Review: the brilliant green - Ash Like Snow

I hesitated before doing another exist trace review and then realized that for the last two months I haven’t done anything by the brilliant green. Sure, they haven’t put out anything in a year and a half but now that I know the reason why I’m a bit more willing to wait for them to produce some quality work. In an effort to keep the flow and the sound similar I took the ONE song out of their discography I actually like and crafted a review out of that single. Ash Like Snow, here we come.

01. Ash Like Snow
02. goodbye and good luck ★Piano arrange version★
03. Ash Like Snow ★original instrumental★

Ash Like Snow	I swear this song will remain stuck in your head long after the song is over. Its simple construction in the minor key is effective in supporting Tommy’s voice all over the place, and the solo halfway through followed by the breakdown is both sad and awesome. The wailing high notes supported by Ryo’s bass are what spring to mind for me first. As for Tommy herself, I have to give her props for managing to enunciate her English properly and with perfect grammar and everything. It’s truly a rarity in the Japanese Rock scene so it’s refreshing to see. The lyrics in this song also express this band’s central theme of love in a more mature and expressive way. All of this together would make Ash Like Snow the perfect theme song for a Gundam anime, and guess what? It is. The music video is as bland as fapcakes and doesn’t expound upon the lyrics of the song any, so all you will get are explosions and Tommy magically switching the color of her cap. Bad video, good song, a must download for me.	10/10
goodbye and good luck ★Piano arrange version★	An acoustic rendition of one of their earliest songs from their indies era. It all sounds pretty and once again Tommy’s English is very impressive (especially since the entire song is in English). Where the song fails for me is in the passion. There is no passion in the lyrics and when you do an acoustic rendition of a song passion is what you bank on the most. Some acoustic guitar would also have been nice to fill out the weak parts of this song but since it’s “piano arranged” there won’t be any -_-. Pretty but bland.	6/10
Ash Like Snow ★original instrumental★	The instrumental to the title track. Unlike many instrumentals I think this one actually works out being an instrumental because of the amount of passion that the guitars play with. If you just want to hear some melancholic riffs, get the music video out of your head, karaoke to his song, or just splice it up for your own MIDI usage, this is what it’s here for. Otherwise, the exclusion of Tommy’s vocals makes this song feel empty.	8/10

Sure, the cover may be very fucking bland and the music video even more so with all the superfluous references to Gundam and the band doing nothing more than sitting there rocking out (does anyone else but me notice that there is no drummer in the background?) but the song is so damn catchy you’ll be listening to this over and over again long after you’ve grown tired of sniper pandas and CGI explosions. Congrats to tommy for creating quite possibly the most boring music video to go with one of the best minor key ballads this band has ever done.

Other than that, the five years they took off seems to have instilled some sense of musical diversity into them. I just don’t think this band’s earlier work is for me but I can stand this.

Recommended:

Ash Like Snow

Score: 80%

Review: exist†trace - Ambivalence

I wanted to complete a 50 review a month quota last month but I didn’t quite get that far. Instead of coming up with a crapload of reviews to do at the last minute, all of which would come out sub-par and I would end up re-doing them at some point, I decided to carry these reviews into next month so I start off on the right foot. This month I intend to hit at least 60. Are you ready for some rampant reviewing?

01. Proof of the Blood

02. Kiba

Proof of the Blood	It’s the first A-side exist trace ever put to CD, and their greenness shows here. I get the feeling the ladies didn’t exactly know how they wanted to start this song so it just goes and it doesn’t feel right. The ending is thankfully artfully done. Some guitar also spills over into the other ear which makes for a disorienting experience and if they were planning to go for that then they succeeded. If that was an indie programmer mistake then that is bad, but since I can’t tell I won’t deduct points. Mari really needs to lay off the cymbals here because it’s continuous and incessant, but some of her rhythms here and there are pretty cool. The bass is sunk all the way to the bottom and isn’t audible at points because the twin guitars take charge of the melody. Naoto still manages to shine through here and there so that’s pleasant. The twin guitars don’t actually have a solo, but each of them get to show off for a little. Overall though, their notes are really sludgy and discerning what goes on here and there is nigh impossible. You just get a general feeling for the melody. As for Jyou, her singing in the verses are set pretty low and with everything going on she doesn’t stand out as much as a frontman in a band should. The pre-chorus is all Jyou growling, but if you haven’t heard exist trace this far back you’re going to regard this entire portion as pretty fucking bad. Her singing is better by far, but no Vanguard – of the muses – standard. The emphasis here is more on the feeling and the emphasis of what she says and how they play than on any musical aspects, but it’s all enjoyable.	8/10
Kiba	The lighter riff is an immediate contrast (HAVE to stop using this word) to the dramatic end of this last track. It’s obvious this track is much more controlled than the last one but the beginning minute is too light to fit with the lyrics. The song really switches up at the chorus, when things darken and the song becomes progressively better from there. I think this attitude fits more than the one the song started off with, and the fact it took a minute to get there takes off a few points. If Naoto’s bass was more balanced it would be prominent in this song but all I hear are Miko and Omi along with prominent cymbal abuse. At one point, they all slow down to let Jyou sing almost a cappella before they burst into another, darker chorus and then some additional singing before Kiba winds down. The last few seconds are pretty surprising because I was just expecting the song to fade out on a riff and what it does is slow down and play some notes on the left ear before it ends properly. Kiba isn’t their best, but it isn’t that bad. It floats somewhere in the middle	7/10

Ambivalence definitely is not the place for a newcomer to this band to start, and there are two reasons why. One is that I doubt they’ll ever return to this spectrum of heavy again if VANGUARD is any sign as of what’s to come and the second is that the quality of this release is so indies it takes a certain amount of appreciation for the band to fully enjoy. This is like going back to MUCC’s demo tapes and trying to listen to those without knowing what Kyuutai sounds like. It’s very different and unless you’ve become a big fan of the band you’re not going to like what you hear.

Recommended:

No, not for the new listener, but fans of exist trace might already have this one.

Score: 75%