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: Sadie - Gain

Anyone that remembers Kagerou knows how shit that single was. My opinion hasn't changed a little except for Knife growing on me slightly and the title track a smidgen more but my hopes for that single will forever remain dashed. Gain was originally supposed to be a single and somewhere along the line Sadie decided to give us a little bit more and turn this into an EP. I don't mind the end result, especially since it turned out like this.

01. ever
02. brain core
03. beauty shadow
04. CHAOTIC WORLD
05. 愛しさは孤独の支配者
06. Regret

1. ever: This is the way you start an EP off. ever's composition is similar to that of Ice Romancer except it blends in a bit of this new heaviness Sadie's going after (then again, Sadie's obviously following in the steps of their masters Dir en grey) The guitar riffs are very impressive and it seems that both Tsurugi and Mizuki have finally woken up. Aki has his moments but he's really not omnipresent in this song at all. Mao's vocals obviously improved and are the highlight here, holding the song together and giving it a soft and heavy feel. Many bands have attempted this before and failed but Sadie makes this work.
ever ★★★★★(4.5)

2. brain core: By the intro I wasn't impressed and the verse doesn't help either. The chorus is puts the nail in the coffin and labels this song as mediocre. brain core just doesn't have anything that makes me say "FUCK YEAH! ROCK ON!" It's just another 'ok' song and will end up being forgotten amongst the others on this EP. The slow down part around 3 minutes into the song is really nice though and does go some length to changing up the pace that this song was going at.
brain core ★★★(3.0)

3. Beauty shadow, With some ominous guitar playing that foreshadows what everybody expects to be another failed attempt from a VK band to make a heavy intro, beauty shadow doesn't disappoint aesthetically. But don't let beauty shadow's intro fool you, the song is a beautiful but powerful mixture of Sadie's THE BULLET STORM and more. Mao's verses are slightly annoying but memorable in that "I don't want to remember you way". The way he layers the atypical rhythm on top of the guitars are pretty good but the chorus is just a little....bland? The solo, while short, is damn good, so I'm glad to say this song is different from anything they've done before. I'm glad they haven't really repeated themselves as of yet.
Beauty shadow ★★★★★(4.5)

4. CHAOTIC WORLD: Vocals, guitars, bass, and drumming all work in monstrous harmony here. I have no idea where this side of Sadie erupted but I'm enjoying it immensely. The group chorus is pussy weak and could have been a lot stronger and drags down what could have otherwise been a genius, dark and brutal song. I can overlook the weak chorus. CHAOTIC WORLD's guitar work is masterful and the genius composition goes a long way to assist in the crushing precision present in this song. The song has breaks amongst the chaos that give it a haunting feel and keep it from shitting on itself. If your a fan of Sadie's heavier work I definitely suggest this track for you.
CHAOTIC WORLD ★★★★(4.0)

5. 愛しさは孤独の支配者(Itoshi saha kodoku no shihaisha), Love this song! LOVE THIS FUCKING BALLAD! Not many ballads actually hit my heart like Sadie's ballads do. They are really pleasing to the ears. I love Mao's voice in this song. It sounds so celestial and otherwordly. This is the song that stands out on this mini. Everything works well here but I can't help but feel that it could have been a little more heartfelt and that it was stuck here just to give a sense of diversity before the album ended.
愛しさは孤独の支配者 ★★★★★(4.5)

6. Regret: THIS IS A WONDERFUL FOLLOW UP! This is great! Why couldn't this amount of creativity be put into EVERY FUCKING SONG ON THIS MINI! From the first 20sec. I could already tell I'd love this song. THE CHORUS IS BY FAR THE BEST ON THE WHOLE MINI ALBUM! Amazing vocal performance for this song. The instrumental is spectacular. A great mid range song. Nothing to heavy, but nothing to soft. A perfect ending and yet I'm disappointed by this being the ending song. It makes me want more from this mini album.
Regret ★★★★★(4.5)


Nothing reaches the level of 5 star epic but the last three songs are definitely an improvement over the first half of the EP, which already was an improvement over Kagerou. The sound they carried in Master of Romance is echoed here but it's somewhat different....heavier, more raw yet just as Sadie as always. It's no The Trend Killer but it has something over their other mini's that keep Gain from disappearing into obscurity a la THE SUICIDE MACHINE.

I see Sadie following in the foot steps of Dir en grey, I'm not saying that they are copying Dir en grey, but following their steady format of evolution over the years. Sadie is evolving into a heavier sound very steadily, so it doesn't feel rushed like the GazettE, instead it feels natural, which is very good. Sadie's musicianship may not be the best, but they are all getting better at what they do, and for that I am thankful. Every release by Sadie does better than the previous work, in a way the band as a whole are topping themselves every release.

