Waterparks is a pop punk band based out of Houston. They have released several albums and EPs over the years, and their songs have garnered mass amounts of streams, like “I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Want To Die Anymore” with almost 85 million streams. Their newest single “FUCK ABOUT IT (featuring blackbear)” has amassed over six million streams. Now they have released the hard rock anthem “Real Super Dark” off of their upcoming record Intellectual Property. The song is one of their strongest yet, and it sets the tone for the album to come.
The beginning of the song starts out strong, with harsh guitar strums, with an almost industrial sound. Awsten Knight’s vocals immediately have an angry tone to them, with him screaming at the end of each line. The lyrics talk about his management and other magazines, which he references quite a bit in his music. Within the first verse, he is also referencing other music on the album with the line “If you're feeling silly/I'll call you, beep you later,” which is a lyric in their song “FUNERAL GREY.” The lyrics deal with a lot of inside jokes within the band and their fans, but it starts to become less like that as the verses progress. The song picks up in speed in the third verse as Knight sings “My fans are the best/They'd love me more dead/But man, I can't die 'til I finish the album/'Cause if I could time it right, shit could go Platinum.”
The chorus is one of the best parts of the song, and it makes me want to mosh and jump up and down. A combination of Knight’s screaming, heavy guitars, and a hard drum beat make me feel excited as he sings “And everyone's freaking me out/I wake up and I'm up and I'm down/Yo, shut the fuck out of your mouth.” Other verses talk about how his fans perceive him, like he can never make anyone proud, and that he tries to take care of his mental health. The song slows down at the bridge as Knight references the title of the song as he sings, “It gets real super dark around the edge of my heart/Around the edge of my heart/It gets real fucking dark around the edge of my heart.” The part of this song sounds like I am in a trance, and I can imagine this going super hard live as everyone awaits the beat drop, which is sudden and loud, almost like the beat drop in their other song “Turbulent.”
Overall the song is very strong, and I hope the rest of the album sounds similar, with a mix of alternative and harder rock songs. I think this song will be the most anticipated to hear live, as it was only performed before on select dates that they opened for My Chemical Romance last summer. Their newest album Intellectual Property will be out this spring with a U.S. tour to accompany it.
