Review: Lycaon - EROS

I want the creepy bassist and the pink-haired tranny back.

Seriously Lycaon, what the fuck happened? ID is the lamest SE you've ever come up with - it even beats flowing in terms of lameness. But even as this went on, I retain my hope.

VERDICT: n/a

Then EROS comes in.

As much as I want to like it, you made it damn near impossible. It's earsplittingly bad to the point where I'm pretending it doesn't exist. The longer it goes on, the more I want it to end. For all intents and purposes, I'm going to call those elements they incorporated (badly) "country swing" and they make me feel like I'm in a bad strip club where Yuuki's squealing at me while he's removing his thong. Not good. Rito and Satoshi's needless twin guitar melody doesn't mesh with all the crap going on in the background and I'm too busy applying brain bleach to remember anything noteworthy Hiyuu did. I know there was a poorly-placed bass interlude but other than that I can't care.

VERDICT: ...

PINK MILK WITH DRUGS MY DRINK. sounds odd. I'm going to call what Yuuki does "vocal vomit" here because once he starts he doesn't shut up ever. He keeps attempting different things but from the badly processed barking to the YEA YEA YEA's and the UH UH UH's make what he does do right inconsequential because sooner or later he's going to do something to nullify it. It's psychotic but not in the good way. It could have used some fine-tuning and a Yuuki that dropped his vocals just a bit.

VERDICT: meh

Mary is the only good track on this single and it's great in comparison to everything else on here but it's just an average track when compared to the rest of their output. This is straightforward Lycaon with their new guitar tuning and it's the first song where I'm not polarized enough to be able to appreciate Hiyuu's bass lines. Yuuki also doesn't screw up in the vocals either and the guitar melody actually WORKS. Hey Rito, we need more songs like this and not that disaster called "the rest of this single".

VERDICT: OK. It's listenable. I might even like it after a while!

MAD NEUROSIS CHILD isn't bad. The effects they put over Yuuki's voice work to his benefit in my book - I detest it when vocalists put effects over their voice but it makes him sound less annoying so I'll take it. However, I find the guitar tuning to be ill-fitting for this song - it's supposed to be heavy but where they have it set takes a lot of that away. Still, this is the song on the CD closest to their older concept of "hunting instinct" - at least in sound anyway.

VERDICT: Why wasn't this the single?

I've taken to not writing too many reviews because of time constraints but this is just exceptionally bad and the fans need to know what they're in for. They are capable of SO MUCH BETTER so I don't what happened but Lycaon needs to tune the guitars down a notch and Yuuki needs to lay off the helium. Back to the drawing board guys, and this time come back with something respectable. I'm counting on you.

EDIT: I just glanced over the lyrics and...Yuuki screams YEAH in almost every song. Just worth noting that whenever he can't think of something worthwhile to sing he just screams that.

Review: BORN - RED HOT COBRA

Cue the awards for the worst album cover of 2010 goes to...BORN!

01. Cobra

02. Radical Hysteria

No but really, how the hell does that cover have anything to do with a cobra? I don't see one. Whatever they were going for with that cover, the colors they chose definitely did not work. I'm just going to assume they pasted a cobra of some sort on the cover since anything else would have made even less sense than the cover does already.

Questionable artwork aside, this is actually a very good single. It seems that BORN has hit a stride of quality composing after their Sakura single and this one is no different. It comes packaged with two tracks as different as night and day, yet they're both so good it doesn't really matter. The single, Cobra, starts off with some ominous sound effects and a crooning Ryouga before it cycles through sadness, anger, rage, a chorus that doesn't feel like a chorus and then returns right back to the ominous sound effects once more. They definitely had an idea of where they wanted to go with this and it shows; the only problem here is that it took them this long to figure out what they wanted to do as a unit. I would have figured that after cycling through two bands without a member change, this would be the first thing you release under your new name.

But I can forgive Abnormal Head Machine after this song :)

Radical Hysteria is definitely the more accessible track of the two. It follows their punky rock badass attitude with some catchy guitar lines and a memorable vocal performance. I completely enjoy it until I remember this song has some really ridiculous lyrics. "Suck by dick or die?" Really Ryouga, that has about as much lyrical substance as your average Dirty South rapper and the Engrish isn't helping your case either. I'd be willing to look the other way because admittedly, this hiccup has nothing on Sadie's BLACK STARS or your later creation "Sasabari C" (which would be an utter failure if it weren't for the fact that it's so damn catchy!) but if you're going to open your mouth and blabber all over the microphone, at least transcribe lyrics in that booklet of yours that has some real meaning.

If this is what "BORN" represents, then this is definitely one band worth sticking around for. Just sod off with the stupid lyrics.

Review: NoGoD - Kakera

This must be said: in comparison to other VK albums, Kakera continues to uphold the NoGoD tradition of beating the shit out of their "music". In comparison to Gokusaishiki and Mugenkyo, this album fails.

Polemic review now:

One word describes most of this album: BORING!. I love NoGoD to pieces, don't get me wrong. My name is based off the best track of Gokusaishiki. What they need to stop doing is being NeoGoD: basically trying to experiment and explore every fucking genre of music. I'm all up for experimentation but for these guys it just does not work. Ever. Rashinban has this same exact problem. The EP was split right down the middle: half badass rocking tracks that would melt your face off with the pure force of NoGoD, and then the other three tracks that sound like NeoGoD just put in a fresh tampon and felt bliss. No.

I'm not even against upbeat, poppy tracks. Shukufuku no Uta and Shirasagi did it right way back when. Here, it's just missing the NoGoD spark that sets everything over the top. First off, fuck that :39 second intro at the beginning. NoGoD hasn't done one of those since Kanna Fukyou and doesn't need to do it again. Just start off with Shinzou, which sounds like Zesshoku except worse because the band was trying too hard to be harsh instead of just letting the melodies flow. Perhaps if it weren't so cookie-cutter we'd have a winner.

Akaki hi no Chikai was pretty groovin. Less forced than the previous track but also slightly less harsh. Don't care too much about that. It has the NoGoD flavor mixed with their new affinity for more melodic portions and it works. If the rest of the album was like this Kakera would have been brilliant.

But it isn't.

Shounen to Chizu is boring as all hell. It's so Hakoniwa/Hakujitsu Sakujitsu-ish. It's nice sounding but goes nowhere and does nothing and falls flat. What they see in this song I do not know. Nagusami no Sora is even worse. These plodding ballads/mid-tempo pieces with no emotion do not work. What needs to be said though is that for the most part, while this song doesn't grab me the way it needs to, there's a portion around the last 1:25 of the song where it picks up and reminds me a bit of Kinshi Suzume to the point where it's not a complete waste of time.

Rouyoku is experimental but that beginning is just not good. Why am I halfway through the album of a METAL band and only the second and third tracks were relatively metal? No. NeoGoD needs to cut this shit out. Thank god it's short.

kimi ga kureta shiawase to kimi ni sasagu namida also has the distinction of being the most atmosphereless instrumental they've done. Does not get the lingering hope vibe of Kono Ame no Mukou ni and does not even scratch the surface of Aozora. Too standard, doesn't even end properly. Skip.

Kakusei - the good single that sets this album back onto more familiar territory. Does everything right and sounds like NoGoD and not some generic band. Why is this one of the best on the album? REALLY?

kajitsu wa warau is another one of those mid-tempo rockers that does something right actually! I enjoyed this a lot more than I did a lot of other tracks in this vein. This would have worked much better if the rest of this album didn't sound very similar to this (will get to at end). A definite listen because it somewhat sounds like NoGoD.

Pause - Disbelief. That's what I call this track. Fucking best thing on this album hands down. Sounds like the bigger brother of Ring-a Ring-o. THE REST OF THE ALBUM NEEDS TO BE ON THIS LEVEL. Really sounds like the only song they spent a reasonable amount of time on.

kimi ni okuru itsudemo kienai uta reminds me a lot of kimi ni okuru bukiyou de migattena shi, not only in name but because they generally employ the same style. this sounds much more mature and refined however. If the rest of the album didn't sound like a worse version of this this too would have worked.

Ai is just too much of the same really. Nice bonus track, much better than Yumemi Shoujo for sure, but neither one of them end off the album the same way Yume did, and that's a shame. Reminds me a bit of Kalmia except it doesn't sound completely cracked up on coffee. More restrained, more proper. I knew coming in this wasn't going to be a rough number but still...too much of the album sounded like this.

Positives: there was no Ano hi no Sora wa Gokusai de. Holy fucking shit that song was boring. Even if everything sounded too mid-tempo for me to enjoy this thoroughly nothing was so rock bottom shit boring that I fell asleep half-way thorugh.

- there was nothing extremely horrible in general. It just sounds like they played it way too safe and did it because they knew it'd work and not because they wanted to. Don't they understand that they hardly ever make bad music when they're sticking to what they know best?