Though Sadie may not be the best band to surface, they have talent and in Gain they express this. There is nothing that really stuck out to me as a problem on the release, instead, as a whole, Gain impressed me completely.

Review: Sadie - Ice Romancer

In order not to discourage my readers unaware of Sadie to the band, I'll balance a mediocre single with a better one. This is the last single they released that I'm willing to acknowledge and for being that it's actually just as solid as Grieving the Dead Soul. That means that this single is pretty damn solid. Let's get started.

01. Ice Romancer
02. MarionettE
03. Recall
04. Psychedelic Chemical Movie

Ice Romancer starts this maxi off with a bang, although I'm unsure as to what the title is supposed to mean. On my very first listen, I SWORE I was listening to Kyo from Macabre or maybe Kisou. We know that you idolize Kyo but goddammit does everyone have to sound like him now? Mao sounding a whole lot like him takes off a bit from the song because it doesn’t seem as fresh, but the screaming and the verses are more original. Speaking of the verses, they divide into a quiet section followed by an aria from Mao’s demonic, Kyo-inspired other half. Overall, this is a pretty solid song and one of those worth listening to if you haven’t heard it yet. Definitely one of their better offerings as a "single".

Don't be fooled by the first ten seconds of MarionettE: it's actually a hard rock number that's just a tad edgier than the first. The transition into the chorus is lighter but it's done in such a way that Mao keeps the energy in his vocals and keeps the pace interesting. His death vocals at the end are also pretty damn good. Mao also sounds less like Kyo and more like his natural self even though the entire structure is reminiscent of a Diru-style rocker. The last few seconds of his singing are a little too typical and the "breakdown" section could have been better but otherwise I also recommend this.

Recall threw me for a loop and I remember screaming a mental "what the fuck is this SADIE DOESN'T DO JAZZY BALLADS" in my head. Then I remembered back to Grieving the Dead Soul and namely Hakanai risou wazuka na ai and how much I liked that song when I gave it a chance so I decided to give Recall a chance (even though it comes out of fucking nowhere). Compared to Hakanai Risou Wazuka na Ai this feels more alive and vibrant and comes off as an intentional delivery instead of an accidental discovery. I do find this single to be oddly placed and it feels like they were trying to be diverse just to be diverse and forgot who it is that listens to Sadie. It's nice to see them branching out and trying new things and for all intents and purposes they rocked this but on an album with three viciously hard songs something like Recall doesn't quite fit in with it's jazzy nature. Perhaps if it wasn't such a hard transition from testicle smashing metal to light, jazzy tunes I would get into it more.

If you like what it is I described take a listen but I can't bash something done well and I can't call it one of my favorites so listen and see. Then again, if you like jazz why are you listening to a heavy metal band?

Psychedelic Chemical Movie ends this single off with a bang. The only thing I can complain is that it didn't go as epic at the end as I wanted it to but other than that it feels like the entire band put their soul into smashing your temples with some vicious rock. The solo is simple but channels rage better than something technical would and instead of getting off track with fancy additions and unneeded portions everyone keeps the pace simple, straightforward, and brutal. Mao's death vocals are especially effective when the band concentrates and makes the song about him and not about playing just for playing's sake. Like I said, the ending could have rocketed off into the stratosphere but as it stands it's a good way to end this single off.

I don't need to tell you that I recommend the entire single. From beginning to end Sadie actually made me retract my statement of playing like expert crap to sucker you in for the album because this single is solid from beginning to end. Some may trip up on Recall because if it's odd placing but otherwise I'm sure there's something in here for anyone no matter what mood they're in (although there's really just two: anger and post-anger).

Recommended:

The whole thing

Score: 85%

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.

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...

Review: Sadie - The Trend Killer

Before their recent release of Kagerou, I constantly read reviews about how much Sadie started sucking and how they needed to return this era. I can look over a lot, even though I don't show it here, but Kagerou....that was epic failure on a disc. So, I decided to look at it from the other, fan-hating Sadie side and see what I thought of The Trend Killer.

Because I was going to keep putting this off....

01. Enter the Killing
02. under the chaos
03. Psycho Culture
04. Meranchoria
05. CHILDREN OF DESPAIR
06. Cold Play

Enter the Killing is another one of those lame, electronic openings that starts out ominous but overstays it's welcome ten seconds in. Skip it and get right into under the chaos.

under the chaos is hard and strong and deserves a listen or two, but it comes off to me as just "another generic rocker put together using the most stereotypical riffs you can find". There's nothing outstanding about this song at all, and sounds like a well-played mish-mash of so many different types of songs. I'm sure anyone that's listened to rock for at least a month will sense that this song sounds familiar in that "I-can't-place-my-finger-on-it" way. I would call this a borderline track because it's just not as interesting as some of the other stuff here. For an album called The Trend Killer, it didn't go against the railing at all.

