Posted: February 3, 2008
Contributed By: Vic

	Purchase @ iTunes Release Date: September 21, 2007
	AM Conspiracy is: Jason “Gong” Jones (Vocals) Brian Diemar (Guitar / Programming) Drew Burke (Guitar) Kenny Harrelson (Bass) Dean Andrews (Drums)

Overview: In late 2002, the hard rock music scene was blindsided by the untimely death of Drowning Pool singer, Dave Williams, who had died by way of an undiagnosed heart condition. The band overcame the tragedy, recruiting an unknown singer by the name of Jason “Gong” Jones to replace Williams. However Jones would only remain with the band for their second album, ‘Desensitized‘. He then found his way into a new band called AM Conspiracy. While their debut album, ‘While You Were Sleeping‘, is not yet completed, they have released a four-song EP, ‘Out of the Shallow End‘.

The Good: ‘Out of the Shallow End‘ demonstrates a surprising range in Jones’ voice, between the gruffer cuts like the opener “Absence” and “Right On Time” to the cleaner tunes “Down” and the lead single “Far”. There are no songs here remotely similar to “Bodies” or “Step Up”. All four songs are mid-tempo rockers with clean, melodic vocals. Maybe with an exception of Jones, none of the band members truly distinguish themselves on these songs. But the band has great chemistry, giving you a result that’s more than you might expect. Lyrically, the songs are tightly written. “Absence” deals with the loss of a loved one, while “Down” is an end-of-days prediction.

The Bad: Obviously this CD is held back simply by the fact that it’s an EP. It is little more than a brief introduction to AM Conspiracy. It doesn’t show off many different sides of what the band is or isn’t capable of, instead providing just four songs that don’t have too much variety between them. If this band is planning anything other than mid-tempo rock spots, they don’t want us to know until we buy the full-length release.

Bottomline: ‘Out of the Shallow End‘ serves the purpose of an EP by giving you a taste of the band without revealing too much of what they have up their sleeve. That doesn’t mean it isn’t disappointingly short on material, but that ought to just make listeners want the full-length album even more. As long as it has a little more variety to it, it ought to be a great album when it’s done.

Rating: 7 out of 10