DEADSTAR ASSEMBLY – Unsaved

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY KRISTIAN SINGH-NERGÅRD

According to the band’s on-line biography, they “… named themselves DeadStar Assembly in homage to the wasting wannabe stars soaked in GHB puke that blackened the Miami Beach streets in which they lurked.”

When you take a look at the back of the Unsaved CD cover, you’ll find a picture of the band. They seem very angry and everyone has black hair and loads of make-up on. By this point, you’ll probably think that these guys can surely deliver some bad-ass heavy shit in the spirit of Slipknot or Lamb Of God. And when you read that Dearborn is credited to vox, guitars, and orchestrated mayhem, and Cyggy is credited to percussions and blood sucking, you’ll probably think that they have a real appetite for destruction. This is not the case. The music itself can be described as a mix between Ministry and Marilyn Manson, with elements from Nine Inch Nails.

“Unsaved Pt. 1” is an intro made up of heavy guitars and drums along with some synthesizer sounds. It leads directly into “Unsaved Pt. 2,” which has an in-your-face attitude. The vocals are screamed in the same way as from Ministry, but the intensity of the song and the heavy elements might remind you of Marilyn Manson.

“Killing Myself Again” is less aggressive and has lots of clean vocals. The riffs are cool as well. “Dejected” is another song where the focus is on the vocals and the lyrics instead of the synth sounds. “Naive,” unfortunately, starts with a cheesy synth melody that you could expect from bands like Linkin Park. This is not a strong track, but the complaining lyrics go well with the rest of the album.

“And Ashes Will Fall” starts with some acoustic guitars before the heavy guitars take over. This is a slower song than the previous and can almost function as a nice ballad (if that is a word you can use in this genre at all). “Darker Now” and “Pale Blue” are two songs that could easily remind you of Marilyn Manson, if you take the vocal and the Industrial sound in consideration.

“Bled” is more of a heavy guitar-based track with synth elements unlike “Darker Now” and “Pale Blue” that are Industrial-based tracks with heavy guitar elements. On this track you have clean vocal and screams, and it’s a nice ballad that Nu-Metal bands could only dream of making. “Serial” and “Insurrection” are even heavier and show the heavy side of the band. “At Both Ends” is yet another ballad, and it leads listeners into the heavy “Death Wish,” which is another track that sounds like a mix between Ministry and Marilyn Manson; pretty heavy with Industrial synth sounds on top. “Perfectly Destroyed” is an outro made by guitars with synths on top.

Though DeadStar Assembly is being compared to bands like Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson in this review, it doesn’t mean that the music is a rip-off of their style. They have certain elements that could remind you of those bands, but they have their own style and the record is their own and no one else’s. The album itself doesn’t reach the top of the genre, but it’s a promising start for the Florida quintet.

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY GARY MCLEAN

Deadstar Assembly is a four-man outfit from South Florida that released their eponymous debut CD not that long ago; it sold pretty well for a small, independent release, racking up about 10,000 sales and gaining the band a fairly devoted underground following. The group returns now with their major-label follow-up, Unsaved, which was released in Europe in April 2006, and sees North American release in July 2006.

According to their Web site, Deadstar Assembly specializes in “Death-Pop Industrial Rock.” That’s a fairly accurate description of the 15 tracks on Unsaved: heavy, grinding guitar riffs, distorted vocals, sampled voices and sound effects, electronic noises, a very deep bottom end, etc. At the same time, the music has a fairly accessible, catchy feel to it. Some of the songs on this album could easily see airplay on the heavier radio stations out there.

Unsaved has a dark mood about it, but at the same time it has a lot of energy and drive. The riffs of guitarist Dreggs have a heavy momentum that keep the songs moving forward at all times, and most of the tunes have a very big, catchy groove. Vocalist Dearborn gives the songs lots of edgy attitude, even when his voice is masked and distorted by various electronic effects. Deadstar Assembly may remind listeners of bands like Marilyn Manson and Disturbed, but Deadstar Assembly is heavier than both of those groups.

Unsaved has 15 tracks, but three of those are under two minutes in length, leaving listeners with 12 “real” songs to digest. Despite the generally downbeat (and borderline angsty) lyrical content of most of the tunes, this is still a fun album to listen to, one that gives off lots of infectious, angry energy as it rages against the machine. Songs like “Killing Myself Again,” “Dejected,” “Naive,” and “Insurrection” rock pretty hard, and the more somber-sounding “And Ashes Will Fall” is a pretty respectable attempt at a ballad. “Pale Blue” and “Bled” are solid slower-paced thumpers, with heavy grooves and hook-laden choruses. There are no really bad songs on Unsaved, but a couple near the end of the album are fairly disposable; not terrible by any means, just not too memorable.

With lots of energy-laden attitude, monster riffage, and a great big wall of sound and distortion that threatens to topple over and crush you, Deadstar Assembly has a winner on their hands with Unsaved.