Review: lynch. - A GLEAM IN EYE

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

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

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

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

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

Review: UnsraW - GUILTY

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

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

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

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

Still should have been a ballad though.

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

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

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

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

Review: Lycaon - Royal Order

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review: DELUHI - Revolver Blast

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

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

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

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

Review: VanessA - CHI【MA】IRA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review: Synside - THE CORE-subconsciousness-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'd give it about a seven.

Review: Versailles - Jubilee

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

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

JUBILEE -Method of Inheritance-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“A fog hangs over the black sea,

The people rowed out and God sank”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's one hell of a title amber gris.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review: cocklobin - black

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

01. black
02. reborn
03. hearts

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

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

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

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

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

Review: chariots - Yami

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

1. MIDNIGHT PLEASURE
2. Anmoku
3. Dilettante

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

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

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

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

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

Review: ReivieЯ - Agreement to us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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: Megaromania - Apocalypse (song)

There's one thing that I have to say about Megaromania before I begin and that's why does the band look like a bunch of faggots? I'm an avid listener of Visual Kei so when I call a band a bunch of faggots they're faggots. Visuals are supposed to accentuate the music but in this case they serve as a substitute. They shouldn't be separate things and this is just another case of bands putting on visuals to attract a fanbase. If they last long enough to amass a big enough fanbase I predict this entire crap-kei thing Megaromania's got going on is going to go quickly.

I'm only reviewing the song because after that I can't be assed to go waste bandwidth on them. In Apocalypse, they handle the hard parts decently but they need to cut out all the stopping and starting and play fluidly. What, are your hands tired? Choke on it and keep playing - it's what you're in a band for. Also, if you haven't gotten the memo I'm no longer 13 - memorable 45 second riffs alone cannot win me over. Are the riffs good? Somewhat, but the whole package is what I'm concerned about so riffs in parts do not save the whole. The vocalist CANNOT do harsh vocals and when the song just changes into the chorus I want to shoot myself. I already hate hard verse - poppy chorus transitions but when it's done the way it was here it's just not impressive. That, and all the classical instruments racing around under it do not enhance anything. It makes it feel cheesy and a tacked on addition so they can say they're experimenting.

This band experiments more with their hair spray than they do with their sound I bet. I've got people from the left and the right claiming this band does the same thing over and over again and after 6 minutes of listening to Apocalypse, a song that was marketed as a single that does the same thing over and over again I can't be inclined to disagree. And I also have to comment that this was one of the most pointless music videos I've seen in a video. The name of your song is APOCALYPSE - fucking DO something instead of stand around and semi-wail on your axes (because we all know most of you can't play). The drummer looks uncomfortable, the guitarists don't look like they want to be there and the singer doesn't even sing along most of the time. He just looks like he's trying to give oral to a lit candle.

Thank you YouTube for allowing me to save bandwidth by not checking this band out any further. This band better be grateful Kisaki decided to sign them because no one else would have given them a shot. Just look at what happened to GRIEVER boys - get your game together.

Review: Dir en grey - Hageshisa to, Kono Mune no Naka de Karamitsuita Shakunetsu no Yami

After the release of an album, whether it be good or bad, Dir en grey's singles usually go off in a different direction. The main appeal that I have with this band is that they somehow always manage to re-invent themselves with every release. As time goes on though I have to wonder how many more times they can surprise me before it becomes old news and they're playing something they've already done before.

Contrary to the usual bullshit I put forth I actually didn't think that this single was going to suck. Somehow I knew it was going to stomp on my scrotum at the speed of awesome with whatever new ideas that they managed to come up with. Normally I don't follow singles obsessively but for this one I did because, well, face it Dir en grey is one of my favorite bands of all time.

