This will be the first review I’ve written where it may not be entirley clear whether I’m a fan or not of the band in question.

1. “SLEEPER”

This a song that demonstrates how hard it is to like NIGHTMARE. It’s fast, it has all the right ingredients to be a catchy single, but they’ve done these kind of songs so many times before it’s ridiculous.

If it’s one thing this song is good at, it’s displaying the minor “trademark” Nightmare slide note flourishes (courtesy of the Histugi, who despite their output has demonstrated he is capable of doing interesting & pleasing things on the guitar, in the realm of visual-kei, but even he sounds bored here), but from the outset you can tell this is going to be the band just going through the motions.

The only parts I actually enjoyed were the acoustic guitar respites.

2. “Star Spangled Breaker”

Nightmare displays a recently aqquired talent for making awful song titles.

A medicore song that starts with a gliding guitar chord & phoned in rhythms. This also demonstrates one of NIGHTMARE’s primary weaknesses: overall song composition; they just don’t know how to do something they haven’t done before.

While there are some nice parts in here (the one little random the bass moment 1:38 – 1:41′ish), NIGHTMARE continue to draw upon their own blueprints for songs that haven’t evolved at all since MAJESTICAL PARADE, & if anything, have de-evolved.

The guitar solo is also the worst on this single.

This song is less catchy than SLEEPER, which was already not terribly original.

3. ???? (Iris)

This is actually the best song on this single, as it actually tries to do something different verse wise, but for NIGHTMARE this ends up merley being a deviation in overall scope of their blueprint. Oddly enough, if this was the lead single instead w/out the other two songs, I would’ve bumped this release’s score up easily.

Despite being the most tolerable, though, it still features their vocalist pulling off some of that signature border-line annoying vibrato w/ notes, which as someone who listens to NIGHTMARE would be ridiculous to complain about, but when the music is more mediocre than usual or expected, some things just don’t get a pass anymore.

This will be the only song I’ll remember from this release, to be honest.

OVERALL: D +

All in all, I obviously disliked this single; if you asked me personally, I would shout at you to stay away from such music until the band learns how to play something different.

However, even I can admit it’s an easily digestable, largley harmless visual-kei release, that will find an audience for it’s stubborn adherence to formulae.

This single gets points only for NIGHTMARE finally releasing something new instead of re-packaging past works (GIANIZM & Historical ~The Highest Nightmare~), & also for the tolerable 2nd B-Side (C-side?) IRIS.

However, this single also serves to remind us of a band that has completley run out of ideas since 2009′s MAJESTICAL PARADE, & is even running out of their ideas to mine from.

Despite this, even their albums before 2009 were largley hit or miss: SLEEPER seems to confirm NIGHTMARE resumed descent into passe mediocrity.

At this point, they’ve become much more taleneted anime theme wizards, capable of turning out the most energetic, easily digestible, benign opening fodder.

