ALBUM REVIEW: Skrillex - Quest for Fire

    Upon hearing the name "Skrillex" in relation to a new album, my reaction was that of Old Ben Kenobi when hearing the name Obi Wan in the original Star Wars movie - it certainly was a name that I haven't heard in a long time. Skrillex definitely feels like one of those "you had to be there" things, and while I don't think it's necessarily fair to call his music a fad, it's definitely fizzled out since the days of the Bangarang and Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites EPs that broke Skrillex in the first place - when's the last time you really heard dubstep anyways? Strangely enough, though, it seems this has been an album in the works since 2021, and at last Skrillex's "grand return" is here with a back-to-back album release with both Quest for Fire and Don't Get Too Close. While I haven't heard the latter (and if reviews are any indication, I may not want to), I have heard Quest for Fire, and despite not sitting through a full Skrillex project before this, the resulting journey of this album is a more than pleasing EDM adventure that brings enough energy to earn some weight

    If there is any criticism that can be levied at this project, and really every Skrillex project really, it's that most of the production sounds fairly similar. That isn't to say that the end results are bad, especially on this album, but it does cause some moments to bleed between each other as the project goes on. Ultimately, though, this isn't really an issue with this more laid back electronic album - this is far less dubstep of his early days and moreso a real discipline in EDM throughout, and frankly it works to the album's benefit. Obviously, he's a very capable producer if songs like "Butterflies" or the thrilling opener "Leave Me Like This" are any indication, and frankly I found a lot of this music far more appealing than the pure brostep of his earlier days - not nearly as in your face and garish, and in turn Skrillex allows his features to coast off his consummate and clean instrumentation, and usually they make a likely pairing. There's still some of those bizarre sound effects that are ingrained in the Skrillex canon, but ultimately they're subtle enough to where you don't really notice.

    Speaking of the great production melding with the features, many of them sound fairly natural over the work that Skrillex is doing here - Missy Elliott  takes the mic on "RATATA" and her feature is not only great, but it fits the high-octane energy of the track. Nai Barghouti's singing on the excellent "XENA" provides a new layer of musical exploration to the track, as do features from other artists like Noisia and josh pan on "Supersonic (my existance)", which serves as the album's highest moment. Generally, it's this chemistry with the artists that Skrillex works with that makes the album, and his eye (or ear, rather) for which artists will go with which beat is almost impeccible. Is it any wonder that some of the album's weaker moments like "Hazel Theme" are moments where Skrillex is mostly operating on his own?

    With Macklemore and Skrillex releasing albums in 2023, I feel like I've gone back in a time machine, let me tell you. Quest for Fire is a more than suitable electronic album that showcases a very different Skrillex than the one I was hearing in YouTube quick-scoping compilations back in the olden days. He's clearly grown to be much more diverse as a producer, and the high-octane beats in tandem with a good sense of artist choice makes for a solid time that's more than worthy of the grandiose title that it lends its name to. Whether you're simply nostalgic or you want a solid EDM album, Quest for Fire has got its namesake in droves.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Quest for Fire.