Having that said, I don't really see how Hageshisa to, Kono Mune no Naka de Karamitsuita Shakunetsu no Yami is one of their best singles of all time. The inclusion of the chorus at the beginning does not fit and doesn't sound right. Kaoru and Die have really improved from the UROBOROS period and they wham on their axes like I've never heard them before. Some portions of this song have me wondering what the hell they're doing to their instruments because they sound like the roaring of some Norse god. Due to the good production, I can't even hear the bass so I'm not going to rate Toshiya. Shinya on the other hand was very good - nothing special since I've heard better drum lines from him before - but his rapid execution never fails to inspire me. Some songs like Red Soil have him pounding on that kit like a madman but this song sees him take more of a backseat. One of the hampering aspects of this track are Kyo's vocals - in no way did they suck but we didn't hear him when we needed to and heard him when we didn't need to hear him. The "deathcore" growls he has going on sounded low and messy, like something I'd hear off of a lynch. CD and I really wasn't feeling that too much. The transition into the catchy chorus is awkward but over subsequent listens was done very well and fits with the mood. Chorus is the best part of this song and the ending chant keeps the song from sinking off into mediocrity but somehow I think this song could have been a lot longer. It's obviously missing a solo and even though they're moving towards a style that focuses more on atmosphere than axe jamming Hageshisa to... really needed one (looking back on it we haven't really had many solos since the VULGAR/ sixUGLY era.

It's not perfect but I'll take it. They've fed us worse shit.

Zan Reconstructed packs new lyrics and enough fury to kill. While the old recording on Gauze went with the type of insanity of someone who's going to pick up a gun and mow down a bunch of people, this one feels like Kyo's going to rip you apart piece by piece. Shinya's drumming is a pretty good highlight of this track since he's the one that adds the most energy to the fray. Kyo's growls are brutal (and balanced correctly) and the guitar work is just sexy. Zan's riffs are unmistakable and although Toshiya once again is inaudible under the guitar work you won't really find yourself caring too much. I find this better than the single but some fans of the older version of Zan may miss the psychotic intro and the black metallish vocals that gave the song it's atmosphere.

It's really hit or miss.

Shokubeni just isn't as good this time around due to the way that they're recording it. I knew this coming in so I'm not going to hold the production value against it. As a matter of fact, it's damn impressive that they got the song to sound this good in one take. What Diru has done here is taken some of the UROBOROS vibe and infused it into this track. This is clearly evident with the massive amount of growling and Shinya's tribal drumming. Personally I would have preferred another re-recording of this song in the studio or a new track altogether. Shokubeni sounds OK for what it is but if this was in the studio there is no doubt that it would have been a lot better. At the end of the day I don't see myself listening to this track too much but it's a fine inclusion and it might get addictive over the long run.

When taken as a whole package, we haven't gotten something this good since Kasumi which is great news since Diru's single tracks usually are bearable but the single as a whole blows donkey nuts. With this one, people are bound not to like something here and others as a whole are turned off by the entire screeching and harsh vocal aspect they've been working since Clever Sleazoid. Old fans of Diru who lust for their VK don't want to try this single out and those that hated Uroboros (and you call yourselves fans?) will hate this more, but all others may want to try this out if you come prepared with some diapers and a -very- open mind about your music. If you do, this single will suck your dick dry.

Review: VanessA - world. is. my. mind.

VanessA softened up :O

I actually expected this to happen though. Here's why.

The two composers of VanessA used to be Nao and Haruki. Both of them have very different compositional styles. Here's a quick list of a few of the songs each composed.

Nao -
P.S.D.
Retrospection
LUCY
[MA]RIA
I am Psychopath.
B.M.METAMORPHOSE-murder side-

Haruki -
Memory Lapse
Arlequin
alive=terror
Feel U
Danger
NEW WORLD
jack off
axina


Now that Nao left and Koichi doesn't write music, this band is relying solely upon the compositional merits of Haruki, who traditionally came as "second composer" when Nao was leading the band. Those that liked "old VanessA" liked Nao's version of brutal metal with lots of screams. We're probably never going to hear that again. That isn't excusing the single any and I'm going to download it now, but that's really why I expected world. is. my. mind. to be a big slap in the face compared to CHI[MA]IRA (trust me, it's been a while since I've reviewed that and the CD's grown on me a LOT. I just don't feel like editing it at the moment).

