Stream: M.A.G.S., ‘Destroyer’

on
0
M.A.G.S. (Photo by Jon Stars)

Whatever genre Elliott Douglas dips his busy hands into, there will be blisters. Douglas, who makes music as M.A.G.S., makes mood-swinging incursions into the punk, emo, pop/soul and hard rock worlds. His 2021 album “Say Things That Matter” was hard-wired for broad tastes.

It figures to be the same for his next full-length, “Destroyer,” out Aug. 4. It’s the second M.A.G.S. album to arrive since Douglas relocated from Buffalo, N.Y., to L.A.

After releasing the singles “Elephant” and “Sins” earlier this year, M.A.G.S. this week unveiled the hard-hitting title track.

“I started therapy last year, and while it was helpful for me, what I really took away from it was that I’ve known the answers to all my problems the whole time,” Douglas says of “Destroyer.” “Healing has to be a choice. You can know what’s right and still do the wrong thing because accepting the truth requires real sacrifice. There has to be a level of ‘fuck it’ to everything in life, otherwise things can get really overwhelming and the darkness will swallow you.

“I’ve made the same mistakes over and over without ever realizing I was going in circles. I’ve burned bridges, I’ve hurt people and ran away from fires that I started. … The biggest theme of ‘Destroyer’ is destroying yourself for the purpose of growth. A tree can’t grow until you prune the dead limbs, we’re the same way as humans. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, there’s always a way through the pain and desolation.”

||| Stream: “Destroyer” and “Sins”

||| Previously: “Elephant,” “Say Things That Matter,” “Beg,” “Choked Out,” “Smile”