Thomas V JgerMonolords Dark Prince of the V – Premier Guitar

Legend has it the name Monolord refers to a friend of the band with the same moniker who lost hearing in his left ear, and later said it didnt matter if the band recorded anything in stereo, because he could not hear it anyway. Its a funny, though slightly tragic, bit of backstory, but that handle is befitting in yet another, perhaps even more profound, way. Doom and stoner metal are arguably the torch-bearing subgenres for hard rock guitar players, and if any band seems to hold the keys to the castle at this moment, its Monolord.

The reason is simple: Thomas V Jgers guitar riffsthe raison dtre of Monolords songcraftare relentlessly catchy and infused with immense groove and swagger. When asked how he vets potential riffs for Monolord songs, Jger, who is also the bands singer and main songwriter, offers this: The core of it is some kind of hook that makes it stand out just a little bitthats what Im looking for. Its really hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. We still want real heavy records, but at the same time you need hooks, you need something that people will remember.

MONOLORD - The Weary (Official Music Video)

Hooks may be more commonly associated with pop than metal songwriting, but Monolords latest magnum opus, Your Time to Shine, is rife with them. From the opening salvo of The Weary, Jgers guitar playing conjures majestic tones, conveying the zeitgeist of our time with equal parts bombast and melancholy. His playing on songs like To Each Their Own and Your Time to Shine, fueled by indelible grooves that ebb and flow (the band foregoes click tracks), carries an emotional heft that soundtracks the ruined world, as Consequence so aptly described it. And his layered approach to recording guitars infuses the bands heavy backbone with a sublime melodic sensibility.

While Monolord is an indisputable riff-rock juggernaut, only one of the five cuts on Your Time to Shine, The Siren of Yersinia, has a bonafide guitar solo on it. You could probably arrange the songs so theres a guitar solo on every track, but thats not really what were looking for, explains Jger, who ascribes to a less-is-more ethos. Of course, there are lead guitar parts here and there, in every song, but theyre mostly written, not improvised. Its like another melody. Such embellishments function as additional riffs or motifs within the jigsaw puzzle of Monolords sound, in service to the melodic framework of songs rather than as obligatory showcases of technical prowess. And when that one solo does finally appear in the albums final track, its better, says Jger, "because there are not any other solos on the record.

TIDBIT: The bands new album clocks in at 39 minutes and features five songsonly one with a guitar solo, but all packed with a plethora of licks, melodies, and melodic fills.

Monolord formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2013, out of Marulk, a boogie-rock band that included Jger and drummer and mixing engineer Esben Willems. They needed an outlet to indulge their heavier affinities, and so, after hooking up with bassist Mika Hkki, they transformed. Their 2014 debut, Empress Rising, is an exercise in musical restraint, showcasing the trios ability to riff on and develop a single motif. Vnir followed in 2015, followed by Rust (2017) and No Comfort(2019)each one further cementing Monolord as a major name in the doom genre. Aside from his guitar playing, Jgers ghostly, Ozzy-esque vocals (think Planet Caravan by Black Sabbath) add yet another distinctive melodic element to the bands bone-crushing, heavy-yet-droning riffs.

Jger says that when the band began, songwriting was more like loose ideas just thrown all over the place. Now, however, he has his own home studio, so its like doing pre-production. Except I dont play drums. I program those most of the time, so that when Mika and Esben hear the song, they can get the vibe. I try to make [a demo] as complete as possible. His studio consists of an old PC running Windows XP with Pro Tools 8 and a Digidesign 002 interface. Its a really old setup, he admits, but I just love having a room crammed with stuff where I can turn around, pick up a cowbell, and just start playing and recording.

The Monolords, from left to right: drummer Esben Willems, guitarist and frontman Thomas V Jger, and bassist Mika Hkki.

Photo by Chad Kelco

Jger has been doing the bulk of his songwriting lately not on a cowbell but on an acoustic guitar tuned to standard, which adds another twist to Monolords sound, since he and Hkki tune down to B-standard on their electrics. If I play an E on the acoustic guitar, that [position] is B on the electric guitar thats down-tuned, he explains. Sometimes I switch it, so the chord starts in the E [5th] position on the down-tuned guitar, but in The Weary, for example, the verse is in B, simply because I wrote it in E on the acoustic guitar. Mostly his actual writing process is pretty straightforward. I sit on my couch, take a cup of coffee, I have my notebook, and I just start to check ideas. Then, if I get the vibe, [with] more than one riff, I go upstairs, turn on the computer and record a demo.

