DEATHSTARS // Everything Destroys You // ALBUM REVIEW

20-year-strong Swedish Industrial Goth-Glammers Deathstars return with their fifth album offering ‘Everything Destroys You.’ The album buzzes straight in to get its groove on with ‘This Is’ a track that resembles Rammstein but with a lighter touch. Vocals move from an echoed hush to a clearer repetition of a world-moving, earth-shaking and sky-falling chant. ‘Midnight Party’ is a fun catchy take on the Freddy Krueger nursery rhyme, adding extra horror with blasts of beats, eerie cathedralic keys, low throaty vibrations and what sounds like the wails of a Theremin. There is more horror infused within the lyrics of ‘Between Volumes and Voids’ a demanding little ditty with an anthemic chorus of “Commence, Destroy, Exploit, Enjoy” and a warning that “no-one in here, gets out alive.” The keys in this one have a more sustained piano edge against the electronic beats which are neatly backed up by robust chunks of guitar. ‘An Atomic Prayer’ seems to be gentler and possibly the calmest song on the album but the unmistakable Deathstar guitar sound ensures it is worthy of a place on the tracklist.

Whilst the album song structure does seem to follow a similar pattern, each song remains short enough to hold interest (all are below five minutes in length) and the album easily brings images to mind such as shadowy fairgrounds, haunted mansions and fire. A variety of vocal styles are explored within each track; there are whispered shouts (listen and it’ll make sense); melodic verses; robotic tones (in the twice-named title track ‘Everything Destroys You’); choruses that take on a mantra-like essence (check out the broken-syllable style delivery of the line “In-fra-hu-man Mas-ter-piece” in the track which bears the same title) and almost rap-style spiels in parts of ‘Angel of Fortune and Crime’ and towards the end of the aforementioned ‘An Atomic Prayer.’

The album focuses on the lives of the band in their 8-year absence and is described by Vocalist Whiplasher as being non-fiction “It’s just the scarred city life in the raw.” Laced with some strongly brewed Goth, this album is an enjoyable return dive into the depths of the magnetic and danceable darkness that is Deathstars.

REVIEW: SUZI BOOTZ

>>Everything Destroys You<< is out 5^th May2023