Destroy the Planet – “Episode 1: Hungry for the Science” – prowess, power and sheer exuberance!
In this day and age of abundance, few musical things come around that make us stir from head to toe with glee and gratification. One of these has to be the album, “Episode 1: Hungry for the Science” by the three-piece band from Minnesota, Destroy the Planet. What can you expect from this lineup? For one, a considerable amount of thunder. The tripod of musicians involved here, channel the spirit of classic rock – brought forward from the seventies and eighties – simultaneously sprinkling their very own cold-blooded riffs and ruthless rhythms on top. Having said that, they are not a derivative retro band. Instead Destroy the Planet is an entirely new, unprecedented project, founded in 2020, who cook up a blend of demonically sly licks, heavy-pedal forward trudging drums, and bass lines that exude absolute mastery.
The elemental pieces of the Destroy the Planet sound are their tightly arranged songs, which produce a full, wholesome energy; and their musical attitude, screaming unrefined hard rocking grit. At times they border on the catchy, pummeling anarchy of punk.
The overall impressive impact of this kickass album comes from that indefinable oomph that only the best rock and roll power trios seem able to muster. It’s been a while since a heavy rock record has come to surface with so much prowess, power and sheer exuberance.
Destroy the Planet come out of the gate with “Twisted”. It finds the band dealing out clever hooks, energetic riffing, and a compact, catchy arrangement with plenty of juicy ear-candy frills and bombastic tangents.
“Control” continues to hammer away with shell-splitting power, and swaggering bass lines, before “I Think I Should Know” allows the vocals to dig down deep on a slower-burning beat. Its soulful stuff, which builds into a high intensity affair, with a big dose of shredding guitars.
One of the best qualities of this album is the absolute earnestness of the entire affair. “Reach” picks up the pace and builds to a multi-layered, interlacing crescendo of melody and bombast that is at once irresistible. It leads to the chugging behemoth of “Maggots”, and then the clean strummed acoustics of “The Worst”, which could probably find a comfortable spot on any mainstream rock chart. Listeners will appreciate the slow-drag reverb soaked sonics and the yearning vocals, which deliver a rich creamy rock flow.
“Crawl” is a taut song with an immense amount of attitude. The guitars excel, and the wordplay hits the mark. Destroy the Planet creates an immense amount of great musical noise, but they also know when to break it down or speed it up. Both of which they execute here brilliantly.
Its back to the grindstone on “Time”, as the band unleash bone-crushing guitars and thundering drums. Destroy the Planet deliver excitement, and capture a sense of raw danger and grit that all too often has been absent from the genre in recent years.
The layered guitars shimmer and jangle on the melodic “Follow”, where the gritty vocals reach out for the higher notes. The band’s riff-happy, jagged-edged approach explodes into hard-hitting rock n’ roll euphoria on “Enemy”, before Destroy the Planet close the album with the equally compelling mid-tempo chug of “Headlights”. This is another radio ready cut.
Overall, Destroy the Planet is outstanding as a unit – original, authentic with exceptional musicianship and airtight songwriting. Credit must also go to Minnesota metal producer Todd Fitzgerald, for keeping this three-piece band sounding like a vital force on this record.
There is a lot of music out there, and even though there is not as much rock as there once was, there is still enough out there, to miss something good. Hence, do not miss the chance to latch onto something exceptionally good with Destroy the Planet. You never know if and when, another opportunity like “Episode 1: Hungry for the Science” will present itself to you.
