Friday, November 28, 2008

Methadrone - Horizone

Methadrone is pretty fucking awesome. Craig Pillard's side project from Evoken is centered around somber, melancholy yet hopeful soundscapes. This single is downloadable for free from the Foreshadow Productions website and is an internet only release which is absolutely terrible. This would fit perfectly on a 7" or one side of a 10" Split. I see it being paired with Nortt or something similar, maybe a new Catacombs song or unreleased material. Methadrone seriously sounds like the younger brother of the two except with his room painted white instead of black and a record collection that is more geared towards Jesu and Isis than the black / bleak metal records that compose the collections of his black forged brethren.

The first cut, the single's title track, "Horizone" is an airy, reverb coated birthday cake of captivating quality. It doesn't get boring as subtle accoutrements are added to the song's layered mass throughout. The low end is breathtaking. While the percussion is minimal, echoing effects create the feeling of being in a vast cavernous expanse mesmerized by the loneliness and the scope of feeling inferior to your surroundings. Each cycle of the song's basic structural component draws you further from the world you exist in and closer to the world that Methadrone is focused on plastering over reality. Throughout the song you get multiple vocal approaches used not as a vehicle for reciting lyrics but as a method of drawing attention away from you're surroundings. Whispers, chanting, choral arrangements in the background add to the intimacy.

Second track, a shorter piece titled "Nalbuphine" is as cleansing as the drug which it is named for. The general tone is somber yet distinctively different from the cave-like loneliness of the title track. Much more, personal than the opener, I find myself placing my body in a decaying hospital, left for dead with a slow drip of the drug being pumped into my body to remove whatever pain I might feel as the world around me died. The song drones more pulses with an acoustic guitar providing the main cadence in the track; its steel strings decisively rusted with the decay of ages.

For a free download, you have no reason not to hear this. My gripe with it not being a physical release is a personal gripe though it really should be presented to fans in a physical release. Where is the fun in downloading something? I am left in a state of urgent need for their full length releases. I can find myself drugged to sleep listening to this.

Download here

This Is A
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