Ruin The Mind and Control I’m Here’s collaborative EP is a decent collaboration that is held back by one or two faults that stop it from seeing greatness. Control I’m Here is in charge of all instrumentals so I’ll be taking a look at that beginning with ‘Black Heart Emoji (Call Me Now)’. This song about toxic relationships is a fun little romp featuring a decently safe EBM rhythm. Standard song structure featuring a breakdown in the latter half of the song before diving back into the intro beat. Thematic samples including the sound a phone buzzing before it cuts out. 

Guitar chugs come along on ‘Judgment Day’ which looks at apocalyptic love with an obvious nod to T2. Machine driven industrial rock that digs into my veins. Simple but done well. ‘The Abyss’ goes for more of a dancefloor vibe bordering a synthpop track driven by beats that are just a bit heavier. The final song on the album ‘The Hive (New Exhibition)’ gives us a final huzzah, but its execution is a bit sloppy in the latter half as purposefully mismatched dual vocals a la  guest artist Marilyn Monroeville and RTM disengage the beat and falls off. More of a vocal issue than a beat issue, but it needed to be stated. 

And then we get to the vocals. I believe the first time I heard Ruin The Mind, was when he was serving as Denial Wait’s lead vocalist / lyricist. And when I heard him there, specifically on the track ‘Father/Me’, I was astounded by what his smoky vocals could do. However, as I’m listening to him on this EP I’m starting to see a bit of a one-trick-pony status. This is due to his vocals never really doing anything more than what he’s established. Aside from changing the pace of his lyrical delivery, there’s no influx, no attempts at much anything different. It’s what we’ve heard before and I think it gets a bit tired by the end. Even the rapid delivery found on ‘The Hive (New Exhibition)’ doesn’t do much to make this any better. He’s decent at what he does, but it doesn’t change and gets a bit stale. 

So, yes, it’s enjoyable, a bit repetitious on the vocal side, and the final half of ‘The Hive’ doesn’t do it for me. Considering that last track also lasts for around seven-minutes and doesn’t have the meat to back it up made me not want to come back to it after my first or second go around. But, a good effort from each. I wouldn’t say it’s something to run away from, maybe worth a listen, maybe worthy of a song or two (‘Black Heart Emoji’ for sure) to be thrown on a goth-industrial playlist. But not worth heaps of praise, either.