And let's be on our way to Psycho Culture, one of my favorite Sadie tracks because I get this whole "medical vibe" and "I'm gonna inject you with poison and make you go crazy" feeling in the guitars. The beginning riff will either entice you or annoy you and that's going to be the breaking factor hear. Overall the song is a solid one, and a bit different from a lot of the rock I hear. When I throw in there that I listen to VK just to remind you in case you forgot, you can take my word for it when I say it all sounds the same. Mao's English could use some work but his growling here is pretty good. It's not as heavy as the ones on Undead13+2, but it fits in better somehow because it's got that piercing effect I love. It's definitely recommended and it's the signaling of the mini starting to turn around.

Meranchoria continues in the vein of slightly different sounds, and shows some thought and creativity on the part of the members. The opening riff sounds like a haunted riff and you expect it to plunge into the depths of heaviness like approximately 80% of tracks do, but it doesn't. All throughout it keeps that unsettling feeling of "IDFK" and the strumming of the bass under it, while simple, signals a sort of countdown to something epic. I like the way the song slows down when you expect it to speed up or get heavy and the portions into the chorus (especially one with the sigh) are among the most creative ways I've seen the bridge gapped. However, I DO think Sadie dropped the ball on the exit and that's one of the most "uncreative" ways I've seen such a song end. For fans of fade-outs, this probably won't bother you but the way the song switches pace and then just ends on a fade out is unsatisfying.

CHILDREN OF DESPAIR storms in with strong bass and two riffing guitars and takes off until Mao roars like he's dying into the microphone. The bass isn't situated as firmly in this one, the English is a bit messier than the remake (not like it makes a difference - still can't understand most of what he says if you aren't an expert at Japlish) and the whispers aren't as clear but it's still there in all it's bassy glory. One part I do like better over the remake is the portion with the one guitar with the distortion. It's surely not revolutionary, but I like it's inclusion. It's surely one of the better songs here but the very end nags me, because Mao's voice is does that reverb thing. It was completely unneeded.

And last but not least there's Cold Play, which starts off slow unlike every other song here and makes you think it's another stereotypical "end of mini ballad that's bland and makes me want to pierce my eardrums". When the guitars come in for a slow, crunching 8 measures you quickly realize it's one of those songs and wait for the chorus to come in reluctant agony, hoping it doesn't suck. And when it does come, you realize it's not going to be one of those passive, I'm so poetic ones. Mao's screams suddenly erupt out of nowhere and they're artfully placed amidst babbling and singing and muttering. The end of the song fades out but the bass that comes in doesn't time it right and feels all wrong. Most of the songs have had a problem ending right in my opinion thus far so, yes, Cold Play was indeed an interesting ride. Was it the best way to end the mini? No, but none of the other tracks here could have done it any better.

I don't think all the Sadie fans that are lamenting the old Sadie are butthurt faggots that only like bands when they're the only ones that know them. There's definitely something here hidden in the indies production values that suggest real talent and a want to make some music, but this album doesn't do it for me as much as Undead13+2. I believe it's because half of these tracks were remade and although I didn't compare them to the remakes here I do find them all to be superior to these versions. The three they didn't touch are fine, but one doesn't deserve to be remade and I've heard better songs than the other two so....I forgot where I was going with this. Oh, yes, right. The Trend Killer beckons a listen, and I demand you go download it (remember the "limited quantities" I was talking about with NoGoD? It applies here as well) and give Sadie a spin back when we didn't have to fear a Kagerou.

Recommended:

Cold Play
Meranchoria
The Remakes on Undead13+2

Score: 71%

Review: Sadie - Kagerou (TYPE C)

I'm of the mind that this was pushed because Sadie had an itch to make this track an acoustic, and they wanted to give us an "incentive" to buy it by sticking two more tracks on it. Ironically, this is the only version that has a song worth getting. Sadie, your marketing tactics need some work before you rise to the infamous levels of Versailles.

TYPE A & B REVIEW IS HERE.

01. Kagerou
02. Black Stars
03. Knife
04. Kagerou ~Unplugged~

Kagerou	Tolerable.	7/10
Black Stars	Shit.	2/10
Knife	Terrible.	4/10
Kagerou (Unplugged)	Wait, wait, wait….what is this? A decent adaptation, nay, a good adaptation of a hard rock track of Mao backed by a piano? My my, am I shocked, although I did hear good things about this track. It’s no Agitated Screams of Maggots thank goodness, and it’s refreshing to hear after that last two shit tracks that was abrasive to my ears. The title track and this is all we needed. Screw the last two tracks, this is beautiful.	9/10

How about you just go download the Unplugged version and forget about the rest of the single? The beginning is decent but unneeded and the end is a nice surprise but everything inbetween is poorly produced crap (and poorly written crap too).

