STARSET - Dystopia REACTION / REVIEW – Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to another audio analysis. In today's video we're delving into the track dystopia by the American rock band Starset. Recent singles from the band have really been shown how they've been gradually coming back down to earth. Steinser gradually move away from the very sci-fi focus that we have seen with the blot of their previous music. They've definitely been returning to a bit more of just a rock and metal sound, almost similar to some of the music that we did see from the previous band that Dustin Bates and Rhonda Champerin in the form of

00:26downplay. We're really seeing a focus on the current spotlight of the world with songs such as Toxic, Brave New World and Degenerate all talking about the idea of how we're being corrupted in the present rather than focusing on the future that we may end up in later down the line. And given this track is titled dystopia I think it's really going to focus on exactly the path that we are heading down in today's world towards this dystopian future. You see plenty of songs, films, novels all talking about it but really with Starset they want to put it in the modern day

00:56present. They really want to focus on current issues and we certainly saw that with Toxic talking about the corruption of people's minds and whilst we've seen them do it on previous albums they really are putting a more current focus on it to really drill into people's heads the idea of just how much they feel like they're being controlled. One thing we still don't have though is a title for the upcoming album. We really are seeing a trend of thread running through all of these tracks so I don't think it'd be too long before we do get to finally see what this latest album will

01:22be called as well as a release date which I'm sure many people are very excited for. For now though will this latest track suffer from a bleak future or will it be held in utopia?

01:31Let's take a look at exactly how it sounds. Okay definitely seeing something very different

03:54with this track really putting more of a focus on just more that rock element some of that almost like slight symphonic metal really coming in and I love the way Dustin continues to play with his vocals showing something much softer which he's often done on previous albums really dancing between the two whereas we have seen a bit of variation with these recent singles something a bit heavier something a bit softer and this really blends the two styles together certainly and you can really see the focus on that dystopian idea in the music video in the lyrics absolutely

04:21everything is really concaving towards that simple idea even from that first couple of opening lines are we lost in the night in a world lit just by gaslight I really love that the idea that we're all just lost we kind of know that we're not really going in a direction because we don't know where we're going we all as a society as a world feel lost and we're only being lit by the abuse of the abuse we're affected with the victims that are just being guided like she by the shepherd in this particular direction and we're just being told what to do so that idea of the gas I love

04:50that idea of the gaslight being the only thing that's leading us we're all being led towards this false communication almost this false prophecy which we can often really see coming through especially in the visuals and it just felt like a bit of a nod back to some of their downplaying material as well with the idea of the king so they actually had a song called will be kings and it talks about the idea of like religion and we can certainly see this guy almost looking like the pope effectively like this religious occult leader that is ultimately just destroying the city below him so almost like the mad king really just kind

05:17of trying to lead the way through very destructive methods so kind of some ties again back kind of degenerating back towards that downplay sound they did have in their very early days whilst also keeping some of that symphonic side that really was kind of embedded very heavily into star set we pretend that we can't feel the spiral growing into something real arrival so the idea that for a lot of people they are aware that things are basically going down the toilet things are really spiralling downwards but we just kind of don't do anything

05:44about it we just let it kind of grow into this darkness grow we let it manifest we've seen the messages come through most of their previous transmissions in different songs so they're really just drilling that home again if we're in a simulation this could be an indication maybe they should turn it off and turn it back on again prepare for the end so the idea of Armageddon coming and you can set with the visuals as well people writing in the streets and the idea that ultimately if this is a simulation it needs to turn off and back off and again to

06:12try and fix things because we've corrupted it so very heavily this world that ultimately we need a hard reset and I love the way we go into this chorus battens on the fucking hatches so again more expletives coming in which we don't see on previous material so great see them using that so really by bringing some of the bites and some of the aggression without kind of going too heavily into those aggressive vocals so I really like that really coming in this is what you get when you still play with matches so when you play with fire you're going to get burned I love this next lyric as well now we go back to sticks back

06:42to stone so that if six and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me I love that side of I also love the fact of we're going back to very primitive things we're going backwards we're de-evolving we're degenerating back to the past to the really old archaic ways of doing things rather than trying to build towards a strong future we're just destroying everything so really focusing on that idea because the words broke our bones and we're right back to the same old habits too bad we almost had it so in some essence we're