Bad: too much mid-tempo-ness. Why is it that so many tracks on this album start out with one guitar plucking strings in a lonely fashion? You couldn't break my face open with a mid-tempo song that actually ROCKS? You couldn't find another way to start off a slower song? What about some more acoustic strumming leading into some electric goodness, like Rinne Tenshou? It does sound like they are trying to appeal to a bigger crowd and this I have no problem with - what I have the problem with is that they're trying to forget that they're a metal band but then have II-Kaigi shitting over everything else on this album! You just can't fool me for 9 tracks, turn around throw that in my face and go back to doing the same shit for the rest of the album! YOU'RE GOOD AT THAT STAY WITH IT MAN!

Overall, decent album. Perhaps even great album. It's just their worst so far. I'd keep it though. Potential to be a massive grower.

Review: Sadie - DRESS

Dress isn't doing it for me. Sadie was holding back and pretending to be professional and they ended up not performing with the energy that I've come to expect from their releases. 2/3 of this drags and the omnipresent heaviness is supposed to compensate for that X factor that they forgot to incorporate into their songwriting. It doesn't. If anything, it just makes everything sound like a low-tuned, distorted mess.

For example, why is it that Mao feels like in every verse he has to whisper instead of come up with a good vocal pattern? Granted, it does save Dress from rehashing the sound of Ice Romancer/ever but the low whispering gets drowned out by the guitars and bass. That chorus is also very repetitive and all Mao does is go up and down, louder and softer while he hits two or three notes the whole time. I don't remember the rest of it except for some washed out growling mixed with some piano and some programmed violins near the last chorus. I miss the aggressive, anger-ridden Sadie and I feel no passion (or Dir en grey influence for that matter - save that comparison for VAJRA's next single) from this song.

Insert joke here about DRESS and a dress's tendency to drag on the floor when it gets too long. This song should have been cut by two minutes.

I was going to review stormy heaven but I got to forbidden and forgot everything that wasn't the piano introduction on this song. That piano introduction was good and reminded me somewhat of WITHERING BLOOD's experimentation on UnsraW's GUILTY EP but then it just spirals down into more of the same and at the end you remember nothing worthy of praise. It's an underfed UNDEAD13+2 x GAIN hybrid and does nothing to differentiate itself from either one of those two eras. Once again, another song lacking that spark to put it over the top but at least this one is of an appropriate length.

forbidden's intro riff was interesting and this might be the only song I take away from this single. It sounds a lot like a deeper-tuned Kagerou but I'll take it considering it's a B-side and sounds like the only song Sadie spent time on. The electronic effects mixed with some lighter guitar lines gives the song depth and the twin guitar solo halfway through was unexpected. Hooray for no breakdowns and recycled riffs on at least one of these songs. Mao's singing is also good and he should have done work like this on the rest of this single. The only thing I really dislike is how the song ends abruptly but I can get over that given time.

The positive here is that this isn't as horrendous as the Kagerou single and the absence of a Black Stars track automatically pushes this into the 5/10 range. The negative is that this does nothing to progress their sound further. It's just more of the same that we've come to expect from Sadie and I want more. They're at the precipice of discovering a new self but they're too afraid to take that final step and do something new. The only song I'd take away from this is forbidden so at the end of the day it gets a 6/10 - completely average with just a sprinkling of "hey look we can do awesome unexpected things but we're just reluctant to" thrown in just for the last track.

Review: lynch. - A GLEAM IN EYE

As much as people bash bands for trying new sounds, it is an utterly amazing thing that no one crucifies lynch. for sticking to the same formula they've been pumping out since A Grateful Shit. And this single proves that while the boys can still bring it in the rocking out department, the formula has gotten stale.

All they accomplished here is sounding fresh without doing anything new at all. And by doing something "new" I mean not recycling the same three or four riffs that I've heard elsewhere in their discography. Enter one part THE AVOIDED SUN and another part A GRATEFUL SHIT and shove it in a blender of better production and stronger vocals and you'd get A GLEAM IN EYE. Understanding lynch.'s formula and expecting a certain breed of song is one thing but this song isn't much different from the rest of their discography. I'm comfortable with bands that follow in the veins of DEATHGAZE, who have a core sound and don't deviate much from it but this is just way TOO similar to everything they've done before - and by everything I honestly do mean everything. Let's flashback to pre-SHADOW's era and this is nothing more than a rehash of ADORE with the prominent chorus, the stop at the solo portion before launching into the final chorus and then the recycling of the beginning to end out the song with Hazuki layered over it in the singing then screaming pattern. Is A GLEAM IN EYE good? Yes, but at the end of the day it's just another lynch. song.

To strengthen the ADORE connection even further, the first seconds of All this I'll give you are eerily reminiscent of an illusion. Thank god it ends up launching into some crunchy guitars but then flashbacks of I'm sick b'coz of you + enemy start reverbrating throughout the song, especially during the little guitar part at 1:30 (because that's literally a riff they recycle at least once an album). Oh, I also must mention that this song gets put above it's A-side purely because of Hazuki. Yes, that man does some beautiful things with his vocals in this track. It has slightly less traces of their "stock" sound than normal which means that this song took about as much risk as DEATHGAZE doing a ballad. Honestly this should be the single because when their fifth album ends up coming out this would be a lot less faceless than A GLEAM IN EYE. Don't get me wrong I like both tracks here but I don't think ADORE version two needs to be pushed (read: shoved) down our throats again and again and again.

And that's pretty much it. Once again, lynch have done more of the same. It's nice that there's a band or two that you can go to and know that when they release a single it's not going to suck with experimentation and "selling out" but where does one draw the line with not deviating from their sound and then not being able to sport a few new riffs? All this I'll give you highlights my problem in particular - it feels like an amalgamation of songs they've done before rather than a whole new song done in the same lynch.'y vein that I like. People hated SHADOWS because it didn't have enough ADORE-esque tracks but I loved it just because the presence of tracks like MAZE (I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM sucked though) and CULTIC MY EXECUTION showed signs of experimentation while still sounding like lynch. but they played it safe with this one.

And perhaps they should have. 8/10 with a huge preference for the B-side on this release. lynch., do the right thing and put All this I'll give you on the next album.

Review: UnsraW - GUILTY

Everyone who found this disappointing must have pregamed on Abel/Kein/Reborn. The GUILTY EP is not disappointing at all. The new Tetsu/Madoka team works better than the Tetsu/Rai team ever did, and Jin has some fucking beautiful bass lines. Yuuki's growls aren't all that bad either - I'm glad he chose not to layer them in intense amounts of distortion like a ton of other vocalists do. It's the one thing that turned me off of Screw's X-RAYS album a while back.

The opening of ZERO reminded me a bit of Dimmu Borgir's Unorthodox Manifesto, except this isn't as cool. It's just another one of those SE's that really -don't- deserve to exist. Compared to their past SE's though, this is rather cool. The Introduction on Calling was worse than this by miles and end of finale was much, [b]much[/b] more repetitive. Still, ZERO could have been omitted - hidden in the pre-gap and I wouldn't have cared much.

SALIVA OF GOD's introduction is severely disjointed. I like it. As for the rest of the song, I'm not as sold. Random double bass where none was needed mars the heaviness factor and for a song that's heavy it's straightforward and not as varied as it needs to be. Here, Jin asserts his position as a bassist more than Jun ever did and doesn't disappear under the crunchy, downtuned guitars. Perhaps Yuuki's tweaking of the guitar tuning helps this...who knows? Chorus was lame and the change in pace stereotypical, by-the-book VK but harmonized finger tapping saves it the first time around. The second time...just no. It's decent overall.

There's a really prominent, slightly annoying guitar part in ROSE OF SORROW that drags it down a lot, but Yuuki's rapping might turn off some even more. I don't find Yuuki's rapping to be that bad even though I find Japanese rap atrocious but I have more beef because it doesn't fit the tone of the song in the slightest. Whilst this one trips on the verse, it saves itself with that nice chorus. On the same level as SALIVA OF GOD, except I like it a bit less.

Still should have been a ballad though.

I normally can't sit through most of UnsraW's ballads so mentioning that I got to the end of GUILTY - twice - means I like it. I wouldn't exactly equate the end of this song to Jin's magnificent 9/11 divebomb at the end of [i]guilt trip[/i] but it could have been a LOT better. Yuuki's tonal gaps just isn't strong enough to hit those high notes although the lack of him coming back and screaming his guilt out was very much welcomed. The clean guitar is a real nice change of pace from the last two tracks and the solo bit where they harmonize was excellent. Liking this a lot.

WITHERING BLOOD sounds like an Abel/Kein leftover. This is good. It's not overly heavy just to be heavy and the guitars move through a lot of phases instead of alternating through three or so portions (I'm staring at YOU SALIVA OF GOD AND ROSE OF SORROW). The chorus isn't lame either and the transitions are seamless. Oh, and Yuuki doesn't do any bastardization with his vocals so it's all good. Like, love, would make triplets with.

