Adam Atrix - Blades
SELF-RELEASED | 2026
by Steven Logan
“When I send for you, will you come from heaven?” Adam Atrix asks on “Pearls”, the eighth track from his second album Blades. It’s a question that speaks to the themes the Detroit-based electronic artist is exploring throughout the album. What is sacred? And what can I offer to affirm that sacredness?
Heaven or hell. Angels or demons. Good or evil. These dichotomies recur. After a meditative opener backed by bells, we launch into the jagged, propulsive title track that lyrically blends sex and violence and morality, swirling the sacred and profane on lyrics like “I’m grounded, I’m holy, I feel puss when I moan.” Sex and prayer are directly compared on “White Cross”. This motif is clearest on “Little Devil” when Adam sings “I got angels on my side/I got demons on my mind.” The titular blades of the album might as well be a double-edged sword.
His first album, 2024’s Atrixxx, was a loose collection of club-ready tracks, with a heavy focus on explicit lyrics and featured artists. It was an exciting listen, but not necessarily very personal. Blades is an evolution in that respect, and finds Adam taking some familiar sounds with him in a new, conceptual direction. The result feels more like the conflicted inner monologue of a clubgoer than music for the club itself.
Blades also leans on featured artists, including some repeat performances from the first album, but with some key iterations. Divinecowgurl and Indigo Heaven both return, but Adam uses them in different ways. Divinecowgurl’s vocal tone leant a fun and sultry vibe to the bouncy “H2HO: P***y Aquatic” a few years ago, but she sounds downright possessed against the atmospheric, crashing synths of “Little Demon”. Likewise, Indigo Heaven delivered an airy, bright vocal on the chorus of “Spoiled”, and this time sounds more urgent and, well, heavenly on the standout “Pearls”. This diversity of style across the same performers is impressive and makes me look forward to the future evolution of these partnerships.
Ratchet Racer also returns on “Warfare”, which is probably the closest thing to a song that could have fit in on Atrixxx - it’s a pounding club moment with sexual overtones. But even there, even when we’re letting loose a bit after a heavier opening sequence, there’s an edge that remains. The title - “Warfare” - is a tell. This is not all fun and games.
That sense of darkness and anxiety is present throughout, but moments of light do appear. Often, they are fleeting, like on the intro track or “Pearls”. “Swan” is the perfect example, a gorgeous interlude less than a minute long that’s over just as it begins to crescendo. Then we are swallowed back into the intensity of the closing track, the cinematic statement piece that is “Choir of Shields”.
“Choir of Shields” closes the album on a high note, layering chant-style vocals with hovering synths and the repetition of the lyrics “Little devil.” It’s an ambiguous ending, and feels like a call for protection that may or may not have worked. It ends with the sounds of birds chirping - is this the day breaking? Or have we died and gone to heaven? It’s unclear, but what is clear is that with Blades, Adam Atrix has given us an offering - a true statement that levels him up from an innovative producer to an unmistakable artist to watch.