Because Monolord is only a three-piece, Jger admits its hard to recreate his layered recording approach while playing live. It works as long as theres not a third guitar harmony, he explains. So, with the bass and just one guitar, it doesnt feel like we need a second guitar for most of the parts with the harmonies. I dont know if it has something to do with tuning down. If we have a chord progression, and theres a lead guitar over that enhancing stuff, its hard to do both. So, on some songs I go with the chords, and some songs I go with a lead. Its just what suits the songs best. He adds that during some solos, Hkki will play chords live, instead of just single-string notes.

Lately, Jger has been experimenting with his guitar tone by going with less distortion and adjusting his EQ settings. I cut a lot of bass on my guitar sound these days, he says. I didnt do that from the beginning, because we wanted this massive wall. But now I try to get as close to Malcolm Young as I can. So when you strike an E chord, you feel the bass response and the mid response, but not too brightyou get this low-mid and high-mid kind of swoosh or whoosh. Its a good crunchy darker version of Malcolm Youngs rhythm guitar sound. The first thing I check when I turn on the amps onstage is the clean sound, and then I can do some adjustments, and when that sounds great, the fuzz sounds great, too.

Speaking of fuzz, Jger relies primarily on a Hiero Effects Phatoum Fuzz/Churchburner, a Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz clone built by a guy in Russia. For leads, he uses the Laney Black Country Customs Tony Iommi Signature TI-Boost. I run that together with a [dunn effects Death Knob] HM-2 EQ Blender that you can blend into the signal, he explains. I read that David Gilmour used the Boss HM-2 for leads at some point in his career. So, I took out my old HM-2 and tried it, and I immediately knew what he was talking about. You get this tone that just cuts through everything. Its got all these mids and aggressive highs, but its a bit too noisy, and I got a lot of feedback because I wanted to push it to the max. I tried the low-gain TI-Boost together with the [dunn effects Death Knob] HM-2 Blender EQ and I can get really creamy mids, but it doesnt feedback as bad as the HM-2.

Jgers fleet of Orange amps give him plenty of juice for Monolords sweet-and-heavy sound. He plugs in with one of his Goya V-type guitars or a Gibson SG-1.

Photo by Josefine Larsson

Aside from the obvious aforementioned influences, Jger says hes most inspired by guitarists who are also great songwriters. Most of the time Im listening to old 70s rock, like MC5, with Wayne Kramer and Fred Smiththey are amazing, he says. And also Nicke Andersson of Entombed and the Hellacopters, among other bandshes been an inspiration. Surprisingly, American singer/songwriter Elliott Smith is also among his favorites. Hes not really this awesome guitar player, but if you like low-key singer/songwriter stuff, his record Either/Or is amazing. Its not really a guitar record at all. Its just low-key strumming and good chord progressions.

Jger says hes truly inspired by guitarists that can play more than one instrument and create a lot of good music. And he cites Cathedrals Garry Gaz Jennings as another influence. When he starts to play guitar, I can hear its him right away. And if you can hear that from someone, I think you have done a rather good job being this guitarist that doesnt sound like everybody else. No matter what setting, you can still hear that sound.

When it comes to the matter of spearheading a musical movement, Jger offers the following assessment: Even though its called doom, the foundation is rock n roll. Of course we want to make heavy songs, but not ridiculously heavy. We also need some clarity and some tone. So, Im not sure if I call our music doom. Its more doom-rock.

Other signatures of Monolords songs are length and tempo, hence the five-song track list on the 39-minute Your Time to Shine. And Monolords tempos are usually, in classical terms, lentissimo, which presents particular performance-related challenges. When you write shorter songs, you can bang out the chords and you are done, explains Jger. But when youre playing slower, you have to be more precise, because its not as forgiving as playing punk rock or death metal or whatever. Of course, youve got to be tight when playing death metal, too, but being a bit late or a bit early is not as visible as if youre playing slow. Ill Be Damned was really hard to keep down because we all wanted to play faster. It feels good to play a bit faster sometimes.

Monolord perform a set at the Freak Valley Festival in Netphen, Germany, with Thomas V Jger plying his blend of clean and fuzzy tones, and using wide-ranging dynamics, on his Greco V-type.

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