Review: Lycaon - Royal Order

After the announcement of them postponing their album for two months I want a damn good explanation as to why they postponed this album in the first place. Royal Order might as well be considered a compilation album because there's barely any new material on this release. Yeah sure, the limited edition gets Plug > into the > Socket (It's SOCKET, not Soket. So WHAT if they accidentally published it as SOKET on their live demotape? How many of you MP3 ripping, downloading whores actually HAVE the demotape in your possession? I would say very few of you do. Secondly, you're recognizing that it's an accident, a typo. THEY'RE JAPANESE. They didn't type it because it alluded to some deeper meaning that by omitting the "c" made an ethereal connection to their lyrics. They don't speak, read or write English very well, fucked up and by the time they realized the mistake it was too late/too expensive to pay to have it fixed so they decided to leave it be figuring that their fans would be bright enough to figure it out on their own! For Jesus' sake, it's printed PlugintotheSOCKET on the PV! IT'S THE SAME EXACT SONG JUST WITH A C in the word SOCKET! If you're still shitting me they announced that it was called PLUG > INTO THE > SOCKET when they first announced Royal Order's 500 singles. I swear, only J-Turd fans can be this retarded. It almost makes me want to poke my eyes with a spork like the time I discovered that people were arguing over what to call ALSDEAD's Violent of Reason single. Because, you know even though it's printed Violent of Reason on their OHP you have to scrobble it as Violet of Reason because they forgot the N on their album covers, or even VOR because you know Violent of Reason was just too fucking big to print in the booklet and acronyms take precedence over whole titles when the band themselves fucking refer to it as VIOLENT OF REASON. I don't see D'espairsRay manias referring to Murder Freaks as "muder freaks" even though it's misspelled as that on the back of the Terrors EP. They refer to it as MURDER FREAKS because they have functional brain cells that tell them "oh, they meant this". Thank you D'espa fans for having sanity) and the three 500 press Like an Edison singles are included and re-mastered and there are three more tracks on the regular edition but it doesn't justify having roughly half of your album previously released in any way.

Speaking of Plug > into the > Socket, it's awesome but the music video is shit. For crying out loud Yuuki at least SING when you're singing in the music video. Go fire your PV editors and hire me - I could have done a better job. Go YouTube it because it's not on the album at all even though it should be.

Back to Lycaon's compilation album, the tracklist itself induces vomiting. Cordyceps Sinensis, Declaration of War and A Box in Beautiful should be on the album, but not one after the other. It unbalances the album because the singles aren't spread out enough. Chains of Collar is iffy but it could be included on the album. It's not their absolute best song but it is one of their most identifiable ones and that's probably due to the live-distributed version of this single that's turned every fan's head and still has many waiting on the hope that Enslavement Beauty (once again, Beauty not Beuty. They misspelled this one too. If you're going to pronounce it beauty, and define it as the word beauty, you might as well fucking SPELL IT BEAUTY. See "muder freaks" argument) will eventually surface on the Internet for all to download and sex like there's no tomorrow. Kesshou Hana is also dated but that was included out of necessity. As this review goes on, you will realize that Royal Order follows a sickening pattern of cheaply made, two minute thrash numbers punctuated by real musicwriting and salvageable pieces of work that almost make this album worth all the money they poured into it. Kesshou Hana is what saves Royal Order from becoming another VERSUS and it's presence alone changes the tone of the album (and I will argue that it saves it at the same time). However, there is no reason that Red Rum and Hisame need to be on this album. They're very dated sonic soundscapes of generic in a record that I can analogously describe as a pubescent teenager whose balls are about to drop and the re-recordings just aren't as good as the rest of the track here. I even believe that the re-recording of Red Rum, whilst pimped out with better production is inferior to the original. If they absolutely MUST have included older tracks to fill out the empty spaces in the album both Kohakuiro and The[1st] degree genocide holic would have fit in much, much better. However, I believe that there is no reason why a band must absolutely include their oldest singles on their first album. I hate to use Dir en grey as an example but both Jealous and -I'll- never made it onto another album (although I can see an argument stating that they had five other singles released and that including those two would have made a Royal Order-esque fest a decade earlier but I just prefer to state that they suck) and Gauze is just fine without it.

