Band:	Methadone Skies
Album:	Spectres At Dawn
Style:	Psychedelic rock, Atmospheric sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	October 25, 2024
A review by:	F3ynman

01. To No Avail
02. '87 Via '94
03. Mano Cornetto
04. Thrill Estate
05. Sheryl Low
06. Use The Excessive Force

A meandering miasma of moods. A pleasant listening experience that lacks real punch.

Methadone Skies are a Romanian band that have honed their art of lengthy, (most of the time) purely instrumental music pieces for nearly 15 years. Fitting to their name, their music makes you feel as if you're soaring through the heavens, intoxicated with psychedelics. Their meandering guitar passages swirl and coalesce like ever-morphing cloud formations, sometimes moving apart to reveal dazzling sunlight, and other times meshing into an opaque mixture.

My first experience with this band was when Radu recommended to me a series of Romanian albums, which included Methadone Skies’s 2019 album Different Layers Of Fear. I enjoyed the dreamy post metal ambience, but it didn't quite engage me enough to give it many listens. While I do enjoy atmospheric music, I think I'm just more of a fan of catchy melodies, heavy groove, and distinctive vocals. And Different Layers Of Fear sadly lacked those traits (with the rare occurrence of vocals on “A Glitch In The Sun” not leaving much of an impact).

However, their 2024 album Spectres At Dawn takes a different approach—one that certainly edges closer to the style that I prefer. Sounding often times more like stoner rock than post metal, Spectres At Dawn embraces more straightforward, groovy guitar-work. The songs are also notably shorter: except for the 10-minute-long closer, the songs range from 3 to 7-minute runtimes. This marks a stark contrast to their previous albums like Different Layers Of Fear, which featured 6 to 16-minute-long tracks.

Still, despite some stylistic changes, Methadone Skies stay true to themselves overall, focusing on atmosphere rather than catchy hooks. They display a diverse blending of moods, from tranquility to elation and from warm fuzziness to even eerie coldness. But while the guitar playing is more groovy than before, there are no really distinctive riffs that stay stuck in your head. And, with no vocals, it's difficult to separate songs. As a result, the tracks of Spectres At Dawn fuse to an immersive stoner rock experience that's enjoyable but not so remarkable, serving as pleasant background music that lacks a memorable impact.