If you’ve ever seen The Medea Project live, you’ll know that their approach to music is as much spiritual communion as it is metallic punch to the gut, a feeling reinforced by mesmerising debut Sisyphus. Awash with post-punk ambience and gothic melodrama, The Medea Project feel like a band out of time, crafting pieces that echo in their own unique space. Recorded live as part of the Metal4Africa project, Southern Echoes feels like a bridge between Sisyphus and whatever the band have in mind for its follow up,
Opening with the eerie Prelude, Brett continues to channel Garm with a worn vocal that seeks to channel the weight of ages over a simple piano refrain. As it was on Sisyphus, Prelude is the perfect scene-setter, and the band segue directly into the crushing Babylon. For a two-piece, The Medea project sure do make a lot of noise, and the weight of Brett’s riffs (ably backed by Pauline’s bruising percussion) recall the primitive horror of Celtic Frost, although the vocals remain more comfortably within the gothic dimension of Fields of the Nephilim. The production, ably handled by the band themselves, is admirably raw, capturing at least some of the atmosphere of the band’s intense live show, and the EP perfectly compliments the album’s more refined approach.
Up next, the brooding Fear emerges from a short blast of feedback and slowly builds into a sweat-soaked fever dream, toying with the listener as the band slip between dark passages of unearthly calm and savage, doom-laden cacophonies. Then, of course, there’s The Desert Song, a track that channels Pink Floyd even more obviously in its live incarnation than on record. Of course, it’s a Pink Floyd under the influence of the meanest, cheapest acid available, resulting in a mélange of dense percussion and inchoate riffs echoing in the darkness of Syd Barrett’s darkest dreams. The EP closes with a cover of Sol Invictus’ Kneel To The Cross – a stripped-down, acoustic folk piece that maintains the atmosphere of the original, but which sounds as much a part of The Medea Project’s set as their own material.
Where, for some bands, a live EP might be something of an afterthought, for The Medea Project it is an opportunity to present highlights of their excellent debut in a new light. By weaving the material together, it becomes one complete piece of music and the production, whilst admirably raw, captures the band with impressive clarity and depth. Whether you’re a fan of the band (and if not, why not), or a newcomer, Southern Echoes is a deeply impressive release and a signifier that the best is yet to come. 9/10
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