Review: D'espairsRay - REDEEMER

Tracklist
1. Lizard
2. BRILLIANT [PV]
3. REDEEMER [PV]
4. 琥珀 (Kohaku)
5. KAMIKAZE [PV]
6. Lost in re:birth
7. R.E.M-冬の幻聴- (R.E.M-Fuyu no genchou-)
8. HORIZON [PV]
9. MASQUERADE

In comparison to the beautiful [coll:set] and the energetic MIRROR, Redeemer blows monkey nuts. It's certainly not their strongest albums and if anything this is a bipolar offering of what D'espairsRay has to offer us as they're struggling through their style change. I'm not averse to change - I'm averse to it done badly but no matter how much I stomp my feet and whine up the internet the boys are going to play whatever it is they want to play so I guess I have to swallow the metaphorical rock cock and enjoy what I'm given.

Even though I make it sound like it's horrible this album has some redeeming qualities that save it from being a complete fail.

Lizard, the starting track, would be one of those good points. It is nothing more than a generic metal track meant to please fans like me who don't react well to change. By no means is it outstanding but the dark D'espairsRay purists will soon find themselves clinging to any shred of darkness that they can find on this album, especially when you look at what the second track is. D'espa wasted no time busting out BRILLIANT and the sheer upbeatness and raging energy of this track swathes Lizard's darker riffs and howls in light. BRILLIANT sounds like a track that was too light for MIRROR because a ton of stylistic elements were borrowed from that era for this song and it shows (especially in that little growl before the solo). Despite the polar opposites of these two tracks the flow is nice but I suppose this has to do with the fact that Lizard isn't the darkest thing we've ever heard from these boys. So even though they lighten up their darker songs (especially in the chorus which features some singing) their lighter songs aren't complete pop-rock pieces of crap. Yet.

REDEEMER, the third track, would fool you and make you think that this band was out to fuck with your mind. The mood is dark and tense as slick riffs and pounding drums race through verses and a chorus. When this PV came out every purist was in awe because the three B-sides they gave us were complete mindfucks and made us think we were getting some lame L'arc-en-ciel cover album shit. Without the PV, the energy of the track definitely suffers but if you need a quick fix of angsty HIZUMI this track could do the trick. Then again, there is another track coming up a bit later that could fill this void a lot better.

Kouhaku is pretty lame considering that it's a ballad lacking any direction. This saddens me since I love most of Tsukasa's work but this ballad falters because it doesn't dynamically expand into anything meaningful. The industrial opening and the guitar lines sound great, and the drum work lends itself nicely to the melancholic mood but the track doesn't bring it, leaving it to sit in the pool if it's own mediocrity to be emo and slice itself. KAMIKAZE doesn't bring it back since the opening charges you with energy but the chorus is a kick in the dick. It's generic pop-rock formula rubs me as a listener the wrong way and whatever uniqueness the track had going for it was lost in it's ambivalence to be both original and shitty at the same time.

Lost in re:birth is the one track that made me look at this album twice. Not one track sans Brilliant has given me any sort of indication that the tracks were thought through 100% - they sounded fine but they weren't inspired and D'espa didn't sound like they were completely convinced that they liked what they were playing. The vibe reminds me of Closer to ideal but overall the band lets loose here like they don't anywhere else on this album. I actually think the inclusion of this song hurts the album more than most people realize. It's so good at convincing you that D'espa still carries it's gothic junk in the trunk that the rest of the album comes off as a "what the fuck" amalgamation of unconvincing crap. Four minutes of complete rage, frantic drums and racing guitar lines makes me a happy purist.

R.E.M.~Fuyu no Genchou~ is the second ballad and it's not as dreadfully "chop my balls off" boring as Kouhaku was. Even though I personally feel it's too early for a second ballad slight additions to the track help it to build in a way that Kouhaku didn't, allowing the track not to fall flat at any point. Piano and violins help accompany the power metal chords and Hizumi's voice in a way that I haven't heard yet. Even though this is completely uncharacteristic of D'espairsRay, I like the experimentation and direction they decided to take with this track. Good stuff.

Ugh...and then we come to Horizon, the one track that I want to be raped with a rubber duckie of doom. This track deserves in no way to come after R.E.M. and everything about this track is cringe-worthy. Hizumi's rapping is atrocious, his screams are lame, the woah-oh-ohhhh's are creepy and the song is more pop-rock then Kamikaze's chorus. It retains none of the gothiness that at least allowed me to accept Kamikaze for what it was so I just listen to this track cringing with fear until the admittedly cool solo creeps up and turns even the heads of the most resentful of us purists. There's actually nothing too bad with this track and if you blinded someone and told them to listen to these two tracks they probably wouldn't be able to tell that it's the same band. It's just the fact that it's D'espairsRay that gave us this track, and not some generic oshare fuck like SuG that prevents me from accepting this track. I never actually WILL accept this track so it can rot in the back of the fucking fridge in hell sans the solo for the rest of eternity.

