Review Summary: All that promotion the band put this album through doesn't live up to what this could've been, and it all comes to a halt once you hear exactly what this band has to offer, and that isn't much.
Reputation is an important thing in the music industry, whether it’s people knowing your name and your accomplishments, or all your mistakes. When you mess up in such a crazy industry, people know. The rumors begin and next thing you know, you’re on the wrong side of the fan base, becoming more of a disgrace than an idol. It’s people like me who look at Craig Owens with such a bizarre wonder, knowing whether not to find respect for him for what he’s done and what he’s been through, or completely toss him to the side as another worthless member in society. After being harshly removed from Chiodos for many unexplained reasons, Craig is back with D.R.U.G.S., (an acronym for Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows).
Containing members formerly of bands like Matchbook Romance and From First to Last, D.R.U.G.S is nowhere close to being a super group, rather a small combination of people from bands we’ve heard before. Compiling a small documentary about themselves before the release of their album, Craig and his group did everything they could to expose themselves to the public as quickly as possible. Following was the band releasing one song from the album everyday up to the initial release, and with those songs a little teaser video. With the band bringing so much attention to themselves, you’d think they’d put out something to look forward too, but that’s not the story here.
Their self titled debut album is a compilation of seemingly angry moments from the life of Craig Owens. Most of the tracks seem to be aimed at a girl previously in his life, as he sings about her having sex with other guys and doing everything else humanly possible. The one problem with most of the songs is that they all sound the same, featuring similar choruses and structure. It’s songs like ‘Sex Life’ and ‘I’m Here to Take the Sky’ that show the embarrassing side of the band, while others like ‘Mr Owl Ate My Metal Worm’ and ‘If You Think This Song is About You’ show hope in what this band could do and should move towards in the future. The big performance here is of course from Craig Owens, as he does a great job vocally on a few levels. His screaming is just as good as his singing, and while his nasally style tone does nothing to allow him to stand out from other vocalists, he’s still a great singer.
It’s really in the heavier tracks that show their true potential, in the second track ‘The Only Thing You Talk About’, we’re given a catchy chorus that follows the opening chant, and a few good breakdowns scattered throughout. It’s also with these songs we see just how poor of a lyricists Craig really is. In the song ‘Mr Owl Ate My Metal Worm’, the bridge line is, “I’d like to keep cutting, but I can’t let myself bleed”, which brings back memories to the old emo times which were at best, laughable. The song ‘I’m Here to Take the Sky’ features an extremely catchy chorus, but is brought down by it’s extremely familiar pop-punk style that surely separates it from the other songs, but also shows the bands true lack of creativity.
Many looked forward to see what D.R.U.G.S could possible pull off here, and I was one of them. One of the main problems here is that it just comes out as whiny, and this band needs to seriously look back at this and think about what they could’ve done. Maybe if they weren’t so focused on promotion and attention, they could have created a memorable album, but for the very few listen worthy tracks here, this isn’t an album I’ll find myself talking about anytime soon.
