Synthwave Sunday: Mega Drive, “Visceral Grit ’92”

Mega Drive has been mostly quiet since the explosion in popularity of dark synthwave. His most recent album, Hardwired v1.4, is a bonafide genre classic, but came out in January of 2015, a few short months before the dark analogue sounds really started capturing the imagination of music listeners outside the genre’s core. As such, the Dallas-based artist’s name is often left out in discussion about the top acts in the genre.

Now he’s back to fix all that; new album Seas of Infinity will come out on May 18th, and he’s just released its first single, “Visceral Grit ’92.” The track does what all of Mega Drive’s songs do best: uses a dirty, undulating staccato beat and pushed-to-the-max distorted synths to create a mood of unthinkable darkness, punctuated by hook-laden lead melodies that’ll worm their way into your brain. It’s up there with “Delta Protocol,” “Mainframe” and anything off 198xAD, as far as I’m concerned; it’s a fucking banger.

If Seas of Infinity has more like this, it’s going to be one of the synthwave albums of the year; watch out. Now let’s get this guy out on the road, too.