MASQUERADE is that lame attempt at D'espa trying to tell us they still are dark and emotional, screaming about pain and shit. Boys, when the last song says "CAN JOO FEEL DAH NEW WURLD?" I don't expect you to have the next track full of anger and rage at the world. Hizumi's trademark screams come off less raw and more refined, which would lead me to like it less since he sounds like he's holding back some and just roaring because it's been a few minutes since they've asserted how hardkoar they are (because we all know rapping is definitely kvlt). Hizumi's Engrish is also horrid and the next time the little ass uses a verb with out in it I will kick him in the dick. Break out, flake out? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT? MASQUERADE is definitely the worst hard number on here since it's just the mandatory rough track with no passion whatsoever. Skip this no matter what side of the D'espa color wheel your allegiance lies.

The track Yozora is a complete what the fuck trip that compels me to whip out a shotgun and blow my fucking brains out if it weren't for the fact that I'd go to shoot whoever blasted this oshare-kei candy crap in my ears. The track is titled Night Sky in Japanese but they might as well have named this track fucking RAINBOW ROAD because it's too fucking upbeat to think about anything dark and angsty. If you disliked Horizon you'll want to claw your eyes out with this because it sounds like Takeru went crazy on some nyappy juice and fucked with the octave dial on Karyu's guitars. The little "happy synths" that remind me of Yoshi's Island also need to die a horrible, bloody death and Karyu's solo can't turn my head no matter how many pinch harmonics he wants to throw into it. This is 4:18 minutes of torture I wouldn't suggest ANY fan of MIRROR-era and previous subject themselves to unless they're feeling a little BDSM'y.

If you were expecting another sub-par emo bitchfest from the group in PARADOX 5 you would be sorely disappointed. PARADOX 5 is another in the vein of "holy what the motherfucking hell" that D'espairsRay throws at us but instead of sounding like the grandparents of alice nine. these guys manage to create an ambient wonder so odd it's entrancing. It's like Screen but better, mixing electronic effects with ethnic elements and female vocals to give it a sense of groove I haven't heard much this album. D'espa need to rent themselves out to the GazettE so they can get them into "female vocal rehab" because these guys know how to use it to make a track better without having the entire song sound like an R&B chopped and screwed remix of upchuckable shit. Perhaps what makes this track feel so weird are the exclusion of guitars - which I'm thinking might be a good idea since these guys have overdosed on the pop juice far too much on this album.

Had the album ended there it would have been a complete smack in the face but it would have been the good kind where they leave the best for last to keep you on your toes up until the end. But no, D'espa wouldn't have it that way and somehow feels the compulsive need to let us know that they've done away with their adolescent rage by placing a pop-rock song every other track. HEAVEN'S COLOR would be that obligatory upbeat ending track. I would have called this HORIZON 2.0 but D'espairsRay somehow remembered that they had to pretend to be upset to please hardasses like me so this track comes off more melancholic than that aborted monstrosity called Yozora. I have a mental block against this track since I despise pop-rock tracks coming out of this band when they aren't done excellently and HEAVEN'S COLOR just refuses to click with me so I'll leave the listener to formulate their own opinions about this one. At this point, I've given up on Redeemer and maybe that's for the best since it's the end of the album and if I want to try again I have the generic Lizard to beef up my neural senses before I lunge back into this album again.

This album is anything but cohesive, jumping from dark and angry to light and happy with the change of a track. The only track that somehow manages to blend the two would be the last one and every other track inbetween is either needlessly happy, needlessly heavy or just plain unexpected. Some rearranging as well as substitution of better tracks could have done REDEEMER some good but as the package is on it's own there should be something here for anyone to like. Older purists like me should find tracks like Lizard, REDEEMER and Lost in re:birth to be adequate enough to assure us that D'espairsRay still remembers that we're expecting them to roar our socks off. Those looking for slower numbers can rest in the ambience of tracks like PARADOX 5, Kouhaku and R.E.M. and those without musical taste or those that need something upbeat and lighter in nature can enjoy "gems" like Horizon and Yozora. Everything else is in the middle and is more of a see-as-you-move-along sort of deal. There's definitely not that one standout track that blows me away on this album but there are plenty of moments that alone are "good enough" but together can keep me satisfied until D'espairsRay can manage to pull together something like REDEEMER, R.E.M., Lost in re:birth or BRILLIANT again and then improve on it enough to bring me back to the fanbase.

REDEEMER is slightly above average, resting at a solid 7 out of 10. It could have been better, but I was expecting a lot worse.

D'espairsRay's Immortal Tracklist

1. 檻の中で見る夢
2. MaVERiCK
3. Garnet
4. BORN
5. 闇に降る奇跡
6. 「浮遊した理想」
7. Forbidden
8. アベルとカイン
9. 凍える夜に咲いた花
10. Closer to ideal
11. Squall
12. MIRROR
13. Cocoon
14. Scissors
15. HORIZON

Brothers and sisters, this is one terrible tracklist. Wasn't this supposed to be a compilation of all their best work from 1999-2008? Well what the fuck is 1999 doing there if the earliest track they're giving us is 2003 (Ori no Naka de Miru Yume)? Secondly, what the fuck are Redeemer era tracks doing here? REDEEMER IS 2009 - Get Horizon the FUCK off that shit unless this is some sort of grindcore remix. Cocoon and Scissors are lame as fuck b-sides and Horizon DEFINITELY does not belong there! It's been on their last three releases and everyone hated that track to shit!

