Album Details

• Artist: Chiodos
• Album: The Heartless Control Everything
• Label: Search and Rescue Records/EVR
• Year of Release: 2006
• Original Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: digitalbath on 2008-03-07

Even though I am a big fan of Chiodos, The Heartless Control Everything is definitely a sub-par album from a potentially exceptional band.  The music within this album is clearly that of a first album (which this was, but was re-released by Equal Vision in 2006 after it's initial release in 2004).  I think the most notable thing about this particular album is simply to see the progression from the Chiodos found within The Heartless Control Everything and the developed Chiodos of their later albums.

Musically there were a few problems that made this album really distracting for me personally.  Any time a harmony was added to the vocals, it was typically mixed pretty quietly into the song and the vocals for the harmony are almost always flat (at a lower pitch than they typically should be).  Some bands like to sing off key for added effect but this wasn't off enough for added effect, this was off enough so that you notice it was a mistake.  Something else that I picked out was that in certain songs, specifically "Rainclouds for Eyeballs," the drums were a bit off and didn't sound very confident.

Even with these problems, it doesn't take away from the fact that Chiodos put out some great albums after this one.  The Heartless Control Everything is just another album that makes you say, "everyone's got to start somewhere."  This was their starting point and they've definitely progressed past the mistakes of The Heartless Control Everything. 

User Reviews and Comments

on 2008-03-08 dscanland Said:

I agree completely with this review. It's like this was a jumping point to greater things. If they kept up albums like The Heartless Control Everything, Chiodos wouldn't be where they are today.
Rating: 5/10