Recommended:

Kagerou ~Unplugged~

Score: 55%

Review: Sadie - Grieving the Dead Soul

Fuck Kagerou. Grieving the Dead Soul is the type of music that I want to hear from Sadie, and the type of single I expect them to release. I demand no better than what I know they can put out, and they've released good stuff time and again. Ladies and gentlemen, THIS IS SADIE.

01. Grieving the Dead Soul
02. Hakanai Risou Wazuka na Ai
03. In Cave
DVD: Grieving the Dead Soul PV


01. Grieving the Dead Soul
02. Sexual Affection
03. Hakanai Risou Wazuka na Ai
04. In Cave

Grieving the Dead Soul	Grieving the Dead Soul takes some time to grow on you but once it does you’ll quickly find this to be one of your favorites. There’s a reason why this hit number one on the charts: it rocks. It has everything you’d hope for from a hard rocking Sadie song: a chorus of ghoulish death vocals, Mao’s trademark sing-scream style, and a refrain that will have you head banging even at your desk. The shining moment is his wrathful screaming, particularly toward the end. The quiet area near the middle of the song substitutes for a solo and is a breather after the two minutes of awesome shit they hurl in your face. They break up the pace and keep you on your toes, waiting to see how much they’ll throw at you once you inhale. This track exhibits the real flairs of Sadie packed into one concentrated track of sublimity.	10/10
Sexual Affection	Well, we have a song completely in English! Not only is half of it incoherent gibberish, but add a message so disgusting that it makes the song better! Lyrics make or break songs, and sometimes broken songs can be bandaged with some good lyrics. Sexual Affection isn’t broken, but it isn’t that good. The bass solo in the middle makes this song distinctive, but getting there is such an exercise in patience some may question whether sitting through two repeated verses and a refrain is worth it. The guitar crunch right after the solo also picks up the pace a little but the refrain and the verses drag on and on like a tattered cloth on the floor. Once you pass the nice riffs in the middle, you can essentially stop listening, because there’s nothing left in the song you haven’t heard. Too slow to be hard and too hard to be slow, the song doesn’t grab attention like it should and leaves the lyrics to do all the work.	4/10
Hakanai Risou Wazuka na Ai	A complete 180 from both tracks that precede it, this is Sadie’s attempt at a solid ballad. It’s got piano, a supportive, rumbling bassline, and a haunting atmosphere working in its favor. It does have some flaws however. Mao doesn’t know how to hold his voice too well because he hasn’t done any ballads before so his voice lacks power in places that could use it most (ex. the chorus). Also, the song’s ending isn’t thought out because it just fades, almost as if they didn’t want to finish the song. This denouement makes the piece feel too long and subtracts from the overall package. For those looking for Sadie to try new sounds (like me) it’s worth an investment. If you’re a fan of shouting, screaming, loud Sadie, you won’t find it here.	8/10
In Cave	This track is the only other track I need on this single. It reaches the level of the hit single and puts more emphasis on the singing than the screaming. The pauses allow for forceful entry of all five instruments and the bridge works wonderfully with the rest of the song to produce a musical coherence (something the last two tracks could have used more of). With a beautiful mix of violence and beauty, screaming and singing, and unusual (good) singing in the refrain reaching up into the upper registers of Mao’s vocals, this song is the proper way to end off this single.	10/10

This single is old but I reviewed it because I need to reaffirm to myself that Sadie is capable of good music. Kagerou should have never been conceived. This is brilliant and a must listen if not for the first and last track. I suggest you get the regular edition (brown cover) as you lose out on a mediocre track and get a music video, which works in this situation. 80%.

Review: Sadie - Kagerou (TYPE A & B)

TYPE C review is here.

You bunch of money hungry little whores....

Let's take a look. Both Grieving the Dead Soul AND Ice Romancer hit the top of the indies singles charts. Then you have MASTER OF ROMANCE, the album this single is on, that hit number two on the album charts...SEVEN MONTHS AGO! Aren't singles supposed to be released

a) BEFORE THE ALBUM?
or
b) SHORTLY AFTER THE ALBUM IS RELEASED?

What in the hell is Sadie doing re-releasing Kagerou seven months after it was released on the album? What's worse is they have the nerve to market this as a new single in THREE DIFFERENT EDITIONS! My memory isn't that short term. I swear, this song better have been re-recorded in the halls of Valhalla...

