Review by Hope Romine
When most people hear the name Morgan Rose, they will associate him for being the highly energetic and seasoned drummer for GRAMMY® Award-nominated platinum hard rock band Sevendust, but he is way more than just an incredible drummer, and way more than your average musician.
Controlled Chaos was created in the midst of the pandemic due to Covid-19, and if he felt like he needed to put his time to good use, that’s exactly what he did and can I say he has to have had some severe control and dedication to create such an amazing piece of work in a less than amazing time in this crazy world right now, I mean I struggle to get out of bed every morning.
Controlled Chaos is a masterpiece in which Morgan Rose was responsible for the vocals, piano, arrangement and as you could probably imagine the drums as well, when his Sevendust bandmate Clint Lowery was on guitar and Jason Christopher was on bass, which he is known for playing for Corey Taylor, Prong and Sebastian Bach to name a few.
With all the hard work, somehow all 6 songs were tracked in 10 days! Talk about hustling. This amazing EP is being released November 27th, 2020, please don’t let yourself down, believe me you will be missing out and doing yourself a disfavor if you don’t order this now!
So I’m sure that most know that listening to music through your headphones is more impressive unless I guess if the music sucks then well you’re going to hear it even more clearly, but this EP definitely doesn’t suck!
So I’m listening to “Intro” and of course it sounds like a intro but it’s almost calming yet has a eerie nature as well and it is quite a short intro of only 26 seconds, but it leaves you feeling relaxed then “The Answer” comes on immediately and instrumentally slaps you in the freaking face from the very first second! Even though Morgan is known for some heavier vocals in Sevendust, he has an incredible voice, so gritty and strikes you to the core! Oh my the guitars and drums in “The Answer “ is killer I could listen to this all day! I’m someone that typically gets connected to music through the instrumental side, but the lyrics in this song is quite relatable to many! Just the first few lines of lyrics will get you pulled into this chaos we are all in at the moment.
“Faster Man” is a lot slower in nature, but the drums are hard and his vocals and lyrics in this song truly spoke to me. He made me want to keep listening and for someone like me that typically is drawn to heavier music that’s pretty impressive. The piano in this song is a perfect addition to continue that eerie feeling that I felt in the intro and a great way to end this song.
“Clarity” is a song that is talking about exactly what you would think, clarity and trying to figure out things going on in life and how to fix or change to make it better. This song was a little slow for me until I started listening to the lyrics, then it made sense and this song had the calming nature to it like the intro. It’s amazing to me how these songs go together like a book and each song is a different chapter.
“Come Alive” is heavier than the last 2 songs, with the brilliant touch of the piano, the hard hitting drums and some different sides of Morgan vocally compared to the others on this skillfully crafted EP and Last but absolutely not least in any sense of the way, “Exhale”.
“Exhale” has such a different vibe, his vocals are absolutely stunning and it made my jaw drop as soon as I heard his first note. One lyric in this song that sums everything up is “I can finally breathe” and listening to this song you can hear the sense of relief in this song compared to the feelings and emotions in the first song. “Intro” was the calm before the storm and “Exhale” is the calm after! Absolutely mind blowing!
I will say I love how this EP was arranged and how the songs were in put in order and Controlled Chaos is a reminder that we are all in this madness together, and that it will eventually get better so just “Exhale” and allow yourself to breathe in a moment we all feel like we are suffocating.
