Drowning Horse - Meghalayan 12"

Drowning Horse have existed since 2008 yet have managed to escape my ears. Thankfully Televised Suicide are behind this 12", a label that's "culturally" punk, but are reponsible for releasing some of my favourite Australian metal and grind of recent years (Sewercide, Hexx, Shitgrinder etc).

Meghalayan is two side long tracks of minimal and crushing doom that fully bi-pass my Graphic Design Metal gag reflex.

An approach to slow and low that's considered, without being chin-stroke-y and avoids any of the dude-ish amp worship stuff. While there are more appropriate sonic comparisons, for me it was a listening experience similar to first hearing Innumerable Forms, Dream Unending and Whitehorse.- Nic

-------

Meghalayan is the latest release from Drowning Horse since their second album, 2015’s Sheltering Sky. A 2 track 12″ that is 15 minutes of bleak and crushing noise. Drowning Horse has been performing for a long time, as early as 2008 (I just realised I would have been in my second year of high school), and I have only seen them play twice. Despite that, if you have seen them once or listened to their records, you’ll know why their music feels like a force of nature.

In my opinion, a lot of bands completely miss the mark when playing this style. If it isn’t depressingly hard to endure, then it’s shit. My old housemate took a bunch of mushrooms at Camp Doogs one year, and when Drowning Horse started playing, he had to leave because it was too much to handle. There are other stories of people fainting and throwing up. My favourite is that when they played In The Pines years ago, kids cried and screamed because they were too loud. If that’s not reason enough to buy this record, then you’re probably a cop.

The band has said that Meghalayan is thematically inspired by catastrophic and inevitable natural events such as Nevado del Ruiz in 1985 and the 2019 Australian bush fires, which have the capacity to destroy lives, cities and civilisations. All that ever was or will be of humanity will end in chaos and sorrow, and the Meghalayan age is only the blink of an eye. - Televised Suicide