I can understand why some people are upset at the change of direction that VanessA's taken and I'm going to say something completely radical here: they haven't actually changed all that much. When it comes down to it, the only thing this CD is missing is Genki's roars. Sandwich any two old VanessA tracks in between any random track on this single and none of these would "sound out of place".

What seems to upset everyone greatly is the lack of ear-bleeding, esophagus splitting screeches that VanessA has become increasingly renowned for since alive=terror. Even though Haruki did compose alive=terror and ARLEQUIN the dymanics of the band have changed since Nao left the band and You took over. Nao probably told Haruki to cut shit like jack off out and stick with composing rough, speedy compositional numbers while You embraced a change in direction (because in all honesty if they kept the shtick up long enough they were bound to repeat themselves AND Haruki usually had the best song on the last two out of the three maxi's they've released so....yeah.)

So now on to the review:

NEW WORLD is definitely the softest A-side they've composed so far and it's not without it's schizo section. I think this song has the only time Genki uses something other than clean vocals (and I also lol at the fact that this was their preview on their OHP). VanessA knew we weren't going to like this at all xD

This sounds like a sped up version of FEEL U in many places. Still sounds like the other half of VanessA to me. 7/10 because even though it was digestable I was still missing some of the death voice that Genki used to have all throughout his track. Some more of that was definitely needed here.

jack off words can't describe how much I dislike this track. Perhaps I approached it hoping for it to be a harder song or perhaps something that didn't sound like a longer, less inspired version of NEW WORLD with some jazzy influence. However, I'm with everyone else that went "what the fuck happened to this band" on this track. In NEW WORLD. I could sense some of the old VanessA mixed in with Haruki's style but here it's just . Why the fuck does every VK band have to do some lame jazzy number that sucks anus? 4/10 for the solo, the portion after it and Koichi's nice basslines.

-axina- is more like what I want to hear from this band. Even if they decide to soften up their sound I do not want them throwing away their heavy metal roots. I sense some Vortex influence in the verses and I really do like the ominous bell over their guitar lines. If more of the single was like this instead of NEW WORLD./jack off I think a lot more people would enjoy this (I enjoy 2/3 of it just fine anyway). Oh, and I was wrong before - Genki does some roaring in this song before the second verse and during the fade out I think the members of the band attempted to do some screaming before failing and just spazzing out. What I DON'T like about this track is the bit of silence before the song starts up again a minute later for approximately 10 seconds before ending. It's completely pointless >.>

8/10 for axina

This single gets about a 6/10. There is no question that CHI[MA]IRA was better than this but if I give it a few listens I think parts of this will grow on me. I just can't bear to think that we'll never get the truly heavy VanessA back again because even though I liked this, I liked THAT a whole lot more.

Review: MUCC - Freesia

*imported from Tainted World*

I actually downloaded it and forgot I had it on my iTunes until you reminded me. D: Let's get to this and I'll put down my thoughts after a few listens.

The main problem I have with the first two songs, Shuushifu moreso than Freesia, is the (ab)use of auto-tune. That shit wasn't present before Kyuutai and even though I only recall it being used slightly in Sora to Ito I still despised it's usage because I felt it interfered with the atmosphere of the song. MUCC fucking [i]raped[/i] this single with auto-tune because it's detectable in Freesia and mostly used in Shuushifu. I. Don't. Like. Auto-Tune. This single automatically isn't perfect in my book.

With that having been said, the recorded version of Freesia is much better and more majestic than the live performance let on (which was why I reserved all judgment on the song until now). Freesia is all around enjoyable, especially Miya's little solo near the end over Tatsurou's vocals. Even after 10 years MUCC's still got some ideas up their sleeves and even though their sound has changed over the years the only thing that's stayed the same is that they usually deliver. [i]Usually[/i]. I'd give this about a 9 out of 10.

