The Idiotix Start Exposed, End Unleashed — “Monster” Builds Then Hits 4.5/5
The single opens in a way that might catch you off guard if you’re expecting the band to come straight in at full tilt. It’s just a strummed guitar and Daz Geegan’s vocal, and that space really matters. There’s a vulnerability to it that comes through in the lyrics and the range he’s working across, with nothing to hide behind. It feels held back on purpose, like it knows exactly what it’s doing.
For a band formed three years ago and loosely defining themselves as alt rock, the restraint stands out. “Monster” lives in the aftermath of a toxic relationship, starting from that slightly detached, disorientated place and moving through grief into something heavier. There’s a sense of someone realising they’ve been shaped by what they’ve come out of, and not entirely liking what’s left.
When it turns, you feel it coming for a second, then it goes. Not a release so much as a shift into something less controlled. The vocal pushes harder, more strained, more direct, and the band comes with it.
The guitars kick in fully electric and it just hits. There’s real weight to it, the kind of section that’s hard not to move with, and it carries that head-down energy without losing shape. Jamie Mackenzie’s rhythm work and the rhythm section from Arron Close and Spencer Manclark lock into it properly, so it never feels messy, just driven. If you know the band from tracks like Bounce or Control you’ll recognise that side of them, but here it lands differently because of what comes before it.
“You created a monster” runs through it and shifts as the track shifts. Early on it feels inward, almost reflective. Later it lands more like a line being thrown back out. That change is what gives the track its edge. It doesn’t just build and release, it turns.
The ending eases off a little more than you might expect given where it’s been, but it doesn’t take much away. What sticks is that moment where everything tips and the track fully commits to it.
In the end, what makes “Monster” work is not just the impact of that heavier section, but how deliberately it gets there. The restraint at the start gives the shift real meaning, and when it comes, it lands with weight rather than noise for the sake of it. It is a track that shows a band willing to step outside expectation and trust the journey, even if it does not fully resolve where it ends up.
Credits
Written by Daz Geegan
Daz Geegan – lead vocals
Jamie Mackenzie – lead guitar
Stephen Gowie – rhythm guitar
Arron Close – bass
Spencer Manclark – drums
Recorded with Steve Bull
Mastered by Iain McLaughlin (IMOUT)
