photos by Simone Muri
“It’s a perfect marriage of sound and vision, mirroring the track’s suffocating layers of synthesizers and its slow, hypnotic pull into nocturnal isolation.” – The Sleeping Shaman
Songs Of Embrace, the new LP by THE MON – the solo vision of Urlo, vocalist/bassist of Italian heavy-psychedelic trio Ufomammut and co-founder of the internationally renowned poster art collective Malleus Rock Art Lab and the independent label Supernatural Cat – is nearing release in early March. Today, the Sleeping Shaman is hosting the video premiere of “Ritual Of Night Violence,” the latest preview from the album.
Songs Of Embrace was written, performed, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Urlo at The Howl, Italy, and as with all Supernatural Cat releases, completed with artwork and videos by the Malleus Rock Art Collective.
Urlo reveals, “‘Ritual Of Night Violence’ is one of the most central tracks on Songs Of Embrace. It unfolds as a ritual, a passage in which anger is not released outward, but gathered, contained, and slowly transformed. Built on dense layers of synthesizers, the track moves through one of the darkest moments of our journey: a nocturnal space of isolation, where images accumulate inside the mind without leaving room to breathe: A continuous, silent violence is exercised on perception itself, until the boundary between dream and reality becomes indistinguishable, as if existing in a state of permanent darkness.
“Here, violence is not an act but a condition, something that circulates, inhabits bodies, and persists even after the one who carries it has disappeared. The only possible form of salvation turns inward. A minimal, fragile sound, like that of a buried music box, capable of reactivating memory and interrupting the cycle. Not an escape, but an awakening, the first step toward finding the strength to remain, to resist, and to rise again.”
The Sleeping Shaman writes alongside THE MON’s new song, “Where that first instalment stripped things back to raw vulnerability, this companion piece plunges into murkier, more ritualistic waters – and this movement sits right at the heart of that descent,” calling the video itself, “a genuinely unsettling piece of visual work that’s difficult to articulate in words. It’s creepy, disorienting, and the kind of imagery that burrows under your skin and lingers long after the screen goes dark. It’s a perfect marriage of sound and vision, mirroring the track’s suffocating layers of synthesizers and its slow, hypnotic pull into nocturnal isolation. This isn’t a video you simply watch; it’s one you endure.”
Watch the video for THE MON’s “Ritual Of Night Violence” first at The Sleeping Shaman RIGHT HERE.
Songs Of Embrace will be released March 6th, on digital platforms, digisleeve CD, and LP. The vinyl will be issued in a standard pressing on 180-gram White/Black marble vinyl, and an extremely limited version in a run of 100 copies pressed on 180-gram Black/White blob effect vinyl in a hand-printed silkscreen cover, crafted by Malleus Rock Art Lab on high-quality paper, with a digital download and CD included. A bundle option including both Songs Of Abandon and Songs Of Embrace is also available.
US preorders can be placed at A Thousand Arms HERE, and other customers can preorder at Supernatural Cat HERE, and if you missed it, watch the previously issued “Incantation” video HERE.
Following the release of the new album, Urlo will perform as THE MON across parts of Europe on tour with Kariti from March 18th through May 5th. View the route and find info and tickets for all shows HERE.
Where Ufomammut projects massive, otherworldly soundscapes, THE MON offers a more vulnerable and introspective experience. The music moves through shadowy electronic landscapes, ambient textures, and hypnotic dark folk, always guided by an emotional core that searches for meaning, balance, and transformation. The moniker evokes several layers of meaning: a contraction of “demon,” “monk,” and the Japanese word 門 (mon, meaning “gate”), a symbolic passage toward altered states of consciousness and inner truth. This duality of light and dark, sacred and profane, runs through the entire project.
Embrace The Abandon is the two-album series by THE MON, structured in two complementary chapters – Songs Of Abandon and Songs Of Embrace –depicting a journey of duality: loss and surrender on one side, acceptance and rebirth on the other. Following the November 2025 release of the somber, acoustic guitar-driven Songs Of Abandon, its companion album Songs Of Embrace is now ready to be heard.
Songs Of Embrace is an instrumental counterpart – darker, ambient, and ritualistic – expands the emotional landscape of the series, rather than closing it. While the first part explored abandonment and loss, this one focuses on presence, proximity, and the physical act of staying. It is the answering breath, the inner voice. The album avoids resolution and comfort, embracing slowness, repetition, and bodily tension. It is not just music, it is a stream of consciousness, an inner search, a way of inhabiting what weighs without letting go.While Songs Of Abandon is a collection of songs, nine tracks written in nine days, Songs Of Embrace is a continuous musical flow. It is a movement that changes, grows, erupts, slows down, settles, and rises again. Like the sea, it’s calm and still one moment, then moved by a simple breath of wind, suddenly breaking into a storm. The pieces are deeply interconnected, like embraces: some bring comfort, others carry pain; Compositions meant to be listened to in one continuous breath, allowing yourself to be held, rocked, and sometimes pushed away, just like in an embrace.
https://www.urlothemon.com
https://themon.bandcamp.com
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https://www.youtube.com/@TheMon_official
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https://www.malleusdelic.com