I've heard Namonaki Yume but not enough to compare it to Shuushifu so I won't. However, this is the kind of song I like to hear in general and it pulled me in from the beginning until the auto-tune pissed me off. After that, the energy levels of this song really petered off for me. Whereas in Freesia I could tell why they used the auto-tune and to some degree it worked, in Shuushifu it really just annoyed the crap out of me and really prevented me from liking this song too much. 6 out of 10 for now but over time I'll revisit this again and see if my opinion changes.

From Furik's review I was expecting there to be some Tatsurou in this but two minutes in I realized he wasn't going to be there and that this was going to be pure instrumental. I'm OK with it, especially since the piano rendition of this song was great. I'm normally not into songs that were changed from pianos to guitars since for me it doesn't usually flow well but Freesia sounds great with both instruments behind this. I'd really have to give this a 10 just because if I enjoyed it this much the first time through I'm going to grow to like it more.

So yeah, the only thing I really despised about this single was the auto-tune laced all throughout it. MUCC needs to cut that shit out because Tatsurou's voice is too good for that crap. I'd give this about an 8/10 overall.

Review: ALSDEAD - Paradox

Since I decided on becoming at least semi-active again (or rather, I decided to stop being a lazy fuck and actually update my blog once in a while) I've decided on reviewing something every few days at least. I need to keep up on the new releases but at least be a few months behind so I can get some thoughts together and not let first impressions dominate what I think and how I feel about a particular piece of music.

Had I done that to Paradox trust me this review would have turned out quite differently.

This isn't the standard ALSDEAD fare since they decided to give us three tracks instead of two with this offering - however more doesn't always mean better. The main turnoff to this entire single would be the title track itself. I came into this thinking that it would be the best one out of the three but it's actually the worst. Paradox is the weakest track this band has given us so far and that's because it has a very sharp contrast between hard and soft. The beginning riff is deep and sick and it makes you think you're going to headbang and then it brings you into something as light as Kizu (Violent of Reason) and the transitions aren't working in their favor. The chorus doesn't add any points to it and the speaking part that Maki does at the breakdown is done much better in the track Cynical. At the end of the day, Paradox is too all over the place to be considered much more than an average song.

A_Dust and Cynical (No Nai Ranbu) are the two other tracks and I find them better in many different ways. A_Dust isn't as rough as Cynical but it showcases some experimentation with electronic synths and the chorus in this song is the best out of the single. The thing that gets me with A_Dust is that this band has always been about pushing boundaries with their music and at least bringing some new stuff to the table and A_Dust stops at "electronic effects". Maki's sing-scream style is still pretty much the same and the other members haven't really done anything awe-inspiring. A_Dust could have been so much more but they stopped short and called it a day. Cynical gets the same treatment but even worse. I've even heard others say that Cynical is a Kizu with a crazier solo. I have to disagree. Even though they might have recycled a few ideas (especially in that dreadful chorus) overall I don't get a Kizu vibe from this track at all. In fact, I had to go searching for similarities between the two. There aren't many other tracks in their discography as raw and frantic as this and even though the chorus doesn't really fit with the song too well every other part of the song just pulsates with raw energy. In a way, these two songs are all you really need for a single - one hard rocker with a great chorus and some synth behind it and another one that exemplifies some revelry in rock. Both of these are above average with Cynical edging out A_Dust based purely on the energy in the verses and the kickass solo.

This single didn't make me feel as much as Violent of Reason or S.a.g.A. did but when I gave it time to grow on me I began to like the single much more. Paradox is a hard pill to swallow but old and new ALSDEAD fans alike can enjoy the first and the third track and take on the second track whenever they feel like taking a risk with the band. They have a new single coming out in a few months so hopefully this band has decided to both get a lot better and take some more risks with their music.

Rating: Slightly Above Average - worth checking out.