They spiced DAMNED up with some synths and other instruments but it's just one of those piano outro's that have become so stale and overdone. I'm not even going to mention that if you take this and ZERO away you're basically left with a maxi, which makes me question the inclusion of ZERO that much more. It's pretty, carries that "unfinished" vibe and fits in with the tone well but that's it. I'm glad this isn't a heavy song though - this mini didn't need any more.

I liked this quite a bit more than I expected. It's not what we're "used to" but given time a lot of people will come to appreciate this. UnsraW "branched out" with their sounds and the incorporation of instruments that they've tried in the past here and there with mixed results works a lot better now. Instead of throwing in one or two tracks that don't work out too well with some old stale same old rockers and calling this a record they made this whole EP's vibe similar, yet something completely different than any of their past work. For that I have to give it to them.

Review: Lycaon - Royal Order

After the announcement of them postponing their album for two months I want a damn good explanation as to why they postponed this album in the first place. Royal Order might as well be considered a compilation album because there's barely any new material on this release. Yeah sure, the limited edition gets Plug > into the > Socket (It's SOCKET, not Soket. So WHAT if they accidentally published it as SOKET on their live demotape? How many of you MP3 ripping, downloading whores actually HAVE the demotape in your possession? I would say very few of you do. Secondly, you're recognizing that it's an accident, a typo. THEY'RE JAPANESE. They didn't type it because it alluded to some deeper meaning that by omitting the "c" made an ethereal connection to their lyrics. They don't speak, read or write English very well, fucked up and by the time they realized the mistake it was too late/too expensive to pay to have it fixed so they decided to leave it be figuring that their fans would be bright enough to figure it out on their own! For Jesus' sake, it's printed PlugintotheSOCKET on the PV! IT'S THE SAME EXACT SONG JUST WITH A C in the word SOCKET! If you're still shitting me they announced that it was called PLUG > INTO THE > SOCKET when they first announced Royal Order's 500 singles. I swear, only J-Turd fans can be this retarded. It almost makes me want to poke my eyes with a spork like the time I discovered that people were arguing over what to call ALSDEAD's Violent of Reason single. Because, you know even though it's printed Violent of Reason on their OHP you have to scrobble it as Violet of Reason because they forgot the N on their album covers, or even VOR because you know Violent of Reason was just too fucking big to print in the booklet and acronyms take precedence over whole titles when the band themselves fucking refer to it as VIOLENT OF REASON. I don't see D'espairsRay manias referring to Murder Freaks as "muder freaks" even though it's misspelled as that on the back of the Terrors EP. They refer to it as MURDER FREAKS because they have functional brain cells that tell them "oh, they meant this". Thank you D'espa fans for having sanity) and the three 500 press Like an Edison singles are included and re-mastered and there are three more tracks on the regular edition but it doesn't justify having roughly half of your album previously released in any way.

Speaking of Plug > into the > Socket, it's awesome but the music video is shit. For crying out loud Yuuki at least SING when you're singing in the music video. Go fire your PV editors and hire me - I could have done a better job. Go YouTube it because it's not on the album at all even though it should be.

Back to Lycaon's compilation album, the tracklist itself induces vomiting. Cordyceps Sinensis, Declaration of War and A Box in Beautiful should be on the album, but not one after the other. It unbalances the album because the singles aren't spread out enough. Chains of Collar is iffy but it could be included on the album. It's not their absolute best song but it is one of their most identifiable ones and that's probably due to the live-distributed version of this single that's turned every fan's head and still has many waiting on the hope that Enslavement Beauty (once again, Beauty not Beuty. They misspelled this one too. If you're going to pronounce it beauty, and define it as the word beauty, you might as well fucking SPELL IT BEAUTY. See "muder freaks" argument) will eventually surface on the Internet for all to download and sex like there's no tomorrow. Kesshou Hana is also dated but that was included out of necessity. As this review goes on, you will realize that Royal Order follows a sickening pattern of cheaply made, two minute thrash numbers punctuated by real musicwriting and salvageable pieces of work that almost make this album worth all the money they poured into it. Kesshou Hana is what saves Royal Order from becoming another VERSUS and it's presence alone changes the tone of the album (and I will argue that it saves it at the same time). However, there is no reason that Red Rum and Hisame need to be on this album. They're very dated sonic soundscapes of generic in a record that I can analogously describe as a pubescent teenager whose balls are about to drop and the re-recordings just aren't as good as the rest of the track here. I even believe that the re-recording of Red Rum, whilst pimped out with better production is inferior to the original. If they absolutely MUST have included older tracks to fill out the empty spaces in the album both Kohakuiro and The[1st] degree genocide holic would have fit in much, much better. However, I believe that there is no reason why a band must absolutely include their oldest singles on their first album. I hate to use Dir en grey as an example but both Jealous and -I'll- never made it onto another album (although I can see an argument stating that they had five other singles released and that including those two would have made a Royal Order-esque fest a decade earlier but I just prefer to state that they suck) and Gauze is just fine without it.

However, I would have preferred more new tracks. Howling and Flowing are both horrible wastes of space on Royal Order. I believe they included these two because if they told you that they only had 10 tracks and 6 were older songs Lycaon fans would pop a hemorrhoid. The album should have jumped straight into Lily, which is a different type of Lycaon that I'm receptive to. Excellent music writing and experimentation with some new sounds combined with a catchy, almost Gazette-ish chorus makes for one of the better new tracks. Lily makes way for Royal Order which comes busting forward with Yuuki's burpy growls and crunching guitar riffs that made me wonder what the hell happened to Ambrozia era Lycaon. Ladies and gentlemen, this is an instance of a very badly placed track. Off-kilter entrance pushed to the side, it does that hard verse-poppy chorus arrangement that I'm not too fond of but they do it with enough attitude to convince the casual listener that yes, this isn't something you've heard once or thrice before. This album does worse so I'll let Royal Order slide.

Declaration of War is a tough nut to crack. Look at the title - DECLARATION OF WAR. You would expect some screaming, hard, rough, insane track to be shoved up your vas deferens and into your testes. It influences you to think you're going to get something you aren't and then when you hear this track you'll be mildly disappointed. Excusing the name, Declaration of War is not that bad of a track. I can describe this as a softer touch to hard rock. Sure, it has it's handful of screams and rough passages but the rest of the track is a bit more melodic than we're used to Lycaon composing. This isn't a bad thing by any means but this lacks balls, especially when compared to the rest of the album. If you come into this track looking for something to headbang to skip for now. If you're here to just listen to some pleasant music this is an excellent track. It just...doesn't belong after Royal Order. This following Lily would have been a much better move.

On to something a little more respectable, Cordyceps sinensis is a very hard, catchy song with lots of high pitched grunting mixed with a very addictive opening and reverb yelling. I actually like the pre-chorus for the alternating guitars although the regular chorus isn't that bad at all. The name has absolutely nothing to do with anything, as I've read the English lyrics and nothing about "Chinese mold" comes to mind at all. Whatever you crazy cross-dressing rockers, you just do whatever makes your music that much less generic.

A Box in Beautiful is around where this album peaks in quality. I personally think it's the best song on this album and has more of that Lycaon sound than most of the other tracks on here. Unusual guitar tunings and a steady source of rhythm is all over this song. Yuuki screeches and yells with the best of them but his singing is what really gets to me. It's so beautiful, mesmerizing, expressive...and screechy. He brings the track down in some parts because his vocal range just doesn't stretch that far but I can look past that part because he doesn't massacre the vocal department the way other shit bands do.

Plus, ever since my friend mocked Yuuki with CRYING IN THE LAAAAAND, I don't take this song seriously anymore. I hope I haven't ruined it for you as much as the revelation that Dir en grey's egniryS cimredopyH +) an Injection is a song about cocaine and masturbation ruined my friend's entire perception of Macabre. The song is great, but if Yuuki's voice was just a bit stronger this song would have been brilliant.

Depending on what edition you have you either have Chains of collar or two wastes of space before Chains of Collar. Miss.EVIL INSIDE is Lycaon's attempt at being hard and they get points for doing it well and a nice nod of the head for incorporating unexpected double bass rolls into their screaming chorus but this is an earache and a ball of repetitiveness. I don't like mindless screaming from a band that dresses like they walked into the female section of Macy's and cut up clothing to don to call themselves shock rockers. This track asserts my belief that Lycaon is attempting to figure out what they want to do and it alternates (literally) between harsh, thrashy screaming numbers and more melodic numbers. Pick a fucking style, damnit.