1. SUPERMAN
   A hip-hop style song, highlighting how “amazing” Super Junior are. It isn’t as catchy as their songs usually are, but has a charm all of its own. The best part about this song is Kyuhyun, Ryeowook and Yesung’s vocals.
2. A-CHA
   An electronic, dance pop rocktrack, which is quite reminiscent or 80s pop at times. Not as catchy as Mr. Simple. Far too much autotune for my tastes.
3. Mr. Simple
   This is the kind ofrepetitive dance song that super junior have become famous for. Very similar to bonamana/sorry sorry but lighter. Choreography wise, I was disappointed. One of SJ’s strong points has always been their dancing, and this just seemed  like they didn’t want to put in the effort.
4. Oops!! (Feat. f(x))
   A poppy, electronic dance track that is very much in the style of an f(x) song. It’s almost as if some of the boys just decided to rap over the top of an f(x) song. It does highlight how well Eunhyuk, Donghae and Shindong can rap, but does not feel like a Super Junior song. For me it seems unnecessary to have a featuring artist, when you have 10 members (this album’s line-up). I have nothing against f(x), but the song seems out of place.
5. 하루에 (A Day)
   A ballad designed to show off SJs more “grown up” side. I’m not really sure what that was supposed to mean, but as far as SJ ballads go, this is very good. In fact, it wouldn’t feel too out of place on a ballad singers album, just with better vocals. All members appear to have a line, including Shindong, but for a SJ ballad it doesn’t include enough KRY for my tastes. It is made by their adlibs at the end. This won’t be the last time you hear me say that about a song on this album.
6. 안단테 (Andante)
   This song was composed by Lee Teuk and Henry and is easily the best of the repackage songs. It would be my favourite on the whole album, if that spot hadn’t already been taken by My Love, My Kiss, My Heart. It is a beautiful ballad, designed to pull at the heart strings. It is primarily sung by Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, Yesung and Donghae. It is often easy to forget how well Donghae can sing, but the emotions he puts into the lyrics always seem genuine.
7. 오페라 (Opera)
   A song about the “opera” of being a kpop star. SJs time is now and this is their opera. It features the line “So good looking they go crazy”. The background music is very electronic, and comes as quite a shock after Andante. It is also autotuned, something I have realised has made it difficult to recognise some of the members voices.
8. 라라라라 (Be My Girl)
   A dance song with attitude, similar to shake it up and bad girl on the 4^th album
9. Walkin`
   A reggae/ska/pop inspired ballad. The first time he listened to it, my Husband told me that I only like this song because it sounds like something Bruno Mars would release. This sums it up perfectly.
10. 폭풍 (Storm)
    A slow ballad that seems to have had the heart ripped out of it. 4^th album had very good ballads, being very kry centric, and this doesn’t quite live up to the standards set by SJ in the past. It is a return to maybe 1jib/U era ballads, so not as good as they could be. The best part is Yesung’s adlibbing.
11. 어느새 우린 (Good Friends)
    This is a cover of a 윤종신 (015B) song. As soon as the song begins, you can tell its age. A happy, bouncy song, somewhat reminiscent of SJ’s Miracle in tone. The better of the 3 happy songs on the album, but still a little disappointing in its delivery.  There is a very interesting part in the middle that I encourage you to look out for.
12. 결투 (Feels Good)
    Another dark, electronic, pop track, similar to opera and be my girl. If, like me, you like songs like this, you’ll enjoy it. Otherwise you will have gotten bored of the repetitive nature of the album already and turned it off. There is better to come, however!
13. 기억을 따라 (Memories)
    A much better ballad than storn, but still not living up to 4^th album for me. Made better by KRY’s delivery.
14. 해바라기 (Sunflower)
    A cute, happy song. Like most cute happy songs on SJ albums, it feels completely out of place. 4 years ago I would have loved this song and I’m sure if I saw them perform it live I would fall in love with it again, but right now I just don’t like it. I’m not even sure why. It’s just too happy compared to everything else on the album and breaks the flow.
15. 엉뚱한 상상 (White Christmas)
    A Christmas song on an August album? What were they thinking?? The first reaction from my sister was that they must not be having a SMTOWN Xmas album this year. I’m not really that surprised by that, but this could easily have been released as a digital single in December. As a Christmas song, it is very 80s, with synths in the background. Other than that it lacks other things that make it a good Christmas song. No bells and no children, but lots of snow and santa. It is a much better happy song than Sunflower, but is out of place for a very different reason. It’s August NOT December.
16. Y
    Another ballad, another complaint from me. The heart just doesn’t seem to be in this, or at least it’s not coming across for me. I think I was spoilt by 4jib and 5jib just did not live up to it. It does feature a very heartfelt rap from Donghae, that almost rescues the song for me.
17. My Love, My Kiss, My Heart
    My favourite song on the album. A heart breaking ballad, with a drum machine and violins in the background. It’s songs like this that make me wonder why KRY don’t have an album yet. With Yesung due to go to the army next year, I wonder if we ever will have a KRY album. If anything, this year is our last chance. It’s not good enough that it has made me cry, but will definitely be added to my melancholic song list for the future.

All in all, I was disappointed by 5jib. As a fan, I never want to be disappointed by anything my favourite band release, but the feeling evident in earlier albums was missing in this one. As you may have noticed, for me emotion in music is everything. I will like the most ridiculous cutesy pop song, as long as it makes me insanely happy. On the flip side, the vocals in a ballad don’t have to be outstanding, as long as I can feel the sadness in the song. 4jib had that for me but most of 5jib didn’t.

With Heechul already enlisted, and Lee Teuk to follow not long after, it will be interesting to see where SJ heads from here. A KRY album would be nice, although this scares me as much as I want it.

