Review: SCREW - X-RAYS

With the announcement that Yuuto decided to leave the band today, I figured that it'd be only right that I finally take a look at X-RAYS and see what his final work with SCREW was like. I'm not going to beat around the bush and banter on and on just to have a set structure: X-RAYS was pretty average in some spots and downright terrible in others. A few issues plague this album through and through and there are plenty of other bands that do this genre and do it better but for an album X-RAYS really isn't all that bad. It just isn't all that good either.

Byou, the vocalist of this band, cannot scream. His singing voice is great, as illustrated in songs like DYSPNEA and Yurikago, but he cannot scream. X-RAYS has a notorious amount of distortion on the screams and instead of filling out Byou's weak spots it just makes the song sound funny and the screams sound stupid. There is such a ridiculous amount of distortion that I don't blame anyone if they stop listening at track five. This little glitch wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that ScReW considers themselves to be a heavy band so we have tracks like dust box and DRASTIC SLAVER which are ridden with nothing but screams and growls muffled by tons of distortion.

The album starts off with answer, which I treat as more of an album opener than a track on it's own. It's under three minutes but it's full of screaming, whispering, tinny drumming, distorted vocals out the window and a respectable guitar line that keeps this song from sinking. It leads into one song that I must point out for review purposes: VII Cardinal Sins. This song is the epitome of "born syndrome": deep heavy verses contrasted with a sung chorus that doesn't fit together well. Throw in some unintelligible growled Engrish and distortion of course and you have a track that's just loud but not clever.

Thankfully this album is miles above the crap Racial Mixture EP they released before this and I do have to say that since they recorded all new songs for this album it's good in that respect. Some noteworthy songs for listening that I need to point out are Ruin and Dread, Dyspnea, Black Monster and Yurikago. These are among the best songs on the album because they showcase Byou's strengths while leaving the massive amounts of technical aid behind. Ruin and Dread combines their crushing sound with the grace of a piano while Dyspnea throws in a nice little acoustic solo over Byou's great singing voice, both of which add more to a song than "scream, scream, scream, layer this shit with distortion, scream some more". Yurikago has a nice tempo change midway through the song that keeps the listener from falling into a sleep from listening so long and Black Monster is that token "we're diversified" track that doesn't fit in on the album. Normally I crucify these but in the context of this album I'd take anything that doesn't outright suck.

EDIT: Due to the comment of an anonymous visitor, it came to my attention that I somehow missed the incredibly good Firefly. Don't ask why I didn't notice it wasn't here the first time but if you're going to pick up X-RAYS you need to invest serious time in this track. I didn't and I missed it the first time around D=. (Perhaps then I would have given X-RAYS a second look)

And then we have tracks that outright suck....what a shame since the songs above highlight that Screw knows what it is they're doing but they just make very poor musical decisions. As stated before, VII Cardinal Sins is a page ripped right out of "born's tips and tricks to making dysfunctional music" guide while dust box is a roaring wall of noise that ought to be destroyed next to it's cousin HEEL (from Racial Mixture). answer and Drastic Slaver both have somewhat cool guitar lines racing throughout but Byou's vocals kill it and Genei no Kusari has a cringeworthy chorus that neuters a somewhat good song.

At the end of the day, Screw is where they are at because they produce what it is they want: music that's great to listen to one minute and just "what the fuck" the next. Byou is nothing more than a poor man's Mao when it comes down to it (and Mao doesn't need digitalization on his vocals to make them "harsh") and ScReW can't keep a leash on their wild side as tightly as Sadie (the band that most jumps to mind when you figure what it is they try to imitate). X-RAYS is very hit and miss as an album but there are a few tracks in here worth putting your attention towards.

If ScReW wants to improve, they'll need to get a vocalist that knows how to scream/growl and compose songs that aren't needlessly heavy and without direction like "dust box". The EQ levels also need some adjustment. Would I ever want to see some songs re-recorded for a future compilation? Sure, but just the good ones.

Recommended:

DYSPNEA
RUIN AND DREAD
Yurikago

Listen: Maybe

Review: ScReW - Racial Mixture

I'm still appalled as to why this band would designate "Racial Mixture" as a mini-album. Only four of these tracks even contain any music and even then the quality of said songs are highly debatable. As the first place I started with a band, it wasn't a very good offering. Let's see if anything on this is salvageable...

01. mongrelism
02. KAIROS
03. molder
04. 49
05. self-injurious
06. HEEL

mongrelism is an utter piece of shit. Refer back to Nega's singles dig and ill when I said that I don't understand why they need to include an instrumental track on a 3 track single? Well just double that here since it's basically the same, and if anything ScReW did it worse. It's an absolutely terrible introduction that does nothing to add from the album. Skip.

It's a no-brainer why the next track has a music video. KAIROS is the best track on the entire album hands down. It has catchy parts, a decent solo piece, a Byou that sings and doesn't mumble incoherent words, and musical composition. Compared to the rest of the single, I get the impression that this is the only track they spent time working on, which is quite sad because this track has the makings of a single in it and it's shoved in with all this shit. KAIROS has some flaws in it but overall it's good, and by the time you're done here you'll be wishing just decent was something this band could consistently achieve on this CD. A definite listen.

molder is underwhelming after KAIROS. It has some cool passages but it's marred by random noises issuing from Byou's voice, too much mumbling, and annoying noises from somewhere here and there. The piece after the second repeat of the chorus is nice so they really should have just cut there after the first time they sung the chorus and ended the song there. molder doesn't evolve at any time during the song and I get way too bored sometimes to finish it out, especially knowing what Byou's voice does at the end, which I think could have been done better but doesn't add any points to a just average track.

49 is worse than mongrelism. I have no idea why the title is the way it is and it's completely unnecessary. If I wanted drums blasting into my eardrum I could pick any other track on this CD and be accompanied with deafening music. This is just dull, and the sad part is these instrumentals are more listenable than some of the other tracks here. 49 is still shitty though.

self-injurious is perhaps a saving grace after 49, and it doesn't even mix with the previous track making 49's existence questionable. Perhaps the only other track worth a listen, if you're this far in you should listen just because the punishment is almost over. So much more could have been done with this track, but unlike half of this mini, it's listenable as is and doesn't feature unnecessary shit in the background. It also sports a killer riff and the chorus features some "ooo"s in the background that are slightly memorable.

HEEL is a great way to end a sub-par mini-album. It's absolute shit. Producing random noise without any melody is such a hard thing to do, and all the all the blabbering, yelling, whispering and talking made me want to cut off my balls and throw them at people. Byou should just stick to screaming the lyrics. Ironically, the best part of this track is when it stops halfway in, and so should you.

This mini-album really sucks, since they advertise six songs and only two are decent. I have not much more to say about this here. Just listen to the two songs I suggest and skip the rest and listen to something more pleasing. Two good tracks equals two earned out of five.