Features
“I get very ritualistic with mushrooms”: I See Stars’ Devin Oliver’s five favourite things
Tripping, dancing and being very particular about making tea – these are the things that make I See Stars frontman Devin Oliver happy.
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Reviews
Album review: I See Stars – The Wheel
I See Stars let the universe guide them through hard times on their first album in nearly a decade.
- Words:
- Rachel Roberts
Nine long years have passed without a new record from I See Stars, though it wasn’t intentional. Life just got in the way, as it sometimes does, but with personal health battles, grief and a global pandemic chucked in the mix, things got far more complicated.
Out from the eye of the storm, the Michigan-based electronicore gang have crafted a record that looks at mortality, purpose and fate. The band also used a digital wheel of fortune to decide what songs to work on as they were bringing it to life, and its zany sound effects sure seem to inspire the glitchy and techy characteristics that show up throughout The Wheel. Its production is filled with little synthetic glimmers that feel futuristic and borderline dystopian, and it even opens with the literal sounds of a spinning wheel.
Once introduced to its concept, Eliminator offers some of the best parts of Devin Oliver’s soft and high vocal range. Ultimately, it’s about accepting the shitty bits of existence: ‘All that pain gave a voice to me,’ he sings over machinery-like, ridiculously fuzzy bass. Leaning further into this is Flood Light, which explores the pressures that come with living a creative, exposing life, particularly when struggling with physical and mental health.
The Wheel consistently switches up its personality by reaching into the pockets of previous I See Stars records and also looking to the future. In this, it feels both new and familiar. Carry On For You, a song about the loss of Devin and Andrew Oliver’s uncle, brings in textures of drum and bass yet somehow manages to still feel emotive and bittersweetly hopeful.
Highly apt for their name, The Wheel is a dizzying spell of futuristic sounds that warp the complicated nuances of vulnerability, ownership, destiny, and trauma into an album with a clear cut narrative. On a surface level it’s a game face-inducing record with plenty of volume, but beneath its heavy instrumentals lies a tale of real-life pain that stretches light years beyond their sparky scene kid origins.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Sleeping With Sirens, Bring Me The Horizon, Pendulum
The Wheel is released on September 12 via Sumerian