陽炎 [TYPE-A]

01. 陽炎 (Kagerou/Heat Haze)
02. BLACK STARS
03. ナイフ (Naifu/Knife)


陽炎 [TYPE-B]

01. 陽炎 (Kagerou/Heat Haze)
02. BLACK STARS
03. ナイフ (Naifu/Knife)

DVD: "陽炎" LIVE CLIP

Kagerou	I still find nothing exceptional about this song, but the chorus is adequate and the introduction is made better by those drums. Some riffs here and there are memorable but the package as a whole is nothing special. Still a generic rocker that isn’t single material and does nothing different than from what it did seven months ago. They were so fucking lazy they didn’t even bother to re-record or re-master the song. This sounds like it was ripped right off the album, yet this is a positive because the rest of this single sounds horrible.	7/10
BLACK STARS	Offensive garbage. The verses send me images of Mao pulling a Tony Yayo while standing around grabbing his crotch and making random hand gestures. Rap in Japanese sounds awkward as it is but Mao’s rapping is infinitely more atrocious when paired with that chorus. The “black stars” repetition sounds hideous and what the fuck is that “Shenanananana CRAZY” portion? The production value of this entire piece is inferior to MASTER OF ROMANCE and even UNDEAD13+2. Guitars sound low and muddled and the drums sound like marshmallows after the introduction. Are you even trying anymore Sadie?	2/10
Knife	I probably would like this song but the mastering is so muddled and shitty listening is painful in some parts. The bass is the best part of this song and the only instrument that seems to have any sort of direction. It’s also the only instrument I can hear clearly. The guitars are messy and all over the place and random insertions here and there do NOT work. Once again, the drums sound inaudible and Mao’s yells/growls/whatever the hell those sounds are drown everything else out. They also do not sound very good and just like every other portion of this track they sound down produced and washed out. This is obvious proof that Kagerou wasn’t re-recorded because Kagerou doesn’t sound like shit.	4/10

Now a word on the videos: It's pretty, it's nice, it looks like Meisai. I can live without it and to be honest I didn't really want one. Their new look is OK at best and when it comes down to it, it's the reason why VK bands sell as many records as they do. A bigger portion of their fan base orgasms over their looks rather than the music and we all know Mao's sweat is oh-so-sexy to see when he's exerting himself live. I could manage without either of these videos.

Sadie, take a year off. Recharge your batteries, find some new creative inspiration, think up original ways to squander your UNDEAD and abroad fanbase out of their yen and the next time you decide to step into a studio and record the fans a single make sure it's good. I know for a fact the only reason this was done was to push forward the tolerable PV. This is right down there with Struggle Against Betrayal for worst Sadie release ever, except I didn't have to pay for the former.

43%

Review: Sadie - Struggle against betrayal

Wow, what a joyous way to start a song off:

I KILL MYSELF
I POUR MY ROTTEN BLOOD ON YOU
CRY FOR YOU

I knew there was a reason why I didn't like this song too much upon first listen, even if Mao's English is indecipherable.

01. Struggle against betrayal

So now that I have the lyrics (which are below if you want them) I can make an informed decision. I really hate this song. It's got too much screaming, Mao doesn't sing and the lyrics don't even have anything to do with struggling against betrayal. It doesn't even help that the entire song is in English and that the lyrics are your typical "I'm angry so I'm going to spout disgusting and dirty yet ultimately impossible things". For example, how are you going to kill yourself and then pour your rotten blood on someone? It's these types of lyrics that leave me wondering why this song was recorded in the first place.

If you're looking to buy it for whatever reason that may be, it was live distributed so good luck trying to find someone that wants to let go of it. Maybe not so much, since this song really isn't that good. Even though Mao speaks in English it comes across as gibberish as he combines three sentences into one and exhales it all in one scream so it's incoherent blabber that would make you laugh rather than fear him or wince.

The instrumentation isn't that good either. It's the kind of buzzawing guitar that explodes eardrums and it sounds like the boys recorded this a couple of hours before the show, and they probably did judging from the quality of this song. I have nothing noteworthy to say about any part of this song. It's a shitty version of Grieving the Dead Soul.

This is the worst Sadie song ever written. One out of five.

Lyrics

I kill myself
I pour my rotten blood on you.
Cry for you.

I hate you making a fool of me.
I want to murder you decieving me.
Let a restrained tangle loose.
I don't want to hear the excuse.
I already got tired of hearing the falsehood.
I'm drowned, and nothing looks sorrowful.
My heartless instinct makes darkness.
What is the thing which can save me
who was about to be broken?

Betrayal (fuck off)
Can you hear my pains and crys?
The reality gives me fear cruelly.

I pray with all my malice.
Disturb... disturb...

Review: Sadie - -Undead13+2-

-Undead13 + 2- is most likely one of the most invaluable possessions in any Sadie fan's back catalog. They were nice enough to go back and re-record all the songs that they released earlier that are no longer available, and after extensive comparisons I find the new versions to be superior to the older ones. This all ends up meaning that their first album, while not original, is a solid piece of work.

