Formed in 2023, Blood Monolith is the brainchild of Shelby Lermo, a musician who also plays in Nails and Ulthar, and was previously a member of Vastum.
In Blood Monolith, the guitarist/vocalist is joined by guitarist Tommy Wall (Undeath), drummer Aidan Tydings-Lynch (Deliriant Nerve, Brain Tourniquet), and bassist Nolan (Genocide Pact, Shitstorm).
The Washington DC/Northern Virginia-based outfit will soon be releasing their debut album, The Calling of Fire, the 8-song collection find Blood Monolith drawing influence from such bands as Morbid Angel, Defeated Sanity, and Dead Congregation:
No Echo loves it when musicians wax poetic on the artists that have inspired them throughout the years. With that spirit in mind, Blood Monolith's Shelby Lermo shared his list of bands and albums that helped inform what they've done on The Calling of Fire.
Thanks, Shelby!
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Cannibal Corpse, The Bleeding (1994)
"Kind of a no-brainer (pun intended) for any death metal band to start with CC on their list of influences, but they were my first, and to this day I listen to them more than any other band in the genre. Butchered at Birth was my first exposure as a teenager back in ‘94 or so (yes, I am very old), but The Bleeding has eclipsed all others as my favorite amongst their discography.
"As far as Blood Monolith goes, this album was one we brought to our engineer Matt as an example of the sound we wanted. The semi-scooped, solid state amp tone, the orc-in-a-cave vocals, the click-y kick. It’s all perfect, and I think qualifies CC as the Beatles of death metal. 35 uninterrupted years and still not a single bad album, how many other bands can claim that?"
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Fixation on Suffering, Confined In Obscurity (2018)
"A little-known classic from the Basque Country of Spain, this is another example we brought to Matt, an absolute monster production-wise, one million metric fucktons of blasting, chugging, gurgling beauty in its rawest and most primitive form.
"I don’t really consider Blood Monolith to be a 'brutal death metal' band or anything, but the subgenre was definitely part of the equation, and this stripped-down masterpiece is a shining beacon of what it can be at its very best."
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Rudimentary Peni, Cacophony (1988)
"If you got a copy of The Calling of Fire on vinyl and you’re an obsessive Rudimentary Peni fan (like I am), you might notice an oblique shout-out to their 1988 opus Cacophony hidden in the layout. It was no accident, and neither was our quest to obtain cover art from their legendarily reclusive singer/guitarist Nick Blinko.
"There’s a healthy dose of punk running in the veins of the Monolith, and a healthy dose of that healthy dose is of the UK anarcho-punk variety. Crass, Conflict, and Flux of Pink Indians were the direct forerunners of bands like Carcass and Napalm Death, to whom I think we can trace a direct lineage. But Peni was the weirdest and most haunting out of that original crop, and if you know me, you know weirdness is a high virtue.
"Definitely my most listened to 'punk' album, still, here in the hellish reality of 2025. Total serendipity to connect with Blinko on this album, and an honor for all of us."
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Nile, Black Seeds of Vengeance (2000)
"Another early influence on me, one that carried over vast oceans of sand and time to infect the Blood Monolith sound. Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Kaa was the first Nile album I heard, and it left such an impression that I was sure to pick up Black Seeds as soon as it dropped. The sheer amount of RIFFS PER MINUTE these fuckers dare drop into each track is dizzying, even more impressive still is the balls it takes to drop an insanely technical, catchy riff into a song and ONLY PLAY IT TWICE before it’s gone forever.
"Karl Sanders & Company are never afraid to make weird, ballsy decisions—like plunking around on a bunch of ouds and zithers for awhile between colossal death metal onslaughts—but when it comes to delivering the plodding, fist-to-face asskicker riff (see the breakdown 3/4 of the way through the title track here), these dudes never disappoint.
"Note: while Black Seeds is far and away my favorite Nile album, I think 'Lashed to the Slave Stick' off Annihilation of the Wicked is my favorite Nile song, and is most definitely in the running for my favorite death metal song of all-time. The way the 'chorus' riff (if you can even call it that) mutates and grows throughout the song is something that’s always kicking around in the back of my brain, brilliant songwriting matched with technical skill at a level that hasn’t been matched since."