**88** is another short, thrashy number that they included a bit later on but I'll cover it shortly now because I just have to say I like it even less than Miss.EVIL INSIDE. It really took you guys two extra months to write 6 minutes of material? Are you fucking me with a purple dildo? **88** has a pretty rough intro and plenty of screams thrown around but the chorus appears like a foot gunning for my crotch. By the time I know it's here the waves of nausea are already making their way up my nervous system. **88** isn't all that good and that scream at the end made me go deaf...when I had it playing on speakers. Ouch. Move on.

chains of collar isn't much different than what we've been presented with, and with this atrocious pattern going on you could even tell what type of song it was going to be. There are no sudden transitions in this song that causes vaginal cancer to suddenly spew out my orifices and consume my body and there's definitely some vocal work redone here because Yuuki doesn't sound as sketchy as it did back when it was released as a single. It's a great song but really, the chain of singles need to end. Now.

who's bad psycho party is actually a lot better than it's title lets on. I read someone somewhere describe this a dancey number. No. It is not. When someone says dance, I think of MUCC's Fuzz, or D'espairsRay's LOVE IS DEAD, or the GazettE's SILLY GOD DISCO. No, it just has a four to the floor disco beat going on at some points during the song in addition with some electronic effects. This and pAIN kILLER are the best out of the newer tracks that they presented to us - it's just a shame that the former isn't included on the limited edition. In an effort to condense the rest of this review I'm recommending these along with just about everything else on this album. Just keep your ears open for these two.

Hisame is a faceless tune that I couldn't recall if you cuntpunted me and commanded me to. I've tried sitting through it and when I'm paying attention it drags so much I feel the need to skip it and move on to Kesshou Hana, which is a very beautiful song and that's quite possibly because it's the only track here that breaks the mold. Yuuki’s falsetto is used a lot here and that risk pays off. It also comes with a piano introductions whose inclusion isn’t solitary and doesn’t pause to get into the track. It also is packaged with a twin guitar solo which takes the song off of the “ballad” path long enough for the listener to take a breather and listen through the rest. This really isn't everyone's cup of tea and if I tell you it came from Ambrozia some people just might skip it but at least it's something different (I was going to say new but I just said it came from Ambrozia).

R[UIN]ED RUM isn't an ending track, didn't need to be re-recorded, remastered or included on Royal Order. This should have been left on the single it came from. Yuuki's opening scream is gone and the song just lacks the indies charm that made it bearable back when they first descended upon us. Instead of being bastard children of Versailles and Kisaki, they should have included Plug > into the > Socket SOMEWHERE on this album. This spot would have been fine seeing as how no other tracks (except maybe Kesshou Hana) would have ended the album much better. RED RUM relies too much on nostalgia to get on by and if you aren't a longtime Lycaon fan you really aren't going to care all that much. These last four songs are all songs that not everyone is going to like and it's really stupid to put them all back-to-back to end your album. It's supposed to end on a good note, not a bad one.

So Royal Order is a mixed bag. I enjoy this album a lot more because I enjoy Lycaon's discography and all the songs I like are mostly songs I've heard before. Royal Order definitely has a few surprises here and there but it's got a few duds as well (well actually, more than a few if you count the instrumentals as music). I recommend it, but only if you've been exposed to some form of their style before.

Review: DELUHI - Revolver Blast

I was expecting more out of the re-recording of REVOLVER BLAST. I generally hate when bands re-release a song after it was already on an album and I dislike it more when they do nothing to improve upon the song. DELUHI is guilty of the first but not of the second. Even though I was looking forward to a new intro that doesn't involve just Juri breathing, or maybe a slightly longer solo, orsomething other than them changing the DragonForce-reminiscent intro and then scattering that like confetti throughout the weaker parts of the song that made it drag during Yggdalive, at least it's not the same song over again (stares at Sadie's Kagerou). It's nice but completely unneeded.

Remember the Rain is nice but boring. One particular thing is that Juri clearly omits the word "the" during Remember the Rain even though it's obviously there, yet in FOLLOW THE FUTURE he said all three words. REMEMBER RAIN makes me cringe >.<. Oh, and it's slightly too long for my taste. If it was chopped down by perhaps a minute I might like it a tad more. I do like what they did in the solo section of the song though. I think I detected some acoustics there. They add a nice touch but for a song that approaches six minutes this ballad/slower pop rock number fails. It doesn't have that DELUHI touch to it that saves most of their songs from sounding lame.

F.T.O.'s chorus sucks hardcore balls. In what's an onslaught of thrash metal and attitude, it doesn't fit with the flow of the song. It sounds like they lifted it out of somewhere else and stuck it in there. Omit that and we've got a decent song on our hands, perhaps even as good as the beast that is REVOLVER BLAST.

DELUHI, you haven't disappointed me this much since Flash:Black. If you have Yggdalive you don't need this, and if you don't have Yggdalive...go get Yggdalive and disregard this single.

Review: VanessA - CHI【MA】IRA

Dear readers of my blog, I must confess: I have sinned greatly.

Rather, as I do my weekly scroll through my old reviews to come across comments that I could read, I realized that in the span of just six months my musical taste had gotten incredibly expansive. Taking a glance over several old reviews, I realized that my opinion wasn’t necessarily the same anymore and that a re-write of some of the older reviews was definitely in order to accurately display what my new viewpoint was.

Coming from someone that hated VanessA in June, listening to this single almost every day for a month straight shows you how much this band has changed in my ears. As I type this I tell you right now, I have no idea what it is I heard when I first popped CHI【MA】IRA back in my ears in June, but it definitely wasn’t this.

01. 散歌 -RETROSPECTION-
02. Arlequin
03. 【MA】RIA

Even six months later I don’t actually know what 散歌 is supposed to mean. The transliteration to “chika” remains. However, my original opinion on this song is definitely different. Its miles above alive=terror, which I have to say was admittedly average and really just not my cup of tea. 散歌-RETROSPECTION- is, however. As of this moment, being the last of the truly angry, crazy VanessA the fans love, 散歌-RETROSPECTION- does not let down. Genki’s death vocals are savage and his eagle scream contrast nicely, although all traces of heaviness disappear by chorus time (which I still have to say DOESN’T FIT. REALLY MEN, C’MON.IT’S NICE AND ALL BUT MOAR HEAVY, ANGRY SHIT). This will please the newer fans of VanessA who probably aren’t expecting something of this magnitude out of this band after world. is. my. mind. The solo with the high pitched squealing is not good for my ears (or anyone’s for that matter) and I sort of wanted some more of Genki’s growling after the first verse. Does it push the envelope of different and unique? No, not really but for a brutal death metal song with a lighter chorus and a deafening solo you can’t really do better than this one. It’s at the top of VanessA’s list of “songs you should listen to”.

I don't care what anyone says; I've heard Arlequin somewhere before. Genki's singing is annoying in the first verse (but catchy) and the growls in the second verse aren’t as savage as RETROSPECTION, but at least it isn’t as badly processed as B.M.METAMORPHOSE –murder side- (which really does have some bad sections with the vocals). The chorus uses Genki singing overlaying Genki shouting and that's perhaps the best part of the song tied with the jump into the breakdown/superfluous riffage. I'm also unsure if they threw female vocals in there somewhere, and I think I hear them so I'll call it fair play and say it makes this track better. Arlequin is the catchiest song on this album and probably is many a listener’s anthem. It sure as hell is mine and probably is the only thing that kept me from throwing this single away the first time around.

But like I said it’s not original. I’ve heard this somewhere before and Haruki definitely took some “inspiration” if you get my drift.

ARLEQUIN moves smoothly into 【MA】RIA. My original rip wasn’t EAC so my comment about the clunky transition can be blamed on silence that didn’t belong at the beginning of this track. I consider 【MA】RIA to be a bonus track due to its short length, because if I considered this a real song I’d be disappointed in how a kick-ass monster like this can’t top two and a half minutes. In case you’re wondering, it’s not an UnsraW/Core the Child cover. It’s its own song that shares the same title. Don’t you see the brackets? It’s definitely different.

Back to the song, if you need a quick fix of VanessA this could do the trick. However, it works much, much better when paired with the previous track since the roar out the gate hooks me in every time. It’s of a more violent breed than its A-side brother and if you really look at it it’s a condensed RETROSPECTION without the oddly fitting chorus. I don’t quite get the coughing at the end of the track but I bet if I had the lyrics (or a scan of the book) I could make sense of it.

So, far and away CHI【MA】IRA is the best single VanessA’s ever put out. I can’t find a good quality rip of P.S.D./Feel U (those rips floating around the alphabet blogs sound worse than YouTube rips) and at this moment I haven’t heard primitive. my. mind. so I can’t pass judgment on if that single brings back the schizo.

Anyone looking for a new breed of heavy, crazy, brutal shit needs to take a look at this single since it doesn’t get any better than this.

Nao’s departure is definitely the worst thing that’s happened to the band thus far.

Review: ALSDEAD - Distrust

My ALSDEAD, what has happened to you? D:

During that fateful day when I was pissed off and wanted to find some lame to tear into, I encountered ALSDEAD. Everyone was fangasming over Violent of Reason and soon after that I found myself quite enjoying the single on the principle that it:

"... doesn't sample aged semen from the festering penis of the generic VK cooler with this release and attempts to create some original music."

Sure, they sold out a little with the inclusion of a track like Kizu on the Violent of Reason single (and it’s Violent of Reason, not VOR fuckers) but I couldn’t complain about it too much because, well, Kizu was well done.

