Destruction Unit

Deep Trip (Sacred Bones)

Arizona’s Destruction Unit gets a lot of credit for its ability to burn shit down. It’s understandable – turbine guitars, spiked drums, and backlit vocals – but there’s a hypnotic, almost soothing quality to the music. Deep Trip stands as the quartet’s first proper studio album after a litany of cassettes and singles, and it embraces the warm void more than ever before. “Bumpy Road” swings back and forth with a reservoir of tingling white noise, while opener “The World on Drugs” pounds out a death-rock miasma with its eyes on the buzzards. Poorly mixed? Yes. Is that the point? Probably. Destruction Unit appreciates chaos, as their guerrilla bridge show a few SXSWs ago demonstrated, but Deep Trip proves they know how to play their instruments even if ducking behind a wall of squall. (Sat., 3:45pm, Levitation Tent)

****

This article appears in May 2 • 2014.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US