Discography :: Band
The musical beginnings of Monsterworks took form in the early 1990s from the distorted dreams of Jon and Jared, two high school buddies with a mutual love of a vast array of metal. Then at University Jon met Ian who had a likewise broad metal mind. Eventually these three kindred spirits would all meet in a community-run studio in Palmerston North, New Zealand, to record a first track penned by Ian called “Cascading Past”, later re-recorded for the first album.
The music evolved over time with a major leap occuring in 2003 when Jon and Ian restarted the band in London, UK. Initially quite thrash inspired with a progressive edge, the sound changed over the decade to incorporate orchestral elements and layered guitar arrangements; reaching a pinnacle of preposterousness with Singularity, released in 2009. After that Ian left for domestic oblivion so, with a new lead guitarist in tow, the band stripped it back to basics (relatively speaking) and continues its quest for the perfect blend of classic heavy metal, prog, thrash, black, atmospheric and whatever else feels right in the moment.
NEWS:
25 August 2026: Crikey, almost 5 years since the last update. In that time a new album, Sixth Extinction, has been recorded – re-recorded actually – and is awaiting finishing touches. The last post mentions the drums having been recorded in 2018, which was true, however, it didn’t quite feel right because they were recorded to demo timings; whereas something magical happens when Jon and James get in a room together and smash it out without a click track and tempo map. One way or another 6X will see the light of day in 2027. Jon has also been busy with releases from Moose Cult, Grey Mountain and Thūn. No rest for the wicked.
30 November 2021: work continues on the follow up to Malignment. Interestingly, the drums were recorded at the same time (in 2018!) as Malignment. Meanwhile Jon has been busy on several side projects with Hugo. Not least of which is Thūn with Karl Sanders of Nile and drummer extraordinaire James Knoerl.
2 October 2020: Release day for Monsterworks :: Malignment.
4 June 2020: The pre-sequel to Spacial Operations is presently being mixed by Damian Herring (Horrendous).