Drug Honkey’s Death Dub Might Get You Arrested
Originally released in 2008 and finding second issue and wider distribution now through Diabolical Conquest Records, Chicago villains Drug Honkey’s third full-length, Death Dub, is fucked. I mean it. Thoroughly fucked. I’m no stranger to disturbing audio of various kinds, but the blown-out, malicious cyber-sludge this four-piece emit offers no romanticism, no hope, no potential for a positive outcome. It’s like listening to an overdose. When they get around to the live cut “China Black (Heroin Pt. 2)” – the inclusion of which does practically nothing to upset the flow of Death Dub because by then there isn’t a flow as much as a descent – it’s not any of that Pulp Fiction “heroin is cool” ‘90s-type of crap, it’s “this is the sound of your brain shitting itself,” and it’s not at all pleasant. From opener “My Sins” onward, Drug Honkey’s approach is relentless, dark and disgusting.
They’re not the first to blend industrial leanings with aggressive and slow metal, but their Eyehategodflesh-style takes on a nastiness all its own almost immediately. Hyper-modulated screams and growls from Honkey Head (who also handles synth and samples) dominate the mix, making Death Dub – a genre designation in itself – even less accessible to the listener. The rumble of bassist Brown Honkey features heavily, matched by the downtuned guitar of Hobbs (the only member of the band without the word “Honkey” in his name) for feedback lethality and low-end abrasion. Drummer Bonghit Honkey keeps his attack relatively simple, which grounds a song like “The Devil Lasts Forever” while the guitars buzzsaw their way through what one imagines to be a basement collection of human skulls, but that’s about all Drug Honkey offer listeners to hold onto, and frankly, it isn’t much. Their intent is unmistakable: They want to alienate, to test the endurance of their audience and to be as sonically malevolent as possible.
The longest track of the total eight, “Death Threats” has a more wide-open sound, like something Gnaw might include in their own horror show, but its psyche (not “psych”) stir is no less bleak. The samples and electronic elements from Honkey Head are responsible for setting much of the atmosphere, but Death Dub isn’t just an industrial record. Nor is it just sludge. “Communion” and “I Can Not” show a consistency in Drug Honkey’s attack, treading a middle ground between the two. There’s even a bit of groove in “Communion” – but don’t tell anyone – but the closing movement of three songs that begins with the aforementioned live version of “China Black (Heroin Pt. 2)” and also includes “Burundi (Reconstruct)” and the minute-long noise-fest “Who the Fuck?” dispenses with that, sounding more like bonus tracks included to fill out Death Dub’s 41-minute runtime. That leaves the slow plod of “I Can Not” in the position of closer for the album proper, and its even-more-doomed ambience is more than up to the task.
Drug Honkey are going to appeal to next to no one, and that’s not because they’re bad at what they do (they’ve been doing it going on 12 years now), but because their style is so abrasive and inaccessible. There’s nothing about Death Dub that feels like an accident, or as though somehow Hobbs and the Honkeys just fell into this post-industrial nightmare, and that actually speaks to the album being a quality work on its own terms. But as far as putting it on goes, there aren’t going to be many people out there who can get down with something this disturbing. I don’t expect Drug Honkey would want it any other way. You don’t go more than a decade and four full-length releases (three studio, one live) to sound like Death Dub if you’re thinking of getting your songs into cell phone commercials. At least not in this dimension. Their priorities being what they are, Death Dub behaves exactly as it should.
Tags: Chicago, Diabolical Conquest, Drug Honkey, Illinois
