Drug Honkey ‘Ghost In The Fire’ CD/DL 2012

Drug Honkey ‘Ghost In The Fire’ CD/DL 2012Just like the proverbial bad pennies, those twisted perverts of sound Drug Honkey have returned to ruin everything and everyone, only this time around they are far sicker than ever before – true audio scabrousness of the most loathsome order, base corruption of all that you hold dear and a wilful disregard for your fucking feelings are driving the Honkey hearse this time around and you will all submit or be crushed beneath their repulsive, ichor-dripping wheels.

Dropping like a pall, a pox-ridden blanket around the ears, Ghost In The Fire is a sustained attack on the ideas of ‘joy’ and ‘cleanliness’ – after having immersed yourself in the scum-encrusted pool that represents the diseased sound of Drug Honkey, you will never feel truly clean again or see a beautiful sunset as anything other than a return to darkness, the natural environment for the crawling sub-human cockroaches that make up ‘humanity’ as we know it. Hell, you may even be inspired to go ‘clean the streets’….

Honkey Head A.K.A Paul Gillis is responsible, as ever, for the bubbling tide of brutally manipulated and digitally fucked-with muttering, growling, barking, crooning, slurring and insinuating that passes for ‘vocals’ in Drug Honkeydom, ably backed by the lysergic needling guitar tweakings of Hobbs Honkey, A.K.A Gabe Grosso, the deliciously dubbed-out bass darkness of Brown Honkey, A.K.A Ian Brown, and the equally dubby spaced-out drumming of BH Honkey, A.K.A Adam Smith -all of whom are also subjected to the exact same audio-fuckery as the vocal ejaculations of Gillis, resulting in a deranged subterranean dirt-psychedelia vibe, akin to the dub-skronk experimentations of ‘arsequake’ pioneers Terminal Cheesecake being bestially violated by the insane claustrophobic guitar screech of O.L.D. Fans of avant-doom scathing miserablists Khanate and their harsh-throated frontman Alan Dubin’s industrial-and-film-soundtrack influenced follow-up band Gnaw will find much here to love too, as far as tempo and overall atmosphere go.

The pace adopted throughout Ghost In The Fire is that of some lumbering armoured behemoth, a thoroughly steady and unrelenting pursuit that never ends but from which you will run and run, too afraid to turn back and behold its hideous visage. The very stuff of nightmares.

This loping, lumbering pace allows for the dub aspects of Drug Honkey’s sound to really shine through the murk – the low, low bass, reverbed and delayed echoing drums and swirling atmospheric touches that have been present in their sound all along but are so much more pronounced here.

Exemplifying their sound and tonal palette is their choice to cover Scorn’s ‘Twitcher’ from their 1997 live album Whine. A repetitive, hypnotically swirling instrumental, it actually sounds like a lightweight breath of fresh air when compared to the crushingly oppressive material that surrounds it, but gives a good idea of exactly where the Honkeys collective influences may well converge.

Weighing in with the Honkey collective, on the track ‘Weight Of The World’ is Nachtmystium mainman Blake Judd – herein rechristened ‘Scag Honkey’ – adding his dulcet tones to the inhuman gurgling of Gillis. Ultimately, though, it could be almost anyone as the vocal lines end up layered and cut into one another by Gillis anyway, rendering the multiple voices into some kind of crazy stew of dubious provenance. Tasty but ultimately utterly deadly, slurring and decaying, falling apart in chunks all over the rest of the track.

Having made a more than acceptable follow-up record to their 2008 Death Dub album for Diabolical Conquest Records –  who picked up the originally self-released Death Dub for distribution back in 2010 – the band were recently dealt a blow when the label folded just as Ghost In The Fire was released, throwing four years of work into disarray and leaving the band to distribute the album for themselves.

Hopefully this won’t set them back, as Ghost In The Fire shows a unit at the very peak of their vile powers, and from here any number of dark paths are open to them to explore in future. It would be a shame for them to get derailed by such a minor inconvenience, especially when it’s clear that Drug Honkey are more than capable of managing their own shady dealings.

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Label: Diabolical Conquest Records
Website: www.facebook.com/drughonkey

Scribed by: Paul Robertson