Review: Nega - Haunted Jealousy

I can't say that I was looking forward to Nega's Haunted Jealousy as much as I was hoping for something that could redeem them and put them back on the front of "UC bands to watch". I wasn't particularly impressed with Grave of the Sacrifice when it came out because I thought they went a little over the deep end and immersed themselves too much in their softer side. I have no problem with a band experimenting with sound but Grave of the Sacrifice just didn't live up to the standards Nega has set for themselves in the past.

I wasn't expecting a quadrangle or an utsu out of this single but with it coming in three editions I hoped that out of these seven tracks there would be something redeeming here. But by just looking at the tracklist I wanted to vomit - there are THREE DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTALS WITH THIS SINGLE.

Goddamnit can Nega get any more Kisaki? >_>

Dorje avoids the pitfalls of most Nega instrumentals by having a set melody and then expanding on it. Short pieces that they've done in the past like death warrant and Psyren were well thought out pieces that weren't fully realized so it ended up becoming redundant quickly. Dorje has a beginning, middle and end. Nice except instrumentals are dick moves.

Ganesh isn't as stellar. The electronic effects take away from the song because it doesn't feel like it lends itself well to the entire ambience of the single. Ganesh manages to expand as it goes along but when it returns to the pattern from the beginning it makes the track loop. I'm starting to appreciate shorter instrumentals that pack a punch and this is simply too long for something that doesn't reinvent itself.

Islamic is the only instrumental that I consider as appropriate to the mood of the single and this is the one i believe Nega intended for us to associate with the single. islamic does some experimentation that makes the other two instrumentals look safe in comparison (0:59 - 1:04) for example is something that might not work out but doesn't really matter in the long run since it's an instrumental and instrumentals are gay.

Haunted Jealousy destroys most of what was on GRAVE OF THE SACRIFICE and seriously sounds like something the GazettE would do if they had Jin as a singer. The mix of symphonic and hard rock similar to Soul Cry saves this song from totally sounding like a GazettE ripoff but I really cannot shake the feeling that they got a hold of DIM and took some tips from them. Then again, when one band with a crap vocalist copies off of another band with a crap vocalist the result are songs that are alike. Nega hasn't sounded like this before and even though Haunted Jealousy is nice it suffers from the addition of his ear-raping vocals. Jin really needs to improve because his voice is strikingly different and there's a fine line between ear-raping vocals and different but wonderful vocals - he hasn't found that balance quite yet.

As a matter of fact, EVERYTHING on this CD sounds like it came from the GazettE. I've been bitching about it the whole time but this is actually a positive since the last time we heard something distinctly Nega it swallowed giraffe cock. Oboro and Ogress are pretty much crap whereas the final track sounds much better.

Ogress has a nice breakdown and solo but after that pretty much everything blows chunks. I don't like Jin's voice in this track since he sounds very monotone and the beat once again sounds very GazettE-ish except it's lame and doesn't change up sans the solo. Oboro is slightly better but it fails at this chorus which comes out of nowhere and changes the flow of the song. In fact, this chorus is the only distinctly Nega portion of music on this entire single. Jin's hardkoar kvltic rapping actually started clicking with me after a few listens. It's lame and it gets repetitive quickly but I'll give Nega a few points for at least trying something different.

淫 雨と暗澹 is an interesting song and feels like a spiritual companion to Haunted Jealousy. Even though the influence is here in this song, it's not overwhelming like it is in the other two songs and Jin sings like something other than a drugged Muppet. It really sounds like the most balanced song on the single (even though I'm hating Jin's screams which sound like they're sampled from guilt trip >_> ). The only thing remotely unique about this song is the way it ends and I'm unsure if that's intentional or accidental.

I'm ambivalent on this single. On the one hand I like the fact that this isn't a continuation of Grave of the Sacrifice but on the other hand this is too GazettEish for me to fully appreciate. I like this single but at the same time I don't and there are one too many crap tracks for me to give it a high score. I'd grant this single a 6/10 if you give me numbers for these three reasons

1) too many instrumentals
2) Ogress and Oboro aren't as good as the other two singing tracks
3) this isn't Nega's core sound. it's a nice deviation but if I want to hear gazettE i'll hear GazettE.

At least it's better than Grave of the Sacrifice - it has redeeming qualities.