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Rorschach, Protestant (1993)
“'Hardcore' had a different meaning to us kids growing up on the West Coast. It was grindy bands made up of sketchy dudes smoking meth and committing felonies, not sober kids with buzz cuts doing elaborate dance routines.
"And while Rorschach was an East Coast band, their discordant, angular take on 'metalcore' (before anyone had even coined that ugly term) seemed to match the apocalyptic anxiety the word invoked in my mind. It also might’ve been the first blastbeat I ever heard. Just listen to the transition from 'Mandible' into 'In Ruins' and try to convince me that this isn’t god tier riff-writing."
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Defeated Sanity, Chapters of Repugnance (2010)
"This might be the heaviest album ever recorded by human beings (if these guys are, in fact, of this Earth). Riffs skitter back and forth from a relentless chugging pummel to backwards-climbing fretboard runs seemingly without set tempo or time signature and back again, somehow never sacrificing intensity or brutality.
"Definitely in my all-time top 5 for any genre, not just death metal. My feeble mind still can’t fathom the structure or even remotest sense of humanity behind this collection of tracks, which keeps me coming back and always provides an unattainable musical goal to keep reaching for, however futile the attempt may be."
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Dead Congregation, Graves of the Archangels (2008)
"More otherworldly songwriting and absolutely unfathomable evil from these Greek freaks. The album opener, 'Martyrdoom,' is a fucking master class in tension and release, building and building for a full 5 1/2 minutes before spilling over into the gleeful blastbeats of 'Hostis Humani Generis.' Dead Congregation is pure death metal, musically, but the underlying Satanism that permeates the album drapes it in a veil of Scandinavian blackness as well.
"These guys understand musicality and theory (as evidenced by the use of counterpoint throughout), but aren’t afraid to twist the rules a little, either by throwing a minute-long rager like 'Subjugation' into the mix, or punctuating the 9 1/2 minute closer 'Teeth Into Red' with several uninterrupted minutes of creepy monastic chanting. Variety is the spice of life, and Dead Congregation proves it to be the spice of death as well."
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Full of Hell, Trumpeting Ecstasy (2017)
"Maybe my favorite modern band to see live. I am a full-on Full of Hell fanboy, and the completely bizarre directions they’ve taken punk, metal, grind, and noise over the course of their approximately one million releases continue to baffle me. There are only a few tickles of synthesizer and blown-out weirdness tucked away in 'The Calling of Fire,' and every attempt left me with a feeling of endless inferiority when I imagined what they could be in the vastly more capable hands of these brilliant dickheads.
"The title track on Trumpeting Ecstasy is a perfect example of the dark and beautiful places metal can be taken when it’s created by minds who choose not to respect concepts like 'convention,' 'tradition,' or 'reality'—all the suspense of a great horror movie and all the atonal cacophony of having your head run over by gas-powered lawnmower in one bite-sized piece of perfect art."
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Suffocation, Effigy of the Forgotten (1991)
"No one will ever write a slam harder than the one at 2:51 in 'Liege of Inveracity.' You can argue, but you will be wrong."
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Cryptopsy, None So Vile (1996)
"Another unbelievably-talented once-upon-a-time death metal legacy act, one that happily wadded up the 'rules' and threw them right the fuck out the window over the course of their first two full-lengths in the mid-'90s (of which None So Vile is the second).
"Cryptopsy was one of the first bands I heard pull off the 'mash-up' riff (pretty sure Suffocation technically did it before them), which is when a band starts off playing one riff and then head-fakes into a different riff halfway through the first measure. It’s tweaky twists and turns like this (in addition to the English teacher-on-crack lyrics and delivery of the almighty Lord Worm) that initially hooked me, and keep me chained and bloody, Hellraiser-like, to this very day.
"Forget The Unspoken King, forget the keyboard player, all that later bullcrap doesn’t count. All that matters is Flo Mounier’s gravity blasts, those ridiculous slap bass transitions, and the opening riff of 'Slit Your Guts.' Chef’s kiss, 10/10, no notes."
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The Calling of Fire will be out on May 16th via Profound Lore (pre-order).
Tagged: blood monolith, our biggest influences
