The Beautiful MonumentAustralian alternative emo ock quartet, The Beautiful Monument have today released their first album in seven years, Euphoric Thriller, via Greyscale Records.
The band have paved a reputation for themselves through their ear-worm anthems and consistent appearances across the country, winning fans one show at a time with their incredible live performances. They just wrapped up a national tour supporting Hellions where they were able to debut songs from Euphoric Thriller live for the first time.
Vocalist Lizi McIntosh describes Euphoric Thriller as a “trauma dump,” a collection of unreleased diary entries pulled from deeply personal experiences. The album navigates grief, identity, survival, and the reality of existing as a minority in a world filled with hate and bigotry.
When McIntosh connects with The Music she’s ten minutes late and overly apologetic, “I'm so sorry. I was watching Law & Order [SVU] and I passed out cuddling my dog.”
The best reason ever for being late and a surprisingly wholesome Friday night for the vocalist of one of Australia’s most exciting rock bands. McIntosh is speaking from home in Newcastle where she lives with her wife and bandmate, bassist Amy McIntosh. The rest of the band live interstate, guitarist Alex Manhire is in Adelaide and drummer Adam Pinzone is in Melbourne.
“We are a logistical nightmare of a band,” McIntosh admits.
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This physical separation meant that the band didn’t see each other for two and a half years during the pandemic. Touring plans for their second album I’m The Reaper (2019) were interrupted by COVID and the album never truly got its time in the sun; the band’s momentum began to slow.
When talk of a new album started it took a while for the wheels to start turning again.
“We didn't even know the first place to begin,” McIntosh explains. “So I think it's just been a long time coming for a new album. We finally figured out the direction that we wanted to go in, I think it was worth the wait.
“We have that friendship where it doesn't matter how long we're apart, the second we're back together in the same room, it's like we never left each other. We're very, very fortunate.”
Many of The Beautiful Monument’s albums begin by McIntosh putting pen to paper and sharing her life experiences with the world. One of the most prominent events throughout the album is McIntosh processing the loss of her brother in 2024.
“That [happened] when we were recording, so a lot of those lyrics were unexpected,” she explains. “There’s Game Over, it's the first song on the record. It is about my brother, and kind of like the ‘I told you so’ kind of song, as grim as that sounds.
“Like, ‘We told you to take it easy, ease up,’ and he was always just living life to the fullest, which was no fault of his own. Then the last song, See You On The Other Side is my perspective of it.”
McIntosh was extremely nervous after writing See You On The Other Side and having to go into the studio and show the team.
“I was like, ‘Nobody look at me.’ I got in my little booth and I just started singing,” she remembers. “I was like, ‘I have this vocal melody, let me know if you like it.’ It was the first time since my brother had passed, it had been months, and I had not shed a single damn tear because I was so overwhelmed by everything in my life, I just did not grieve.
“The second I got in and I started singing, the moment I got to the bridge for the first time, I just… that was it. I just let go and I just burst into tears, and I was like, ‘oh no!’”
This all-too familiar feeling of getting too overwhelmed by everything in life and not being able to catch a break is encapsulated on the song, Mayday.
“It’s all about being like, ‘I have too much going on, I'm so overwhelmed, I need to figure out how to exist in a world where I can do all of these things’ but that means letting go of things but I don't want to let go of things, because I'm enjoying all these things.
“So it's just a very overwhelming, ‘Oh no, midlife crisis, what do I drop?’ Because I know I need to drop something, because I'm drowning here!”
Euphoric Thriller is a rollercoaster following different emotions and chapters of life that McIntosh feels so many people will be able to relate to. The daunting lyrics of the album are juxtaposed to energetic instrumentals that range from electro pop, hardcore, and emo.
“It's so damn fun. Like, every song,” she enthuses. “There's a song in there for everyone. Doesn't matter what genre you're into, there's bound to be one song that you like on there. Whether you're a normie, whether you're an emo or hardcore kid, one of them's gonna stick out to you and it's just, it's fun.
“I'm so excited for people to hear how different I've gone with my vocals. I was not tethered on this album being told what I could and couldn't do. I was very much told to express myself, which is crazy to me that I was given so much creative freedom. Which is so rad. I was allowed to do kooky shit, or do shit that was weird and kind of out of the norm for Lizi, while still having my little Lizi-isms in it and I wasn't berated for it.”
McIntosh’s comments of being “tethered” and being “berated” for expressing herself creatively are in reference to her experiences in earlier recording sessions in the band’s career.
“There were certain parts where I would sing something a certain way, but I was told, like ‘No, stop with the grunting, sing this more clean.’ I'm like, ‘the little grunts and little kind of growly bits in the songs are like my signature.’
“It's just little things like that, where I was like, ‘fuck’ or I'd say, ‘How about we give this melody a go,’ and be told that it was shit. I was like, ‘Okay, cool, I'll just go fuck myself; that's fine, whatever.’
