Thursday, August 20, 2009

Review: Sadie - Crimson Tear

In what is the second of "albums I have but haven't taken the time to listen to", we have the maxi-single Crimson Tear. Thanks to Master of Romance I've already heard the title track but here's to hoping that the rest of this maxi-single isn't as bland. At least the cover is epic...

If it is shitty I'll be mad I actually subjected myself to 15 minutes of crap.

http://takosashimi.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/popupme3.jpg
01. Crimson Tear
02. Payment of Vomiter
03. Dustin' Fucker Life
04. The Heartless

Crimson Tear comes off as more of a B-side than something deserving of "single" status. It's spastic, all over the place, and excessively scream-filled. This single's already getting off to a bad foot but I know Sadie's put out better and worse so this floats somewhere in the middle of crap. What sets Crimson Tear apart from it being better than it is is the lack of effort that they put into this. The transitions are plentiful but nothing is forceful enough and it just sounds like a bunch of shredding and riffage but no one section that grabs and throttles me with it's awesome. The chorus is annoying as fuck and Mao's scurgle at the end of it isn't badass - it's pathetic. As a matter of fact, most of Mao's singing is failure in this song. I have no idea what Sadie was going for other than generic riffing and lack of musical creativity. This isn't Sadie - this is some random band who thinks they can rock but they can't. I've seen Sadie rock and I would call this their worst single ever but the Kagerou single dethroned this one. Crimson Tear is unfulfilling.

At least the music video is badass.

Payment of Vomiter suffers from Engrishplox and most of the song is in English and weaves a pathetic tale of woe and loneliness. Mao is cruel people and he prays for you. Speaking of Mao his vocals go from being downright shitty (that's when he strains himself and sounds like he's either anally raped or gargling mouthwash) and very good (that's pretty much everything else). At least 50/50 is better than inconsistent crap.

Other than those two things it's infinitely better than the track that preceded it. My only -other- gripe with this song is that it doesn't dive all the way in. It indulges it's big toe into the watercooler of epic Sadie soundscapes but they feel confined by the last track and don't want to make too big of a departure. I don't give a fuck about the last track. This is a whole new track and calls for a whole new structure.

Dustin' Fucker Life annoys me to no end in that chorus. There seems to be some slight flute-like instrument that plays this series of three notes that completely kill it and makes me want to skip it. Said chorus is cheesy but I can live with it. If you can't hear it don't strain yourself because you don't want to. It made me stop liking this song. Other than that part this song manages to distance itself from the last two tracks and doesn't particularly screw up in one place too badly.

The Heartless has some extremely bad harsh vocals in English punctuated by some good clean vocals in Japanese. The contrast is effective but Mao's death vocals could have been better. He sounds like he has a sore throat. It has nothing to do with the lyrics: his high parts sound like a chipmunk and the low parts aren't deep enough. Speaking of the lyrics, they once again are a depressing tale of woe and emo-ism. Don't you have anything else to sing about? Ugh...if you can live with those vocals you'll probably like the song as it is quite catchy. Otherwise...you won't. Simple, no?

And that's the end of Crimson Tear. It was half decent and half shitty when you take everything under consideration so it seems like a standard Sadie single. It could have been more and it could have been worse but what they do is play good enough to warrant you buying it but play bad enough so that they can trump it on their album and make it seem awesome. So, to wrap this up (since unlike them I'm pretty consistent with my shit):

Recommended:

Payment of Vomiter
The Heartless if you can stand the death vocals.

Score: 53%

Title track is a pile of shit...

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