Why do I mention Violent of Reason before I mention Distrust? Well, ALSDEAD ended up taking Kizu and making an acoustic rendition of it (which worked about as well as an acoustic cover of Vredesbyrd) which should tell you that this single is going nowhere pretty much fast.

01. Distrust

02. Vanity

03. Kizu (Acoustic Rearrange)

I fucking despise the title track – it sounds nothing even remotely considering ALSDEAD and to make matters worse it’s not even good. The minute Maki starts a cappella with his Engrish should start sounding the “OH NOES” alarms in the back of your head. If that doesn’t, the electronic effects combined with the annoying chorus and the apparent lack of emotion will. Also, why the hell do I hear the “la-la-la’s” more in the background than I hear Maki? Someone definitely messed with the microphone values.

Everything about Distrust just screams “average” – the typical acoustic backed chorus, washed out screams, annoying chorus, synth effects to cover up where ALSDEAD knew they ran empty. This song started off on shaky ground in the composition stage and went nowhere. Even Maki sang like he didn’t care and it even sounds uncomfortable, as if he’s holding back. I don’t give a damn about how good the “mastering” sounds – the song has nothing on the PARADOX single, which couldn’t touch what were their first two singles.

So what did this song need? A better chorus, a damn good solo and some more screaming in their native language because the abuse of Engrish makes the track sound like an anime tie-in (and that, my students, is NEVER good).

So now we have Vanity, which starts out typical ALSDEAD with its downplayed introduction into a burst of energy. Standard, but it works and the guitar lines are definitely more assertive than that tip-toe around the morgue that was Distrust (like really, the guitar lines are SO much more pronounced in this one). I’d rate Vanity higher than Distrust based on the fact that the boys feel much more alive in this track even if it is the same song they’ve crapped out time and time again (this really just sounds like A_DUST x CYNICAL). I think they pushed Distrust a little too much because everyone knows English is COOL-DEHSU in Japan like Japanese is KAWAII-DESU amongst the lame otakus here (not the cool ones, the ones that make you look bad and make you want to commit genocide and mass murder – kudos to whoever gets that reference) and that every band needs some “diversity”. I hate to say it but over the course of the last four singles I’ve noticed the only noticeable risk they’ve taken is with F-99, Distrust and A_DUST. Whilst A_DUST’s experimentation is thoroughly evident up and down the first two songs of this single, F-99 is something they have yet to top and Distrust was a definite miss although I do appreciate the good things they tried to include in that track.

Like I said before, what I don’t like about Vanity (because if I didn’t cut back now I never would come back) is the apparent lack of innovation in their core sound. If this song played randomly I wouldn’t say “wow this is that really good track by ALSDEAD” like I would Violent of Reason. I’d just say “it’s ALSDEAD but it’s not that memorable. Oh well…” This track also fades out, and anyone that’s read this long enough knows that I regard tracks that fade out as tracks that lost direction somewhere in the compositional phase and didn’t know how to end off on a bang. Vanity didn’t do much to assert itself as the next generation of ALSDEAD and just meandered around as if it were looking for its bigger brother S.a.g.A. So much more could have, or rather SHOULD HAVE, been done with this track.

I dislike the initial version of Kizu – I dislike this track. It’s boring, lifeless, sounds almost nothing like Kizu until Maki kicks in. If Maki wasn’t singing I wouldn’t know WHAT this song would be but the instrumental portion of this is as riveting as watching lead chip. Acoustic does NOT MEAN BORING. I’ve heard some really beautiful unplugged renditions of tracks before – Freesia and Conceived Sorrow for example – but just pure acoustic tracks are usually boring as hell and are as painful as hemorrhoids to sit through (YEAH I’M LOOKING AT YOU GACKT). Now this is nowhere near as bad as No Ni Saku Hana no You ni but it’s still not excellent, which is all I expect out of these boys since I have high standards for them. The beginning sounds so lazy and then they start spicing it up near the end which THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE ALL TRACK. I don’t know what possessed them to even attempt to do this since most of it sounds half-assed. If they were going for that dreamy, I-don’t-know-where-I-am vibe with the acoustics, they pretty much missed the mark most of the time. It’s noticeable when the acoustic has to wind down to keep the flow and everything just gets so empty. They have the basic structure down but the little fills with the drums and the groove present in the original just aren’t here. Hell, they don’t even start twin acoustic melody until two minutes in, and when all you have are TWO instruments you better work it. I was looking forward to this after the lackluster previews of the first two, but nope they kinda didn’t hit it out the ballpark like I wanted.

I must admit though that acoustic arrangements to ALSDEAD is akin to black metal for Morning Musume. If they did an unplugged arrangement of Kizu, which I would have rather they done, this could have been much better.

So yes, one of my favorite newcomers is going down, down, down the chute. They haven’t reached that level where I drop them off at the next station and wave goodbye but they really need to bring it back in style and they need to evolve while they’re at it. I’m tired of hearing the same shit over and over again and it really is the same shit over and over again. I know they can do better – maybe if they stopped farting out singles every few months they’d have time to work on their music and make it memorable.

I’m on the fence with this one guys. Fans of ALSDEAD will enjoy it but not to the extent of their previous works, and anyone looking to get into them shouldn’t start here.

Review: Synside - THE CORE-subconsciousness-

Considering this new UCP band has members that are ex. GRIEVER and brodiaea, I can say that I really wasn't expecting much out of this band. To be fair, I haven't listened to anything by brodiaea but GRIEVER was another matter altogether. I never mentioned GRIEVER here nor will I do a review anytime soon because I don't feel like wasting time and bandwidth to bash a band no one cares about, but I can say that if Kisaki drops you from his label because he thinks you suck, you fucking suck. KIKYO, the ex-guitarist of GRIEVER, made it to this band and all I can say is that he somehow managed to make that jump from suck to generic.

At it's core, THE CORE-subconsciousness- is generic. Generic isn't necessarily a bad term and considering this is Synside's first release I didn't expect it to be anything magnificent. Hell, I'm glad it's not since bands that usually have stellar first releases end up fucking sucking over the course of the next few singles (like ALSDEAD - I'll get to their new single tomorrow). What is notable about THE CORE-subconsciousness- is that as the single goes on, the tracks get better and better. I dig the buildup that they have and I wonder if they placed the A-side last instead of first...

01. UNDER THE RIOT
02. SENSE GATE
03. IDEAL UNIVERSE

UNDER THE RIOT's chorus is very annoying and drags so it makes it the worst song off this release for me. This is sad since the song starts off pretty well. I like Rayka's death voice and the guitar lines aren't anything new but they work. The drumming backed with the death vocals at the beginning make for an excellent start but I really don't like the distortion put over Rayka's voice when he starts singing at the buildup. It's not used to cover up deficiencies in singing but it was turned up too much. The chorus is also drawn out and should have been truncated. Perhaps they should have opted for a different vocal melody as well - this one seems too "standard". I would have preferred it if UNDER THE RIOT was pure growling because the energy switch into the chorus doesn't do it for me. The song starts off promising but then peters off into averageness. It's nothing horrible but it could have been done so much better.

However I must say that since this single was released through UCP, having three songs instead of the standard two songs + album intro is quite refreshing, and considering that this is the worst song on the release and it's not that bad know this single is off on the right foot.

SENSE GATE features absolutely no growling whatsoever and shows a lighter, faster side to Synside, which is a good addition to this single because it establishes this band as more than a one trick pony. I like this song a bit more than the last since I feel it's more stable and balanced but I was hoping Rayka's death vocals would make an appearance somewhere in here. It's a step up from the last track so if you liked the last track SENSE GATE might be up your alley as well - unless you're one of those faegz that can't stand musical diversity and like bands to shit out the same thing over and over again.

I'm making SENSE GATE seem like more than it is. It's also generic but it's done right, it's different, it sounds great and it's enjoyable. The production may not be top notch but I've heard far worse. So far this single is 2 for 2 and they haven't fucked up too badly.

IDEAL UNIVERSE sounds like GRIEVER if the band members could play well and the vocalist could sing. In case you didn't get it, it's meant to be a compliment. The mixture of electronic with punctuated guitar riffs sounds pretty cool and they pack a lot of groove. Rayka's chorus line for once isn't annoying as hell and he does exactly what I wanted him to do in SENSE GATE - mix his good singing with his growling. Therefore, IDEAL UNIVERSE to me is the best track so far and definitely is single material. Generic? Yes, but it's good generic. I even see some slight signs as to what Synside's future direction would be in the industrial mixed with the heavy metal and I like it. If you're looking into Synside, this is the best track here.

So for a first single, it's a little on the empty side concerning originality but it's not garbage like most VK first releases are. Nothing stands out as amazing but it's all great to average out into a single that's enjoyable to listen to, even if it's not something you'd put on repeat every day.

I'd give it about a seven.

Review: Versailles - Jubilee

This album is absolutely stunning to the point of flooring me. Sadly, my physical copy (yes, I actually bought something) has yet to arrive in the mail so I availed myself of the chance to download this before it comes.

This review will attempt to put into words how fantastic of an offering this album truly is. You all better be thankful I actually pulled myself together long enough to put together propaganda for JUBILEE.

