Rise to Power (Monstrosity album)

Background

Following an unsuccessful planned Mexican tour, which was initially scheduled for early December 2001 and rescheduled for early 2002 as a result of Sepultura's Mexican dates coinciding with the original trek, Monstrosity began to record their fourth studio album at Morrisound Studios in early 2002. However, due to the band's heavy touring schedule, the recording of the follow-up to the compilation album Enslaving the Masses was pushed back to April 2002.

Critical reception

John Serba of Allmusic criticized the band stating, "Lyrically tired and musically derivative, Monstrosity remains firmly rooted in the early-1990s meat-and-potatoes death metal ethic, eyes not locked on the genre's future like Nile or Absu, or on memorable songwriting." Serba also stated that in Rise to Power, the group "still doesn't break out of the third tier of Floridian-via-New York City-style baby-eaters, stringing together a bunch of musically competent, third-generation, ripped-off Morbid Angel-via-Slayer-while-sleeping-with-Suffocation riffs, peppered with clackity-typewriter double-bass drums and vocals from Glen Benton's evil second cousin's former roommate, thrice removed." He complemented, "Monstrosity attempts to scorch already blackened, barren ground, with no lighter fluid or original ideas in its possession."

Chronicles of Chaos webzine writer Brian Meloon gave the album a rating of 6 out of 10, stating that Rise to Power is similar to the band's previous album In Dark Purity, but found it rather uninspired. He observed that Monstrosity's style remained largely unchanged: "it's still a riff-heavy brand of death metal featuring both power chord-based riffs and individual note lines, harmonized guitar parts, growled vocals, fast double bass drumming and blast beats." Meloon defined Rise to Power as a "competent release but nothing special."

Personnel