“obstacle progress” – 2:51
迷彩 – 5:03
“MAD-ROID” – 3:48
“confusion” – 3:23
“under the chaos” – 4:11
“CHILDREN OF DESPAIR” – 3:48
サイレントイヴ – 4:50
サイコカルチャー – 4:08
“GRUDGE OF SORROW” – 4:08
“M.F.P” – 3:34
妄想被虐性癖 – 4:16
"a holy terrors” – 4:01
“Empty Room” – 4:23
“Barking the Enemy” – 3:29
サヨナラの果て – 5:41

There are a few tracks that I MUST acknowledge. obstacle progress from the single "Dekiai" has to be one of my favorite heavy metal openers of all time. People say it sounds just like ‘Kodoku ni Shisu, Yueni Kodoku’ but it’s only because the bass is tuned the same. I just listened to the two of them and although I see similarities, it isn’t as blatant of a copy as Enishi (Giru) and Kodou (Diru). Anyway, the song starts out slow, ends slow with the same bass carrying it along, and is hard all through the middle. It’s worth a listen.

Meisai, from the Suicide Machine, is a mixed bag with indies stamped all over it. If the guitars were awesome but stale, the lyrics would be stale but awesome. It’s nothing new that we haven’t heard before, because girugamesh's [Goku] sounds extremely similar to this song. This song is…generic but a good kind of generic. It’s neither the mass-produced boy band pop rock depressing kind of music nor is it the bathroom metal trash of a lot of American metal. It’s somewhere in the middle and doesn’t associate itself with either.

Starting with a scream of epic vibrato proportions and having some of the sexiest singing in the chorus that I’ve heard from Sadie, MAD-ROID is definitely worth a listen. Please don’t ask me what the title MAD-ROID is supposed to mean. I’m going to translate the song at the end of this post and then maybe after that I can figure out if it’s supposed to be a name or an acronym or just plain broken English that’s supposed to sound cool but then ends up failing miserably. I don’t know about the rest of you but MAD-ROID sounds like a killer robot dog nipping at my car tires as I try to run it down.

I'm just as iffy on the next track as well. confusion is one of those tracks that has two riffs going on at the same time, with one playing higher than the other in the background that reminds me so much of a typical style of Sadie playing. This same playing can be found later on in the song Empty Room. Other than that, this song is no more inventive than the one following it.

Straight off The Trend Killer, under the chaos is another track that’s hard and strong, but deserves a listen. It perhaps has the most stereotypical riff in all of visual kei music, and it really doesn't do much to stand away from the last two tracks, especially MAD-ROID in particular. It's a good track on it's own, but better can be found on this album so let's keep moving.

The lack of creativity corrects itself with CHILDREN OF DESPAIR, which storms in with strong bass literally in between the two guitars and takes off until Mao roars like he's dying into the microphone. If there was a "classic" Sadie song that they could have re-recorded, it would be this. It's surely one of the better songs on this album, and that's saying a lot considering the caliber of most of these songs. The only thing that nags me is the very end, when Mao's voice is doing that reverb thing. It was unneeded.

I originally disliked Silent Eve, but as one of the only two ballads on this album I have come to appreciate it more. The two guitars take off in opposite directions as the song takes off and Mao's singing is the highlight of this song. I like this one more than Sayonara no Hate, and it's up there with CHILDREN OF DESPAIR as one of the best songs on this album.

Psycho Culture was also one that I originally disliked but have come to appreciate. In this instance, it's even more so since I'm drawn towards harder numbers than soft tracks. The beginning riff will either entice you or annoy you but overall the song is a solid one. Mao's English could use some work but his growling here is pretty good. I'd put it on the same level as MAD-ROID.

GRUDGE OF SORROW is perhaps THE Sadie song in my opinion. It's got soft verses, harder parts, and beautiful vocals all blended around English verses that are audible and don't sound like babble and a Japanese chorus that takes off right after the deepest growls in the song. It's pure gold.

Anything I can say about M.F.P. is the same thing I've said for GRUDGE OF SORROW, but throw in an infectious beat and an even higher chorus as well as the ending growl that ends the singing perfectly and you have my personal favorite Sadie song of all time. This song is just SEXY. The falsetto, the growling, the little interlude with the guitars, the classic way Mao ends his singing with the growling, the step up technique they use to end the song. This is where I began and I remain happy that I did. Also pure gold.

I question in the first place why they elected to re-record Mousou hi Gyaku Seiheiki. It's easily the worst song on the album. It is also too repetitive by even this band’s standards and could have used a lot more work. It just feels shoved onto the album without any refinement and something like obvious ballade, deadly masquerade, tsuiren no hana, or meranchoria would have been a better option. A definite skip.

a holy terrors is a tricky beast because it doesn’t know whether it wants to be hard or soft, so instead it wades in between both. The beginning starts off hard but then it goes all soft on you. The hard parts have some of the most bizarre and interesting vocals on this CD (i'm SURE they digitally altered those!), and it’s what makes this song stand out.