JUBILEE -Method of Inheritance-

Tracklist:
1. God Palace -Method of Inheritance-
2. Ascendead Master
3. Rosen Schwert
4. Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne
5. Amorphous
6. Reminiscence
7. Catharsis
8. The Umbrella of Glass
9. Gekkakou
10. PRINCESS -Revival of church-
11. Serenade
12. Sound in Gate

ATTENTION: It has come to my attention that illiterate faggots the Internet over have been hacking apart my review and have been using my original thoughts amidst their incapable mastery of the English language. Listen up jfagz: I don't write things here so people like you can take what you think sounds 1337, splice it in with your fail and litter NEKO AND KAWAII-DESU all over it before barfing it up on your pink and pink shitblogs. If you take something from here (and some of you faggots have) credit me first or I will fucking flag you and take you down. Have a nice day and continue on.

Before I get into the album I'm going to go out and address something - all you damn leechers on the Internet that sit back in your recliner and enjoy what Versailles has given us really need to get up and buy the damn album. I don't care what your fucking situation is - this album is definitely worth it. The hard work is literally oozing out of every single song on this album and if you're going to call yourselves fans of Versailles you better whip out your mom's credit card and charge this before I cuntpunt the lot of you. Hell, I know exactly how much this costs but if you don't own this album in some way you're just insane. Insane, I tell you. Listen to me when I tell you that this isn't the hype speaking when I say that Jubilee -Method of Inheritance- has to be the most grandiose and ballsy album I've heard. Ever.

Even though the Quintet is now a Quartet in form, the lack of bassist Jasmine You doesn't detract any from this album. Hell, the knowledge that this is his last recorded work adds a tinge of a mystical aspect to this album. Place that on top of the fact that each and every member of the band increased almost tenfold in execution, the structure of the songs are definitely more varied and that this band takes risks left and right and they all pay off and you've got what I don't hesitate at any moment to call Versailles magnum opus.

Jubilee -Method of Inheritance- kicks off with the incredibly complex and flooring God Palace -Method of Inheritance-. The presence of this track alone in all of its 10:30 glory shows that even right out the gate (excuse the pun if you will) they're changing up their formula. Both Lyrical Sympathy and Noble started out with short little instrumental pieces that set the tone for the album as a whole but didn't necessarily flow with the next track. God Palace goes in the completely opposite direction and asserts what is undeniably Versailles longest and most ambitious piece to date. Composed by vocalist Kamijo (surprisingly) the song starts with fury fierce enough to rip your balls from betwixt your legs. Granted, due to the bloated nature of the song and the numerous stylistic changes Kamijo employed in its run time it's a tad hard to follow and keep up with. I daresay that this is as fabulous as his work on the track The Love From a Dead Orchestra. Judging from the preview I didn't know how Kamijo could make such a captivating intro last ten minutes but that's due to the fact that the trip is more of an emotional rollercoaster instead of an epic sludge of metal and I believe that works much, much better. The new voice actor even makes an appearance around four minutes in, adding just a touch of awesome to the track. Speedy metal solos are abound and Kamijo even does some new things with his voice, including a falsetto that he can hold, a tenor that he can hold and this sexy pained half-roar near the end that made my jaw drop. This track gets infinitely better with subsequent listens and is possibly the best album opener I've heard ever.

If you recall, back in June when I first reviewed Ascendead Master I stated this:

Think it through and tell me at what point would it make sense for Versailles to take a risk for their first ever major single release. As a song, Ascendead Master rocks hard but some portions leave me wondering what the hell they were going for because it didn't really work out. One passage in particular is the part before Hizaki and Teru's solo. What was supposed to happen there? It sounds just like improvisation to me. Another part that caught my attention was the energy of the song later on before Kamijo goes higher. I felt that it was there that the band put their all into the song and it raised a notch in quality. When all is said and done, Ascendead Master ends on a haunting piano note and leaves a good, familiar taste in your mouth.

Well part of the problem with my reviews is that they only pertain to my listening habits up to that point. As I listen to the tracks repeatedly and as my musical tastes evolve my opinion on certain tracks are bound to change. Ascendead Master transformed itself from a generic A-side to pass the time to what I can undeniably call my “anthem”. The translated lyrics themselves are also nothing short of badass.

“A fog hangs over the black sea,

The people rowed out and God sank”

Perhaps it is not the best example of what new styles Versailles has brought into their sonic soundscape but it’s undeniably one of the catchier numbers. It’s been retrofitted with a new recording and sharper production and the band members have never sounded so together before. No one overpowers anyone and the weird unbalanced feeling that exuded from the original has been rectified. I definitely suggest everyone check this one out.

Rosen Schwert definitely is the weakest track on this album but by no means is it bad. Rosen Schwert is to Jubilee what Shouts & Bites was to Lyrical Sympathy. It was meant to appeal more to those who can’t readily accept the blazing solos and complex rhythms that Versailles regularly employs. Other than that comparison I really can’t go too in-depth and explain exactly why Rosen Schwert just isn’t as good as the rest of the album but when anything’s sandwiched in between Ascendead Master and Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne most songs wouldn’t look too good either. It’s great but it won’t overwhelm you with glee.

Speaking of which, Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne starts off with one hell of an introduction. In what sounds like Aikaryu reborn, guitarist Teru manages to craft almost five minutes of what can be called one of the most solid additions to Versailles’ ever growing catalogue of quality songs. On Noble, I felt that some of Teru’s compositions were a little lacking (most notably To the Chaos Inside, which I felt was repetitive and lacked the Versailles charm) but here Teru injected massive amounts of technical prowess mixed with earnest experimentation and his own personal method of composition to create a track that’s totally not Versailles, yet suits them in ways unimaginable. For those that were expecting something along the lines of Second Fear or zombie, you may be disappointed seeing as how Teru has dropped the horror aspect of his compositions to make way for what I can only describe as opera rock. Let this not discourage you however – Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne comes with one of the best Versailles solos of them all coupled with a chorus vocal line that will get easily stuck in your head (lets not also forget Kaya's in this one. Look out for him in the chorus - he's a little hard to spot but he lends to the track nicely). I can’t see how someone couldn’t like this track.

Judging from the previews, Amorphous came off to me as an almost bland song, which I thought was unimaginable coming from a group as inventive as Versailles. Of course, the entire track is something completely different than I could have imagined and includes two things that Versailles hasn’t done before – acoustic guitars all up and down the track and a viola that drives the track more than the guitars. Amorphous is definitely a more laid-back approach to their typical music and sounds like it channels some Windress in the fact that the song isn’t blazing fast as per usual. The solo echoes Prince in that airy, far away feeling before kicking into some badassery and the chorus is catchy. I must also mention that Yuki’s drumming stands out the most in this song than it has so far. Unlike songs like After Cloudia where he’s drumming faster than the Energizer bunny for four minutes straight Yuki seems to have learned when to tone it down and when to speed it up. This also isn’t typical Versailles but this type of experimentation is definitely welcome and this serves as a wonderful contrast to Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne.

Reminiscence is notable for the absence of the bass guitar and the relative absence of the drums. The composition is undeniably Renaissance inspired (as shown by the time signature employed by Teru as well as the percussion instruments he employs, the rather basic but effective polyphony and the directionless aspect of the track) and this is truly a guitar-driven track. Yuki’s drumming has taken a backseat and what this does is give the song an almost vintage feel that really does differentiate it from every other track here. He comes in near the apex of the song and drives the song to an almost explosive finish – well as explosive as a two minute instrumental can get. Absolutely stunning, Reminiscence is a track worth listening to.

For those looking to a link to past Versailles work, Catharsis feels very familiar whilst being something completely new and fresh. Tribal drumming and choir chanting signals the opening of Catharsis, creating what I can call the most imaginative Versailles opening yet. Kamijo, Kaya and company jump in with a bang and even though the song switches gears it all feels fluid. This is yet another one of those tracks where the preview did absolutely no justice and made me think this track was also going to drag but it does far from that. Catharsis reveals yet another facet of Versailles in that it’s the fourth track in a row where they’ve done things musically that they haven’t done before. It’s yet another step forward in Versailles finding their core sound and even though they play very fast and employs solos and it follows some aspects of the usual “Versailles songs” they switch some things up. The chorus is almost seamless, the Kaya and female back-vocals add another dimension to the vocals and don’t make them feel flat a la the Prince & Princess single and the twin solo is definitely stellar – even better than the one in Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne. Needless to say that I suggest you check this out too.

The Umbrella of Glass brings some tribal drumming back in sections and combines it with some wonderful acoustic strumming to give this slower song some welcome diversity. It’s a slight notch down in the relentless attack that Jubilee has presented so far but it’s no less great than anything else so far. I just feel that in an album where they’ve taken so many different inspirations and have managed to incorporate them left and right this just feels a bit too “standard” (and sounds WAY TOO MUCH like Windress). Despite that feeling, I do have to admit that they’ve even improved on their “standard” sound – the violin adds welcome polyphony and doesn’t create a guitar-only atmosphere and the bass does some really cool things near the end. However, I do not like the way the song just fades out. Oh well, this song is far from a complete miss but when you think Jubilee I don’t believe this track will be the first to jump out at you.

