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.