Monday, August 3, 2009

Review: Shinko Syukyo Gakudan NoGoD - Kuro Fukyou

Today I randomly came across +Medical Lolita's+ journal, and of course the first message you'll see there is "this site is closed". Why is it closed? She "fell out of love with Visual Kei". I can find that completely understandable, since half of the music that these bands put out nowadays are atrocious. She maintained it for three years, and I give her props for that, but when it comes to Visual Kei, being positive about reviews from most bands are a very very taxing thing to do. So that's why most of my reviews are from things that were released a few years back, like this one. Of course, I did Ifukyou yesterday so I have to keep them together, but you'll eventually start to see me include just more than Japanese Rock music here because...well...most of these bands suck.


01. Monokuro
02. Gekiretsu Kyoukan Ranchiki Kyou

Why this one has been tossed to the wayside and Gu Ren the one that gets the spot on the Kanna Fukyou record I will never know. Monokuro is by far the superior song out of the two, and even all these years later I still listen to it at least once a week. When compared to many other NoGoD songs, it falls into the least used category of "epic power ballad". It's not completely soft and drawn out like Yakusoku no Chi, it isn't a Rinne Tenshou, and even though it has hard parts they aren't poppy and upbeat. Even said hard parts are restrained accordingly and everything works together to create the sad atmosphere that weaves within every note of this song. Said atmosphere starts off violent and dips to it's ultimate calmness at the solo where there's just one guitar playing some notes until the song explodes into your face. The entire time, there's a tense feeling going on throughout the song, as if you're waiting for something unexpected or horrible to happen (even though the entire feeling is unwarranted; the entire song is effective but simple in construction). Danchou's singing is mostly falsetto in this song and creeps the hell out of me because he sounds utterly distraught and forlorn. Yes, Monokuro is not a happy sounding song, and because of that it is so different from many other NoGoD songs just to start out with. The only flaw to this song is the way it ends. It's supposed to flow with the next song so when you listen to it all alone it's going to cut off and ruin the entire flow of the track. When you listen to it with the next track, it flows seamlessly.

Gekiretsu Kyoukan Ranchiki Kyou is the type of track that's all over the place in sound, and it establishes itself immediately as the polar opposite of the last track you heard. The song is upbeat and violent, if you can even imagine that. It's got clapping, choked scurgles, beaver chirping, very nasty screams from Danchou, dark backvocals and a very 80's three-note riff. And that's even before Danchou kicks in with an uncharacteristically deep voice before he winds it up at the chorus! Even though I hate poppy choruses, this song is so all over the place it's one of the few songs I'll ever accept it in. Proof of this schizophrenia is the "portion" right before the solo right before it launches into the solo which in itself is badass but is accentuated even more by the complete moments of "what the bloody fuck" before it. Gekiretsu Kyoukan Ranchiki Kyou is a love-it-or-hate-it track straight up from the beginning to the end.

In what is possibly one of the most forgotten and underrated NoGoD singles, coming back to Kuro Fukyou is starting to remind me of what NoGoD is capable of when they decide to put careful thought into creating new, experimental pieces of music. Neither one of these songs sound like "any other NoGoD song" and that's why every time I come back to this single there's a magic about it that hooks me onto NoGoD (Monokuro was the reason why I got into NoGoD in the first place, even though Tsumibatsu Egoist was the first song I ever heard by them). That's the reason why most of the entries this month have been nothing but NoGoD. So, to wrap this up...

Recommended:

Kuro Fukyou

Score: 93%

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