Photos of Of Monsters and Men at Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA on October 16th, 2015
Photos of Of Monsters and Men at 2015 Boston Calling Music Festival in Boston, MA
Photos of Of Monsters and Men at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, NY on September 24th, 2015
Photos of Of Monsters and Men at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, NY on May 7th, 2015
Photos of Of Monsters and Men at 2013 Boston Calling Music Festival in Boston, MA
Photos of Of Monsters and Men at Terminal 5 in New York, NY on November 20th, 2012
Photos of Of Monsters and Men at 2012 Osheaga Music Festival in Montreal, PQ, Canada
Photos of Of Monsters and Men at 2012 Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, WA
QRO’s review of Of Monsters and Men at House of Blues in Boston, MA on April 7th, 2012
Iceland is a place where there are only a few hours of daylight in mid-winter, but correspondingly just a few hours of darkness mid-summer, so it’s only fitting that a group from there would traffic in not just light and dark, but the transition between the two. Alt-folk collective Of Monsters and Men go from ominous shadows to bright sun on Beneath the Skin, their follow-up to breakthrough My Head Is an Animal (QRO review).
Beneath begins with the bold uplift of single “Crystals”, and closes with the same in “We Sink”, but this is a record that deals as much in the dark as in the light. The intimacy of songs like “Empire” and “Organs” is a sad one, while even the grandness of “I of the Storm” feels resigned (if enchanting). Perhaps best putting it is “Human” and “Thousand Eyes”, which go from cloudy skies to the sunshine after the rain.
Beneath isn’t massive growth from their debut full-length, but has just enough that it isn’t My Head Is an Animal II, and will still touch and move their fans.