DVD:  Live Tour 2010 → 2011 8Uppers
Release Date: 2011.04.13
Discs: 3 Discs (Limited Edition)
Label: Imperial Records

With all popular musicians and idols in Japan, once there’s a concert… six months down the road there will be a DVD release. And in the case of the Kanjani8, this is almost a given. Every album has a tour and with each tour is a DVD at their biggest venue (with the 2008 concert season being the only exception to this rule, but there was no album released that year). So, the wonderful folks at Imperial Records decided to capture their shinning moment at Tokyo Dome with expensive HD, 1080, cameras and put this release on a 2-Disc normal edition, a 3-disc ‘limited edition’ (using the term lightly), or a regular blu-ray release for us fans as a gift (which only requires us to pay around, lets say, 70 dollars. How nice of them). As always, you want to get the most bang for your buck, and unless you have a blu-ray player, the wisest choice would be to purchase the so called, ‘limited edition’.

And that’s what I did.

For a whopping $78 dollars, not including shipping, I got three discs of Kanjani8 and a mini photobook packaged nearly in a plastic case within a hard sleeve. I remember when I got 47 back in 2007 and I had complained about the packaging compared to what GLAY was doing at the time. But, believe me when I say that 47 has been the best packaged concert DVD since then.

But, moving on from packaging, let’s get down to the DVD. I won’t be reviewing track by track because that would simply be redundant and I don’t feel like breaking down this DVD. At the end of the day its going to boil down into two key factors

• The Performance. Are they lip synching? And if they are singing, are they even on key?
• The DVD editing

Visually, the DVD is amazing. The colors are vibrant and the sound is great. I don’t know if my HDMI cable as anything to do with it (I doubt it) but if it wasn’t for some minor compression here or there, I would have believed I was watching this concert in at least 720p. With the HD cameras used in the concert, you really get to feel for the size of Tokyo Dome. It always seems smaller at other concerts because they use the standard cameras, but the widescreen shots makes you feel as if you’re there in the crowd with the 49,960 fangirls and 40 fanboys.

The DVD editing leaves less to be desired. Awkward, and sometimes forced, fadeouts disrupts the concert mood. It seems choppy, with straight cuts into new songs rather than filming the audience cheering as they wait for a costume or set change. This happens frequently on Disc 1 and it also ends on a forced fade out in the middle of a segment between the members. You’re not getting the full concert and its disappointing because its so obvious that you’re not getting all of it. The last concert to have little, to none, editing was Spirits at Osaka Jo Hall. Ever since then each tour has slowly been edited to oblivion and this one tops the cake for most unnecessary edits.

Cinematography, on the other hand, is amazing. The cameras catch a lot of great angels, taking advantage of space that they’re in. It isn’t just close ups on the face, you have wideshots, crane shots, bird’s eye views from the top of the stands, aerial perspectives, etc. There’s also a lot more audience, of fan, cameos on this DVD. Certain shots just dedicated to seeing fans sing a long, sing, or simply interact with friends or families.

Now, in terms of the performance, I’ve never been a fan of Tokyo Dome performances. To me, they’re so big and so showy that it distracts from the performance at hand. There’s too much going on to really pay attention to the 7 main singers. There’s back up dancers (Juniors) everywhere, Jumbo screens playing their own music videos, lights and other sets. The performance is so big it seems to consume itself, you’re no longer focusing on Kanjani8 and their performance but rather focusing on everything to put more emphasis on their performance. Though, I am greatful for the lack of Juniors I have to see on these DVDs. I don’t give two flying shits about J&A and the whole junior process and quite frankly I don’t want to see any awkwardly dancing off beat juniors. So, if there’s one thing I’m grateful for a Tokyo Dome DVD, its that.

Also, big dome DVDs are also the most overly processed DVDs to be released for an idol group. I don’t know if they decided to do this because of the obvious audio problems on the first Tokyo Dome DVD they released (Puzzle), but it seems very obvious that choruses and whole verses have been dubbed over with the studio album track and that annoys the hell out of me. If I wanted to listen to the album, I would have put the CD in the DVD player and watch my Philips screensaver but I paid a lot of money for a live performance and I wanted to hear Kanjani8 in all their unbalanced off key singing. Songs like Ukiyodoribito put heavy emphasis on Kanjani8′s harmony, which they manage to do well because of the magic of post-engineering, but there’s no way Kanjani8 opened up the show in flawless harmony that sounded exactly like the studio. No way.

