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Now what I could say about this band? Unfortunately I didn't discover Deathstars until they released their sophomore album "Termination Bliss" which definitely is one of the catchiest albums I've heard in 2006. I really wonder why I never heard of them before.
These four Swedes from Gothenburg created a very interesting mixture of different styles. In general one might call it a dark version of Industrial Metal, but every time I hear this definition I think of bands like Rammstein or maybe even Pain for example. Deathstars are very different, they combine elements of Gothic Metal, Electro and mix it with lots of synthesizers so that you eventually have a result that's hard to describe - except for the fact that it is really catchy. Judging from their outward appearance they rather remind of Marilyn Manson or Cradle Of Filth, but their music has not much in common with those.
The opener of the album "Tongues" already gives the listener a first impression of how the rest of the album sounds like. The vocals of 'Whiplasher' alternate from typical deep vocals, as they're common in the Gothic Metal genre, to some kind of hollow, whispering shrieks. The next song "Blitzkrieg" is one of the catchiest songs on the album - especially the line 'Blitzkrieg, Blitzkrieg - Boom' tends to stay in one's mind for quite some time. On "Greatest Fight On Earth", a rather slower, dragging song, you can hear guest vocalist Ann Ekberg whose clean and high female vocals are a nice contrast to Whiplasher's.
My favorite track on the album is without doubt "Cyanide". There is also a music video available for this song. You basically only need to listen to this song and you automatically will love the album - simply perfect. If there were only more songs on the album structured like this you could call it a masterpiece from this genre. The album really lacks some more real hit songs. The album eventually ends with the title track "Termination Bliss", again a slower song which is dominated by symphonic keyboards that can be heard as one of the leading instruments on the album. I think the song fits very well as an ending song. Once it's over it fades into some birds chirping and then fading into silence. Compared to the debut "Synthetic Generation" which I only heard after this one here, a progress in songwriting can be heard. "Termination Bliss" contains clearly catchier songs and it is better composed, even if the style itself hasn't changed much. All in all I was very surprised by this album and it seems as if Deathstars had their breakthrough with it. If you like a catchy mixture of Industrial Metal with Gothic vocals and lots of synths then you should definitely check them out.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Tongues |
| 2. Blitzkrieg |
| 3. Motherzone |
| 4. Cyanide |
| 5. Greatest Fight On Earth |
| 6. Play God |
| 7. Trinity Fields |
| 8. The Last Ammunition |
| 9. Virtue To Vice |
| 10. Death In Vogue |
| 11. Termination Bliss |
: 43.57
| Buy other Deathstars albums |
