The booklets accompanying the albums at times lend an alternate interpretation/meaning to the songs. For instance, Transmissions features among its art a logo for the Department of Civil Vigilance and Recovery. This lends a different meaning to CarniVoRe which turns it into a hint at its darker nature.
Fittingly, the novel even mentions that the suffering society in the timeline of the Everything Machine calls CVR members "carnivores".
The booklet accompanying Transmissions includes a short graphic novel that depicts the beginning of the Starset narrative. There is also the additional written novel (with an accompanying graphic novel adaptation) The PROX Transmissions which goes more into detail regarding the initial transmissions and the events surrounding Stephen Browning and Aston Wise.
Covered Up : Kind of. Several of the songs on Transmissions including "Down With the Fallen", "Dark on Me", and even "My Demons" were originally written and performed by Dustin Bates' lesser-known band, Downplay. After some alterations, these were later re-released as part of Starset's first album, and those versions are significantly more popular.
Even Better Sequel: All albums have received an overall positive reception from fans, and there is some debate over which is the best. So far, Vessels appears to be the favorite, with the others not far behind.
Fan Nickname: As HORIZONS lacks a song with the tele- prefix, "TUNNELVISION" quickly received the nickname "TELEVISION".
Fridge Brilliance: "Devolution", a song from HORIZONS, was heavily praised for sounding like 2000's rock styles and like many of Starset's older songs. In other words...a devolution of their style.
With Breaking Benjamin. Both Ben and Dustin have mentioned that the two bands have been connecting even before Starset's inception with the latter citing the former as an inspiration. The two have performed together on multiple occasions; Ben joining in for "My Demons" and Dustin joining in for "Breath". In August 2022, the two released a collaboration on "Waiting on the Sky to Change"; a song from Dustin's former band, Downplay. For many fans of both bands, this collaboration was a long time coming.
With Arknights, especially knowing how popular their songs are due to their usage in the game's promotional material and how a lot of the game's fanbase prefer their music over the others made for the game.
Pipe Hype.Explanation A promotional livestream for DIVISIONS featured a mostly empty room, except for a large ceiling pipe. Viewers latched on to it, and pipe references became a minor meme.
Smart Water.Explanation This was more of an inside joke with the band at one point before plenty of the fans also caught on. Dustin has cited during an interview that he often drinks Smart Water. When he was purchasing it at a gas station one day, the cashier told him "you know that's not gonna make you any smarter" as if he was one of those people who would think so. Even if it might be true in any other world, Dustin already has enough smarts to back him up.
More Popular Spin-Off: The band was an offshoot of the obscure rock band Downplay. Downplay never had any charting rock hits and were best known for their song "Hated You From Hello" due to its use by WWE during the Slammys. In comparison, Starset has seen fairly-consistent chart success and more frequent airplay.
Newbie Boom: Already popular on rock radio, Starset gained plenty of fans due to their music's usage in fan videos. The band also gained a lot of international fame with gamers through the usage of "Monster" and "Unbecoming" in Arknights's English marketing and the inclusion of "Satellite" in Forza Horizon 4's soundtrack, with their 2021 single "Infected" being released during the former game's second anniversary stream.
Signature Song: "My Demons" was massively successful upon release. If you've only heard one Starset song, it's very likely this one.
"Monster" was even more successful in terms of chart performance, and has become another staple of the band's live performances.
"'s Melvin is a slob who follows the influencer Chaz through a futuristic technology. Hacking into the device and taking control of Chaz's body, Melvyn strangles Chaz's girlfriend, butchers her body, and guns down party guests, all while Chaz's consciousness is helplessly watching. Melvin eventually returns to his own body, leaving the distressed influencer in the middle of the carnage.