Review: D'espairsRay - Kumo

There are a whole bunch of reviews that I want to do but I'm too lazy to actually muster up the necessary amount of patience to do them. So while I sit here and dawdle my thumbs before I actually review exist†trace's Annunciation - the heretic elegy - album, I'll do D'espairsRay's first single, Kumo. This is because it's the first place I started in their discography and it holds a special meaning. Other than that sentimental load of crap, it's because that's where it's scrolled to in iTunes, I'm running low on my quota of reviews for the month, and because I just read an article about the abuse of German in Japanese songs, and this single is no exception.

01. Kisei - Parasite
02. Mousou Heki na EGOIST
03. Misshitsu NO Naka… “IKARETAKIMI” NO Senritsu

Kisei - PARASITE	Rich with downtuned guitars, sound effects, and deep bass thumping along at the bottom next to the drums, this is the D’espairsRay that old fans want to return. It’s packed with cheesy sound effects that make it sound like a ride through a haunted house at the beginning, but when the guitars wind up that’s when the atmosphere of the song gets serious. Hizumi’s barks are quite unexpected in this song and work with the singing well (which is uncharacteristically deep and sound like a man going senile). The layers of sound in this song are serious, starting with just some random wind howling, and ending with an expertly placed piano section beneath the roaring guitar solo. They all pile up together near the end of the song behind some driving drums before some dueling guitars and ends off with the same sound effects it started with. For a first song as a band, this is pretty damn good.	10/10
Mousou Heki NA EGOIST	More musical, muffled insanity wrapped into a nice package. Hizumi sounds like he just ran a marathon as the track winds up with thick bass and drums. The lines are omnipresent and ever evolving, breaking down at all the right parts and featuring some guitar lines by Karyu reminiscent of insanity put to paper. His solo halfway in literally comes out of nowhere and just fuels the entire song onward from that point. The chorus sung by Hizumi is most likely the most musically depressive part of the song, and is therefore the standout lyric-wise. He isn’t as excellent throughout here as he was in the last song, but the singing accompanied by the muffled babbling and the distorted vocals work well. It’s the mysterious woman at the end that’s supposed to signal that someone’s lost their mind that steals the show. Her inclusion is unexpected, wonderful, and makes the song better. She ends off the song on the right food. The song doesn’t find it’s atmosphere like the first two have and it turns into a listenable piece of music, but nothing particularly powerful.	9/10
Misshitsu NO Naka… “IKARETAKIMI” NO Senritsu	This song is so dark and negative it upsets me just listening to it. D’espairsRay managed to sum up any and every feeling of depression, loneliness, fear, and despair and place it into a song with plodding bass, eerie guitar lines that soar all over the place, and drums that come in and go unnoticed and don’t feature an excessive amount of cymbal riding. I can’t even begin to describe the solo, or how everything comes together when Hizumi holds the notes as the track plunges deeper and deeper into despairing guitar lines. There’s random counting in German, muffled babbling, apeshit scary screams, lalala’s that contrast beautifully with the song, and it all ends with an eagle scream from Hizumi. It hasn’t been this good since….track one.	10/10

For a first record, I've grown rather fond of it and I think my bias shows through it more than it should. It gets a 97% and is recommended listening for any fan of hard, gothic rock. Then again, if you know who these guys are you're wondering why it took me so long to review this one.

Meh, I'm running out of end-of-review quirky quips D:

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.