Review Summary: Pressing onward through the night.
Pressing onward towards the light.
"Heavy honest and spontaneous jams without any recurrent theme, based on our evolution as musicians and as people"
This is how Romanian stoner rock band Methadone Skies describe their modus operandi: no premeditation, and no specific patterns or structure. They just pick up an idea and roll with it, and that's what makes their sophomore LP
Eclectic Electric so great. Methadone Skies is simply playing the music they love and exploring the different places they can take it as they see fit. The result is 45 minutes of ethereal bliss and crushingly heavy riffs accompanied by a cool, engaging atmosphere.
The opener "Mirra", does exactly what a good introduction should be doing, grabbing the listener’s attention and keeping it. "Mirra" happens to be Methadone Skies’s most atmospheric track yet, thanks in no small part to the improved production from MS’s debut
Enter the Void. Listeners are immediately cast into a hot bed of activity - from the ever present fuzz, to the guitar solos, to the multiple, intertwined melodies, all individual parts are audible yet work with one another to create an addicting whole. This is one of the big positives about this album; there is so much activity in each song that it's more than enough to warrant multiple listens, and there is always some interesting detail in the songs over the 10 minute mark that its listeners can lose themselves in.
The guest vocals from Edmond Karban and Davide Straccione are a hit or miss, however. Their cleans on tracks like "Tatabong" are fantastic, showcasing some beautiful vocal melodies that fit the groovy background provided by the band itself. Their growls can be problematic however, particularly on "Dichotomic Equity" where they feel rather out-of-place with the instruments. The other issue is "Dichotomic Equity"; it's not a bad song on its own, but the quality of the songs that come before and after it is so high, "Dichotomic Equity" ends up being an afterthought in comparison. Redeemably, it has a solid guitar melody, but lacks the strong atmospherics dominating the rest of the album.
Even with the many great things it has to offer, the most exciting thing about
Eclectic Electric is that it feels like a taste of what's to come. Methadone Skies have shown considerable growth in musicianship and song craft already, but even then they still are showing lots of potential for improvement and enthusiasm for what they are doing. So, within the next couple years it wouldn't be unreasonable to imagine them crafting an opus. Until then,
Eclectic Electric is an excellent album worthy of the band that made it, who will undubitably improve upon themselves in their future endeavors.
