DRUG HONKEY - Ghost In The Fire

Artist:  Drug Honkey

Album:  Ghost In The Fire

Year:  2012

Genre:  Doom Metal

Drug Honkey is the devolution of music.  It’s as if they were able to turn back the clock a couple million years and place instruments in the hands of Homo Neanderthalensis to bash out something horrendously ugly.  That, or these are simply a group of seriously fucked up people that harness the ability to hack up your senses and pull you into a darkness you have yet to witness.  It’s quite terrifying.  I haven’t had a band mess me up this badly with their sound since Godflesh unleashed Streetcleaner on the world.  If being tarred and unwillingly dragged through thorns and broken glass could be put to tape, that is what Drug Honkey has accomplished with this album.  In no way is Ghost In The Fire a pleasant experience, so I suppose it also takes an unsettled mind to enjoy the beating.  With tones heavier than the Earth’s core, the word pummel does not do justice to describe the aural crime being committed.  Some albums are intentionally made to evoke a bleak feeling.  Like the previously mentioned Godflesh record or Too Dark Park by Skinny Puppy, the true power of their musical artistry is being able to create visions of caliginosity rather than just putting out an album of songs.  Drug Honkey fit perfectly into that small creative realm.  At times they take a psychedelic break from the world-ending immensity.  Yet, there are no flower children present, just the equivalent of a ghastly, chemically induced trip with a harrowing, desolate passages.  This is not rock-out-in-your-car music, or music in which you would do some lame chore such as mowing the lawn or cleaning the house.  It’s definitely not to play at a gathering unless everyone leaving is the desired result.  This album is made for a sole listener sitting in an unlit room, ready to be freaked out.  It’s a wonderfully horrfying record to witness through a solid set of headphones.  In the same way people used to trip out to The Wall by Pink Floyd, Ghost In The Fire, in theory, is really no different.  But, instead of being told the story of a hallucinogenic rock star, you’ll be towed into the equivalent of Hell’s front gate.

Listen to "Order Of The Solar Temple" here.