The Monolith Deathcult have put out "Isn't She Beautiful?", and the announcement that came with it is the most unusual thing about it. "After the complete failure that was The Demon Who Makes Trophies of Men," it begins, the band are "against all better judgment, once again working on new music".
It goes on from there. They say they have "abandoned the concept of short, trendy, radio-friendly songs" and are returning to their roots, which they describe as "large-scale, mind-numbingly dull, pompous trainwrecks featuring semi-intellectual lyrics based on flopped sci-fi B-movies".
This has been the house style for twenty years and it is not false modesty. The Dutch band have nine albums behind them, built out of brutal death metal, orchestral samples, electronics and historical and science fiction subjects delivered at a volume that makes the joke hard to hear, and the 2024 album they are now calling a failure was the one that tried shorter songs.
So the correction is the news. A band that announces a return to length, pomp and B-movies is telling you exactly what the next record will be, and in their case the self deprecation has always been part of the presentation rather than an apology.