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Real By Design: The Demise of Control (EP)

Ok, so before I opened the CD case, I noticed this album has a way cooler cover that the last album I reviewed so I thought it was cool and trippy in a dark, gloomy kind of way. Lightning is always a great idea for a cover, and it makes this thing look bad-ass. Then I open it, and I get even more scared. There is a picture of these guys, and man, trust me, you don't want to give them a bad review and run into them in a dark alley. So I was really nervous about listening to this because I had a premonition that it would take me to the dark side.

Right off the bat, this disc grabs you by the balls and makes you scream your head off. The vocals seem semi-intelligent at times and when its not on a personal-attack kind of level, this album is really captivating. The music is played well, and these guys don't sound like one of those Creed or 
Nickleback-ish bands, or any of that metal-rap fusion that I can't stand. The vocals would however be more tolerable if the singer used some sort of effects on his voice. Oh damn, I hope the singer isn't the guy who's looking right at you when you open the inlay because he looks pretty pissed off already. I just wouldn't ask him to do anything different with his voice in production, but I hope he'd think about it cause this album is pure hard-rocking, kickin-ass type of music.

The Demise of Control is a five-track EP, so there isn't much else to talk about, but I wish the song "Confessions" was performed a little differently. Let me explain - no matter how kickin' a hard rock band is, they gotta let you know they got feelings too, man. So sometimes you get a great power ballad like "November Rain" or "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," but Guns n' Roses and Poison were really eloquent in just how sweet they could be. They sang a lot smoother, and the music was straight, clean, and soaring. The last song is called "Seasons," and I like it because it makes me think about how much I love the seasons changing. I guess it's really easy to hit a soft spot for 
me, but that doesn't mean I'm easily impressed.

Overall, this album made me happy to think that all this music coming out that sounds like Korn, but with the rap-meter swishing back and forth from band to band, isn't the hottest thing since grunge. I don't recommend more bands sprouting up like that, but what we've got here is a band that didn't bore me half to death. It did scare me half to death when the music on the album was over and then a minute later later, this interview with the guys in the band starts up; I swear to god, it made me think I was gonna get killed, so be careful of that if you are listening to this album at four in the morning and all the lights are out.

I'd like to see these guys in concert if they ever play a club in an area that my mom will let me go to.

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