How To Destroy Angels – Welcome Oblivion (2013)

How To Destroy Angels – Welcome Oblivion (2013)

For a husband-and-wife project, How To Destroy Angels produces lonesome music. Reznor’s first full-length LP with his wife Mariqueen Maandig has an Antarctic outpost quality to it — the title track sounds like the last radio broadcast from a depopulated earth. For all that, it’s a modest, occasionally upbeat affair, composed mostly of subtle orchestration and drum loops. “Ice Age” blends some acoustic instrumentation for a bit of flavor, while lead single “How Long?” turns Maandig into a hysteric siren with a wall of vocal overdubs, but otherwise Welcome Oblivion is content to simmer. Maandig has a better voice, classically speaking, than her husband, but spends most of her time in a gentle croon. The first full-length How To Destroy Angels LP, unlike the roar of Reznor’s earlier work, sounds like an album of lullabies to sing listeners into a final, eternal rest.