Exclusive album premiere of ‘Hell Stairs’ by CDSM, out April 29th, via Mothland and EXAG Records.

The Atlanta-based experimental goth/glam-rock band CDSM are sharing their darkwave masterpiece of an EP. It’s weird, it’s edgy, it’s gritty, and it’s a sonic universe if I ever heard one. Featuring hyper-psychedelic bops like ‘GFH’ and darker underground ragers ‘Concrete’, ‘Hell Stairs’ offers so many different slices of life in the world that is Celebrity Death Slot Machine.

As the sun sets on an ever-heating planet, strange synthesizers converse in the distance, punctured by disco rhythms and interjected by saxophone growls, akin to a jukebox of divine sadistic temptations, oozing goth rock-esque melodies that forever haunt you… You have just been exposed to the groovy sonic onslaught of CSDM a.k.a. Celebrity Death Slot Machine, a collective based in Atlanta, Georgia that features current and former members of alternative outfits: Material Girls, Neighbor Lady, Mothers and Rose Hotel.

While in the confines of their windowless subterranean concrete studio, CDSM is helmed by Ben Presley (vocals, guitar/bass, synthesizers, drums), Tyler Jundt (vocals, saxophone, synthesizers) and John Restivo Jr. (vocals, drums, percussion). The live band features accompaniment from Jack Blauvelt (synthesizers, percussion, backing vocals), Drew Kirby (synthesizers, guitar, backing vocals) and Vinny Restivo (synthesizers, bass, percussion, backing vocals). This formula, consisting of an evil choir of synthesizers, a shining drum set bathed in red fog, a tenor brass machete, and a cascading flow of motley melodists, is said to affect the room like a defibrillator jolting its pulse.

‘Hell Stairs’, CDSM’s forthcoming EP, is both glamorous and bleak, swanky and derelict, uplifting and crushing. It’s hedonism clinking in your glass, change jingling in the pit of your chest. Sure, it is post-punk meets darkwave meets no wave, but it’s even more so, an invitation to dance away the pain, in the form of croonesque laments, rumbling synths, swirling saxophone riffs and tight four-to-the-floor cadences. You now have the perfect clair-obscure soundtrack for a night at the local neon noir casino. You’re welcome.

You’ll be given full access to ‘Hell Stairs’ on April 29th, 2022 via Mothland (Believe) and Exag (Orchard). Expect to be pleased with the contents of this first EP from Atlanta’s hot new commodity if you enjoy the musical tendencies of artists such as Viagra Boys, The Voidz, MGMT, Warmduscher, Fat White Family and Gorillaz.

Headline photo: Ben Rouse

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