William Control – Revelations

The release of 'Revelations' is like a gift to the fans

Album facts

Release: October 12th, 2018
Label: Control Records
Genre: Dark Wave, Electro Rock, Synth Pop, William Control
Discogs: William Control – Revelations
Partially sounds like: Depeche Mode, Faderhead, Mesh

More than just a compilation

Although this album should nev­er be released, how­ever, this happened without much notice on October 12th. We at Electrozombies are very pleased that it nev­er­the­less led to a release. We do not want to inter­fere in the private affairs of 'William Control' or blindly fol­low the hate com­munity due to some uncon­firmed rumours. We are only inter­ested in the music!

As we have already reviewed the first three Revelation EPs 'The Pale', 'The Black' and 'The Red', we will briefly sum­mar­ize these here. Unfortunately, we have nev­er received the 'Revelation: The White EP' as a promo copy, which is also avail­able here. In addi­tion, are two new songs on 'Revelations' it to com­plete the work.

The Pale

'The Monster' is an uber-hit. It's a power­ful dance track and I would go so far to say it's almost a club clas­sic. The chor­us is super catchy and very dynam­ic­al. My of my abso­lute favour­ites on this album.

Oh dark­ness I want to sing your song forever
Lyrics from 'The Monster' by William Control

The second song 'Confess' comes in a midtempo speed. It calms you down after the open­er and sounds a bit dark­er. The chor­us on this track comes in an 80s Pop style with a dreamy twitch­ing gui­tar. The voice is very emo­tion­al in this song and leaves the remark­able line: "We kill for love", in my head.

The hyp­not­iz­ing lyr­ic lines in the chor­us: "Dance with me forever when the love is pain" still in my mind after listen­ing to the gor­geous song 'When The Love Is Pain'. Furthermore, this track comes with and really nice BDSM bridge. Great song!

The song 'Mother Superior' comes along more mod­er­ated and with a breath of tragedy. It sounds gloomy and very ser­i­ous. After the third listen­ing, I had a cold shiver run­ning over my back. This song has def­in­itely a thoughtfulness.

The Black

The fifth track 'Analog Flesh In A Digital World' is a power­ful and strongest song on the album. This song mutates without big detours into a catchy ear­worm. It has everything a good Synth Pop song needs. The song moves in the good mid-tempo range, is catchy, dance­able and intel­li­gently written.

Here is my digit­al heart, The neur­omantic crim­in­al start. I wanted love, not a cyn­ic­al lie.
Lyrics from 'Analog Flesh in a Digital World' by William Control

A much deep­er bass line is one of the focus ele­ments in the second track 'All I Need'. Here 'William Control' provides us with a first-class and radio-fit Synth Pop song.

'Knife Play' almost clas­sic Synth Pop melod­ies paint this superb song. There are awe­some beat bridges to the catchy chor­us that amp­li­fy­ing the dark pas­sion of the 'Knife Play' lyr­ics. I really enjoyed this track.

The last song 'Velvet Rose' isn't a bad song at all, but it couldn't really con­vince me. It's the cliché of a song on the end of an album: The typ­ic­al piano bal­lad. Indeed the mel­an­chol­ic lyr­ics impressed me, but there is noth­ing spe­cial that makes this song unique.

The Red

The first bass beats of 'Kiss The Girl' are damn impress­ive and con­jure up a smile on my face. 'Kiss The Girl' is a super catchy, radio-friendly dance gren­ade. Lyrically it's about sexu­al role­play games, which are of course a big top­ic in the over­all concept 'William Control'. Nevertheless, the text is on a taste­fully high level and doesn't seem too stereotypical.

The second track 'Let Her Go' is in the same up-tempo range as 'Kiss The Girl'. Acoustically is the 80s Synth Pop atmo­sphere, beau­ti­fully inter­preted in mod­ern times. In the verses, you hear an angel­ic-sound­ing 'Aaahhh' sample, which seemed very famil­i­ar to me. After a few minutes, I had it. It sounds like a sample from Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy The Silence'. Consciously or uncon­sciously it's used magnificently.

Urgency is the first term that I asso­ci­ate with this very gloomy and ser­i­ous sound of 'Scars'. The sound is calm but dom­in­ant, mel­an­chol­ic but full of hope, I love this track. Thematically we stay in the expli­citly erot­ic area, but here the whole is spiced with a pinch of romance. Subtle and pro­found without los­ing the focus of their own style, test­i­fies to great cre­at­ive tal­ent.

Your tongue is sil­ver and your heart is black.
You've got your claws sunk deep in my back.
Lyrics from 'Scars' by William Control

The track 'Submit' con­vinces with the ton­al dynam­ics and the red thread that ends here. The role play 'Master and slave' is the focus here. With an excel­lent and sol­id sense of style, 'Submit' has no sig­ni­fic­ant flaws and fits per­fectly into the spec­trum of sexu­al pleasure.

The White

With a trot beat sim­il­ar to the clas­sic 'Personal Jesus' by 'Depeche Mode', the song 'Bad Religion' has already gained some ground. In a leis­urely mid-tempo trot beat, the thing still rocks the shack. Super catchy and beau­ti­fully well-defined har­mon­ies and melod­ies flat­ter the ears.

Nostalgic Synthwave atmo­spheres exude the first notes of the track 'Ghost'. In a super cool and cas­u­al beat, you res­on­ate with the song. Great use is the typ­ic­al 80s drum stair­case, between the first verse and chor­us. Despite the many lyr­ic phrases, 'Ghost' is a smash­ing song overall.

In my opin­ion, 'The Sinner' has a slightly Asian touch in terms of sound. But there is a first-class Synthie Pop song. For a change, William Control leaves the micro­phone in the middle of the song to a female vocal part­ner. That raises the track a lot. Unfortunately, des­pite my research, I could not fig­ure out who it is. If you should know, please drop us a line below in the comments.

'Love Is Cruelty' is a party tune. It impresses with its son­ic dynam­ics with the use of dif­fer­ent speeds and instru­ment­a­tion. I love this track and for me, it's one of the best on this album.

The revelation is completed

The song 'All The Love' is icy cold and sounds men­acing in the verses. An acous­tic hope unfolds in the pre-chor­us and radi­ates in sal­va­tion in the highly emo­tion­ally charged chor­us. Wow, what a hell of a song. The used sounds and lyr­ics address feel­ings on many dif­fer­ent levels and that is rarely bare to find in songs.

In a light, pop-like song, William Control blasts out bru­tal lyr­ics of con­tempt. Very pro­voc­at­ive, but lyr­ic­ally the fur­ther thought ver­sion of Depeche Mode's 'It's No Good' or 'Dream On'. Only less subtle. The song is super har­mo­ni­ous and radi­ates a cer­tain naïve aura.

Verdict

I still have hope that the career of 'William Control' isn't over yet. This is one of the best albums in 2018 and it would be more than a pity if such a tal­ent would mute forever.

I would like to emphas­ize once again that we are not influ­enced by any rumours spread on the Internet. We remain a neut­ral and above all hate-free Webzine that is only inter­ested in music. We will not par­ti­cip­ate in any witch hunt and will not pub­lish inap­pro­pri­ate com­ments. For every­one else: Buy this awe­some record now!

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2018‘. Read now.

Track By Track Rating