However, I would have preferred more new tracks. Howling and Flowing are both horrible wastes of space on Royal Order. I believe they included these two because if they told you that they only had 10 tracks and 6 were older songs Lycaon fans would pop a hemorrhoid. The album should have jumped straight into Lily, which is a different type of Lycaon that I'm receptive to. Excellent music writing and experimentation with some new sounds combined with a catchy, almost Gazette-ish chorus makes for one of the better new tracks. Lily makes way for Royal Order which comes busting forward with Yuuki's burpy growls and crunching guitar riffs that made me wonder what the hell happened to Ambrozia era Lycaon. Ladies and gentlemen, this is an instance of a very badly placed track. Off-kilter entrance pushed to the side, it does that hard verse-poppy chorus arrangement that I'm not too fond of but they do it with enough attitude to convince the casual listener that yes, this isn't something you've heard once or thrice before. This album does worse so I'll let Royal Order slide.

Declaration of War is a tough nut to crack. Look at the title - DECLARATION OF WAR. You would expect some screaming, hard, rough, insane track to be shoved up your vas deferens and into your testes. It influences you to think you're going to get something you aren't and then when you hear this track you'll be mildly disappointed. Excusing the name, Declaration of War is not that bad of a track. I can describe this as a softer touch to hard rock. Sure, it has it's handful of screams and rough passages but the rest of the track is a bit more melodic than we're used to Lycaon composing. This isn't a bad thing by any means but this lacks balls, especially when compared to the rest of the album. If you come into this track looking for something to headbang to skip for now. If you're here to just listen to some pleasant music this is an excellent track. It just...doesn't belong after Royal Order. This following Lily would have been a much better move.

On to something a little more respectable, Cordyceps sinensis is a very hard, catchy song with lots of high pitched grunting mixed with a very addictive opening and reverb yelling. I actually like the pre-chorus for the alternating guitars although the regular chorus isn't that bad at all. The name has absolutely nothing to do with anything, as I've read the English lyrics and nothing about "Chinese mold" comes to mind at all. Whatever you crazy cross-dressing rockers, you just do whatever makes your music that much less generic.

A Box in Beautiful is around where this album peaks in quality. I personally think it's the best song on this album and has more of that Lycaon sound than most of the other tracks on here. Unusual guitar tunings and a steady source of rhythm is all over this song. Yuuki screeches and yells with the best of them but his singing is what really gets to me. It's so beautiful, mesmerizing, expressive...and screechy. He brings the track down in some parts because his vocal range just doesn't stretch that far but I can look past that part because he doesn't massacre the vocal department the way other shit bands do.

Plus, ever since my friend mocked Yuuki with CRYING IN THE LAAAAAND, I don't take this song seriously anymore. I hope I haven't ruined it for you as much as the revelation that Dir en grey's egniryS cimredopyH +) an Injection is a song about cocaine and masturbation ruined my friend's entire perception of Macabre. The song is great, but if Yuuki's voice was just a bit stronger this song would have been brilliant.

Depending on what edition you have you either have Chains of collar or two wastes of space before Chains of Collar. Miss.EVIL INSIDE is Lycaon's attempt at being hard and they get points for doing it well and a nice nod of the head for incorporating unexpected double bass rolls into their screaming chorus but this is an earache and a ball of repetitiveness. I don't like mindless screaming from a band that dresses like they walked into the female section of Macy's and cut up clothing to don to call themselves shock rockers. This track asserts my belief that Lycaon is attempting to figure out what they want to do and it alternates (literally) between harsh, thrashy screaming numbers and more melodic numbers. Pick a fucking style, damnit.

