Review Summary: A solid effort, despite the stumbles.
Starset’s cinematic experience continues to evolve album after album. After stepping away from the more space-themed and metaphorical concepts of Transmissions and Vessels, the band took a more concise and direct route, infusing their compositions with a sharper political tone. Their messages now lean toward themes of consumerism, corruption, and revolution, while also exploring broken relationships, violence, decay, and depression.
Although Divisions faltered with its superficiality and Horizons rekindled the band’s emotional odyssey, SILOS dives headfirst into a dark, cynical, and nihilistic atmosphere. The album opens with the melancholic and atmospheric praesens, followed by the rhythmic arrangements and aggressive composition of DEGENERATE. This energy carries through BRAVE NEW WORLD and DYSTOPIA. While not as heavy as Devolution (Horizons) or Telekinetic (Divisions), these tracks still manage to stand out across the album.
DARK THINGS and SILOS deliver digital melancholy wrapped in synths and Dustin’s slow vocals, standing in stark contrast to the earlier aggressive and catchy tracks, as well as TOKSIK, which leans into a more commercial, radio-friendly sound. SHATTERED DREAMS and HEAD OVER HEELS are decent reinterpretations of the originals, though they don’t shine as brightly among the rest. The only two non-singles, SWAY and AD ASTRA, are solid compositions but don’t go much beyond that.
The album features sixteen tracks, including two covers and six interludes. This is where the quality begins to fluctuate. While all the released singles have clear personality and identity, there’s a noticeable lack of artistic cohesion. The interludes, though well-crafted, feel like fillers—designed more to pad the tracklist and runtime than to enhance the narrative. The stark contrast between short, intense tracks and long, melodic ones that resemble '90s synthpop gives the impression that they belong on entirely different records. And that’s not far from the truth: SILOS was originally conceived as an EP, but for unknown reasons, it was “stretched” into a full-length album. Unfortunately, that shows.
Despite succeeding in the cinematic formula that has become the band’s signature, SILOS can’t quite hide the fact that it’s an EP trying to pass as a fully conceptualized album. This undermines the overall experience and makes it feel weaker than previous iterations. Still, the presence of strong, captivating singles makes it a worthwhile addition to Starset’s catalog.
