Review: Versailles - Lyrical Sympathy

When I said I’d do this one, I actually hadn’t gotten past track two. Therefore, everything up to “Sympathia” was half-assed and every song didn’t get their fair share. Time to redo another review, but the good thing is I’m actually fond of this album so it’s going to be more informative and less “me bitching about how every song isn’t the Revenant Choir”.

I don’t even like The Revenant Choir all that much. :\

1. "Intro" – 1:10
2. "The Love From A Dead Orchestra" – 8:28
3. "Shout & Bites" – 3:59
4. "Beast Of Desire" – 4:25
5. "Forbidden Gate" – 4:38
6. "The Red Carpet Day" – 4:23
7. "Sympathia" – 6:08

Intro	As an introduction, it does a good job of setting a sense of urgency and pulling the listener in and it is well done. When put up against the next track, which is eight and a half minutes long, this seems almost unneeded. The next track even has its own opening section, so what is this here for?	4/10
The Love From a Dead Orchestra	I have no idea how many times I’ve listened to this song. The Love From a Dead Orchestra is a multi-faced beast, and at a runtime of 8:29 it has enough going on in every part of the song to please a fan of any type of classical or rock music. It moves from piano dominated sections to dark, driven guitar passages with a bit of a pause between each. Some violins and acoustic strums are thrown in for good measure. After you insert forceful and elegantly violent double-bass, expert speed strumming, multiple guitar lines overlapping over one another sublimely, choir vocals in the background, Hizaki’s pinch harmonics near the end, and a whopping three guitar solos, you have a song that draws in a listener like no other. And that’s just the instrumentation! Kamijo’s vocals are in prime form here: his lows sound a bit forced but they’re consistent and when he moves up into his more comfortable register later on the song just moves up into a whole new level. This song is one hell of a monster, and I can’t stop listening to it at all.	10/10
Shouts & Bites	Shouts & Bites (and just about every other song on this album) suffers from having to come after The Love From a Dead Orchestra. The composition of this song is straightforward in nature and focuses more on establishing set parts of the song (verse, chorus, solo). We have a decent violin section sandwiched in equally as loud as the guitars, verses where the guitars take center stage, a solo that blend symphonic and rock (admittedly not equally) and bells and whistles such as 2:47-2:51 that’s all summarized in a chorus backed with a mixture of symphonic and rock instruments. Throughout the song, no one instrument stands out. It’s Kamijo’s deep, syrupy singing that stands out the most in this track, being the one element that holds everything together. The lyrics to this song are pretty badass as well, and that bumps it up a point. Repeat listening sessions have made me fond of this track, but instrumentally speaking Versailles has done better.	7/10
Beast of Desire	What Beast of Desire has going for it over Shouts and Bites is a sense of balance. The symphonic takes a backseat here but those instruments aren’t given in punctuated bursts (and then forgotten about afterwards) and don’t seem like an afterthought. We have a harpsichord, some violins, and quite possibly some woodwinds working in the background, and they weave together one melody for a majority of the song. The band overlays another, harsher melody over it and together the polyphony isn’t overly chaotic. Beast of Desire also manages to balance the hard with the soft. For example, when the words “kairaku no hate kyosei sarete eien to naru” are sung, Kamijo is backed by the symphonic portion before the band jumps in at full force again. It’s those expert bits of balance (and the lyrics) that set this song above Shouts & Bites. Where Beast of Desire finds fault is where Shouts and Bites drew its strength: the chorus. Kamijo’s falsetto is off-putting. It was a good idea but it was not executed well. I’m not even going to mention how the chorus has an attitude too light to fit with those heavy, chugging riffs that characterize the “beast of desire”.	8/10
Forbidden Gate	The serene woodwind heavy opening is not only the perfect opening for this track but is exactly what this album needed, and that’s a change of pace. Forbidden Gate alternates between guitar-driven passages and very light verses reminiscent of the opening, and both of these qualities melt together perfectly in the chorus, which is far and away the best part of this song. The metallic uproar near the middle of the song is a close second because it comes right after an even more serene interlude and is signaled by an ominous organ note before it launches and segues back into the chorus. After the last two tracks this song restores the grandeur in the music that I look for in Versailles.	9/10
The Red Carpet Day	This is the progenitor for songs such as “To The Chaos Inside” and “Second Fear – Another Descendant”. The Red Carpet Day also balances softer portions with the harder sections, and the delivery of the track remains solid no matter how loud or soft the track becomes. It’s unique blending of the harpsichord with deep, dark guitars work to create an ominous and occult atmosphere, which is a change from the densely layered and instrumentally complex “Kamijo & Hizaki” tracks that preceded this. It is no simpler by any means, but it’s thrilling and even daring nature reflects the gothic aristocrat and vampire motif Versailles often puts into their music (On top of the red bed, the life / Overflowing out of the girl's neck, pours into me / I'll be at your side and embrace you / Why do people believe in god? is the chorus).	9/10
Sympathia	The last three tracks each showed a new side of Versailles that we haven’t been exposed to at this point in time. With the last track on the album, Versailles decided to take their unique brand of symphonic rock in an entirely new direction. Sympathia fills the musical role of "ballad" on this album and it does everything right, including not taking any unnecessary risks and leaving the powerful, emotional ballad to be the last thing the reader hears before the album comes to a close. It comes and leaves with the lone piano and the reliance on this instrument is the signature sound of Sympathia. It is as grandiose as it is elegant, as forceful as it is quiet, and every moment of it comes off as Versailles. Even Kamijo reins in his vocal experimentation and delivers his vocals passionately. This song doesn’t feel like a battle for "whose solo rocks harder" between Teru and Hizaki and it comes off as the most band-centered piece on the album, where even Jasmine gets to shine. It’s the most consistent piece on this album and I believe it was crafted with the ending of the album in mind. I can’t imagine this piece anywhere else.	9/10

Despite the title “Lyrical Sympathy” this album doesn’t have many sympathetic lyrics behind it. It’s forceful, typical vampire-rose-Renaissance inspired lyrics and each song paints a unique portrait that will have you remembering the song long after the CD stops spinning in the drive. And then, if your headphones die from all the music you’ll be listening to, you can always pop in the second CD and look at the Shouts & Bites PV. This is just the first step that Versailles will have to take to be world-renowned and spread the art of visual-kei all across the globe, and it’s not that bad of one either.

Recommended:

All of it…

Score: 87%