**88** is another short, thrashy number that they included a bit later on but I'll cover it shortly now because I just have to say I like it even less than Miss.EVIL INSIDE. It really took you guys two extra months to write 6 minutes of material? Are you fucking me with a purple dildo? **88** has a pretty rough intro and plenty of screams thrown around but the chorus appears like a foot gunning for my crotch. By the time I know it's here the waves of nausea are already making their way up my nervous system. **88** isn't all that good and that scream at the end made me go deaf...when I had it playing on speakers. Ouch. Move on.

chains of collar isn't much different than what we've been presented with, and with this atrocious pattern going on you could even tell what type of song it was going to be. There are no sudden transitions in this song that causes vaginal cancer to suddenly spew out my orifices and consume my body and there's definitely some vocal work redone here because Yuuki doesn't sound as sketchy as it did back when it was released as a single. It's a great song but really, the chain of singles need to end. Now.

who's bad psycho party is actually a lot better than it's title lets on. I read someone somewhere describe this a dancey number. No. It is not. When someone says dance, I think of MUCC's Fuzz, or D'espairsRay's LOVE IS DEAD, or the GazettE's SILLY GOD DISCO. No, it just has a four to the floor disco beat going on at some points during the song in addition with some electronic effects. This and pAIN kILLER are the best out of the newer tracks that they presented to us - it's just a shame that the former isn't included on the limited edition. In an effort to condense the rest of this review I'm recommending these along with just about everything else on this album. Just keep your ears open for these two.

Hisame is a faceless tune that I couldn't recall if you cuntpunted me and commanded me to. I've tried sitting through it and when I'm paying attention it drags so much I feel the need to skip it and move on to Kesshou Hana, which is a very beautiful song and that's quite possibly because it's the only track here that breaks the mold. Yuuki’s falsetto is used a lot here and that risk pays off. It also comes with a piano introductions whose inclusion isn’t solitary and doesn’t pause to get into the track. It also is packaged with a twin guitar solo which takes the song off of the “ballad” path long enough for the listener to take a breather and listen through the rest. This really isn't everyone's cup of tea and if I tell you it came from Ambrozia some people just might skip it but at least it's something different (I was going to say new but I just said it came from Ambrozia).

R[UIN]ED RUM isn't an ending track, didn't need to be re-recorded, remastered or included on Royal Order. This should have been left on the single it came from. Yuuki's opening scream is gone and the song just lacks the indies charm that made it bearable back when they first descended upon us. Instead of being bastard children of Versailles and Kisaki, they should have included Plug > into the > Socket SOMEWHERE on this album. This spot would have been fine seeing as how no other tracks (except maybe Kesshou Hana) would have ended the album much better. RED RUM relies too much on nostalgia to get on by and if you aren't a longtime Lycaon fan you really aren't going to care all that much. These last four songs are all songs that not everyone is going to like and it's really stupid to put them all back-to-back to end your album. It's supposed to end on a good note, not a bad one.

So Royal Order is a mixed bag. I enjoy this album a lot more because I enjoy Lycaon's discography and all the songs I like are mostly songs I've heard before. Royal Order definitely has a few surprises here and there but it's got a few duds as well (well actually, more than a few if you count the instrumentals as music). I recommend it, but only if you've been exposed to some form of their style before.

Review: Lycaon - Declaration of War

Declaration of War is a tough nut to crack. If you're listening to the Lycaon concept singles one after another this is easily the low point of all three. Cordyceps sinensis brings a lot more energy and makes you want to get up and jump around and A Box in Beautiful is just too damn good for this song to touch.

Another reason why this song falters a little bit before you even listen to it would be the title. Look at it - DECLARATION OF WAR. You would expect some screaming, hard, rough, insane track to be shoved up your vasdeference to screw with your sperm. It influences you to think you're going to get something you aren't and then when you hear this track you'll be mildly disappointed.

Let's repeat the scale of good to suck here:

A Box in Beautiful > Cordyceps Sinensis > Declaration of War

Excusing the name, Declaration of War is not that bad of a track. I can describe this as a softer touch to hard rock. Sure, it has it's handful of screams and rough passages but the rest of the track is a bit more melodic than we're used to Lycaon composing. This isn't a bad thing by any means but DoW lacks some balls. In fact, it lacks ANY balls: the cover is so badass but the song doesn't deliver on that false promise. If you come into this track looking for something to headbang to go away. Now.

If you're here to just listen to some pleasant music continue.