Bringing us to my issue with the lip synching. Of course Kanjani8 has lip synched, most notoriously Yokoyama Yuu (but he can’t sing), so watching some segments was just too much, like the Techno Pop Melody. But, maybe that can be attested to the major post processing they’ve done.

Overall Rating: C

Devoted, obsessed fans will eat this concert up and give it a A or more. I can’t do that.

I enjoy live dvd performances because its live. Its a different take on the studio version. But this DVD is too showy and too processed for me to really enjoy. I don’t want to see a music video, I want to see a live concert. Unfortunately, that didn’t happened. There’s too little live and too much dubbing and if it wasn’t for that I would have enjoyed this performance.

I also had expected 8Uppers to be almost entirely live band as the entire album is basically rock save for two or three songs, but unfortunately songs like Nakanaide, Boku no Music were transformed into dance tunes. I wish I could give into the boyband idol image but I just wish they keep K8 either a rockband or a boyband. Just pick something and stick with it.

1. ” Ariadne no Ito”

THIS was the type of single I wanted to hear from these guys, & the PV reflects the greater energy of the song.

A much more rocking track than “CHIKAI” was, this displays DOA’s greater strengths of building up a song to a driving chorus, adding just enough unique compositional quirks (sliding bass, drum toms that propel the song, sudden stops, bass jumping strings, Tomiko’s constant melodic voice) to keep it interesting.

The breakdown is appropriate, w/ a very slight stretch guitar solo wise. If this were released before “CHIKAI”, I don’t think I would’ve had as much doubt as I had towards their next CD.

As for previous song similarities, a cross between “SUMMER DAYS” & “Saigo No Game” comes to mind. All in all, an excellent song any DOA fan would stand in line for to see played live.

2. “Bokutachi no Ketsudan”

Reminds me of the more mellow parts on EIGHT, & other than that, it comes across as just a pleasant, subdued, mid-tempo song.

Like “CHIKAI”, there’s nothing horrible in this song, but nothing overtly unique, either. If I had to reach for a favorite aspect of this song, it would be the slight country twang on the guitars during the chorus.

Overall, a pleasant, but eventually forgettable experience. If this were to be on the new upcoming album, I would venture this would be one of the few tracks of filler DOA very occasionally produces.

3. “Ariadne no Ito -ZZ8 Remix-”

At first listen, this song made me wonder why DOA haven’t put out (at just yet) some sort of a serious remix or re-working album in another style (such as the famous Ayu-Trance compilations), as it actually works very well here, w/ the added layer of rhythm & electronic additions (very occasional use of autotune, the addition of a more electronic breakdown), that slow an otherwise energetic song into something slightly more mid-tempo & unique.

However, like many remixes, this doesn’t have much staying power. By the half-way point, you realize it’s pretty much sticking to the original structure of the original track, which by now you remember as being superior.

The removal of the guitars in the chorus also takes away a lot of melody & ends up making the song sound much flatter than it actually is.

OVERALL: B-

While “Ariadne no Ito” is a much stronger track than their previously released single, the 1st b-side “Bokutachi no Ketsudan” shows a bit of weakness in being a serviceably slow (but again, pleasant sounding) DOA song, & the 3rd b-side being a somewhat interesting but ultimately passable remix of the stronger a-side.

While by no means a ‘bad’ single, the band has produced better in the past, but one is willing to give a little leeway for a band that’s been around as long as these guys have.

Hopefully, their next album’s release will rise above the more tepid single releases, & prove Do As Infinity’s staying power as a band.

Single: Cyclone
Release Date: 2003.06.11
Length: 31:01
Label: Warner Music Japan

Every once a while there’s an album you stumble across, either out of curiosity or a random encounter, and it becomes a timeless gem. This maxi album is one of those albums.

Hailing from Kagoshima, Hirotaka Mori made his name in the late 90s and early 00s as a demo songwriter before scoring his own record contract with Warner Music Japan. He is sometimes referred to as the Prince of (Japanese) Soul/Funk, and it’s pretty evident with this final major release of his titled, ” Cyclone “. With only 6 tracks, you’re taken on a journey through this musician’s musical genius with each track glowing with his unique, powerful, vocals and strong composition.