I am also not enthused about seeing Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana and Squall on this album either. They aren't as shit as HORIZON but it's still pretty shit considering all of the other tracks they could have done. This goes for Squall more than Kogoeru, because I personally find Squall to be boring. Where are the demo tapes? Where's the Kumo/Genwaku re-recordings? Fucking hell, they didn't even put REDDISH on this album! REDDISH > FUYUU SHITA RISOU GUYS! WHY IS THERE MIRROR HERE? I can BUY MIRROR if I wanted to hear MIRROR songs.

The only song I semi-approve of besides Ori no Naka de Miru Yume is MaVERiCK and that's because it's old and hasn't been re-recorded at all. Then again, SEXUAL BEAST / TERRORS hasn't been re-recorded either and Closer to ideal has already been re-recorded.

This is NOT what I wanted and as a result I will not be buying this album like I originally intended. There was SO MUCH they could have done with this album and instead they shitted all over this prospect to gain back some VK props (I don't give a fuck what you say they haven't shorn VK so they are) and instead they pick the shittiest 13 tracks they could and said "here we go - these are tracks that either DON'T need to be re-recorded or are just plain shit but we're doing it because we like em"

You wanna know what I would have liked?

Ao / Razor / Sakura / [S]yste[M] - these demo tapes are hard to find and are in crap quality. We want to hear them, you can shamelessly make money off of decade old work, who is complaining? NO ONE

Loop ~ Divide Neo Abomination~ / Monokuro ni Natta Saigo no Hi - most people don't even know these tracks exists and both of these together destroy most of that tracklist.

ANIMAL MANIA - YOU DID FUCKING ANIMAL MANIA LAST YEAR! WHY ISN'T THIS HERE >_________>

Kumo / Genwaku / TERRORS / Sexual Beast - all with good songs in crap to sub-par quality that could have been re-recorded. Kumo especially since it featured one of my favorite songs by them and that could have used a good re-recording. Why isn't Kisei, Gensyoku, Fascism or Valentine on that tracklist? ALL GREAT SONGS!

I didn't want anything from COLL:SET but since you went that far why isn't Maze, Pig and DESERT re-recorded either? I don't want poppy shit - I want hard, rough, screamy shit (and you know what? Most of the D'espa fanbase either agrees or won't disagree with me on that one).

You disgust me D'espairsRay - the one time you had to recycle GOOD shit you spend on songs that aren't worth our time. I'll take everything up to track eight - the rest can eat shit.

Fuck you Immortal. Fuck you with a rubber spoon.

Review: D'espairsRay - Final Call

Let's take this time to recall two things that I've said in reviews prior. The first would be that I would take a new approach to writing reviews and the second is that D'espairsRay's single "Gemini" would be the standard that I would hold all future reviews and releases up to. I haven't actually been keeping to that too much: I still am reviewing things technically and I haven't so much as mentioned Reddish since that review. I think that's because I've heard the songs before, I've picked them because I know what they sound like, and I know what I like and what I don't like.

Final Call is a bit different from the other two reviews I've done this month since I literally just got my hands on the single. Even though I've heard the title track from the music video, I don't like judging a song until I get the actual MP3 since the two tend to differ (sometimes immensely). Now that I have the Mp3 with the entire album, it's time to start this review up!

01. Final Call
02. Going on!
03. Ark in the Storm

In some ways I want to relate D'espairsRay to girugamesh. They both released an album (REDEEMER vs. MUSIC) that was immensely different from their other works and alienated their fanbase because "this wasn't the that I grew to like and got used to!". Both D'espa and Giru failed with their last album in the respect that the new sound they were experimenting with clashed and drowned out their older sound so that the product of the album came out sounding like the hunger cries of an aborted fetus wrapped in cellophane. Finally, both bands are similar in the fact that their post-album singles contain traces of the sound that was on their album but with a new tinge to it that actually makes these singles better than some of the tracks on the previous album.

Finally, the construction of the A-side track and certain elements they incorporated in this single sound like they took them from girugamesh and other bands that dabble in that style.

The guitar work is catchy, effective, and rather simple, cycling between a few riffs here and there so it keeps the journey changing throughout. Some of the work on REDEEMER was just as catchy as this and had more going on in the way of musicianship, so Final Call is already not making me feel that musical nirvana we all listen to music for. I imagine myself on a roller coaster during the entire song, with the beginning effects happening while I leave the station. The song blasts in when I'm on the first drop down and as I go through the verses it feels like I'm taking a lot of twists and turns. The entire song is pretty interesting but much like many roller coasters the more you go on the more similar they all begin to feel. The transition into the chorus feels like I hit a break and I stopped for a quick second before going down another steep drop; it's sudden, uncomfortable and it throws you off, but you're able to get right back into it because it moves at a million miles an hour and it's too exhilarating to ignore.

