How To Destroy Angels, the Self Title Debut Album, My Review

I’ve given the How to Destroy Angels self title debut album a few good listens now. It came out last night at midnight. So far my opinion of it is varied and changing, both good but mostly bad. Allow me to explain.


The single A Drowning came out a few weeks ago and to me it sounded like Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts album with a chick singing over it. I still feel this way except I cringingly like it now. I'll admit that A Drowning is really good in a haunting way. The other single, The Space in Between, also sounds like the Ghosts album but with a little bit of Year Zero mixed in at a slower beat. However, the vocals on this track call back more to early Placebo: yuck. These are the best two songs on the album. That doesn’t say much for the other songs but I am measuring this album against Nine Inch Nails, only because Trent Reznor is referring to HTDS as his new project, so expectations are high.


The vocals on the other tracks sound more feline-like which may be why these songs sound worse to me. I hate the whiny cat singing that so much indie music produces but I realize that this sort of sound is the type of thing that sounds different once it’s stuck in your head – like an awful viral internet video that you like after a while. (Funny aside, one of the most cat-like sounding songs is called Fur Lined.) The track BBB – which annoyingly stands for Big Black Boots – is a poor rip off of Nine Inch Nails’ Reptile. I can see that this particular rip off may have been inevitable as Reptile is one of the few feminine sounding Nine Inch Nails songs and probably the misses’ favorite. Also, I think there is actually a sample of a cat meowing in the mix of this track; you can almost hear it at the end as she repeats “Listen to the sound of my big black boots.” Bizarre and not musically or emotionally compelling.


The next track, The Believers, has the cadence and feel of a Dead Can Dance song. That could be a compliment. And finally, the second track, and my least favorite, Parasite, is more of what should have been left on the cutting room floor from the Year Zero edit all scotch-taped together with whiney – but whispery – girl vocals on top.


This sounds like a terrible review but I have to say that the album is growing on me, sort of. Where I stand right now is: I am willing to go along with this side project of a band that has no future (Who cares today about A Perfect Circle or Zwan?) for a couple albums, three tops, and then I expect Trent Reznor to ditch the bitch and go back to Nine Inch Nails. There, I said it. I don’t like her – on principle. But I will give the music a window of a chance.