Gekkakou returns for the album! I initially felt that it was better than Ascendead Master and that notion still rings true. It doesn’t add anything new music wise but everything is sharper. I appreciate the raise in the organ touch around 3:25. Jasmine’s bass solo is still wonderful, the Latin is still amusing, and the guitar section around 3:52-4:07 is just wonderful to listen to and displays how well Teru and Hizaki work together as a team. If you’ve heard it, you’re definitely going to want to try this song out again and if you haven’t it’s one of the standouts of this album.

Princess –Revival of Church– singlehandedly steals the show from the rest of the album and coming from me that’s one hell of a compliment. Let’s revisit what I thought about the original version of Princess from the single:

Listening to Princess makes me feel like I just ejaculated and then my imaginary girlfriend wants to go for round two. No matter how many different tricks she tries, or how long she attempts to continue on for, none of it comes up satisfying and I may just end up turning over and falling asleep. Versailles is a band that typically writes 8+ minute songs but they all aren't composed equally. Princess is that song that's at the lower end of this spectrum because it is bloated. It starts off with a captivating organ and guitar lines, but two minutes later it lost the edge it started with and Princess strikes with the rubber end of a blunted sword. As this song drones on and on for its eight minute runtime, it feels like Hizaki tried to throw everything at the listener. The song becomes increasingly darker, increasingly repetitive, increasingly frenetic and increasingly boring. Princess lacks the edge that most other Versailles songs have in varying quantities and does nothing for my Versailles fix.

Versailles didn’t just adjust some of the EQ’s for the instruments – they out and out re-recorded this song. Princess –Revival of Church- is nothing short of a late-album monster, utterly destroying everything since Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne. Kamijo’s vocals are the most effective here than they have been all album and the “Dear my Princess” duet before the jump into the chorus the first time around is nothing short of epic. The new wind, ominous chanting and church bell introduction fits into the mood of Jubilee better than the equally as brilliant organ intro from the original but from there this song just ravages. Jasmine’s bass doesn’t completely overpower the heavy end, the quieter verses are backed up with audible violin lines, bells come in and go at precisely the right moments, whammy bar and sweep picking are littered throughout judiciously and the guitar lines in total sound crisper than they had before. Kamijo’s English is decipherable this time around and when it kicks in the first time the change in vocal melody he employs makes it sound so much more sinister. The legato section – the portion where the original Princess loses it for me – is executed even better here and sounds perfect. I really cannot praise Princess –Revival of Church– enough – Versailles took this song and spun a complete 540, giving Princess the truly epic treatment it deserved to place it in the ranks of its brethren The Love From A Dead Orchestra, God Palace –Method of Inheritance– and History of the Other Side.

For a song that was literally recorded at the last minute, Serenade is damn good. It’s also a tribute to the deceased bassist Jasmine You, and as such Hizaki’s composition is both somber and hauntingly poetic. Reading the translated lyrics makes many a fan burst into tears all over again and the sheer beauty employed in the twin guitar melody alongside the timbre of the violin shows just how far Versailles has come with their composition. It’s no longer guitar-centric – it’s symphonic centric signifying Jasmine You’s love for slower pieces. It does a perfect job of capturing Jasmine’s beauty and potential and seeing as how I was one of those fans that requested they do a song like this I can’t imagine it to have been done any better. I believe what sets this song apart the most isn’t the fact that the lyrics are heart wrenching, but that it’s a slow song that doesn’t echo Windress. The ending violin solo is also left me speechless.

Normally I hate introductions and outros to an album but I think Versailles is the first band that managed to create an outro that isn’t tacked on without thought. The new American voice actor does one hell of an excellent job mumbling on about the storyline of Jubilee. I don’t entirely get it but his vocal performance is stellar. Overall, Sound in Gate isn’t really a song but it delivers nonetheless. Record this moment, for it’s the first time I actually enjoy an SE.

I actually prefer this side of Versailles. It shows they have diversity and musical writing ability. All those haters that said Versailles was a one-trick pony that only knows how to play fast needs to take this CD for a spin. The inclusion of acoustic guitars on some tracks were just brilliant and I also feel that this was the first time they've actually gotten the balance between all the instruments just right. I am pleased and Jubilee just gets better with every listen.

Chalk up whatever number you like – Jubilee is near perfect.

UnsraW Gt.礼(rai) will depart UnsraW

Now I'm not normally one to post all the news of the world on his blog because I feel that by the time you've heard of it reading it again here is both pointless and redundant. However, I've got a few choice words to say about this piece of news.

As the title depicts, UnsraW's guitarist .礼(Rai) plans on departing UnsraW on February 27th due to "musical differences concerning the direction of the band". Let's re-cap on some of the recent drama concerning UnsraW:

Yuuki contracts Atypical Mycoplasmic Pneumonia sometime in 2007 and instead of going to the hospital he decides to self-medicate like a moron. This action results in UnsraW's delegation to hiatus for at least a year and a half as Yuuki struggles with his condition. The band goes mostly underground, leaving their blogs barer than mine have been over the last few months. Fans awaited news and got nothing. During this hiatus the bassist 准 (Jun) somehow manages to flip his motorcycle and injures his hand and arm so much so that 9 months later when UnsraW wants to reform he's still injured and unable to assume his position as bassist of the band.

Jun leaves.

This news was saddening enough but seeing the photo of UnsraW as a four-piece band somehow gave me hope that the group would regroup and continue and then sometime down the line Jun would re-assume his position and the band would be back to normal.

Rai's departure fucks that all up.

Now our favorite quintet is down to three members: vocalist 勇企 (Yuuki), guitarist 哲 (Tetsu) and drummer 匠 (Shou).Before I wrap this up though I'm going to re-address the point that fans worldwide waited a year and a fucking half for UnsraW's return and you leave because of "musical differences"? Your band has only made THREE TRACKS since 2007. WHAT KINDS OF POSSIBLE FUCKING MUSICAL DIFFERENCES COULD THERE BE?

This is just another situation where the departure may have absolutely nothing to do with the music...but we can't be so sure.

This feeling couldn't have sprouted overnight either. It was pretty clear that UnsraW's sound wasn't going to deviate from the path it was on. REBORN sounds like the continuation to Abel/Kein and Yuuki/Shou have written and probably will continue to write all the music for the band. IF you so desperately disliked the direction that the band was going in in 2007 why would you bother returning to the band at all?

A thought that just occurred to me now is that this tension could have arisen over the past rehearsals/recording sessions that the band may have been holding. Perhaps UnsraW's sound is changing in ways that fans like I cannot possibly understand?

Then again perhaps not. Members leave bands all the time and the sound doesn't change at all. Perhaps Rai wanted a change in their sound (in which case allow me to LOL. He writes absolutely none of the music as far as I know. Want a change? Write some fuckin' music or GTFO. I guess he chose GTFO.) but who knows?

All I wanna see is this guitarist resurface in another kick-ass band. But until then, really, I'm quite disappointed. This band has too much damn drama...

Review: amber gris - Joukou 8000ft -Shounen wa Tengoku he Todoku no ka-

That's one hell of a title amber gris.

In my book it is an unspoken word of thumb that anything with an absurdly long title is destined to be a slower paced track full of either awesomeness or dullness. For example, the track Kono Sekai ni Mihanasaretemo by Shinkou Shuukyou Gakudan NoGoD (whose name itself proves this rule as well as serves up a nice slice of awesome while they're at it) is an extremely plodding track that's a chore for me to sit through (sorry gaiz). On the other side, chariots' Canvas ni Kakareru wa Haiiro de Nuritsubususareta Risou no Kimi happens to be one of the best tracks that group has ever put out and is a six minute descent into as close to goodness as chariots has gotten in a while.

So as I sat there downloading this because the good folks on Tainted World alerted the forum to the fact that the former vocalist of Ruvie, Temari (a band I've never heard of) was coming back to form this band as well as a few other notable musicians, I started to wonder how this first release by the band would sound. Most of the time when people on TW tell me a vocalist is good, good amounts to the vocalist sounding akin to vomiting rabbit ears while squeezing his balls and jamming tampons in his ears. Needless to say, unless the few people with good ears tells me to check out a band I probably won't.

Joukou 8000ft -Shounen wa Tengoku he Todoku no ka-, by the very definition of this rule was either going to be one of the best experiences that I've ever sat through or a big waste of time.

Joukou 8000ft -Shounen wa Tengoku he Todoku no ka-
01. Giniro no COFFIN
02. sinker.
03. lizard skin.

"Ambergris (Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, ambergrease, or grey amber) is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull gray or blackish color produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Ambergris has a peculiar sweet, earthy odor. The principal historical use of ambergris was as a fixative in perfumery, though it has now been largely displaced by synthetics."

