Back in 2012, the future of psychedelic drone project Megaton Leviathan, and certainly their promised sophomore release, seemed uncertain. Vocalist/guitarist and synth-master Andrew James Costa was the last founding member left in the project, and whether or not the record could be salvaged or would ever appear seemed doubtful. And yet, two years later, Past 21 Beyond The Arctic Cell is here, a gelid landscape of shuddering drone and deep, aching doom.
The psychedelia that was closer to the surface on 2010's Water Wealth Hell on Earth is still present but more deeply buried, like a space ship trapped deep in a glacier. Frozen and placed under pressure, this results in a weird, science fiction-like vibe that pierces the wrenching doom and the sheer weight of the record, making things perfectly strange. Strings vibrate above the thick tundra of the guitar tone like northern lights on the opening track, while "Here Come The Tears" gradually gathers into a wall of eerie, icy distortion. This is the type of drone that, rather than allowing you to tune out or relax into it, demands your full, sometimes bewildered but always enthralled attention.
(Seventh Rule)The psychedelia that was closer to the surface on 2010's Water Wealth Hell on Earth is still present but more deeply buried, like a space ship trapped deep in a glacier. Frozen and placed under pressure, this results in a weird, science fiction-like vibe that pierces the wrenching doom and the sheer weight of the record, making things perfectly strange. Strings vibrate above the thick tundra of the guitar tone like northern lights on the opening track, while "Here Come The Tears" gradually gathers into a wall of eerie, icy distortion. This is the type of drone that, rather than allowing you to tune out or relax into it, demands your full, sometimes bewildered but always enthralled attention.