Red - Gone Review

Concise Summary:

In my opinion, Release the Panic back in 2013 was a style transition album into Of Beauty and Rage, which, in turn, set the tone for Gone. However, I think that Of Beauty and Rage and Gone sound way too similar. Both albums seem to have apocalyptic themes to the lyrics, there's a lot of synth, the drums are electronic, there are really no technical guitar parts, and the singing is generally quiet with a few screams thrown in for some variety. Granted, it's a pretty unique sound, but having Of Beauty and Rage and Gone sound so similar, especially with regard to lyrical themes, is just... boring. In my opinion, each album should tell a different story, but Gone just seems to tell the same story that Of Beauty and Rage told: a vague, apocalyptic, dark, and fairly hopeless story. Because the story is so vague, it's not even like a two-part continuation. Apart from the story (or lack thereof), Gone is probably a better album than Of Beauty and Rage. There are a lot of interesting things musically on Gone that weren't there on Of Beauty and Rage. The instrumentals are very refined and the music is overall a lot more interesting than the music on Of Beauty and Rage. Even the drums sound good on this album. That being said, the music on Gone is nothing new, because again, Of Beauty and Rage sounded very similar. Overall, I found this album disappointing. It just sounds like a style continuation of Of Beauty and Rage with lyrics that still don't tell a story; try something new, Red! 

My Rating: 5 out of 10

Highlights:

• Decent singing
• Good music
• Interesting style variety in the instrumentation

Lowlights:

• Re-hashed, vague, and boring lyrics
• Just seems like a style redo of Of Beauty and Rage
• Most of this album is synth, there's not that much guitar, and when there is, it's just a filler for the synth. I would classify this more as electronic music than "rock"
• More interesting musically than Of Beauty and Rage, but still pretty boring.  

Favorite Songs:

• Gone
• A.I.
• Singularity (This was a legitimately cool song. It sounded a little bit like Exist from Avenged Sevenfold's last album, The Stage. Of course, Singularity is a lot shorter and WAY less technical, but it was still kinda cool.) 

More Info:

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this review are solely those of the author of this article and serve only to convey his opinion of the album in question, not to harm the band.