I have no idea what amber gris has in common with sperm, whales, sperm whales, or perfume but I do know that amber gris is bloody fuckin' terrific. I'm also aware that this isn't everyone's type of rock music. Hell, it took me about ten or fifteen runs at this single before it clicked with me. Of course, I'm normally do not expose myself to this type of rock so if you're looking for a good band to compare sounds with, I'd go with either cocklobin or 9GOATS BLACK OUT. Even though they may not be exactly the same, the best way to go about determining whether or not you would like this is if you just listened to it for yourself.

I'm not too enamored by the first track, Giniro no Coffin. There's really nothing wrong with the track but the following two tracks are done better. I feel as if this track is just a little too tame for my A-side tastes. I listen to it occasionally but it isn't the track that made me the amber gris fan that I am. I even confirmed this myself with my friend Greg, who claimed the second track to be far superior. sinker. has some funky strumming as well as more memorable vocal lines. The boys here (yes they're all men - I just have to state that now) certainly don't mind playing around with the rhythm and structure of the track. It's the shortest track but it delivers in both attitude and satisfaction. I would have personally chosen this to be the single on the album.

My personal favorite would be lizard skin. It has the perfect blend of hard rock and uniqueness that make this what could be a fan-favorite sometime down the line. With just one release under their belt it's too soon to describe what could be the "amber gris sound" but it's also different from the two tracks that have come before it. Temari does some screaming, something that fans of Ruvie have said that he's never done and the guitar lines can be considered complex compared to what the first two tracks have shown. It's a different sound but it's welcome from a starting band that's trying to find their way.

Overall, Joukou 8000ft -Shounen wa Tengoku he Todoku no ka- is yet another one of those singles that I'd recommend you take the time to listen to. I might have done a pretty crap job at reviewing this single but that's because I'm more interested in listening to it than talking about it.

And that, my fine gentlemen, is the mark of a good set of songs.

Review: cocklobin - black

In my sheer laziness at updating my blog regularly with things I review I forgot that there were actually a good number of things that I downloaded, enjoyed, and forgot to put here. cocklobin's black would be one of them. I'm not too sure how old it is but it shouldn't be more than a few months, which means this review is warranted seeing as how cocklobin is extremely slow to put out music.

01. black
02. reborn
03. hearts

black comes with three tracks: the title track creatively called black, reborn, and hearts. What initially drew me to this band was the news that Iori from Siva was in this band as well as the bassist HISAKI from Black:List back during the Desperate/Genuine Malice era. Despite the fact that I didn't need yet another heavy metal band to listen to I decided to take a look at black figuring I could always just delete it if it wasn't good enough for me to listen to.

Ladies and gentlemen, I got my mind blown for the third time that week.

cocklobin isn't your ordinary type of band and even though black was a signal that they were progressing to do harsher music the traces of musicality that made cocklobin so badass are still there. cocklobin's music can be played by a beginner in the guitar but it's the way it all flows combined with the passion of the vocalist Nigu that drives this band's sound. Nigu actually screams his heart out on black and then thirty seconds later we're treated to delicious singing and sexy bass lines. Neither the singing nor the screaming overpowers one another which is rare since one likes to take center stage and command the direction of the track. reborn has an extremely catchy verse where Nigu sings with passion as well as yet another hard riff balanced by softer passages all in the blink of an eye. What cocklobin manages to do well is balance hard with soft because they realize soft isn't synonymous with poppy. Rejoice, for this is a glorious day. A bands have finally started to realize that you can strum lightly and not have to change the direction of the track.

All three of the tracks on this single were excellent but the one that really steals it would have to be hearts, the last track. The riff is elementary of course but with a bit of stereo usage combined with flowing transitions keeps the track moving right up until the distorted sound effects at the end close out the track. Everyone's instruments are kept in line -- the drums don't decide to start blastbeats for any apparent reason, the bass isn't thick and distorted and there's no unnecessary eight bar solo that does nothing but solidify stereotypical song structure. hearts closes out the single pretty well.

black wasn't as diversified with it's sound as DARK DESIGN CATALOG was but there's simply no way to accurately compare a mini with a single. Here, cocklobin gives us three harsher, yet still strangely melodic tracks and says "this is the evolution in our sound". By no means are they a one trick pony but what I'd like to see next is them push the harshness to the limit as well as bring back the piano and the softer elements that comprised songs such as the dark and cock. I'd also like to see a mixture inbetween, like songs that black has given us but not exactly the same. I'm very satisfied with black -- it's one of the few singles that I'd recommend people invest time in.

Review: chariots - Yami

I think the sheer averageness of this single forced me to forget to review it until almost a month later...

1. MIDNIGHT PLEASURE
2. Anmoku
3. Dilettante

As I said before, this single is just plain average. Hai far and away destroys this and it's not even as good as Hikari in my opinion. Midnight Pleasure's that standard S.E. intro that's supposed to set the mood for the rest of the single but it doesn't do that here. It's definitely much better than Fall ash was so I'll give the single credit for that but it's nowhere near as captivating as cigar was. Let's also add on top that this is the only part of the single that even touches the "darkness" aspect that I hoped Yami would go for. It has this dark, foreboding atmosphere that's immediately forgotten the minute Anmoku starts up. Let's just say that even though this S.E. is a little on the boring side it has it's place on the single and isn't a complete fucking joke for once.

Both Anmoku and Dilettante are pretty lame, the latter moreso than the first. Dilettante is nothing more than a veiled copy (and a thin one at that) of reversal from the Hai single. Dilettante misses out on the charm that reversal had and it doesn't help in part that Riku's auto-tuned "dilettante, dilettante, dile-ttan-te WOAH" are annoying to the point of the track being unlikeable. Seriously, I think the man says the word at least 20 times the entire track and that's a modest guess. If I wanted to listen to this mess, I'd listen to reversal. Dilettante, fuck off.

Anmoku was attempting to channel both some Doku and some Canvas ni Kakareru wa Haiiro de Nuritsubusareta Risou no Kimi and if it were fucking executed properly this could've been brilliant. Anmoku doesn't exactly hit the spot but it isn't a complete miss either - I was just hoping for a bit more. The saving grace to this track is that Riku doesn't "anmoku, anmoku an-mo-ku WOAH" his way through four and a half minutes of mediocre, atmospheric rock. I could at least listen to this again.

Yami definitely wasn't the single I was hoping would be chariots last release as a band since the other members finally realized how lame chariots was and decided to leave Riku to deal with it. Sure, they have a compilation album coming out in a month or so but what good songs besides Kira, Jade, Doku and Canvas ni Kakareru wa Haiiro de Nuritsubusareta Risou no Kimi can Riku find to put on it? Not many I tell you - chariots never really hit the spot and while they come out with music pretty rapidly most of it is lukewarm and doesn't do my listening craves justice. Riku, go back to Phantasmagoria where you sounded better and the music was repetitive but enjoyable, instead of repetitive and annoying.

Average. Fuck this single. Go listen to Hai. Or better yet, don't listen to this band at all. You aren't missing anything.

Review: ReivieЯ - Agreement to us.

01. coarse affection
02. Shiroi Yume Kuroshiro no Kioku
03. Tsukiyo no Uta
04. DUALITY
05. voice

I couldn't do ten goes at this mini. After the awesomeness that was Declare and words I can't look at this mini properly and get the same feelings. Agreement to us. is generic and ReivieЯ's lost what little spark they've been gaining with their later releases. They seem to be moving in the direction of songs like DISASTER and that's a step back, not a step forward.

Essentially, Agreement to us. is the same song five times in a row. There's no change in pace or tempo and it's just one blistering hard track after the next. I'm a fan of harder music but even this is too much of the same for me. Everything just blends into one incomprehensible mess.

coarse affection is 3:26 seconds of Jey's badly processed death vocals underneath uninspiring guitars and comes off as nothing more than generic. The only saving grace is that it blends into the next track seamlessly, sometimes without me noticing that there was a change. Shiroi... just feels like a weaker DEEP INSIDE and is pretty much a continuation of coarse affection, which wasn't anything special to begin with. It takes a few pokes at something special but stops far too short of anything memorable to make this track worth listening to again.

Tsukiyo no Uta is too similar to the preceding track and is just a mess at the chorus. I can't grasp onto anything that the guitarists were doing. Everything else is pretty solid so if it weren't for that hiccup it might have been something, even though I wouldn't have remembered a damn thing when it was over. DUALITY is another trainwreck and sounds way too similar to coarse affection, which means this is also generic. It's a shame too - it's nothing but growling and screaming with nothing redeeming going for it.

voice is the only track worth listening to and if you manage to get this far you'll be so sick of the first four tracks sounding exactly alike you won't listen to something that's only slightly different. The intro's unique and even though Jey does nothing new he does it better than any other track on the mini. I guess if you're aiming for some new ReivieЯ this is the only thing I'd advise.

This mini is just average and such a disappointment seeing as how I was hoping for something great from ReivieЯ once again. In numerical terms, a flat 5.