Now that we've established that remember that Yuuki's voice has the tendency to do weird crap like suck. He's improved of course but you can still see some of the weaknesses in his voice, especially in this single where he relies more on singing than his weird, nasal screaming. The guitars under him do some great things and make a wonderful listen but he can either make or break the track for you. It all really depends on how unskilled you can stand your singers to be.

I really want the lyrics to this and I don't have them so I can't continue on any further at this point but I'd like to sum up this track like this:

Declaration of War is the vagina but vaginas are good too.

OK so my friend said that but it's still applicable. Just because it's not the best doesn't mean it sucks - it's still got enough to keep any fan interested and it's not a half-bad track to get started with. They've done worse in my opinion.

Review: Lycaon - cordyceps sinensis

I need to talk about this single before Royal Order comes out.

If you were around the internet looking for this single a few months ago then you know the story. If you don't I'll sum it up really quickly: Lycaon makes a very bad business decision to limit these to 500 copies in Like an Edison stores and otakus that buy anything with the word "Kuniitichiwa" muttered in it lost their math ability to reason that 500 copies of a CD can't be bought by 1000+ people. Said elitists didn't want to share their warez and butthurt people bawwed up the internet until someone leaked this. They held a tighter vagina clamp on Declaration of War and A Box in Beautiful but then Lycaon kicked them in the dick and said all three were going to be on Royal Order so the elitist whores bawwed futilely and decided to share once they realized their rarez weren't going to be so rarez anymore.

On to something a little more respectable, Cordyceps Sinensis sits between Declaration of War and A Box in Beautiful when it comes to how good these concept singles were. All three of them blow their previous work out of the water and make me a bigger fan of them now. cordyceps sinensis is a very hard, catchy song with lots of high pitched grunting mixed with a very addictive opening and reverb yelling. I actually like the pre-chorus for the alternating guitars although the regular chorus isn't that bad at all. I can't summon it in my mind at will although listening to it doesn't make my orifices bleed.

Honestly speaking I can't remember anything that they've done previous to this song that channels any of the raw energy that they put into this song. What comes closest is The 1st degree genocide holic but this trumps that song in plenty of ways. If you're looking to get into Lycaon start at Ambrozia and then skip to this because I feel chains of collar wasn't up to par. This was a definite bounce back and a nice treat from a band that can handle both hard and soft.

Final Judgment: Pretty Good.

Review: Lycaon - Chains of Collar

I wrote this review on the 24th of June, when I had actually gotten this single, but for some unfathomable reason I hadn't posted this. I think I had set it aside for later and then completely forgot about it until today. I was also thinking of redoing this review and when I go to look for it...I can't find it. Instead of posting what I have in a section no one is going to see ever again, I decided to put it up towards the front so it could at least get one view. Let's see how generic my cross-dressers have gotten.

01. the chain which ties you
02. chains of collar
03. INSANITY

Now, as for the first track, I despised it when Nega had an instrumental on a three track single and when ScReW had two on their mini-album Racial Mixture. The same stands here for Lycaon. the chain which ties you is obviously an instrumental and it's not a very good one, being full of background S.E. and feeling more like the audio to a movie than the audio to a track. Skip it because it would take me longer to explain why than it would for you to finish said track.

Lycaon hasn't been the band to push the envelope in their short existence as a band, and produce wonderful but unoriginal melodies. chains of collar isn't much different. If you want to get into a new band that doesn't sound like anything you've ever heard before, skip Lycaon because their releases offer more of the same time after time. In comparison to their superb mini-album Ambrozia, I feel that Lycaon took a step forward and a step back. In songs such as suckin' on a lollipop Yuuki's voice was atrocious and didn't fit well at all. Here, on chains of collar, his singing not only has improved a fair deal but I can't find one specific portion where I want to gouge my ears in from the sudden transition. In songs such as Alejandro and the similarly hard rocker The end of [Delusion] the instrumentation was a hell of a lot more inventive than it is here. That's not to say that the work isn't great but it isn't their greatest. I would really hate to say it but this isn't their best single, but it's definitely the best offer here.

