THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL is a three-piece Experimental Extreme Metal act out of London. Formed in 1998 by vocalist Metatron, the goal was to blend many contrasting music styles into a skeleton held together by a Black Metal spine. "Running Out Of Time Doing Nothing" released June 21st, 2019.

The first track, "Bug Splat", starts out with a very sci-fi sounding cinematic intro, and the first lyrics "wake up" catch your attention very quickly. This song displays Black Metal-esque vocals while riding along on a very 80's dance music vibe. "I am Oblivion, Deep Drenched In Forever" opens with mysterious synths surrounding a relaxed drum beat, later evolving into some dissonance and soundscape. Next up is the title track, "I'm Running Out Of Time Doing Nothing," adopts a more traditional Symphonic vibe, maintaining the Sci-Fi sound, and even employing a chorus of clean singing. Then we have "Black Is Black & White Is White," which starts out with some odd monologue over a soundscape and some relaxed Jazz-esque drumming and some driving bass guitar. Eventually it evolves into a Sci-Fi feel with a very relaxed Cinematic Doom thing going on. Very cool.

Overall, THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL have a ton going on in their music, and at times it can be a little overwhelming. The song structuring is interesting, and as they describe themselves - this music is VERY experimental. While I wouldn't add this to my playlist, it is a very interesting listen, and takes you a lot of weird places. Unfortunately, it is lacking pretty tough in the production department, so a lot of things are hard to pick out and often the drums are almost entirely drowned out. This is a turn off for me, but doesn't mean the music is bad. The cacophony of colliding genres on this album is rather breathtaking, to be honest. The listener is always guessing what comes up next, and is never right in those guesses. I mean there's even some disco going on, man. A great journey for sure.