Monarch is a Heavy Metal band from San Diego, consisting of Gabe Mendez (SUPRA SUMMUS) on bass and vocals, Casey Trask on guitar (TRAUMA, THE THREE TREMORS, CAGE), and Adam West (RIVAL ORDER) on drums.

Formed in 2005 by Casey Trask and some buddies in high school, Monarch weaved its web across San Diego, finding the best musicians to keep up with the lightning fast rhythms, smashing drums, and screaming guitar solos, the standard was hard to keep until the right members were found.

Adam West was next to join the band bringing a fearsome ferocity that few have ever seen in a drummer. His all-out style drumming and love of heavy metal was a perfect fit for Monarch’s earlier thrash metal material and has since been refined into a speed metal killing machine.

Next to join would be Matt Smith, always revered by the members of Monarch as being one of the most creative and eccentric musicians in San Diego playing with local bands Damcyan and Nihilist, Adam and Casey would go to his shows and stare in awe as he would warm up and soundcheck with Yngwie Malmsteen licks.

Matt joined the band around 2016, a year later the band would release their debut album “Go Forth… Slaughter” featuring raw thrash metal with a hint of what was to come, with Matt’s affinity and background in classical music, the sound was bound to evolve in the most epic way imaginable.

Last to join, but certainly not least, was Gabe Mendez. The members of Monarch would always enjoy watching Gabe’s band Supra Summus perform in San Diego in which Gabe was the bass player / lead vocalist and was certainly more that capable of the demanding rhythms of Monarch. In 2020, Monarch recruited this demon beast of a bass player and hasn’t looked back since. 

After the departure of Matt Smith, Gabe Mendez took up the mantle of the front man/vocalist in preparation for their 3rd studio album set to be released in 2024.

Monarch has shared the stage with bands such as Death Angel, Nervosa, Powerglove, Act of Defiance, and in 2019, they won the Wacken Metal Battle in the USA to guarantee a slot at the greatest heavy metal festival in the world, Wacken Open Air.