Methedrine have never had much luck fitting neatly into one genre. Formed in Italy in 2017, the band started when drummer Bone, formerly of ’80s crossover hardcore outfit Upset Noise, approached guitarist Dario about a new project combining d-beat, Motörhead, and early thrash.
“I was delighted,” Dario tells No Echo. “I had always played hardcore but listened to metal, so I thought, ‘Finally, I get to play some tremolo picking!’”
Methedrine released their Built for Speed EP in 2018 and No Solution LP in 2024, undergoing several lineup changes along the way. Dario is now the sole remaining original member, joined by drummer Nik, bassist Dave, and vocalist Arty. The latter’s arrival helped push the band even further into extreme metal territory.
By that point, Methedrine had accumulated enough diverse material that they decided against forcing everything onto one record. The punkier songs became their new Death Punk EP, due October 10, while the heavier material is being saved for a full-length they hope to release in 2027.
These days, Methedrine describe themselves as “death-punk crossover,” although Dario admits that even that doesn't entirely solve the problem of categorizing the band. “The truth is, we always just played what we like,” he says. “As Lucio and Lemmy, of course, would say: it’s just fucking rock ’n’ roll. That’s good for us, and it always works awesome when we play live. It’s less good when you need to market yourself somehow, and most people just want an easy label to put on you.”
There’s plenty of thrash in Methedrine’s DNA, although Dario points toward the harsher side of the genre.
“We sure have a lot of thrash to us, but not in a Megadeth or Municipal Waste way, more in a Slayer/Kreator/Sepultura way. We also still have some hardcore: on one hand, the d-beat we inherited from Bone, and on the other, the NYHC that is in my blood. Master Killer by Merauder is one of my favorites.”
Death Punk was recorded by Dario at his SPS Studios in Pordenone, Italy, with Maurizio “Icio” Baggio (The Secret, Booze & Glory, Messa, Bull Brigade, Svetlanas) handling mixing and mastering at La Distilleria. The EP’s first single, “Tell Me Lies,” tackles a subject that runs throughout Death Punk: the increasingly blurry line between reality and the digital world.
“The feeling is that we’re living in a world that has realized the worst predictions of last century’s science fiction,” Dario explains. “We’re so overwhelmed by contradictory misinformation that, in the end, it becomes easy to completely give up on touching reality.”
The song’s protagonist retreats further into technology, using it not to understand the world but to construct a reality where his beliefs never need to be challenged. “The risk of this non-choice, however, is ending up consumed by the system itself.”
There’s a fitting bit of symmetry surrounding the accompanying “Tell Me Lies” video: it was shot by Frank Pellegrino, the same person whose phone call set Methedrine in motion nearly a decade ago.
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Death Punk is out October 10.
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