Dark and Catchy

Ontario, Canada has consistently managed to pump out good music of all genres, and Toronto’s rock band Comet Control is no exception. After all the band members managed to break free from their previous musical projects, they came together to release a short but sweet debut self-titled album.

“Blast Magic” is a perfect opener, containing all the elements the rest of the album has in one song: it’s dark, slow, fast, catchy, and heavy. Chad Ross—formerly of Toronto’s psych-rock band Quest for Fire—has a voice that sounds like he can’t be bothered, or maybe he’s just too stoned.

Ross’s vocals in “Century,” however, are a bit more high-pitched, and the fast pace of the song picks up the mood entirely. “Future Forever” is the middle-man between “Century” and “Blast Magic”: it picks up the pace, but Ross only manages to get a little louder, not any happier.

“The Soft Parade,” which mxdwn premiered, appears not to be a song paying homage The Doors’ fourth studio album of the same title, as far as this reviewer can tell. On this song, along with most of the others, it’s hard to make out the lyrics, since Ross doesn’t make it a huge point to enunciate anything—instead he keeps it cool by making it sound like he only cares a little bit about his vocals and what he’s saying.

Some songs could stand to kick it up a notch. “Ultra Bright,” for example, does not live up to its name. Thankfully, Andrew Moszynski’s (also formerly of Quest for Fire) quick guitar solo breathes some life into the song.

Despite the plethora of fuzzed-out psych-rock these days, Comet Control easily manage to stand out by intertwining elements you may not normally hear in this genre of music. For the sake of bringing something different to the table, let’s hope they don’t lose their inventiveness.