I See Stars – The Wheel
I See Stars – The Wheel
Sumerian Records
Release Date: 19/09/2025
Review by Metalphysicist
9/10
I do enjoy when I free myself from my @nihil_hm crab – (nearby the Amazon Rain Forest) which is a very, very fucking dark hole bellow the dirt, where I crawl myself all the way down to hell, time to time. The news is that today, I decided to open my window and, suddenly, I See Stars! How I love that kind of band whose name is expressed as a verbal tense! That episode has really overwhelmed my near-life experience, so to speak. And “The Wheel” – the new album from I See Stars, arose to me like the right album I should listen to, at the right time, while healing out of my damaged brain. “The Wheel” is a damn good album! New Modern Rock. Electronicore. You choose.
Even though I am as old as Heavy Metal music is, I’ve never been that kind of 80’s metalhead nut, trapped in the same old Heavy Metal bands. I mean, no one ever told me that, only because I grew up listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Hair Metal from Sunset Strip, and Thrash Bay Area, I must stick it, like, forever. I believe in neuroplasticity, and I consider myself a perennial soul, which is always moving away from Point Zero and ahead.
That is why I was always looking for new bands who play new heavy musical styles. In the 90’s I quit the 80’s Heavy Metal thing for good, and started to listen to Industrial Metal, Electro Punk, and Nu Metal. In 2000’s I got familiar with bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Five Finger Death Punch, and Black Veil Brides (I have all their CD collection); Back then, I didn’t like Linking Park, Papa Roach, and Limp Biskit and Evanescence too much, but I do know what they were up to, for sure.
Back to 19/09/2025, that was the date when I See Stars released the aforementioned album, “The Wheel”, which is, apparently, the beginning of I See Stars’ second coming, after taking a break around 2016, when they released their 9th album, “Treehouse”. Now, after years on a hiatus, I See Stars finally rejoined themselves, so to release “The Wheel”, 16 years after the release of I See Star’s debut album, “3-D” (2009).
In 2009, the band was well known on the Metalcore scene, and I assume that they did their part on the scene back then, contributing with very inspiring, heavy, melodic (electro) songs. The main difference on “The Wheel” is that I See Stars evolved the band’s main DNA (Metalcore), adding contemporary textures, pop lead songs, and palatable chorus lines, which are very melodic and catchy. And that kind of modern outfit suits I See Stars very well.
I checked out I See Stars’ Instagram profile, and Devin Oliver, the singer, is a good-looking lad who plays the Rock Star dream there, interacting with his fans regularly. But Oliver doesn’t just have the looks, he is a great lead singer, which can be noticed on the vocal lines on such songs as the title track, ‘Wheel’, that begins with the electronic intro (samples, loops, programming drums) and then switches the pace to imposing Deathcore patterns mixed with slight Noise vibes on the vocal lines. Very Heavy song.
The melodic and contemporary Electro Pop Rock is the main song structure on “The Wheel”, which is captured in tracks like ‘Carry On for You’ and ‘Flood Light’. It is the electric musical element that allows the band to flirt with Pop songs, maybe sounding close to Bring Me The Horizon, with lots of vocoder-like-trap-rap melodies. That sounds ok to me, maybe the drum programming lacks more bass tune in the mix. The production on this album is very professional, as well as the mix engineering, which captures “TheWheels” global view and gives it a run for its money.
Thanks to I See Stars, I’ve been able to rewind my Metal Music Trail to the 2010’s decade, which was lauded by bands like Bring Me The Horizon, Falling In Reverse, Askin Alexandria and, more recently, Sleep Token. I like those bands, mainly because they have the guts to stand before what they are meant to be: Commercial Rock Pop bands with some screams and Djent guitar riffs.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Spin It
02. THE WHEEL
03. Eliminator
04. D4MAGE DONE
05. FLOAT
06. Drift
07. are we 3ven?
08. Flood Light
09. Carry On For You
10. SPLIT
11. Lost It (ft. Palaye Royale)
12. Afterdark
13. Anomaly
14. Curtain Call
LINE-UP:
Devin Oliver – vocals
Brent Allen – guitars
Jeff Valentine – bass
Andrew Oliver – keyboards, programming
LINKS:
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