1. Cyclone

There’s two ways to start off an album, with a powerful bang or a ease in. This album opens up with the title track, Cyclone, and eases you into the entire style of the album. Mellow, yet powerful, and all the round good. Wind chimes, keyboard, and a guitar set up for a laid back grove that leads into a funk guitar riff accompanied with a organ, drums, and Mori’s smooth vocals.

Quickly we advance into the catchy chorus that’s easy on the ears and doesn’t over power the entire song. This song is carried with the chorus and it’s a reoccurring element to this song before we hit the instrumental break/bridge at 2:50 where the song slows back down to the opening phrase. Then we hit straight into the chorus. A great opening track that, again, totally sets the stage for the entire album.

2. 悪魔の提言 (The Devil’s Proposition) 

The second track on the album opens up with a bass solo that leads straight into Mori’s vocals and his funk guitar. This song is your standard funk fair and nothing’s remarkable about it but its a solid song.

3. LOVER

Track 3 is the best track on the entire album. Mori opens the song up with a slow, simple, guitar riff that gives the opening chance for his haunting vocals to carry the song for the next minute or so. Then, we hit the chorus of himself harmonizing. If this song showcases something, its Mori’s vocals at their best. Falsettos, vibratos, and aggressive pitch changes are just the certain qualities that set him apart from the many male vocalists in Japan and he takes advantage of this, knowing exactly what he’s capable of. He sings this song with so much haunting passion that you feel what he’s singing, even if you don’t understand what he’s saying.

4. 新しい兵器 (A New Gun)

Track 4 falls back into the standards that make up your classic funk track. There’s not much to say about this track other than the powerful chorus that takes the song into so many levels.

5. MINE ALL MINE

This track is an interesting track. The most aggressive song on the album, Mine All Mine, is Mori on overdrive. When I listen to this song I imagine that its a track that Scoobie Doo would cover without a problem, not to mention that nearly the entire song is written in English. Not a favorite of mine but its not bad either. The English just makes it awkward on the ears.

6. 夜行性 (Nocturnal Habit)

Track six is another favorite of mine and a great way to end the album on. A slow jam that, again, showcases all the talent Mori Hirotaka is known for.

Overall

Cyclone is an amazing album. The best I’ve heard in years from the Jmusic scene and it’s a pitty the album is unfortunately 8 years old. I love listening to Hirotaka Mori’s unique voice and how well it accents his music and I’m so amazed that one guy is able to make such intricate music all on his own. For his swan song on the Warner Music Label, he definitely left on a high note.

When I listen to Cyclone, and all of Mori’s other works, it makes me wonder what happened. He has the voice and the musicality to create amazing music but he never sold enough to keep him on a label. Other than being a guest artist on Rip Slyme’s, ironically named, Kiseki no Mori, he didn’t do much on the Warner Music label. He’s currently back in the indies scene, with his last album release in 2009 and his last single release dating back to 2006. You can catch him on some song writing credits, but other than that, he’s been pretty dormant since his hay day in the early 00s.

Hirotaka Mori is just another sign of the shift of Japanese music towards the idol machine. A great artist dropped because he wasn’t marketable enough (in my opinion). It sucks we won’t hear more greats like this album from him but at least he was able to release whatever he was able to when he had the golden opportunity to.

Overall Rating: A-

A solid album but MINE ALL MINE rips its chances away for a solid A. If Funk and Soul is your cup of tea, definitely check this artist out.

Only MUCC could provide an unwieldy paradox like Akatsuki.

Depending on how you view their last album, KARMA was either the final bullet in the head or a revitalizing pop reincarnation of the band’s staple sound, so it comes as a major surprise that “Akatsuki” completely strips the post-disco & dance elements of their last release in favor of just the band & their instruments.

What isn’t surprising, however, is how utterly adequate it is, & nothing else. The song itself is pleasant, & perhaps a grower, but they don’t do anything new here at all. As usual, they lift motifs from their past work to construct a passable melody & structure, w/ the song sounding like it was made right after they nailed “Ryuusei” in the GOKUSAI sessions, just to further cool down or maintain the wandering, musical buzz.

If I were strained to pick a favorite thing about this song, it would probably be the guitar & the guitar effects. If I could find a translation, I could do this song a bit more justice as the lyrics may have been relevant to what’s happened to Japan in 2011, methinks. Another interesting footnote: this is their first release from their new home at Sony Music Associated Records.

OVERALL: C

This single was recorded for the victims of the Tohoku Earthquake; I’d like to note ahead of time that the album’s rating is not meant to belittle the recent events in Japan, so please keep this in mind if commenting.

