The Destroyer – Part 1 is the third studio album by Canadian electronic music project TR/ST, fronted by Robert Alfons. It is the first half of the two-part album with the same title. It's set to be released on April 19, 2019 through House Arrest Records, Royal Mountain Records and Grouch Records. The album features contributions from Maya Postepski, his collaborator on TR/ST's debut studio album, TRST, as well as Lars Stalfors and Damian Taylor.

After the end of the tour supporting his last album, Joyland, Alfons started to work on his third studio album. He commented that "after the first and second record and touring, I was really sort of depleted and I definitely needed to regroup." The artist described the process of creating the album as "healing myself and then experimenting with different ideas about what a song I would put out would be."

In July 2017, Robert Alfons released "Bicep", the first single promoting the album.

On February 5, 2019, Alfons announced the third studio album, alongside its title, release date, artwork and tracklist. On the same day, the artist released the second single, "Gone", promoting the album.

On February 21, 2019, Robert Alfons released the third single off The Destroyer – Part 1, "Unbleached", that was premiered on The Fader, followed by the fourth single, "Grouch", released a month later.

The fifth single, "Colossal", was premiered on BrooklynVegan on April 4, 2019. It is one of the five tracks that Robert Alfons worked on with his collaborator on TR/ST's debut album, Maya Postepski. Alfons commented that the song is "such a special collab" and added that it was written "while in different parts of the world."