progressive metalcore backbone resulted in something distinctive and compelling. Although it contained 15 tracks, The Puppeteer was compact and ever-flowing across its taut 40-minute runtime; Sentience sees the German quintet spreading their legs, as the 55-minute album includes 4 songs longer than any on The Puppeteer, and it’s intriguing to see how Monosphere opt to fill those minutes.

The album is front-loaded with some of that exploration, with the album’ two longest songs positioned second and third on the tracklist. “Preface” opts for a predominantly melodic, warmly textured approach to starting the record; it’s a functional opening, albeit one that doesn’t feel that connected to the immediately following “Borderline Syndrome”. Sentience thematically focuses on artificial intelligence and machine consciousness, and “Borderline Syndrome” immediately marks a shift from The Puppeteer by opening with synthwave-style electronics; something that is carried over from the debut is a proclivity for blast beats, which are used to inject some added intensity to the djent-core body of this song. To contrast this extremity, Monosphere take a left turn midway through the song and pull back entirely, save for some jazzy clean guitar and drumming that offers something of a lounge vibe; there’s several guests credited on Sentience, and one of them, trumpeter Gergö Bille, then pops up as the track almost takes on a heavy indie feel.

“Borderline Syndrome” fits a lot into a few minutes; right afterwards, “Smoke & Wires” similarly strives to impress with its range. Shifting rapidly between explosive blasting, stripped-down piano, and filthy breakdowns, the first half is fluctuating but conventional, but it is in the closing stages that Monosphere shake things up; Bille returns with the trumpet, while bassist Marlon Palm lays some dirty funky basslines, all of which builds towards a big emotional metalcore climax. After the opening brace of adventurous songs, Monosphere do then embrace more straightforward prog-metalcore fare, with several shorter songs that go for the jugular (“Friends & Foes”, “Human Disguise”).

With everything that is appearing on Sentience, old and new, one aspect that I find myself missing is that post-metal influence; these first two songs certainly have contrasting dynamics, but they feel more rooted in progressive variance rather than post-metal texturing. One track that does offer a reprise of these moments is “Living Flame”; this song opens with measured, weighty riffing, and around the halfway mark, it pulls back and enters a sequence with back-and-forth dynamic shifts, including ominous tom drums, and the overall feel of this second half feels like its composition likely drew inspiration from The Ocean in particular. Still, I think it’s a shame that there’s not more exploration of the ideas found in “The Lover” and “The Marionette” on the debut record.

Having spent a few weeks with Sentience, I’ve come to think of it as a fitting next step for Monosphere after they laid such good groundwork on The Puppeteer; the band is clearly one of the most interesting new voices within djent, and their continued experimentation on this record is cementing that observation. As to how I find myself feeling about the two albums in relation to one another, I’m currently drawn slightly more towards The Puppeteer; the loss of the post-metal side to the band is something of a loss, and despite the seemingly greater prevalence of empassioned clean vocal hooks, I don’t think the songs overall are quite as memorable, or satisfying at least. “Method Acting” is one example of the latter point; on the whole, it’s a varied and generally well-written song, but the main clean hooks fall a tad flat for me. I also find it slightly strange to get a vocalist of Jim Grey’s (Caligula's Horse) talent to guest, just for him to perform exclusively spoken word, but that’s just personal curiosity.

I’ve ultimately found myself giving Sentience the same score I gave its predecessor; time has caused me to re-evaluate that first adjudication, and there is enough depth and variety in the writing here that I could potentially find myself feeling the same about Sentience in two years’ time. Whether that ends up being the case or not, I hope that this record helps to further establish Monosphere, as they’re a very impressive group for one so early in their recording career.