Review Summary: A premonition, a void, and the aftermath. Come Midnight…
Australian based ambient sludge that is sure to doom your soggy socks off. When people think of the extreme metal scene from Australia, many like to jump to Portal or there off-shoot Impetuous Ritual and for the most part the comparison between the mentioned bands and Adrift For Days wouldn’t be too far off. Hailing from Sydney, this young act cites many influences, ranging from Jimmy Hendrix all the way through to Boris and Pink Floyd and it’s this wide scope of influences that allows their music to have the effect that it does. Not only does it bring aspects from different artists together it also touches base on a wide variety of sub-genres including the likes of; doom, drone, sludge, stoner metal, 70’s psychedelic rock, post-metal and post-rock influences, proving there’s something here for everybody. Often, there is contrast between the heavy and minimalistic sections, but it’s not outweighed by the excellently oppressive dank atmosphere present throughout the record. This works well for Adrift For Days, whose debut
The Lunar Maria which
Come Midnight… was roughly built on. These are strong foundations indeed for this emerging underground act, highlighting the promise of their music.
Despair and pain come shining through at almost all points of the record. Even the sombre cleans promote an anguish that is well presented, taking shape in even vocal phrasing, low key rumbles and two to three note picked melody lines. Where the music is minimalistic is where the music really takes hold of the listener. Emotion builds up lapping the edge of the glass, before spilling over completely. There are a couple of features that need to be pointed out; at six tracks and a whopping hour and ten minutes,
Come Midnight… is far from an accessible listen. In fact, it may take more than several listens to get the full picture.
Come Midnight… is a slow plunge of a cliff face only to be sped into death’s cold embrace, startlingly aggressive yet, eerily gentle at its sinister moments. Take the final and longest track for example. ‘Eyes Look Down From Above’ is an excellent display of the album as a whole. Gentle melancholic notes transition into abusive heavy sections but it’s not an unwelcome clash stylistically. For Adrift For Days, these switches in music come naturally making the most out of the impressive instrumental talent and intelligent vocal shapes.
Needless at this point to say, the music is dark, evil, sinister. Throw a whirlpool of adjectives at this in a similar nature and the descriptors may just come close. Adrift For Days’
Come Midnight… is an album you need to experience for yourself (preferably locked in an empty room with the lights off) to cater for the broad spectrum of influences coming together.
Come Midnight… is a repressing listen that captures the dark points in your mind, but at the same time it doesn’t fully restrict thought allowing for the listener to become fully absorbed, lost in this sea of emotion conveyed through lyricism and the record’s atmosphere. Considering the production, the album is far from clean. Think of the production values used by fellow Australian act Portal and the similarities presented come closer and closer. Overall, it’s a wonder how bands can achieve this level of beauty in music playing this style. As far as the description for both the band and album goes this should be incredibly ugly, under produced metal. Instead, we’re shown quite the opposite backed by masterful instrumentation and a willingness to put everything they’ve got into their music, built on a primal almost raw studio recording. The music fuzzes, swirls, lifts, drops and floats in the best of ways. This is Australia’s underground metal scene displayed in the most positive of lights.
