Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Review: CROSS GATE 2007 ~ Strawberry Seeds~

Yesterday's omnibus was rather interesting so afterward I decided to trace it as far back as I could to see how many CROSS GATES I could put out. I found one as far as 2006 so expect another review on that one as soon as I get a good idea of what it sounds like. The good thing about reviewing omnibuses is that the only thing they share in common are the names: everything else about them makes it feel like a completely different item (which it should be treated like).

Why it's called Strawberry Seeds I will never know and I don't think I want to. It's not angsty or emo enough. Hell, it sounds too fruity to be associated with anything rock-related...

Nega and Siva both make a repeat showing here. That's going to be fun to listen to...-__-

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/05/11/DAKSPEC-2007.jpg
1. Mitei - -OZ-
2. Riot - Siva
3. MOTEL Sapporo - Mello
4. -Ao- - Bergerac
5. terminal care - Lulu
6. Born - Nega

I'm disappointed and pleased at the same time that CROSS GATE 2007 wasn't as good as the one I reviewed yesterday. It means overall that they're getting better with picking the bands that appear on these omnibuses but at the same time anyone that listens to this is going to be assaulted with "less than stellar" songs.

The first up to bat to assist the suicide of this compiled fail is -OZ-'s Mitei. I expected more out of -OZ- out of all the praise I've been hearing about them for the longest time but what I got here is a song with full-on screaming and guitars and drums that sprint along at breakneck speed. Compile that with weak, repetitive death vocals and an ending that falls apart and Mitei doesn't sound all too good. It definitely doesn't belong at the beginning of the omnibus.

I think they recorded Mitei just for this omnibus, which brings me to say if they knew where it was going to be placed why does it sound so ill-fitting?

Mitei is average. Moving on...

Siva's Riot is the best song here, far and away and I'm digging this more than I did concealment yesterday. It's literally the only other song here I'd recommend you listen to and the only one that fits coming after Mitei. The most positive aspect about this song is that the hip-hop faggotry I heard yesterday is replaced with a pretty cool dual guitar rhythm that stands out more than the usual fare when that Middle-Eastern inspired guitar comes twanging in. Riot also changes pace enough to keep me interested but not excessively as to lose me in all it's constant changes (like Jade from yesterday). The only problem I have with this song is that the ending is repeated once too much and that a measure of four would have been more effective than repeating it twice for a total of eight beats. Other than that, Riot is a solid rock song and it greatly surprised me. I dreaded this release thinking I was going to get another concealment.

As this album continued on I started to realize how much these first two tracks shone in comparison...

MOTEL Sapporo tries to come off as some jazzy oshare-rock hybrid but it fails to catch my attention in any manner whatsoever. I had to listen to this seven times in order to remember it came third and then when I actually committed myself to memorizing how it sounds and when what comes where I found a very dull and uninteresting track. Coming off the heels of Riot, the placement of this track does it no wonders (no one cares about placement on omnibi (?) though...) but having it well placed could have done it some good. The song subsequently slows down to an almost painful pace and if this track were to have a pulse it would have flatlined before the two minute mark. The solo doesn't do enough to pick up the pace and this entire song is just...slow beyond reason. I hate oshare with a passion as it is but even before knowing what style MELLO played I was not getting a good reaction to this song. This is five minutes of your life you will not get back.

Ao sounds like an anime opening to a 4Kids dub of some obscure sub-par anime aired on Saturday mornings targeted to seven year olds that don't know any better. It's the epitome of generic visual kei: songs played by a bunch of old men with weird hair and no musical sense which any good person with taste cannot get into. I apologize half-heartedly to the fans of Bergerac but Ao isn't that good of a song. It does well to continue the trend of increasingly disturbing sounds emnating from my earphones and it's complete with a vocalist that irks me beyond reason AND fails to stand out among the countless other faceless vocalists with similar vocal ranges and with that said it fails to stamp an impression upon my cerebellum compelling me to return to it at some other time to try and get into it some more. In simpler terms, this song is so bland I don't have a reason to play it again once I'm done. The pace does not speed up any from the last track and Ao comes off as uninspired as it's name (which means VERY). Just skip.

terminal care contains the same slow, lumbering pace as the last two tracks but thankfully it doesn't come off as dead and lifeless. In fact, this song is somewhat interesting in that slow, semi-ballad manner. terminal care plays it as a simple ballad executed with skill, instead of sounding like some bioengineered hybrid freak of nature that botches every musical style it tries to incorporate into it's swirling vortex of sonic fail. What makes it better is that it's not one of those glam metal throwbacks that explode in an emotional finish but lacks any sort of give in the beginning of the song. The vocalist is solid throughout and isn't annoying to listen to. Having a singer that doesn't sound like a musical circumcision is always a plus. What neuters this plus is the ending; I know that it was supposed to simulate an EEG but it repeats nine times over a course of 35 seconds and it crawls to such a slow pace and inaudible volume it causes terminal care to overstay it's welcome. Three beeps would have been optimal.

Even with that inaudible trip-up terminal care is as good as it's gotten since Siva.

Nega's Born sounds horrible. Instruments sound too low and Jin's voice sucks more than usual. This isn't the hard and heavy Nega the way I prefer it and even if it's from their first album the quality of this song all around is so atrocious I cannot gloss over it. Do yourself a favor and skip this.

If this is a sampling of songs from 2007 that must have been a dark year for music in Japan. With only the second and the fifth track being recommended....yeah don't bother tracking this down.

Recommended:

Riot
terminal care

Score: 54%

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