It’s no secret that I love the darker side of deathrock with a passion. With that being said Death Of A Star majorly scratches that itch. I can hear the influences of Samhain, TSOL, Son Of Sam and early Danzig on this record, and yet it has it’s own sound going on. It’s unabashedly heavy, layered with metal infused guitar, heavy bass, sinister keyboards and great lyrics. I love the hell out of this album.
What really stands out to me while listening to this album is the fact that it doesn’t sound like an atypical darker deathrock band trying to outright imitate the music of Glenn Danzig. A whole lot of bands do that and it becomes very tiring. I highly appreciate the fact that The Cult Sounds takes their music further into their own direction, rather than being lazy. It’s proof that it is still possible to make wholly original music within the genre.
Enclose Nacht, the first song really sets up the rest of the album well. It’s sparse landscape and chilling circus sounding keyboards lets you immediately know that you are in for a dark ride through a land of death and isolation. The next song 13 Candles is a banger that pushes you down that road. The journey is then filled with darkly created musical landscapes; the heavy crunchy guitars of Afterlife and the brooding atmosphere of The Avalanche.
While I love all of the songs my favourite has got to be Death Has A Name. Quite honestly it’s one of the better darker deathrock songs that I’ve heard in a very long time. It’s got a bit of that Jon Christ blues infused metal guitar style which gives it a sinister air that takes it to another level. There are heavy synths through the whole song that only add to the foreboding nature of it. There are two lines, in particular that I think are brilliant.
Death has a name and it’s yours,
Use my bones to build your body
That just conjures all sorts of feelings and thoughts in my mind. All of the lyrics on this album are really good, and don’t rely on the typical gimmicks that some deathrock bands use. I really appreciate the effort that the band put into creating this album. I have a feeling that The Death Of A Star is going to be on my ‘best of’ list for this year. If you love deathrock that is darker in nature then you will really enjoy this album.
There is no set release date for this album yet, but I will announce it here on the blog when the time comes.