Hizumi's vocals would be the air that smacks your face as you're on this ride. You can't be on a roller coaster without some sort of air resistance but on some rides there is a such a thing as too much air blowing in your face and that ruins the entire run. Bluntly put, there is too much "air resistance" on this track. Hizumi's mumbling, echoing, lack of screams, and singing that doesn't variate too much makes it sound overdone. Much like SCREW's HEEL, he should stick to one or two types of vocals because if you overdo the vocals it becomes too piercing and difficult to enjoy (if you still need an analogy, it becomes difficult to "breathe"). I don't doubt that Hizumi knew what he wanted to do but on this recording it feels like he held back on some of the parts and overdid others, resulting in what sounds like this.

Some well-done deep vocals mixed with some forceful, clean singing and perhaps a trademark scream thrown in for good measure would have been ample for this track. When you take the entire song into perspective he doesn't mess it up too much but it is noticeable when I listen and that detracts from my experience.

The solo is the part of the song that defies all sort of roller coaster analogy, which means it's that part of the "roller coaster" where it actually makes you feel like you're soaring through the air. The feeling that Karyu captures here and the bridge Hizumi sings are the best parts of the song and the entire song should have moved at that pace. At points, this song becomes a little too fast to sit down and enjoy because it feels like it trips all over itself and the guys said "alright, let's all agree to stop here and play this part!"

Although this doesn't get it's own paragraph, the ending effect was lame, unoriginal and faded too fast. I generally don't like fade-outs unless it's a sustained note but this takes it to a whole different level and it sounds like they ran out of riffs to recycle so they just threw that on the ending and called it a day.

At the end of the day, I don't think I'll ever purposefully put this song on again because there's just so many other songs they've made that just DO more for me than this. It's purposelessly catchy, the riffs feel bland and recycled, and the electronic effects feel thrown in without careful thought.

I pretty much know Going on! is going to be the token "dark and angsty" song on this single but I can't help but like it because it sounds so damn good listening to it. D'espairsRay is just better at playing dark and heavy songs and there's nothing else to it. This pulls you in in ways that Final Call can't and didn't and I'm going to rent out D'espairsRay to girugamesh so they can teach them how to use hip-hop elements effectively.

The entire time I sat on my bed in my dorm listening to this (yes I'm in college, that's why these reviews are less frequent ;_;) I was just in shock because they took me on a fecking journey through emotions with this song and that's something they haven't done since Bullet, Scissors and Cocoon. I could feel the emotions and they didn't sound forced or lazy. Going on! moves at the same pace as Final Call but it feels more comfortable with moving that fast and the transitions between the chorus and the verses aren't as drastic and noticeable. They're nothing more than smooth drops on that roller coaster.

What caught me the most with this song was that piano-backed bridge, which I wasn't expecting at all. It comes completely out of left field and leaves me floating in a state of unease before it's just Hizumi for a few seconds and then it plunges into the madness that is the ending. Hizumi's death vocals make a reappearance on this track and not only does he sound fiercer than I've heard him in a while, he actually sounds like he is enjoying himself singing this song. You can always tell when an artist wants to sing a song and when they sing it just to sing it. This is an example of the former.

I actually would put this song on again.

Ark in the Storm is the transgendered kid that's having trouble deciding what public bathroom s/he should go into. S/he could technically fit into both but neither would actually be proper for him/her. Thus, s/he is left standing outside looking from the "light and poppy" bathroom to the "dark and heavy" struggling to figure out which one to enter because having such cut and dry definitions eludes this little oddity of a track. Normally I would say that combining both elements of the two sonically opposite genres results in an abomination most closely resembling half the stuff from Born's abnormal head machine album but in this case Ark in the Storm manages to pull through and sounds pretty damn good. The problem with most of D'espa's poppier tracks is that it's nothing more than their heavier tracks played just as fast on a higher register, which makes it all sound uncomfortable. Ark in the Storm manages to have it's ankle deep enough in the pool of dark and heavy to sound natural while still being light and containing some violins. It could have been heavier but it sounds fine as is and it goes to show that they aren't putting out heavy B-sides just because they know it works. If you're trying to measure up all the tracks that they've released that contain this post-Mirror D'espairsRay sound than Ark in the Storm easily trumps every other track.

Not like it had much competition.

(And if any of those references above offended you, they shouldn't have. I wasn't poking fun at anyone purposefully -_-;;)

Long review short: playing things faster doesn't always make it better. Final Call is too fast and too messy, Going on! is perfect as is, and Ark in the Storm is a little confused but pulls out alright in the end. I would actually recommend you pick up this single just for the last two tracks but in no way would I suggest you submit yourself to Final Call if you're not a fan of D'espairsRay messing with newer styles and doing it badly.

Recommended:

Going on!
Ark in the Storm

Score: 75%

Review: D'espairsRay - Gemini

Well here we have the Gemini single, which stands apart from countless other singles for being completely fruitless to review because it actually has a PV for the B-side. Yes, the B-side was actually more popular than the A-side. Does this mean that the single sucks? No, it just means that they're both that great.

And just as an aside whenever I get to [coll:set] I'm going to treat it as the edition that doesn't have the two single tracks on it since it's pointless for me to copy and paste and I don't like mixing old work with new work. It doesn't feel right and the tone isn't the same. So in actuality, reviewing the Gemini single is needed. Who would have thought that?