Insanity's riff sounds just like System of a Down's Toxicity. I can't listen to this song seriously after realizing that and as such I don't like this song. Lycaon was never an original band but to go ahead and take such a similar riff makes it less enjoyable than it already is. Go ahead, shoot me, but I didn't steal a riff.

So at the end of the day chains of collar is decidely average, just like most of Lycaon's output. Shame really, because this band wants to fill a void in the Visual Kei scene, and they really can because they carry a unique sound but it just appears that they don't know how. Here's hoping their next single blows me away like Red Rum and Ambrozia did and that they change up their signature sound and become more diverse.

Recommended:

chains of collar

Score: 61%

Review: Lycaon - Ambrozia

I've really been beating around the bush with this one, so Lycaon is going to be the first artist I actually get around to finishing. I like Ambrozia the most out of all of Lycaon's work, and if I had to be stuck with just one album to listen to from them this would most likely be it. It's got enough going on to be diverse but it all sounds like them. This is the best thing they've ever put out. EVAR.

1.愚を喰らふ。
2.suckin' on a lollipop
3.camelliA
4.alejandro
5.結晶華
6.The end of [Delusion]

愚を喰らふ。	LAME ASS INTRO YEA! I don’t know the translation of this song but it’s not like I really care. It’s some weird, distorted introduction that’s isn’t dull (into the dark) or completely fucking random (Grow). It also moves into suckin’ on a lollipop seamlessly. Other than that, I don’t care for this song and I don’t care about this song. That’s why I didn’t bother to translate.	4/10
suckin' on a lollipop	SUCK MY DICK YEA! suckin on a lollipop isn’t my favorite track on here. Everything in the song is fine right up until they get to the chorus, and then Yuuki’s vocals rise faster than an airplane. He starts up on a falsetto and gets higher and higher until his voice can’t take it and then he drops down and goes back up again and again and again. It’s very irritating, and then the song plummets into some heaviness and the band tries to get all hardcore. Sorry, but your street cred was ruined with the glaring lack of German and the chorus I was just subjected to.	7/10
CamelliA	TYPICAL VK TITLE YEA! I think Lycaon was trying to go for an emotionally epic mid-rocker with the riff that we start out with. It doesn’t tank as bad as the last rendition of the chorus in suckin’ on a lollipop, but it doesn’t quite get there. There are also parts where the band attempted to try and get all ethereal on us, such as the slowdown halfway in, but Yuuki’s vocals can’t handle going that high. The last song just showed us that in the chorus, and this one makes up for it in that “I don’t completely suck” sort of way. It’s simple, catchy riff structure is enough to get your foot tapping, and that’s all I really need to enjoy some music.	8/10
Alejandro	FUCKING FUCK YOU FUCK! I swear I thought I changed bands when I heard this song. Alejandro is one of the best songs they’ve crafted. Ever. The whole Hispanic-tinged acoustic vibe they have before they launch into a two guitar assault with a third twanging in the back before we go into a bass-backed chorus. There’s enough two-guitar action going on here to please any fan of intermediately-complex parts and there are slight use of electronic effects here and there which are almost inaudible. Yuuki’s Engrish is horrible but its inclusion is hilarious and actually makes the song better. If you can wrap your head around that insane concept, it’s about as amazing as Lycaon managing to write a chorus that a) fits, b) doesn’t suck, c) doesn’t rely on falsettos Yuuki can’t reach and d) isn’t sandwiched inbetween two polar opposite riffs. If I could make a prediction, I would bet that this would become one of the signature “Lycaon” songs.	10/10
Kesshou Hana	FUCKING EPIC VK BALLAD Yuuki’s falsetto is used a lot here. He sounds like he’s forcing it at parts but in others it works and that risk pays off. Most of the time, he should just stick with his regular voice because it’s uniquely his and it’s high enough to suffice for whatever it is he wants to do. Unlike most VK piano introductions, its inclusion isn’t solitary and doesn’t pause to get into the track. It also comes with a twin guitar solo which takes the song off of the “ballad” path long enough for the listener to take a breather and listen through the rest. This about as far as I usually listen because of the length of the song. At about seven and a half minutes, it’s requires a nice chunk of your attention but the payoff is well worth it. It doesn’t feel too stretched out and the actual music is less than the seven and a half minutes it implies. That’s because it comes with about a minute of un-needed silence at the end. Kesshou Hana isn’t epic enough for me to need a minute of silence in order to prepare for The end of [Delusion]. How pretentious of all five of you! Bah!	9/10
The end of [Delusion]	MOAR ENGLISH [DESTRUCTION] YEA! Exactly what I need to wake up after the last track. Yuuki growls and squeals like a circumcised pig and the one part where he sings other than the ill-fitting chorus sounds nice but it could have used work fitting back into the growls and screams. Sometimes The end of [Delusion] doesn’t know if wants to be a ‘dick to the brick’ hardcore piece or something brash but restrained, like Alejandro. Since it doesn’t work out its inner turmoil about what it wants to do in life, it doesn’t have as much of a piercing effect as it should. It still ends off this EP with a bang.	8/10