This previous recording experience left McIntosh filled with self doubt and too anxious to return to the studio. Thankfully, it all fell into place when the band tested the waters with producer Chris Lalic (Windwaker, Headwreck, RinRin).
“I was so fucking terrified to go into this record, to be honest with you,” she admits. “Recording became a nightmare to me, because I was so scared to open my mouth, I was so scared to have an opinion, and working with Chris Lalic has just been an absolute fucking game changer.
“I never want to record with anyone else. Ever. Because he'd worked with some of the people that I'd worked with in the past, so he knew where I was coming from personally. He sat down with me beforehand, and he was like, ‘Why are you so anxious? What's going on?’
“Because I was freaking out. I didn't want to be there. I was like, ‘I just don't care. We can just play the old shit forever. I don't care, I don't want to do this.’ He brought this spark back in me that I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, oh my god, I'm actually not a shit musician,’ like ‘I do have some really good ideas.’”
A milestone moment for The Beautiful Monument was when they performed their biggest shows ever in front of 15,000 people in arenas supporting gothic rock icons, Evanescence. Off the stage the experience was just as fun.
“You tour with some bands, and you don't always really talk to them or get to really know them. But [Evanescence] were fucked. They were so fun, they wanted to hang out with us every single night, they were so friendly, and genuinely kind humans who wanted to get to know the people that they were on tour with, which was wild to us.
“Usually it's like, ‘Oh, hey, do your own thing,’ but no, every night they were like, ‘Where are you guys?’ Like, the security guard would come in and grab us, and he's like, ‘You've been summoned, why aren't you with the guys?’ Like, ‘Oh, sorry, we were just hanging out, you know? Gotta go to bed soon.’ These guys are like ten years older than us and partying it up and we're like, ‘We're tired, go to bed, party animals.’
“It kind of made me sad that I think our genre of music will never get to that point again, do you know what I mean?” McIntosh continues.
“With all the streaming and all the AI garbage that's coming out now, we're not gonna have genuine bands anymore that are as big as Evanescence or even Paramore and shit, just like big, big bands that are making a living off of being a musician is just all going to the absolute shitter.”
Evanescence vocalist Amy Lee is the voice of a generation and would make a lesser band freeze from being starstruck. However, The Beautiful Monument’s Australian banter was able to break the ice immediately despite their internal nerves.
“She hand-picked us! She's so sweet! She did! She was like, ‘I love your voice,’ and I told her to fuck off. I was like, ‘Oh fuck off,’ like, ‘You can talk,’ McIntosh laughs, half in disbelief at the compliment and half in disbelief at her own response.
“Her best friend is Australian. So she's like, ‘It's fine. I find it endearing. That's totally okay,’ and I’m like ‘Ahhhhh!’ She's really sweet. I told Amy Lee to fuck off, and I think Amy [McIntosh] called her a cunt, like, 400 times… Her best friend's Australian, so she gets [it’s endearing]. But, Amy would be like, ‘Fuck off, cunt.’ Like, just dumb Australian banter. Whatever. Like, it's nothing to us. It's friendly.”
By the end of the tour it sounded like both bands were new best friends. However, McIntosh’s bandmates did have to pull her up after committing the ultimate social faux pas.
“Everyone cracked it at me, because [Lee’s] like, ‘Oh, I'll give you my number, we can organise lunch or something,’ and I was like, ‘cool, no worries.’
“She sent me a text message being like, ‘Hey, it's Amy,’ and I was like, okay, cool… I just left it on read. Then the next day, I got a message being like, ‘This is Lizi, right?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, girl it's me.’
“They were like, ‘You left Amy Lee on read!?’ I'm like, ‘I didn't have to respond, she just said, hey, it's Amy, and I'm like, okay, cool. No worries. I'll save your number in my phone. Thanks, bruv.’ I am so shithouse at fucking texting and replying to messages. Yeah, I got shit for a while.”
The Beautiful Monument will jump back into touring with a yet to be announced national tour support slot off the back of the album, “but I cannot reveal with who,” McIntosh teases, not revealing her secrets.
While that band has since been revealed to be none other than Chiodos, fans will have to wait until 2027 for a headline tour from the band.
“We’re hoping early next year, we’re trying to organise, hopefully, maybe some international friendos or something really cool. We want to make this one really, really special, so we’re just going to take our time with it.”
The Beautiful Monument’s Euphoric Thriller is out now via Greyscale Records.
Destroy All Lines Presents
CHIODOS
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 20TH ANNIVERSARY - AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2026
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS RAIN CITY DRIVE (USA) & THE BEAUTIFUL MONUMENT
SATURDAY 21 NOVEMBER - THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE - 18+
SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER - METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY - LIC AA
WEDNESDAY 25 NOVEMBER - 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE - 18+
THURSDAY 26 NOVEMBER - THE GOV, ADELAIDE - LIC AA
SATURDAY 28 NOVEMBER - MAGNET HOUSE, PERTH - 18+
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
