Review Summary: A very interesting and promising release, but Issues have a way to go yet before their sound is perfected.
Issues had been a topic I was skeptical about before I heard them, but after I am confident in the ability this band has. My worries were that Issues would end up being nothing but a Woe, Is Me clone. Whilst I never hated this band, their releases were really sub par when compared to the potential I saw in Tyler Carter and Michael Bohn. Now this release does do this job, but presents a few flaws that hold the debut EP back a little. However, over time this is something I am confident as the band progresses that they will address with better music.
Now for what Black Diamonds is, creates a memorable and fun listen. It won't however change your mind or convince you to love the talent that is shown throughout here and certainly, the potential. Tyler Carter and Michael Bohn present some great vocal work. What presents itself as a problem to me is that they are not taking full advantage of the styles they could have meshed together and instead lean on the more familiar ground of metalcore. Yes, you can see the strong influence of metalcore at the forefront of this records, with it's flaws and strengths.
Now I will move on to a track by track analysis:
Black Diamonds. A well mixed and interesting listen. You can see the influence of scout here, but he still has a way to go yet. The track gets boring and in all honesty is way too long. However, it does redeem itself at the end with a nice build up to the next track and flows well in that regard.
King Of Amarillo. This song is pretty much solid. There is nothing too bad here, pretty average mixing and instrumental inclusions that all flow and mix well. If anything, Tyler Carter does not always consistently perform here though. Which is a shame considering he shines on this song from time to time.
The Worst Of Them. This song by all means feels like something ripped out of the charts with a metalcore/postharcore-esque vibe to it. It works well and is pretty catchy and Bohn's screams fit right in for a nice change of pace to stop this song becoming stale.
Princeton Ave. This song soars miles above the rest with its powerful message and lyrics. Tyler performs very well here and Micheal performs at his best on the record on this song. It's a song that really does leave an impression.
Love.Sex.Riot. I have no idea what this song is doing here. It's really a shallow party it up song. This isn't bad by any means but it boggles my mind that they put it right after Princeton Ave. Fronz is also here and Issues seem to jump on the bandwagon of including the Attila vocalist and letting him mold their music a bit. In spite of all this, it is the catchiest song on the EP and the build up before the chorus is pretty awesome.
Her Monologue. This song is great. Tyler's vocals really do show his potential here, they make the track that would other wise be average, great. A nice song, that leaves me full of hope for this band.
The hidden track 'Embrace Your Issues' came as a shock to me. The rap Tyler provides here pleasantly surprised me and is actually for the most part strong. The inclusion of Snow tha Product was nice, but doesn't really fit the sound issues were going for on the record.
Issues are a great and talented band. The issues here are the way the EP flows, inconsistent lyricism and a few inconsistent performances let the EP down. However, this is one of the best EP's I have heard and is a fun listen. I would recommend a purchase. Now all I have to do is wait for Issues to become the amazing band it's meant to be.