01. Fuyuu Shita Risou
02. Reddish -DIVA Version-

Fuyuu Shita Risou wastes no time in getting started and that nice drum pace at the beginning ought to let you know D'espairsRay isn't playing around with genres in this track. It's fast, furious, hard rock the way it ought to be made and it's D'espairsRay at their core sound. There's singing mixed with screaming and barking, muted and heavy guitars overlapped with what sounds like violins, acoustics and a car going off in the background. Needless to say is that there's a lot going on in this song. What this song suffers from is being all chorus. It moves from the verses that are barely there into a lengthy but catchy chorus section. Hizumi sings well when he's not screaming the shit out of himself and he at least has enough brains to switch up the lyrics in the chorus to keep it fresh. The slowdown and then scream from hell followed with a sprinting pace from Tsukasa helps to lengthen the gap somewhat but for the most part Hizumi and company recycle the chorus way too much. Another, albeit minor complaint, is that the fade-out doesn't fade out completely. Turn up the volume and you'll understand what I mean. Other than those two complaints that I have Fuyuu Shita Risou is a solid single and one well worth checking out.

Reddish completely shits all over the title track and I have no idea why the hell it's labeled as DIVA Version since there aren't any other versions to my knowledge. With that aside, the sexiness that this track employs makes me want to shit myself in glee and knowing that it was Tsukasa that composed this sweetens this even more. The lyrics are pretty damn sick and the guitars and the singing....everything in this track comes together flawlessly and creates an experience that you won't soon forget. The ominous effects going on in the background, the female orgasmic sound that rapes both your eardrums simultaneously, Hizumi's barks and screams, and just about everything else going on sonically in this track is just awesome. It's the equivalent of a UFO smashing into a guitar and creating musical children. It really has to be one of the best tracks they've ever put out. This alone is worth grabbing the single for and I treat Fuyuu Shita Risou as an extra treat that's just as good.

Didn't you just hear me?

"This alone is worth grabbing the single for."

There's no need for a closing paragraph when that sentence does more than mountains of text ever could. Gemini is highly recommended and a good starting place for any open-minded enthusiast looking for some new material to get into.

THIS. IS. A. SINGLE.

From now on I'm going to compare every single release to the standards this set for me.

Score: 90%

Review: +D'espairsRay+ - TERRORS + Sixth TERROR

I can't recall for how long Terrors has been sitting on my hard drive unlistened to and it takes a bored me late at night to actually want to fruitlessly Google a cover for Sixth TERROR to gain enough interest to sit through D'espairsRay's first EP. This (and Sixth TERROR) are closer in sound to the dark side of D'espairsRay that we've grown accustomed to so if you're in the need for some gothic rock that can't be called gothic rock then I would already tell you you've found your band.

But if the stereotypical and ill-fitting image of a sad, introverted freak cutting his wrists in the bathtub spring to mind or the no less stereotypical but still hilarious kid with a combover, too much hairgel, and black clothing waft to mind when you hear "gothic rock music", then I suggest you avert your pale little eyes to something more digestable for your frail lower intestine and non-functioning colon.

May I suggest Nega instead?

01. Fascism
02. Carnival
03. ero:de
04. Zetsubou Romance
05. Murder Freaks

Sixth TERROR



(I am not sure if that's the real cover or not but at this point I could care less. If you want a cover for this song so badly take the Ura Mania Theatre one to the right (it's the red one). However I'm not reviewing Valentine here. I'll do that when I get around to Sexual Beast.)
01. "MONOKURO" ni natta saigo no hi

There really is no difference in what you get with the covers for Terrors. One is just the first press and the other is the second press and both are a right bitch to find ^^. Having that said I'll start with Terrors first.

In descending order starting with the most "gothic" tracks we start out with Zetsubou Romance and Carnival. Carnival is the most boring track on this release. With the exception of the distorted drums and some parts of the riff at the beginning of the song the rest of it fades into obscurity because it's overshadowed by the other songs on this release. The fact that this also comes after Fascism doesn't help it stand out any more. Fascism is that song that uses German to cement D'espa's street cred whilst being the beginning of the EP headbanger. Hitler's little speech draws you in like no other track on Terrors can. I'm also going to mention that I can't follow along with the damn lyrics that I see online. Hizumi's vocals stand out here more and his "heil" barks are pretty damn vicious but everything else about the song is a little lacking - it all feels streamlined and repetitive. The way the band fades out as the "Sieg Heil" chants come in is done pretty well but the chants cut off abruptly and go into Carnival, which as I said doesn't grab my attention as much as I want to.

Zetsubou Romance does the exact opposite even though it sounds very similar to Carnival (scratch that: everything sans Murder Freaks can be easily interchanged on this EP). What sets it apart are the eerie sounds that dot the song's soundscape, peaking in brilliance as it rises throughout the chorus. It adds a feeling of awesome and tension but it's broken by the rough transition into another verse. Hizumi overlaying himself because he's too lazy to fix the rhythm on his lyrics is a turn-off. Tihs slip-up is balanced by the insertion of the bass section overlayed with Hizumi's singing before it breaks into the rising chorus again. Some interesting portions are happening in this song but there are slip-ups which balances out all the cool sections. No. This needs to be re-recorded and reworked.

