CD REVIEW: D.R.U.G.S. “Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows”

D.R.U.G.S. “Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows”

                Whenever a particular singer that I like gets kicked out of his band for having a nervous breakdown and being sent to a mental hospital it makes me sad.   I’m not sure how often this happens or if it’s even what fully happened with Craig Owens and the other members of Chiodos.   I’m actually not even sure at this point in time whether or not Chiodos is still a band without Craig.  I know they did at least one album with a different singer, but after that I really have no idea.

                Following the success of “All’s Well That Ends Well” and my favorite “Bone Palace Ballet”, Chiodos seemed to be on the brink of greatness.   They seemed like nothing would hold them back except themselves.   And then Craig Owens left the band.   So that was the end of them for me.   Craig did some other musical things, including a solo tour, but eventually he found himself in this band called D.R.U.G.S.    Is this what the next Chiodos album would have ended up sounding like had Craig Owens stayed with the band?   Maybe, but not entirely.  

                For one thing, I definitely believe that the other members of Chiodos have a somewhat different (and better) style of music than whoever is currently backing Craig Owens.   Craig Owens has a very distinctive vocal style that you can hear in these songs, but it just sounds overall more like something that he might have done as a demo prior to finding Chiodos.   It’s not that it’s not good, it’s just somewhat generic in terms of music and for that it suffers overall.   The other members of Chiodos were apparently pretty talented musicians who gelled very well together and this just shows what happens when Craig Owens doesn’t have that kind of support behind him.

                The passion and fire of Craig Owens is still there, but now it also does seem more focused on heartbreak (Which was covered in “All’s Well That Ends Well”) than the mental health issues I related to much more than a girl not calling you back.    But in reality, Craig Owens could write songs for children, singing about Mary having a little lamb only in his own style of verse and he’d still be great at it.

                So this album is better than the Chiodos music without Craig Owens, and if you are a fan of the Chiodos albums named here within then this will be something that you want to hear.   This music still leaves something to be desired though, such as a potential reunion for the real Chiodos one day because, hey, even Dashboard got back together with Further Seems Forever.