So where does that leave Ambrozia? The most "focused" and "mature" effort this band has put forth yet? If you like using such trite and stereotypical words, then I guess I'll level with you and say yes. I regard it as the only Lycaon CD worth buying because you get so much for your purchase and it comes with so many good Lycaon songs I can't justify buying anything else over this. Screw the first two tracks, everything after CamelliA is what Lycaon needs to keep creating. Well not exactly sample from, but continue with the same quality and sophistication.

Recommended:

Alejandro
Kesshou Hana

Score: 77%

Review: Lycaon - Sad/Sick:ness

Screw you Mozilla. Sometimes the shortcuts on my keyboard don't want to work, and the next day they're hyperactive and every little thing is closing down. Today was one of those hyperactive days. I HAD THIS REVIEW DONE and for some unfathomable reason my tab decides to close and it wasn't saved as a draft. What does this mean? It means that I have to redo the entire review again, which actually might not be that bad of a thing because that means the rating might bump up a little bit. I think this was Mozilla's way of saying "write a 3/4-assed review you lazy fag".

Still, fuck you computer <.<

1. into the dark
2. Akeame
3. The[1st] degree genocide holic

And like an idiot I forget the "review". Sorry about that...

Into the dark	I expected to receive a hard, foreboding, dark but dull instrumental. What I get is a light, dull, piano backed instrumental. It’s a nice change of pace and shows that Lycaon doesn’t box themselves into pre-conceived notions when it comes to song titles and what said song is “supposed” to sound like. As for the actual music, where it counts it’s a typical Lycaon instrumental, although I’d venture to say it’s a bit more straightforward. Possibly one of the more listenable pieces they’ve put forth. I’d still skip it though, because I need to get to the meat of the single and having an opening track on a three track single is unnecessary.	4/10
Akeame	I actually re-wrote this review, and the score got bumped up one point than from what I was originally going to give it. The positives of this track are that the bass is audibly mixed into the fray and no one instrument, including the vocalist, overpowers another instrument. It’s got enough twists and turns to keep me interested but said twists and turns aren’t inventive enough. It seems like in every song they throw in a slow-down, acoustic section with mellow vocals and a chorus that toes the line between obnoxiously upbeat and just plain annoying. Lycaon keeps tapping from the same communal source for all their songs and even though thus far they’ve been able to successfully switch it up enough to keep me and others interested, they’re going to have to leave their comfort zone if they want to make something truly magnificent. As it stands, Akeame is a listenable song and there’s nothing wrong with it other than from what I’ve mentioned, but they’ve taken this song and done it better on RED RUM (The Death Game, Kohakuiro) and this just isn’t comparing. Using the same sound over and over again only gets you so far.	7/10
The [1st] Degree Genocide-holic	I believe this was featured on an omnibus somewhere, although the name eludes me at this particular moment. This one was also rewritten, but the score remains the same. Even though I think the name is actually pretty visual-kei standard badass, it feels too much like Akeame with harsh vocals. Some of the guitar patterns feel too similar and it’s still packaged with that chorus that might send some over the edge. Why they decided to take the edge out of the chorus is beyond me, because the lack of attitude in that department hurts the package of this song. Between the songs, they didn’t switch up enough to keep it fresh and as such The [1st] Degree Genocide-holic suffers from the similar sickness. Compared to Akeame I like it more, but the difference is so minute in decimals I would just round down and leave it a seven.	7/10