I call for a compilation album. Nao.

All three tracks sound very muddy and indies. The band comes together well but nothing in particular stands out. Zero's bass doesn't assert itself and could be easily omitted due to the omnipresence of Karyu's guitar, Tsukasa's playing on a marshmallow kit and Hizumi's barks sound washed out.

ero:de and Murder Freaks are a cut above but when I say a cut I'm talking a miniscule sliver of space that in the long run doesn't really mean a damn but they both come with extra bells and whistles that make them the best tracks here. Murder Freaks starts out with some rain and a haunting piano and Hizumi speaking to either someone else or himself alone in a mansion before the song kicks in. The re-recording on Born doesn't have the beginning (well it does, but it's attached to the end of the previous track and it goes on for three whole minutes. Seriously Hizumi, shut the fuck up.) However, the Terrors version is just the right length and it works out better in practice than I'm making it out to be. Other than that, the Born version is better mastered and has a better balance of instruments. Eh, we're talking about the Terrors version so I'll stick with that. Other than the fact that Karyu's guitar and Tsukasa's drumming owns everyone else in this track since it's the only audible thing next to Hizumi, the effects that play with your ears aren't irritating (glares at MUCC) and are done well and not every five damn seconds. As a matter of fact, they're so subliminal they fit in with the song the first few times and you might not even notice it because it adds to the song without drawing attention to itself. The ending was lame though and could have went into the stratosphere instead of....doing that. Boo.

My previous complaints still stand.

ero:de does some awesome reverb shit before jumping into the distorted "shinjitsu" and going off at a million miles an hour. I can actually HEAR Zero in this track (somewhat) and there isn't one part of the song that comes off annoying as hell to kill the track. The insane mumbling in this track does get old especially since almost every track has it but ero:de is early on enough for you to not get sick of it. This track's transitions are smooth and the high frequency effects they put in there work well (I do think that portion around 2:30 is a bit WTF though) so I'd have to give this song a recommendation. Wow...it's the only song here I actually recommended.

And now for the one track on Sixth TERROR, Monokuro ni Natta Saigo no Hi was also released on that Ura Mania Theatre demo tape (not like that's any easier to find) but I'll do it now. It's fucking brilliant. The way he sings it, the pain he describes everytime through his lyrics, the pure gothic creepiness mixing with the clean acoustics and distorted guitars, this song alone trumps everything that was on Terrors and shows a great deal of musical improvement in such a short period of time. It's darker and moves at a more plodding pace than anything else here but it's a work of genius. I recommend this.

And so that wraps up these two oldies. I strayed far away from the old cliche for two reasons. One is that it's a cliche and the other is that most of Terrors isn't really "goodies". They're all decent tracks but they fuck up somewhere in their runtime and lowers my expectations. They've got some other releases worth checking out so I wouldn't come running to Terrors first.

Sixth TERROR is another story...I actually have the lyrics for it so here you go.

Monokuro ni Natta Saigo no Hi - The Last Day When Everything Went Monochrome

When did I start to forget the pain and let my heart degenerate into ugliness and wither completely.
I was always afraid it would break thinking that if I touched it, it'd fall to pieces
I learned what hurt and pain meant when I met you.

burn my body with feelings that spring without end
trust me, the one who wanted only you
these resolute feelings haven't changed
they're locked in my heart where they quietly sleep

your warmth, a room without you...
this blank in time that feels so very long
silence my voice, a sigh escapes
softly becoming tangled up
I believed that the time we warmed each other would go on forever.

the memories that stain the body long for you
put upon by the urging of my lust
this body can't forget you it hurts so it's breaking

dare to...wrap your hands around my throat
until this feeling right before me... goes white
because i'll always live on...
in the season the powder snow falls
and the memory


Recommended:

Monokuro ni Natta Saigo no Hi
ero:de

Score:
Terrors: 61%
SIXTH Terror: 81%

Preview: D'espairsRay - Final Call

Thanks to Spike760 from Tainted World for alerting me to this.

So it's another 30-second preview of a track, but instead of it being up on their MySpace, it's up on their OHP. It's all the same shit - what we want is the preview so we can see how it's going to sound. Take a nice couple of listens here.

Track list is up there so I won't bother repeating here.

Now, when you are done with that read some of my thoughts. It's definitely harder than some of the stuff that was on Redeemer, but in a different vein than from some of the stuff that was on Mirror and [Coll:Set]. The sample is too short for me to classify it as a genre, but I already sense what might be a sudden chorus transition. The little preview is too short to render final judgment but the "shut down shut down"-"drum beat"-"chorus" sounds off beat. The chorus is also definitely lighter than the growls we heard, but I can't tell if the verses are all growls or it was just that one portion. It's also not that different from the verse but I heard all of two seconds so I won't judge. Yet.

So, it's OK. Not OMG SUPREME EPIC good but it's OK. Will wait until I get the whole track to see if I like it more or less.