Empty Room dragged me in with that guitar riff at the beginning. I SWORE that I heard it somewhere before and that I loved it the first time, and I loved it in this song. That riff just made it for me, and the rest of the song doesn’t fall into obscurity. This song is also similar to M.F.P. in that it has lighter vocals but it can still manage to stay hard. The lighter parts are accompanied by some acoustic, and I’m a sucker for acoustic in all the right places. The bass solo at the middle with the little drum part is fantastic.

Barking the Enemy is another repetitive headbanger, fitting in somewhere between confusion and Mousou hi Gyaku Seiheiki. Not only is the song too long for it's runtime, but in the 3 and a half minutes the song rumbles along it does nothing to satisfy me. Another skip.

Sayonara no Hate is the obligatory mid-tempo epic that's supposed to wrap up the album, and let's say it does it's job. It starts off slow, rises through many stages to become a delicate but brutal piece of work, and never lets down at any part of the song. In this song, they also did a similar tactic to Empty Room except this time they distorted a riff at a part. Mixing acoustic with electric is always a common trick and it works. I still prefer Silent Eve to this track but Sayonara no Hate ends this album in a way no other track could have.

In all, this track only has two tracks I would recommend you skip, and another two that I'm not too fond of. It's a definite buy for any fan of heavy metal that hasn't heard this band yet, and I consider it infinitely superior to it's sister album Master of Romance. 4.5 out of 5.

Review: Sadie - Master of Romance

Sadie to me is a mixed basket: they sound like a regular garage band at some points, something original at other points, and a huge Dir en grey copy band most of the time. Naturally, I would wonder how their first original album would sound. Would it sound great and like the older stuff (a la The Trend Killer) or would it be more of the newer, "garbage" tracks (like Crimson Tear)?

01 imaginary creature
02 Ice Romancer
03. 心眼 (Shingai)
04. VIRTUAL FAKEMAN
05. Scarlet
06. アゲハの亡骸 (Ageha no Nakigara)
07. Crimson Tear
08. 陽炎 (Kagerou)
09. Parasite Scene
10. Grieving the Dead Soul
11. Swallow Rain

I never answered it, and I just played the first track, imaginary creature. imaginary creature is an interesting track: after the last two singles and the -Undead13+2- album, I was expecting a whole RAWR SCREAMO EMO KYO IS MY GAWD HERE’S A DIRU RIFF smashed into my temples. An obstacle progress clone was obvious and I always regarded obstacle progress as a great opener and mood-setter to an album What do I get? A piano and some soft singing which is a great opener and mood-setter to an album. I think I heard some muted screaming in the background and some banging (especially the loud one toward the end). It’s a grower and I don’t think that it’s the best song on the album, but it’s good enough for what it sets out to do.

*cuts the bullshit*

I can’t HEAR Mao throughout half of this track to be quite honest. He doesn’t sound like Kyo that much in this song but if I could hear him better then my decision might change. The piano is soft and soothing and is the proper way to start off an album. If you are also ever in need, this is a good song to
- slice your wrists to
- play boogeyman with
- comb your hair over with
- lament your girlfriend leaving you for being a frugal loser

I don’t have much to say: the song is too damn short. It’s interesting but only because it could have GONE somewhere but it ends on that note that makes it seem unfinished and done at the same time. I leave it with a 7.6.

The album truly takes off with Ice Romancer, the latest single they’ve just released. I’m not sure what they mean by the title though. On my very first listen, I SWORE I was listening to Kyo from Macabre or maybe Kisou. We know that you idolize Kyo but goddammit does everyone have to sound like him now? Mao sounding a whole lot like him takes off a bit from the song because it doesn’t seem as fresh, but the screaming and the verses are more original. Speaking of the verses, they divide into a quiet section followed by an aria from Mao’s demonic, Kyo-inspired other half. Overall, this is a pretty solid song and one of those worth listening to if you haven’t heard it yet. It gets itself a 9.

Shingai starts out weird and repulsive, with a pig squeal. The song actually starts when Mao clears some phlegm from his throat. It’s the standard hard rocker with bark and respond calls with squealing verses here and there. I prefer Grieving the Dead Soul to this song, but maybe because I heard that song first, but there’s nothing wrong with this song. After a few listens, the alternate heavy/heavier verses start to sound listenable, but the chorus overdoes it with the growling and turns me off. The piece afterwards with the guitars scaling upwards is pretty damn cool though. I would give it a 7.

