Planes Mistaken For Stars - Do You Still Love Me? [Compact disc hard cover package]

A harrowing document of life, death and transcendence, Do You Still Love Me? is the fifth album from Planes Mistaken for Stars (PMFS), the band’s second outing for Deathwish Records and first new music since 2016. It is also the first PMFS release since the death of frontman Gared O’Donnell, whose cancer diagnosis loomed heavily over the recording and whose ghost guided the mix. Chemo and radiation would not stop him from making this masterpiece, in which the band finds itself reeling from the gut-wrenching horrors of their leader’s unimaginable absence.

Written in Peoria amidst the forced isolation of a global pandemic and recorded by Sanford Parker in Chicago, these thirteen songs burn the ears to listen. Album opener “Matthew is Dead” wastes no time with niceties as Planes mourns the 2017 death of founding guitarist Matt Bellinger — Gared’s throat-shredded rasp seethes as if taunting himself: You’re dead, you’re dead, you’re dead— guttural human screams unbottled and broken glass shattered as transcendental meditation and musical catharsis, for band and listener alike. These acute and raw moments are found throughout the record, audible wounds you can hear, see, taste and almost touch. We’ve only got the night, as Gared knew and preached and lived. Just one last drink, shall we begin?
 
Do You Still Love Me? carries forward Planes’ natural evolution beyond post-hardcore and metal-tinged rock n’ roll, unveiling new layers with each listen. Intertwined vocals and infectious melodies simmer beneath the surface and occasionally boil over, shards of guitar strike like lightning as the rhythm section pounds its marching orders. Whether pummeling mercilessly or tenderly relenting, Do You Still Love Me? shows a band unafraid to lose itself in the musical maelstrom. I don’t have the shakes, the shakes have me — it’s not an easy listen, yet offers immense rewards with time, alchemizing a unique beauty from the pain and tragedy of its creation. It’s an emotional bloodletting for Planes and their extended family around the world, a collective primal scream of coping with life and last breaths, and eternal proof that death is truly not the end.