Review: D'espairsRay - Kumo

There are a whole bunch of reviews that I want to do but I'm too lazy to actually muster up the necessary amount of patience to do them. So while I sit here and dawdle my thumbs before I actually review exist†trace's Annunciation - the heretic elegy - album, I'll do D'espairsRay's first single, Kumo. This is because it's the first place I started in their discography and it holds a special meaning. Other than that sentimental load of crap, it's because that's where it's scrolled to in iTunes, I'm running low on my quota of reviews for the month, and because I just read an article about the abuse of German in Japanese songs, and this single is no exception.

01. Kisei - Parasite
02. Mousou Heki na EGOIST
03. Misshitsu NO Naka… “IKARETAKIMI” NO Senritsu

Kisei - PARASITE	Rich with downtuned guitars, sound effects, and deep bass thumping along at the bottom next to the drums, this is the D’espairsRay that old fans want to return. It’s packed with cheesy sound effects that make it sound like a ride through a haunted house at the beginning, but when the guitars wind up that’s when the atmosphere of the song gets serious. Hizumi’s barks are quite unexpected in this song and work with the singing well (which is uncharacteristically deep and sound like a man going senile). The layers of sound in this song are serious, starting with just some random wind howling, and ending with an expertly placed piano section beneath the roaring guitar solo. They all pile up together near the end of the song behind some driving drums before some dueling guitars and ends off with the same sound effects it started with. For a first song as a band, this is pretty damn good.	10/10
Mousou Heki NA EGOIST	More musical, muffled insanity wrapped into a nice package. Hizumi sounds like he just ran a marathon as the track winds up with thick bass and drums. The lines are omnipresent and ever evolving, breaking down at all the right parts and featuring some guitar lines by Karyu reminiscent of insanity put to paper. His solo halfway in literally comes out of nowhere and just fuels the entire song onward from that point. The chorus sung by Hizumi is most likely the most musically depressive part of the song, and is therefore the standout lyric-wise. He isn’t as excellent throughout here as he was in the last song, but the singing accompanied by the muffled babbling and the distorted vocals work well. It’s the mysterious woman at the end that’s supposed to signal that someone’s lost their mind that steals the show. Her inclusion is unexpected, wonderful, and makes the song better. She ends off the song on the right food. The song doesn’t find it’s atmosphere like the first two have and it turns into a listenable piece of music, but nothing particularly powerful.	9/10
Misshitsu NO Naka… “IKARETAKIMI” NO Senritsu	This song is so dark and negative it upsets me just listening to it. D’espairsRay managed to sum up any and every feeling of depression, loneliness, fear, and despair and place it into a song with plodding bass, eerie guitar lines that soar all over the place, and drums that come in and go unnoticed and don’t feature an excessive amount of cymbal riding. I can’t even begin to describe the solo, or how everything comes together when Hizumi holds the notes as the track plunges deeper and deeper into despairing guitar lines. There’s random counting in German, muffled babbling, apeshit scary screams, lalala’s that contrast beautifully with the song, and it all ends with an eagle scream from Hizumi. It hasn’t been this good since….track one.	10/10

For a first record, I've grown rather fond of it and I think my bias shows through it more than it should. It gets a 97% and is recommended listening for any fan of hard, gothic rock. Then again, if you know who these guys are you're wondering why it took me so long to review this one.

Meh, I'm running out of end-of-review quirky quips D:

Review: D'espairsRay - Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana

Looking back on the old one, I realize fully how tired I was and how crappy it came out. So I decided to do it over and put some actual effort into it. I also figure, the new format would work out better for this particular single because of my attitude toward the whole package.

1. "Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana" (凍える夜に咲いた花) – 5:05
2. "Maze" – 4:38
3. "Pig" – 4:32

* The Orange Cover comes with a Clip of Garnet and the blue one with a Clip of Forbidden.

01. Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana	I think it’s supposed to be a mid-tempo song bordering on a soft ballad but it bores me to no end so I have no idea what it’s trying to be. I get the feeling here that it’s trying to appeal to a larger crowd by sacrificing most of the core sound of the band too quickly and it does neither successfully. I can understand the experimentation behind it but D’espairsRay took too big of a leap with this one and they tumble a bit here and there. There is nothing epic about it that makes it memorable other than the lyrics, which sing about a lonely man thinking about his lost love. Those lyrics are the best part of the entire song, and it shows a new side to D’espairsRay that isn’t full-blown, erm, despair. It’s nice to have Hizumi sing a story instead of vent his feelings. I’d take this over Squall anyday. Some may praise it for showing a new side to D’espairsRay but I honestly don’t see it all that much.	6/10
02. MAZE	My personal favorite due mainly to the lyrics but it’s not that far ahead of [PIG]headed. MAZE was written by Tsukasa (which isn't common since Karyu writes everything) and the difference in composer shows as it has more of an emphasis on the rhythm and drums than usual. Hizumi’s singing is excellent as always but here it has a quality that makes it memorable moreso than usual. The lyrics to MAZE are twisted – from what I could gather as I skimmed over it it’s a song about a Mephistophelian trying to find his way out of Satanism. It’s some good shit and the mood fits the song perfectly. The electronic noises are used to greater effect here and I could have sworn that they brought back the drums they used in “Infection” for a short part in here. A great reminder of the old D’espairsRay mixed with their newer sounds and a lot of maturity	9/10
03. [PIG]headed	Laugh if you must at the title but this song is no joke. This heavily distorted track sounds like it’d fit right at home on the Garnet single. Right from the beginning with that distorted chiming effect it transitions into growls out of nowhere. The effect between the synthesized voice and the normal one along with the angsty whispering voice is fitting for the atmosphere they're trying to create. Surprisingly, even with the complexity of the music going for it, what really makes this song great are the lyrics. From a title such as that you don’t need to speak Japanese to know that it’s directed toward an authority that Hizumi despises, but his lyricism here is top notch, using some … colorful … phrases to make his point clearer. Another must-listen.	9/10

