Though only emerging this past February UK metallers Destroy Planets! have made a striking introduction to themselves with debut EP, Mass X Gravity. It bears all the hallmarks of a craft and imagination which has been brewed over time, indeed the band has a sound which has been two years in the shaping and honing, but equally has an unpolished breath to it which only breeds pure pleasure and the potential of greater exploits to come.
Manchester hailing, Destroy Planets! draws on an array of metal seeded styles and muscular rock flavours for the individual confrontation which surges through their first EP. Raw edges meet with ferocious trespasses whilst both collude with melodic temptation and bold imagination; a tapestry of invention and tenacity which needed little time to intrigue and seize attention. Equally Mass X Gravity is a savage and resourceful force of unpredictability which continues to surprise by the listen as its depths expand to devour greater attentiveness.
As quickly shown by opener Ikon, pinning down the sound of Destroy Planets! is a pointless task, its voice as varied and mercurial as it is uniformly striking. The first track itself immediately sparks ears with industrial metal eruptions across its dark brooding but as quickly springs groove and death metal hues upon the senses; an Enter Shikari meets Machine Head meets Cryptopsy like corruption swiftly igniting keen attention and appetite. By the second though its sound is evolving and growing more fascination, a quality just as potent within the vocals of Tanya Wilson, her multi-flavoured and dextrous tones sheer magnetism in the thickly compelling tempest.
It’s fiercely testing and alluring twists and turns are echoed in next up Stars, the track shaping them in its own creative image as electronic and metal bred trespasses unite in a similarly gripping exploit. Wilson casts throat raw and melodic lures with equal captivation as the grooves and riffs of guitarists Aaron Pettit and Nathan Arif intrude upon and bound the senses. Providing a confrontation as feral as it is carefully woven, the track is a contagious predator with individual and united enterprise as well as its distinct imagination matched by that within the following Immortal. The third track instantly casts a Korn/Slipknot-esque shadow over the imagination though it is soon scavenging the senses with its own particular psychosis of sound and emotion. The whipping beats of Adam Tyree again incite as they punish whilst the dark, voracious grumble of Brad Crane’s bass is a perpetually unwavering lure in the creative tempest and especially goes to make one addictively memorable moment within the song and EP when it singularly courts the nightmarishly haunting melodic tempting of Wilson.
Absolution instantly consumes the senses with grooves and toxic ferocity, fellow Brits VNDTA coming to mind not for the first time but again swiftly band and sound casts their own unique creative character to prey upon and feed the imagination. Arguably the most infernal, vicious, and untamed track on the release, the song just compelled keener attention during its length and subsequent revisit while Bed Of Lies hooked equal greed with its calm melodic beginning and subsequent sonic squall; the latter woven in heavy metal threaded spirals and coated in extreme metal animosity as melodic virulence brews and eventually erupts in voice and sound.
The EP concludes with Save Yourselves, a closing inferno of sound and enterprise that descends with venom and ruthlessness but once surrounding the listener treats them to a myriad of textures and melodically seeded endeavour without losing its crushing intensity. It is a song which epitomises the Destroy Planets! sound and craft and its rich fuel of unpredictability which can only lead to greater adventures ahead.
Mass X Gravity is a challenge, a threat and another of the year’s unexpected but true pleasures.
Mass X Gravity is out now.
https://www.facebook.com/destroyplanetsband/ https://www.instagram.com/destroyplanets
Pete RingMaster 30/08/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
From the moment the EP’s title track looms right up from its distant entrance attention was not only hooked but chained to what was to follow. Wiry tendrils of guitar wrap around ears immediately, senses slapping beats alongside and once the first track hits its voracious stride and the vocals of Targett unleash their incitement, the deal between lust and the devil’s music roaring from the speakers was done. Swiftly the singer impresses with a throat abrasing attack and venomous delivery but it is when she breaks into a glorious clean delivery that realisation at her talent is inescapable. Before then guitarists Callan Hughes and Jay Bacon gnaw at and chew on the senses, twisting and turning with grooves as their hooks pierce with imagination as the swinging rhythms of drummer Willem Mason-Geraghty infest body and spirit just as potently. The track is immense and no better way to succumb to the first abusive seduction of VNDTA.