VIRTUAL FAKEMAN’s chorus reminds me of MAD-ROID, especially when Mao sings ’sono mono sa’. This song is upbeat and funky, and I hate this song. I also like it at the same time. It’s a new sound from them and for some reason Mao doing some disco dancing in this song while he headbangs sticks in my mind. When I’m walking in the street with this song, this song seems to run a lot longer than the 4:37 it says it is. I just get lost in this song with the singing and the smexy riffs that play on my ears. I just can’t get enough of the guitars in this song, and that’s probably what draws me back again and again. It’s the first original song on this album, because it wasn’t a prior single (Ice Romancer), it IS a song (imaginary creature) and it isn’t underinspired (Shingai). However, it just doesn't fit in the soundscape of this album, being all upbeat and all. I give this song an 8.8.

Scarlet and Ageha no Nakigara blew me away the first time I heard them. The beginning to the former sounded like something from a song I’ve heard somewhere before, but it works. It’s a rock track with a slower pace and a lot of emotion, and may be the best damn song on the album. I can also hear all the Engrish clearly! It certainly is my favorite out of all the new tracks they’ve provided, and I could play this on repeat over and over again. The latter defies any sort of categorization that I can come up with, and that makes it interesting in my book. I guess you could call it a ballad of sorts but that’s not an apt title. It doesn’t matter: the guitars are beautiful and Mao can apply screams without ruining the whole feel of the song. He truly blends his singing and his death vocals to make an interesting and refreshing chorus. Mao’s singing is also great and for once he doesn’t sound like a Kyo from seven or eight years ago. If you don’t regard Scarlet as the best song on the album, then Ageha no Nakigara deserves runner up. Both songs are worth a listen and they get 10’s.

I read a lot of people disliked Crimson Tear and almost “stopped liking Sadie for it”. I don’t feel the same way. Sure, it’s a bit spastic, all over the place, and screamy, but that’s Sadie for you. I’ll be fair; the PV influenced my decision greatly. When I'm just listening to the song, it lacks sorely. It doesn't sound like enough effort was placed into it, so at the end of the day I really would recommend you watch the PV and see. For listening purposes I would skip however. A solid 6.

I listened to this album about five times before I sat down to type this and I will tell you, I don’t really remember Kagerou. I have to type and listen at the same time because I won’t remember it. I find nothing exceptional about this song, but the chorus is adequate at best. It’s a generic track that’s not too hard and not too soft. I give it a 6.5: it’s not my fault it’s forgettable, but it’s a solid rocker that’s worth an investment with guitars that have the possibility to get stuck in your head.

Funny how they release this as a single. It's like a Crimson Tear that's improved upon, but it's infinitely better. I just feel like I heard this somewhere before.

The same can be said about the next track. Parasite Scene has a deceptive opener. It soon bashes you over the head with the hardness equal to that of an erection and lumbers along at that pace. Reminded me of New Age Culture, except they don’t borrow the ending. I was about to compare this to Shingai but the chorus was calling for attention: Mao layers his growling with screaming to make an interesting duet with himself. Sadly, I don’t find the same interesting novelty in the guitars in this song but they bust out some interesting riffs here and there. I brand thy song an eight.

This song made me sprain my neck from the awesome. It’s a grower, but once it has grown on you you’ll never stop listening to this song. There’s a reason why Grieving the Dead Soul hit number one on the charts: it fucking rocks. Grieving the Dead Soul has everything you’d hope for from a hard rocking Sadie song: a chorus of ghoulish death vocals, Mao’s trademark sing-scream style, and a refrain that will have you head banging even at your desk. In less expected territory, Mao raps at various points throughout the song, but it meshes wonderfully with the raging mood. It’s also a relief that he doesn’t sound like Kyo from Children/Stuck Man. Still the shining moment is his wrathful screaming, particularly toward the end. The quiet area near the middle of the song substitutes for a solo and is a breather after the two minutes of awesome shit they hurl in your face. They break up the pace and keep you on your toes, waiting to see how much they’ll throw at you once you inhale. This track exhibits the real flairs of Sadie packed into one concentrated track of sublimity. Unlike Shingai and Parasite Scene, it’s dynamic in vocals AND guitars. It gets a 10, and only because it takes a while for the song to grow on you.

I’m having Inconvienent Ideal flashbacks right now: Swallow Rain is the mid-tempo rocker that ends the album on a lighter but equally as emotional level. The way Mao sings Swallow Rain during the song is the part that stands out most to me, and the rest of the song is equally as emotional. I would give this song a nine as well.
The bonus track, Newage Slicer, is worth mentioning for the sole purpose that it sounds like a Child Prey throwaway. However, because it is a bonus track, I'm not going to pass judgment on the track. I do like the name though ^^

That ends Master of Romance. I’m pleased to say no song on this album sucked, but there were parts of the album that were underwhelming to me. I found Shingai and Kagerou to be a bit disappointing, but Scarlet, Ageha no Nakigara and Swallow Rain were nice surprises. It’s a solid effort for a first album, and overall it gets a 4 out of five.