Drug Honkey - Death Dub

Artist: Drug Honkey
Album: Death Dub
Label: Diabolical Conquest
Year: 2008

Genre(s)/style(s): death-doom metal, sludge metal, noise, experimental, psychedelic

Line-up:
Honkey Head (Paul Gillis) - Vocals, Synths, Samples
Hobbs (Gabe Grosso) - Guitar
Brown Honkey (Ian Brown) - Bass
Bonghit Honkey (Adam Smith) - Drums


Tracklisting:

1.	My Sins	04:16
2.	The Devil Lasts Forever	03:42
3.	Death Threats	08:26
4.	Communion	05:48
5.	I Can Not	05:29
6.	China Black (Heroin: Part II)	07:34
7.	Burundi (Reconstruct)	05:07
8.	Who the Fuck?	01:07
Total playing time		41:29

Does life got you down? Have you hit rock bottom? If you answered yes to either of these questions, not only do I laugh in your face, but I also invite you to let our good, drug-addled friends Drug Honkey put a little something special in your drink.

Drug Honkey are a little known doom act from Chicago who seem to be another one of these "harsh doom" bands spitting in Khanate's face (see my review of Gnaw's This Face). Though the band has been around for some time, their fourth and most recent album, 2008's Death Dub, is piquing a good deal of interest in the doom underground and (finally, thankfully) bringing this gem of a band into the proverbial spotlight. Overall, the music is somewhat Godfleshian, but the thin, raspy guitar tones, grinding bass, hollow-metal drums, and psychotic vocals hearken more to Khanate laden with heaps of psychedelia, as if Ufomammut took a lysergide shit on Plotkin and co's self-titled outing.

As stated, the guitar is really thin and raspy, a major stray from the usual boulder-dashing typical to doom. This grating tone lays well with the bass, which is prominent and gurgling, as if being choked by the guitar. Together, they play riffs that, well, bear little resemblance to riffs. They're more like the fluid droning melodies of early Godflesh or the sparse wails from the axes of Khanate or Burning Witch. It's also worth noting that the bass usually plays more riff-like parts while the guitar lays down some textural, harmonic fuzz on top of it, sometimes overlapping into the same dingy sound. Sprinkle in some amp feedback and wall-of-sound shredding, and you've got yourself one frightening string section.

The drumming is critical for the pace. For example, if the drumming weren't so slow and methodical, "Communion" could easily be a black metal song. Instead the drums keep an almost drifting, groovy pace that's consistently slow - mid-paced throughout the album, but rarely boring or out of place. In fact, in keeping such a shuffling pace, it fuels the drugged-out, hazy/lazy atmosphere. The drums being somewhat low in the mix behind the string instruments enhances this aesthetic and even gives it some depth as the drums sound rather tinny and far off, but you can still identify all their components and they aren't totally washed out by the guitars' months-old bong-water tsunami.

Mr. Honkey Head (a.k.a. Paul Gillis) provides perhaps the most interesting aspects of the band. While the drums and guitars are keeping everything locked inside a project and dosed on the finest china black, Gillis is going nuts, vomiting hallucinogenic synth/electronics and a virulent variety of vocal techniques, ranging from deranged howls and shouts to heavily distorted death-growls, and even some punk-ish vocals (in particular, the Ministry-esque yelling in "My Sins"). And, indeed, some beyond-manipulated vocals, like the melting-demonic recitation of the song title "The Devil Lasts Forever". The electronics are very much on the Ufomammut side of things; weird UFO sounds and cosmic clatter mixed with a bubbling and rumbling approach similar to Choronzon's Era Vulgaris. In fact, this whole album sounds like a mangled version of said masterpiece, while at times sounding similar to the electronic filth of Greymachine.

Death Dub does well at creating a musty, drug-den atmosphere. The dingy production reeks of crumbling moldy walls, blood stained-shag carpets, and depraved crackheads curled up in fetal positions crying their sunken eyes out. If there ever was an album to deter you from the likes of heroin or LSD, let it be this one, because it works so well to convince you otherwise, that everything is okay (as the band members systematically O.D. in front of you). And as Gillis shouts for you to "open your mind" and "shut the door" on "Burundi", you've realized that you're in over your head and the fowl chemicals of escapism and self-destruction have got you by the balls.

So go forth and buy this album, or, at the very least, try it the fuck out. It's as addictive as the blotters and vials recommended to enjoy it to its fullest. Although, any metal fan, especially the doomesters and avant-garde crazies, should give this a spin. It's certainly expanding horizons like good peyote. Moreover, Drug Honkey hereby establish themselves as major players in the post-Khanate "harsh doom" scene. Indeed, this is some stiff competition.


Verdict: 87% - Addictive like the drugs they write about.

Try it. (mediafire, 74 MB)
Buy it. (CD, cduniverse.com)