Bristol’s Life In Mono are back with Ten Queens, a single that moves between alternative metal, post-rock and shoegaze. The guitars are heavy and the atmosphere is dark, but there’s always room for melody.
Ten Queens opens with an ethereal intro before distorted guitars and pounding drums kick in. That play of light and shade recalls The Gathering or Brutus, with touches of post-metal and atmospheric post-hardcore. But the real standout is Sarah Clayton’s voice. She moves between different registers and vocal textures with remarkable ease, managing to sound delicate and incredibly expressive at the same time. Even in the most intense passages, she never loses that sensitivity, giving the song real emotional weight.
The lyrics use chess as a metaphor for gender inequality: ten queens can fall to a single knight when they don’t even know the rules of the game. The song tackles misogyny, the ideas of womanhood we inherit and the need to question them to forge an identity of our own. It’s a feminist message that goes hand in hand with the mix of fragility and fury running through the track.
The video was shot at The Mount Without, a former church in Bristol, whose eerie atmosphere perfectly complements the song’s darkness.
Ten Queens is a striking track, as heavy as it is moving, and one that fans of atmospheric metal will love. Life In Mono are a band with character, plenty to say and an extraordinary vocalist. Remember the name.
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