07:08keep trying to push for change for good things to happen but ultimately we would fall back on these bad habits consistently and that ultimately that is what it's going to be our downfall not we're being willing to change and fight for the causes that we feel are right so lots of messaging really coming through just in that opening verse and that chorus as well and I love the kind of chanting that's really coming in as well really feels very inclusive of getting everybody on board to really just kind of get everybody behind this track and as we head into

07:36verse two abandoned mission they've jammed the systems we've done all we can it's a brain dead wasteland so the idea of people being turned into zombies or maybe the people in power just kind of turned into zombies they're not really listening to the people they're not really just kind of coming up with these ideas that the people want they're just kind of brain dead but it could also be about society as well the fact that we've all been brainwashed by things such as social media we all kind of follow the messages that are given to us rather than thinking for ourselves so lots of ideas really being packed into this track

08:04even in just the first couple of minutes what a really interesting track that was certainly not

10:24the direct showers maybe expecting them to go to certainly something very different but the band continue to evolve in their sound almost no two albums afoul sounded exactly the same and we can really see with this album it's really shaping up to be very diverse but really being very impactful as much of the band's music has been I love some of the lines we did get in that bridge lock your windows close your doors and hide something wicked has got inside and I really love this because of the simple fact it does actually reference back to one of the previous tracks

10:52in the form of something wicked but also the fact that even if you try and lock yourself away that something that darkness has already crept inside you're just kind of locking yourself in the room with it so the idea of like say maybe linking back to social media how you can't escape even if you try and hide inside you can't escape from that darkness it's kind of too ingrained in your brain and in your homes to really just fully avoid it completely so whilst we typically think of outside threats it's typically inside threats that are trapped in there with

11:18us post-traumatic trauma addict high and I really love this because it's really just focusing on that idea again of things like social media about everybody's playing the victim everyone's trying to make kind of look for that attention and look for that kind of those numbers go up likes go up kind of culture that we have devised for ourselves we're the victim of our own device and I really love that we're kind of the we've made this for ourselves we kind of created a culture that ultimately it was so reliant on things like

11:45having internet popularity that we've forgotten how to function so I really love the way they're kind of touching on that the ultimately the device that is going to explode us is ultimately something that we've kind of become so reliant on and I just love that idea of just lock your windows close your eyes so we see that and typically in films where people kind of lock down the button down the hatches lock the windows and it's all to hide staying side whether it's safe but ultimately even your home now is potentially not safe then as we go into that final chorus again just the real effectiveness of those chance to really feel like people

12:14coming together rising up in arms ultimately to really just kind of prevent this dystopia from happening or try and limit it in its ability to really corrupt everybody so I kind of love that one voice coming together through multiple we're getting all the band members involved to really scream that also one other thing that I really did love they included earlier in the song was a little bit of a nod towards pink Floyd with the fact of not needing education we don't need your education we just need more stimulation fuel for our obliteration setting it all a glow and I

12:43love that pre chorus as well because of the simple fact the kind of education to allow people aren't learning as much anymore because they just look for those five seconds of dopamine just by flicking through their phone and things like that it's not educating you it's just giving you that five seconds of dopamine it's giving you that stimulation which is the fuel for us ultimately doubt kind of trending backwards set and I love that last line setting it all the glow the glow from a phone screen things like that from social media so really into weaving all these different

13:10ideas into this one track really doing it in a very anthemic and powerful way as well which the band have really just done quite heavily on previous albums they're really good at getting people involved in this this is a sort of song you want to be hearing it a live performance of theirs they're really just at one of those their demonstrations because the crowd are going to really sing that chorus right back and it's going to feel like everybody coming together so I think a track that's really good in really giving that empowerment to try and prevent this dystopia

13:36from happening so there we have it certainly another powerful track coming in from the band but I would love to know your thoughts about this track in the comment section below how do you feel lives up to the some of the other tracks we have heard from this upcoming next album on which of the four we've currently heard is your favorite and why or feel free to let me know some of your thoughts about this track as well we'll see other people's impressions or if you feel like there's anything I did miss within the lyrics or the video or anything like that also if you would like to see more star set content I have quoted a variety of their other

14:05tracks which you can find linked to those videos in the description of this one and if you'd like to see more content like this overall then please do feel free to subscribe and I will see you in the next audio analysis