Review: D's Air - Exploded Heart Demo

I hereby grant any viewer the right to go "what the hell" at this review. Yes, you are quite welcome. I feel I should do my part, whatever little in the grand scheme of things it may be, to promote a band that needs it.

Excusing the weird name which I do not fully get yet, D's Air is a South American rock band influenced by the Japanese Visual Kei style. So I'm not taking the entire jump yet, but I'm branching out and this is what it's all about. Plus, I've always wanted to follow a band from the beginning and their Exploded Heart Demo is pretty damn sweet for something that's their first ever release put to CD.

So how does the entire package stand?

01. exploded heart
02. exploded heart (inst.)
03. Desistir ~neo lynanthropy~

Exploded heart	I'm still amazed at the quality of their work so far, seeing as how this is all coming right out of their pocket. I sense a few problems with exploded heart that would be easily fixed with a rerecording of this song. First is that the vocalist holds himself back, as if he's shy to sing his Spanish too loud. Unlike many bands, his voice isn't annoying in the slightest, and he's actually pretty good so if he musters some courage I think he'd be pretty awesome. The second is that the solo is almost inaudible and that that particular guitarist needs to get up and center for attention, since that's what it's for. Otherwise, I guess I would label this as some derivative of pop-rock that was obviously influenced by Raphael, and for all intents and purposes Raphael doesn't really matter in the commercial world of South America. Outside of Japanese visual kei fans most wouldn’t even find a suitable band to compare this to. The chorus is refreshing and does some neat, non-formulaic things that helps it to contrast with the quieter, but not muted verses.	8/10
Exploded heart (inst.)	The instrumental version should have really come after Desistir in my opinion, because it sounds weird to have the first track end and then have the second one begin like it's all in a loop. Here is where you can hear the actual complexity going on in the track between the four instrumentalists. The constant pattern changes make for interesting listening and I suppose it's pleasant background music if you ever need it.	8/10
Desistir ~neo lycanthropy~	It started out promising but the overuse of electronic effects turns this from a gothic rock track to an EBM fest, and it doesn’t work out quite as they planned. If they plan to redo this single I say keep the beginning and the haunting vocals in the beginning, have the vocals go higher and lower, and then silence it. The synth effects going on are unneeded and make the song feel cheesy, and they permeate the atmosphere to the point that I can’t ignore it. If they could sample some haunting violin sounds that would also be pretty cool but it’s probably out of their budget range so I would just stick with some keyboard work there. The vocal work and the chorus is very good (especially with the voices going on). My personal favorite part is the buildup with just the electronic effects going on. That’s the atmosphere that should be all throughout this track, and the drum rolls in should be louder, but the thought put into this track is solid.	6/10

So, for a first demo, which probably will be redone sometime soon, it nets itself a 73%. What more can I say about it? I can't ramble on about comparisons to other work because they have none, and I can't say I'm disappointed because I came in expecting far worse. So, in an effort to maintain composure you can download it here if you want and stop reading this sentence.