Controller – The True Sense Of Strength Within (Recommendation)

The American crossover band Controller has been on my radar since their first record and since their first full-length, The True Sense Of Strength Within, was released recently, my interest in the combo has been rekindled. You can expect 10 songs in classic Thrash / Hardcore style to stomp, mosh and headbang to, which are clearly rooted closer in Punk than in Metal and can score points especially with their violent and frustrated sound. Seems like it’s time to let out some excess energy and clean your motorcycle to this album.

Controller rumbles off without much flourish and gives full throttle with nasty guitar playing full of Metal squealing melodies. In the course of the album, the songs stand out as moshy metal anthems, where especially the nagging vocals are in the forefront, which roar around distortedly with rage and underline the aggressiveness of the sound. Apart from that, there are a lot of different crossover elements to be heard, ranging from stomping Thrash Metal to groovy Hardcore Punk and nasty breaks, leaving nothing to be desired, yet not really standing out from most other bands from this genre. The production comes across as authentic and pleasantly rough. Controller stir up a lot of dust on The True Sense Of Strength Within and push out one stomping banger filled with angry downtempo parts after another without being particularly innovative. But that’s not necessary at all, because at least with me the tracks ignited well and could give me a huge ass-kicking – especially with the viscious riffing and grumbling bass. So if you know the band’s previous reords and were enthusiastic about the 2020 Promo, you will also be able to find something to deal with on the debut album and mainly enjoy the very distinctive vocals and heavily played instrumentals. Favourite track to check what this band sounds like is ‘Manipulation Tactics’, where you get very sick instrumentals and the best songwriting of the whole album.

Since February 14, you can buy The True Sense Of Strength Within on vinyl or digitally released from the band itself, which I can highly recommend to every fan of the Crossover genre. Strong vocals, raw production and various melodies make the debut album of Controller good entertainment, but to really stand out from the crowd there is still missing a little. However, if you like raw mosh Metal with nasty riffing that makes you want to throw a chair or two around, you’ll get your money’s worth here and should be able to enjoy the long player as I did.

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