Well look at that, the review came out half-decent. I would pat myself on the back but pressing the "PUBLISH" button at this point after doing some math would feel infinitely more rewarding. Before I wrap this up though, I have to comment on the title. What the hell is with the entire title? First off, you use the / icon to denote eithers. So it means Sad or Sick:ness. However, the random COLON in sickness makes me wonder what the fudge it has to do with anything. Is it the -ness of being sick because you're sad, or is this simply another case of super=[ka]waii-desu Engrish? I think it's the latter, because I haven't met any Visual Kei indie's bands that name their work with philosophical, thought-provoking titles. They usually throw in English to just rush it along, and that's what this ultimately comes off as: rushed and more of the same.

And folks, THAT is how you use a colon!

Recommended:

you're shitting me, right? either one is fine....

Score: 60%

Review: Lycaon - RED RUM

I’ve spent many an hour trying to figure out what the hell the cover is supposed to be. Eventually, I just settled on the fact that Jack Nicholson’s face was rammed at a million miles an hour into one of the walls in Sotha Sil’s Clockwork City in Mournhold and Lycaon took a picture before they called in Almalexia to mop the wall up. Yes, that was an epic Morrowind reference. (Given that the name of this single is called [RED RUM], a The Shining joke was bound to pop up in here somewhere). Let’s get this review done with, eh?

01. Grow
02. RED RUM
03. The Death Game
04. 「琥珀彩」～コハクイロ～ (Kohakuiro)

Grow	How about no? Sounds like a cross between an orgasm on a telephone for the first few seconds, until it switches in to what sounds like an self-help audio book by Stephen Hawking. The words are in perfect English and have nothing to do with anything. Some guitars enter the mix and the creepy pedophile from before laughs and ruins what little this track had going for it. What exactly does Lycaon want us to grow? Wait, I don't want to find out...	3/10
Red Rum	A fan-favorite from what I can gather on all Lycaon fans that I can find, Red Rum isn’t anything revolutionary but all of its parts work together well. Even though the harsh vocals during the verses could use work, where Red Rum stands out is the chorus, which manages to be distinctive without suffering from suckin’ on a lollipop syndrome. That is good. I do feel the guitars could be crisper in many parts and the drums border on the verge of annoying, and RED RUM doesn’t pull me in all that much. A decent track, but not going to be one my favorites.	7/10
The Death Game	My personal favorite on this track, it starts off with a simple, generic, but effective riff that continues throughout this song. They spice it up with some acoustic work but everything is so indies-level production it’s barely worth mentioning (the bass crawls up somewhere in the track and it’s surprising to hear it because the point where it comes up suits it well). The breakdown is also something I could have sworn I heard somewhere, and if I did I’m not too surprised. A re-recording of this song in a few years would be awesome. Some singing points in the song, especially at 2:14, stick in my head simply because Lycaon stumbled upon some awesome. The chorus is also pretty badass, even when you don’t compare it to other Lycaon tracks.	9/10
「琥珀彩」～コハクイロ～	Kohakuiro is such a dick-tease. It starts off like it’s going to be the hardest piece here and then it goes all soft and acoustic and stays that way throughout. I hate hard openings on soft tracks; they get me all excited just to find out it was a load of foreplay. The last twenty seconds, although nothing overly hard, was a nice way to end the track (and thankfully, this song doesn’t end in a lame fade-out). Despite that, a softer track was in order here and although it’s still rough around the edges it delivers. The chorus reaches down into the bag of annoying and stereotypical when he tries to go up, but the nice solo erases some of that nasty taste in my mouth when it pops up. The whole transition between soft-solo-soft is also pretty sweet and sounds almost professional – something most VK bands can’t manage to do these days.	8/10

At least it was a better, all-around package than chains of collar, in that we get four songs instead of three and none of them stole a riff from a SoaD song and didn't bother to change up too much. Calling Lycaon inventive is a stretch of the imagination but at least this CD was all around refreshing.

Recommended:

The Death Game

Score: 68%