Join the doomsday creepy party in the long-awaited Deathstars’ album “Everything Destroys You”

Deathstars have never been about rainbows and unicorns, and having looked at the titles of the songs in the tracklist the first thought that I had was “the album is right about time”. I bet I’m not the only one feeling nowadays that humanity rolls toward destruction, well, now it will be doing it with the proper soundtrack, at least, as “Everything Destroys You” is nothing but a brutal dark hymn of humanity’s gloomy fate and vices in all it’s shapes and forms, yet with a vast room for partying and fun.

After a tiny heartbeat-like intro the opening track “This Is” starts fastly with everything we’ve been missing for almost 10 years since Deathstars released their last record – signature riffs, mechanical rhythm and recognizable vocals densely enveloped into a creepy cyber atmosphere of gothic synths. The rhythm section surely sets you in a mood for the party, as there’s going to be one. “Midnight Party” is a classical Deathstars‘ piece where glam and gothic elements may be a bit imbalanced in the favor of glam, which makes the song a bit more 80s infused. I already imagine the crowd clapping joyously along that “second by the second…” part. This sinister discotheque is followed by “Anti All” – an energetic social horror story, framed in cosmic-epic atmosphere and spiced up by fervent riffs.

The title track “Everything Destroys You” soothes down the primary speed of the album a little. Synths crawl in, interlacing with that famous Whiplasher’s muted creepy voice, and setting up the hypnotic mood of the song. Then it all speeds up with the rapid and aggressive “Between Volumes and Voids”, in which ragefulness is rather underlined than balanced with the innocently sounding choir backs.

I’ll never give up repeating that three-quarters (waltz) is the most perfect rhythm pattern in my opinion, and Deathstars have treated us all with three sinister waltzes on this album. And the first one is “An Atomic Prayer”, which starts with a Terminator OST-like beat and a badass riff, and goes on with a beautiful and evil mixture of swirling pianos, sympho arrangements, bass-lines, choirs, and, most importantly, my favorite creepy music box, which is not less Deathstars‘ trademark than Whiplasher’s vocals.

“Blood For Miles” is a piece filled with drive, rhythm section surely plays the major role in this one, and I’d noted this song for a curious guitar solo, which I confused with the synth solo, so it demanded a second listen. Then goes another waltz, “Churches of Oil”, which rolls in with a slight breath and then speeds up to become a super expressive and multilayered song with several different types of vocals, including female ones. Epic solemnness of this song can compete only with the atmosphere of anxiety that it delivers. Surely my favourite on the album.

The album speeds up one last time in “Infrahuman Masterpiece” to pour some intense energy with gothic pianos on us and then farewells with one last waltz – “Angel of Fortune And Crime” – where wave-like swirls will grow the volume of the song gradually, and “Desperate Times” – line will surely get stuck in your brain for a long time.

To conclude, I’d like to say that “Everything Destroys You” is absolutely everything you’d expect from Deathstars, probably not more, not less. A solid high-quality record without any surprises. These guys have surely established themselves as dark-glam-industrial metal icons, and this album is the finest representative of how they are capable of blending all these ingredients in perfectly measured proportions to remain unique and recognizable.

Tracklisting:

1. This Is
2. Midnight Party
3. Anti All
4. Everything Destroys You
5. Between Volumes and Voids
6. An Atomic Prayer
7. Blood for Miles
8. The Churches of Oil
9. The Infrahuman Masterpiece
10. Angel of Fortune and Crime