Personally, skip the A-side and get the B-sides. The version you get only differs on what clip you want but otherwise the single is all the same. Although I am not fond of Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana, I would still recommend the single just for the B-sides, which completely outshine it.

Download:

MAZE
PIG

Rating: 80%

Review: D'espairsRay - Gärnet

Behind [coll:set], this is my favorite D'espairsRay release of all time. Gärnet is the perfect example of what a single should be like, and I haven't liked a single as much as Gärnet after this one. Gemini came close but Gärnet still reigns supreme in my book, and for good reason. It's the first single to hit the #1 on the indies charts for them, and was what propelled them into the major leagues in the first place. The epitome of their dark, goth sound this single is a required listening in my notebook.

01. Gärnet
02. Oboro no Tsuki
03. Subliminal

01. Gärnet	I am unsure of whether or not I hand out perfect scores too liberally but Gärnet is surely deserving of one. From the twisted effect opening with Tsukasa’s pounding drums to the end with Hizumi’s pained moans, Gärnet is the type of experimental track that typifies what I want D’espairsRay to put out. Lighter, quieter, darker verses are contrasted by louder, heavier, but no less dark choruses with the trademark Hizumi barks and screams. Haunting electronic sounds are used to great effect as they provide the ambience and give the track some support; other than the drums and Hizumi’s singing there isn’t much going on in the way of musicality. In this case however, less is more and it all comes together to create an addictive, dark piece of a tale about human suffering.	10/10
02. Oboro no Tsuki	The perfect B-side to Gärnet. The single has an overall tone of despair coursing through its veins and Oboro no Tsuki does not let up. More electronic effects are found here but less is used and they fit in more with the guitars, which move along at a roaring pace and don’t stop for anything. Hizumi sings a tale of the death of hope and what not. The chorus is the standout point in this song, as Hizumi’s clean vocals are mixed in with female vocals that soar and the bass is clearly audible underneath everything that’s going on – a rarity in D’espairsRay songs. It’s dark, heavy, and sounds much like it’s former track, but it’s strong enough to stand up on it’s own.	10/10
03. Subliminal	Another excellent track, but it’s not as solid as the last two. A song about subliminal mindfuckery and mental sabotage, the message is executed flawlessly through a myriad of electronic effects and intentional overdubbing. Hizumi’s screaming is at its greatest here and at parts he sounds demented, as if he’s lost his mind. The song goes from verse to chorus flawlessly and I can’t even tell when the transition begins and which part is what. I take a point off of the song because it loses steam in the middle and it feels like it drags on for a bit too long but otherwise it doesn’t disappoint and ends this single off on the right foot.	9/10

Any fan of darker music needs to absolutely pick this CD up. It may be only three tracks long, but it's a positively monstrous piece of industrious metal. There's a good reason why Gärnet is the signature song many associate with D'espairsRay - it's that damn good.

Download:
- Gärnet
- Oboro no Tsuki
- Subliminal

Rating: 97%

Review: D'espairsRay - BRILLIANT

01. BRILLIANT
02. Cocoon

It's upbeat but not poppy. It's rock but it's not soft. It's perplexing to describe and yet to sum it up it's actually brilliant. It's a rapid change from the sounds of Mirror and sounds related somewhat to Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana, but it looks like the boys cleaned up their act this time around and delivered a solid track. At first I didn't like it because I was a Mirror fanboy and I was expecting their next single to be...not so polarizing. It also cut down on Hizumi's unique screams, which was a trademark sound in many of their older songs. However, every subsequent listen made me like it more and more until I considered it one of their best singles in a while. The instrumentation gets to show off more than ever and it appears D'espa wants to be known for it's music as well as it's singing. The type of sound that they need to utilize if they want to appeal to bigger markets while not changing their style too much, Brilliant is a good show of how flexible they are.

In order not to send their fanbase of hard rock fans away, they give us Cocoon. Cocoon blows away almost every hard track they released on Mirror without contest, and then trumps almost every track on Redeemer. It's a rendition of what they would have released back in their early days, except they infuse their experience with their anger and create a track so divinely wrathful it's hard not to fall into it's grasp. Why it's here and not on the album I won't know, but I'm not complaining. As dark, heavy, and full of screams as it is, Cocoon feels very similar to Brilliant even though the both of them are polar opposites. Naturally, I gravitate toward Cocoon just because it's harder but both songs are equally as good.

9/10