Sometimes when you see a rock band, it feels like a tight-knit band of brothers and sisters. It’s a unified front—crushing you like a Mack truck in an overwhelming style that’s also entertaining.
This is a good way to describe Rotten Monolith, a group from Reno that features three close friends who definitely have their own vibe—even if they have a hard time describing exactly what they play.
“I’ve never been able to pinpoint what we sound like,” said guitarist and vocalist Shane Danner. “Pretty much for me and my songwriting, I take inspiration from all sorts of things—but then it doesn’t really sound like any of those things that I take inspiration from.”
It is clear that the members of Rotten Monolith are into metal more than any other genre, but it goes beyond a specific label or style of heaviness. There’s a lot of hardcore punk in the vocal delivery and types of riffs that Danner and bassist Kris Kelly perform, but there are also some progressive-rock influences with some multi-part epics in the setlist.
Drummer Ian Callahan did coin a genre for the band, albeit in a joking manner: mystic metal.
“If you read a lot of the lyrics that Shane writes, I think they are pretty esoteric,” Callahan said.
Although there is at least one science-fiction/fantasy themed song in the band (“about a space dragon,” Callahan said), Danner said he’s more influenced by the occult in his lyrics.
“Most of the songs have occult overtones, but they’re also about struggling with life and how to overcome the struggles, whether it’s from occult understanding or just pure grit,” Danner said. “A lot of the songs were originally written with lots of depression going on, but it’s all sort of a hopeful message of how to transcend.”
Danner, Kelly and Callahan are Reno natives and friends from their high school days, while Danner said he’s known Callahan since middle school. The three musicians, with Kelly on guitar, were also in a screamo/hardcore band called Near Life Experience in the early 2000s after they all graduated from high school.
In 2006, Danner moved to Portland, Ore., with his girlfriend at the time and stayed there for about 15 years. While there, he formed the first version of Rotten Monolith in 2014, which lasted until 2019.
The hiatus for Rotten Monolith ended in 2022, when Callahan and Danner got together to jam on older songs from the band. Callahan said that at the time, he and Kelly’s previous band, Flood Fire Death Drought, was petering out.
The members agreed that going into the studio with their newest material is a priority when they can find the time, hopefully this year.
Once Callahan and Danner started playing, they talked Kelly into switching from guitar to bass to complete the current Rotten Monolith lineup.
“I just love being in a band and playing music and hanging out with my best friends, so I just bit the bullet and borrowed a bass and started to learn how to play it,” Kelly said.
He turned out to be what Danner called a fantastic addition to Rotten Monolith, especially as a second songwriter. When Kelly writes music, he said he tries to think like Danner, but it comes out with a different slant.
“I am trying things out that don’t come to me naturally,” Kelly said, “We both have our own zones on the neck of the guitar that we like to live in, and they’re not the same zone. So, I’m trying to drift into his zone and then kind of pull things back to my zone. It changes the sound into something a little more blended.”
The same goes for Kelly’s lyrics. “We write about vastly different things,” he said. “I’m still so rooted in punk-rock stuff that my songs tend to have a message in them. They aren’t as metaphysical or interesting as Shane’s songs.”
So far, the band’s recordings are all from the Oregon version of the group, although the current members agreed that going into the studio with their newest material is a priority when they can find the time, hopefully this year. They’ve also talked about out-of-town shows when everyone’s work schedules permit.
It seems like Rotten Monolith’s real priorities are to continue getting gigs and keep their friendship going for as long as they can.
“I don’t know many grownups who are able to keep playing with their toys with their best friends,” Kelly said. “It’s pretty fucking sweet—pretty cool. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.”
Rotten Monolith will play with Oathbound, a progressive metal band from Seattle, and locals A Cryptic Ending and Mercy for Thine Enemies, at 8 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 20, at the Cellar Stage at Alturas Bar, at 1044 E. Fourth St. Learn more at instagram.com/rotten_monolith.