After releasing a first new track, “A.W.O.L”, last Friday, Monuments have announced their full European tour with Vola in support of their upcoming album, Phronesis, which is scheduled for a release October 5th via Century Media Records.

Check out all dates on the tour poster:

Preorder Phronesis here.

“The word Phronesis was a big part of society and philosophy in ancient Greece” , explain Monuments. “Phronesis is wisdom, but a really specific type of wisdom to do with oneself. Wisdom on your practical actions, good judgement, being excellent in character, practical wisdom. Learning what to do and what not to do based on experience, being mindful of everything around you. Something that, at times, all of us can be pretty terrible at.”

After touring the world heavily in support of their album The Amanuensis (2014) the intercontinental quintet needed to take a break and catch a breath for multiple reasons. However, the band kept working on Phronesis.

“My personal relationship with the meaning of the record starts at ‘Stygian Blue’, which was the second song I wrote for this back in 2015, which came to be while I was in the darkest place I've ever been in my 32 years”, says guitarist John Browne. “We all had a bunch of issues that needed time to let heal, so in between writing we were, you know, fixing our broken souls.”

Writing about topics that would be troubling their minds acted as a catharsis though, so Phronesis works as a turning point of the progressive metal band on many levels. The self-produced album was finally recorded between March and July of 2018 in various studios throughout the world: While guitars and bass were recorded by Jim Pinder (Bullet For My Valentine, Machine Head, While She Sleeps) at Treehouse Studios, Derbyshire, UK the drums were played, recorded, tracked and engineered by Anup Sastry (ex-Skyharbor). Chris Barretto recorded his vocals with Cristian Machado (Ill Niňo, Leeway) at Soundwars Studios, NJ, USA, then everything was mixed and mastered by Joel Wanasek at JTW Music, Milwaukee, WI.

Tracklisting:

"A.W.O.L."
"Hollow King"
"Vanta"
"Mirror Image"
"Ivory"
"Stygian Blue"
"Leviathan"
"Celeste"
"Jukai"
"The Watch"

"A.W.O.L" lyric video:

Lineup:

Chris Barretto - Vocals
John Browne - Guitar
Olly Steele - Guitar
Adam Swan - Bass
Daniel 'Lango' Lang - Drums

(Photo - Frank Wesp)