Artist:
Drug Honkey
Album:
Ghost in the Fire
Year:
2012
Label: Diabolical Conquest
Genre(s)
/ style(s): Sludge / Death-Doom Metal / Post-Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Psychedelic, Avant-Garde Metal
Line-up:
Honkey
Head (Paul Gillis) - Vocals, Synths, Samples
Hobbs
(Gabe Grosso) - Guitar
Brown
Honkey (Ian Brown) - Bass
Bonghit
Honkey (Adam Smith) – Drums
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A
VILE FERMENTATION
Four
years after the bizarre and sickening DeathDub, Drug Honkey returns with another hideous, drug-addled fiend of an
album dubbed so pleasantly Ghost in the
Fire. Here, the Chicago-based avant-doom outfit tones down the garish experimentation
in favor of lead-heavy riffs and a bone-crushing atmosphere reminiscent of Electric Wizard or Bongripper. There’s even some USBM influence that sneaks its way in
as a slathering of lurching tremolo riffs, including a guest appearance from
Black Judd of Twilight and Nachtmystium fame. But by-and-by, Ghost in the Fire sees Drug Honkey
sticking to a more standard sludge / doom sound, forgoing the rabid psychedelia
from before in favor of something more…professional.
For
one, the synths are meshed much more into the wall of instruments; no more
stark contrast between grinding Godfleshian dirges and synthesized psychedelic
throbs, or bringing the rest of the band to a screeching halt only to reveal
the seething, crawling textures underneath. No; what we get instead is a much
denser and overwhelming sound. Nothing so cavernous or open as Death Dub, but more like the walls are
closing in on you, crushing you, and the synths are the only putrid air you
have left to breath, slowly dwindling in supply. The drums, once ragged pots
and pans, are full-on sledge-hammers to your knee-caps. You’re crippled and
immobile and the guitar and bass are those very walls pressing in on you,
sturdy and concrete, encompassing your insignificant person all around, no
longer the rusted and corrugated tin slabs crawling with roaches and open-eye
acid visuals; they are your slow and persistent demise. And of course Paul
Gillis still wretches and bellows under his “signature” vocal processing,
especially menacingly evident on tracks like “Heroin III”, “Five Years Up”, and
the title track, reinforcing gross
inhumanity, sounding like a mechanized Alan Dubin, or Scott Kelly crawling out
of a k-hole.
While
perhaps not quite as varied as its predecessor (listen to “Burundi (Reconstruct)”
and tell me that isn’t fucking outlandish, even compared to the rest of Death Dub), Ghost in the Fire is still a challenging and tumultuous listen, and
the variety that is here is much subtler, less jarring. The unexpected melodic
touches spread throughout the album, like the ghastly lead in the opening track
“Order of the Solar Temple”, and the overall stability, smoothness, and
accessibility of the songwriting ironically make this easier on the ears in one
respect, but hint at dark and foreboding Neurosis/Isis/post-metal clouds
blooming on the horizon. Drug Honkey also seems to be drawing (as mentioned
before) much more heavily on the American black metal scene. The album is
littered with tremolo leads and black-doom atmospherics reminiscent of USBM vets
Wolves in the Throne Room, Weakling, Xasthur, Twilight, etc., which seems less
surprising considering Black Judd’s guest vocal appearance on “Weight of the
World”. This album is dense and will certainly take you on a hell of a trip: “This
Time I Won’t Hesitate” drowns you in ambience and whirl of psychotic vocals; “Dead
Days” drones into the oblivion of an opiate nod; chaotic clatter on “Out of My
Mind” has you on the edge of your seat waiting for a sweet end that arrives in
a bludgeoning climax; loose, jazzy drumming on “Twitcher” (which may very well
be the best track on here) offsets stuttering feedback drones; and finally, you succumb to “Saturate /
Annihilate” and are trampled broken into the dirt.
Perhaps
my only gripe with this album is that it sticks to the doom / sludge slow-burn
a little too much, plodding and plodding away until it dissolves into the
ether. And for one last Death Dub
comparison, Gillis and co. should take a lesson from its predecessor and be
sure to throw in those occasional speedy (I use this term lightly) moments, a la “The Devil Lasts Forever” and “Communion”,
on future releases just to further remind us how unsettling they can be. Hell,
maybe they should even try out some grind riffs and blast beats! Regardless, I
look forward to what these guys have in store for us in the future as their
sound certainly is progressing and maturing in interesting, forward-thinking
ways. Drug Honkey is exactly that breath of fresh air that doom metal has
needed, and their past two efforts are a testament to that.
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Overall
rating: 4 stars – Cannabis Sativa
(Review for Death Dub can be viewed here.)
