26. April 2025
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Media Review

About Monsters – Hidden Dystopia

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

About Monsters - Hidden Dystopia

About Monsters - Hidden Dystopia
3.8

Rating

 3.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Eleven good individual tracks
  • Nice presentation and vocals

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Similarities between the songs
  • Just three new tracks

Time for some metal from Germany: the band About Monsters are sharing their Hidden Dystopia on 25th April 2025. After their first release has been quite successful, it is a good opportunity to have a deeper listen into their music. Here is my review.

 

About Monsters – About The Artists

The roots of About Monsters are in the early 2010’s, when the band started as a school rock band. They are Florian Brunemann, Alexander Tempe (both guitar), Madeline Maddy Wiebe (vocals), Torben Heuer (bass) and Sönke Heuer (drums). They started to work on their self-titled debut album in 2017. It was finally released in 2019. Since then, the band has just released singles. Quite a bit of them are the backbone of Hidden Dystopia.

 

About Monsters – Hidden Dystopia – Track by Track

The eleven track album lasts 37 minutes.

1. House of Cards

The album also gathers songs released by About Monsters over the last years. Thus, the opener House of Cards is in fact an August 2022. The song mixes metal and rock elements and also presents some melodic elements. Maddy Wiebe on the microphone drives the track, which is a very enjoyable rocker.

2. The Hunt

The Hunt starts with a slightly darker atmosphere. The vocals at the beginning start on almost the same level most of the time. However, the harder rock attitude of About Monsters breaks out with the chorus, when the boys hit the strings of their guitars and bass much harder. This leads to a versatile and interesting plot. Overall, the song is a nice one for rock and alternative rock fans.

3. Suffocate

After the gentle beginning of The Hunt, the German band wakes you up with some hard riffs right at the beginning of this track. Finally, the song then takes a similar route like the predecessor: rather calm, but atmospheric stanzas and a catching, deeply rocking chorus. Suffocate even has slight metalcore attitudes.

4. Save Me

Save Me is more balanced than the two songs before: the chorus is a bit of calmer, the stanzas have a more energy. Nonetheless, the general plot stays the same. Overall, this leads to a good listen with nice instrumental works.

5. Pushing Boundaries (feat. Aaron Steineker of Rising Insane)

For the rather short, less than three minutes Pushing Boundaries, About Monsters have a guest musician. Aaron Steineker of the metalcore band Rising Insane has been part of the recording. Despite its short duration, the song stays in your mind. One factor for that is the catching chorus and the heavy sound. The duet-alike style of the track additionally adds a lot. Steineker is also able to present his rougher vocals.

6. Time

Only three songs of the album are in fact new tracks. Time is the first of them. The sixth song on Hidden Dystopia takes quite some time to focus on the voice of the band’s lead singer. The more, the second part turns into a metal firework. Again, there are elements of metal core and also industrial sounds in it.

7. Don’t Let Me Drown

The more you listen to Hidden Dystopia, the more you get into the flow of About Monsters. One factor for that is that there are certain similarities in the tracks. The differences are made by the lyrics and stories, not necessarily on the melodic side. It works out, but I’m looking for new elements while listening to Don’t Let Me Down.

8. On Fire

I was longing for new elements, I got some of them at On Fire. Especially the bridge of this song is stunning. The chorus has a nice presence as well. Apart from that, the song has one of the best choruses of the album.

9. Resist

The second song which is shorter than three minutes, is Resist. Again, About Monsters take quite some time to create the right atmosphere for the track, which uses quite a lot of electronic elements and reverb. The previously unreleased track is one of the best listens of the album to me.

10. Fade

Fade works a lot with rather dark and mysterious elements. The core and heartbeat of the penultimate one, though, is of course the chorus. The German band feels excellent in presenting that part of the song on point.

11. Crash And Burn

Hidden Dystopia closes with Crash And Burn. The guitar section is strumming some hard riffs right at the beginning of the song, which is overall very energetic. A really nice chucker-out from the album in a moderate metalcore style.

 

About Monsters – Hidden Dystopia – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

About Monsters – Hidden Dystopia – My View

I really enjoyed listening to Hidden Dystopia. Nonetheless, I just have to mention that there are similarities in the songs. I would not point out a weak spot in regards of the individual tracks, but overall, the album could need some more surprising songs and elements. Nonetheless, fans of the genre will definitely enjoy it.

Favorite Song: Resist

 

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