Deep Space Destructors ‘III’ CD/DD 2014

Deep Space Destructors 'III'I’m forever looking for new space rock in the hope it sounds like Ozric Tentacles… But apparently I’m cursed to be forever finding only Hawkwind clones. This more of an observation than a complaint though- Hawkwind are good, and Deep Space Destructors are also rather good, so happy days?

Happy days for sure. While I’m always a bit frustrated by the bands’ tendency to never truly embrace the freak out like The Cosmic Dead or Ozric’s shreddier moments, always a bit bummed by the excellent but perhaps too clean production, I keep on playing this album and I enjoy it more and more every time I do. Then I put it on again, enjoy it even more and so on and so forth. Perhaps composition and clean production is more their thing than jamming while off their tits on shrooms, and if it works for them I can’t really complain – there’s plenty of excellent moments here.

Yeah, for all my grumbles about clean production and never really going off chops there’s plenty of fantastic stuff here. Moments like the fantastic opener (probably the freak out-iest on here), with everything all triumphant and bombastic over a simple refrain of “free your mind” (at least that’s what I hope it is?), it’s pretty much the perfect intro track and it would be super enjoyable live.

Cosmic Burial starts off as a wonderful Electric Funeral tribute before slowly thickening up, like a good whipped cream, and Spaceship Earth’s fantastic intro is the most appropriate intro possible for a song called Spaceship Earth. The vocals – competent, and sparsely used – perfect for the genre. The way the two/three? electrics and bass play off each other is ridiculously rad, sometimes it’s all really tight with a deliberate “you play here, I’ll play further up the neck” type deal, other times – the best times – everyone’s noodling everywhere and there’s notes flying everywhere, this ever cosmic whooooosh of notes, man.

The cosmic whooosh of notes. Deep Space Destructors are very good at it – when they use it – and when they do, they’re up there with the best in the genre.

But because I’m a grumpy bastard who’s incapable of just enjoying things, that one complaint keeps on coming back. It’s just a bit too polite – I’d love to see the band sitting on themes for a bit longer and letting everything stay in loud noodle mood for a bit longer, as that’s when the band seem to be at their best. Sure, there’s plenty of enjoyable moments in this album, from And Ode To Indifferent Universe’s quite cool and well-arranged early drift, to Ikuinen Alku’s kick ass main riff with the sweeping synths way in the background. But, buuuut there’s maybe only a few moments where things get truly orgasmic for the listeners – Spaceship Earth and the Black Star, basically – and that’s the difference between a good, really solid album and a great one.

But having said that… this is still a really fun album to listen to. An all-time great? No. A really, really entertaining album that will bring you a fair bit of joy and is better than most other things you’ll hear this year? Absolutely. Definitely worth your time.

Label: Self Released
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp

Scribed by: Caspian Yurisich