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Album Reviews : Conscious Control – Feed the Machine

By on July 18, 2014

Whenever I’m asked to listen to new metalcore I’m usually a bit apprehensive at first. There’s a lot of stuff out there that to be fair is quite mediocre. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when the intro of Apex, the first song on Conscious Control‘s Feed the Machine EP, completely hit me in the face. I get a lot of Arch Enemy vibes when I listen to this EP. I’m not sure if it’s intentional or not, but it doesn’t really matter, it is a very positive thing either way!

Conscious Control hails from Melbourne and it is always great to discover good music from Australia. Being from Sweden I am still pretty new to the Australian metal scene but so far, from what I’ve discovered, you’re all blessed with some darn good music!

Actually, the first thing I noticed when I listened to Feed the Machine for the first time was that the individual musicianship is definitely at a very high level. The music is on the melodic side for the most part which I think is the main reason for my appreciation of this EP. The aforementioned song Apex opens up with a big bang. While not very fast, it is a heavy song and I’m sure that it would make for a great gig opener! This is definitely my favourite track. It has some really interesting riffs, great drum parts and the vocals works well.

We move on to Enslave the Masses which has a great melodic intro. The guitars are catchy; it is the type of guitars that South American crowds would sing along to very loudly. I love the vocal style changes in this song, it works really well. The guitars really shine in this song.

Next up is False Idols which in my opinion is the weakest track on the EP, it’s not bad, but it lacks some of the great riffs and melodies that the other tracks have. The solo at the end and the outro makes for some interesting instrumental stuff though!

Prisoner has a very good chorus which I found myself “singing” in my head on a couple occasions the last few days. I do feel that maybe this song should have been the one to finish the EP, the somewhat solemn feel to the vocals and the guitar solo at the end would make for a good last song!

The last song is instead Autophobia and this track has a very addicting intro. I don’t find it as strong as the two opening tracks but it surely is a good piece of metal. It ends with a pretty generic breakdown which I feel isn’t as interesting as the solo at the end of Prisoner, but that’s a minor issue.

And that’s it! I must say that to begin with I wasn’t quite convinced that Scott’s vocals were getting the job done, but after having listened through the EP a fair few times I’m starting to like them more. Overall Conscious Control has come up with some really good metal songs. I would advise people to check this EP out and to not be scared away by the fact that it’s a metalcore band.

Band: Conscious Control
Album: Feed the Machine
Year: 2014
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Independent
Origin: Melbourne, VIC

1. Apex
2. Enslave the Masses
3. False Idols
4. Prisoner
5. Autophobia

About

Martin is an aspiring music photographer/videographer. He is originally from the southern parts of Sweden and now he's living in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to his older sister, he got into Rammstein at the age of 9, and since then he's been into all types of metal/rock. He loves to combine photography and music, but also filming concerts and produce live material. Follow him on Twitter and check out his website.