While almost an about face from their last album, “Akatsuki” underwhelms, but as it’s a single for charity, it’d be a bit like poking fun @ “We Are The World” for being too cheesy (i.e. futile).

It’s a pleasant, single ready song that shows MUCC might be trying to move away from their out of character release of KARMA, but perhaps not back towards their more complex & harder executions such as 6.

1. Moment in Love
   This is the instrumental intro to the album, and is actually a shortened violin intrumental version of the title track 여기서 끝내자
2. 지금이 아니면 (If not now)
   지금이 아니면 is a melancholic ballad that begins calm, but gradually builds up the emotions into a heartbreaking rendition of the chorus at the end. It also features a beautiful violin solo.
3. Love Me
   This is a light sounding ballad with acoustic guitars. Although it isn’t a particularly happy song, it does sound much happier than  지금이 아니면 and 여기서 끝내자.
4. 여기서 끝내자 (Duet With 짙은) (Let’s end it here)
   Taru’s vocals are suited perfectly for this ballad about breaking up. This is the title track of the album and features the vocals of the fairly unknown Jiteun. He has a very similar voice to Jong-wan of Nell. Their voices blend together well, creating a ballad that grabs hold of your heart and doesn’t let go even at the end. The song starts off quiet and then builds and builds in emotion until crashing back to calm at the end. This calmness gives a feeling of being hollow.
5. 아이스크림가게, 팬시보이 (Ice cream shop, fancy boy)
   This is a cute, acoustic guitar driven song, which feels a little  out of place on the album. It is very similar to some of Yui’s songs, which isn’t necessarily a negative thing, but just isn’t my cup of tea.
6. 이슈 (Issue)
   Issue is a guitar driven  pop song, which is much calmer than ice cream shop, fancy boy. If you are a fan of Bonnie Pink, this song should be right up your street.
7. 말해줘요 (Tell me)
   Songs starting off very quiet seems to be a Taru staple. The bridge is very hopeful sounding and the chorus is very much what I imagine a fairytale song would sound like.
8. 여기서 끝내자 (Band Version)
   This is a much heavier version of the song. Where the original has light violins and a piano instrumental, this features heavier guitars. Jiteun is also missing from this version, and so it is more the Band Version of the Solo Version. With all of the accompaniments Taru’s voice sounds stronger than in the original. I think I prefer the original because it sounds like the break up is mutual, where as the versions with just Taru sound like she is breaking up with him.
9. 내 사람 (My person)
   A slow dream like ballad. It features water drops in the background, with light guitar and piano in the foreground, which acts as a calming end to the album.
10. 여기서 끝내자 (Solo Version)
    The original version, but without Jiteun.
11. 여기서 끝내자 (Radio Edit)
    A shorter version of the orginal.

In spite of the repetitiveness of the inclusion of 4 different versions of one song, the other original songs more than make up for this. If you’re not listening to the CD, you can always remove the extra versions anyway.

I give 100 Percent Reality 4.5/5

Dr.Core 911 is a Korean rap-core/nu-metal band hailing from South Korea. While they don’t bring anything original to the genre they do sound good overall. There is only so much you can do with this genre unless your the originator and try to infuse more styles into it like KoRn will be doing with their next album by including Dubstep.

Members:

Munyigyeongmin – vocals
Jjuni – drums
G-Ru – Lab
Syogi – bass guitar
Devin Lee – Other
Gimdonghyeok – keyboards, guitars

I found Dr.Core 911 after trying to find out what happened to one of my favorite bands ARES, I first heard Oh Rock, Go Rock and though, “Well, that’s not too bad, I should look up more stuff”. I ended up buying their cds digitally since retail copies were out of stock at the time.

Tracklist:

01. Worm Hole
02. The Escape
03. Get out*
04. Walking To The Sun
05. Riderz from Getto*

Favorite Tracks*

01. Worm Hole
This is just an intro song, it’s interesting that it has a very industrial edge to it. If you didn’t know this band was Nu-Metal and started with track one, you’d think they are probably industrial with this intro.

02. The Escape

The title track of the 2.5 album, which is very very akin to ARES…which I mentioned before. It leads in with the same industrial edge that Worm Hole laid out and expands upon it. Jumps right into hard riffs iconic of Nu-Metal genre. The lyrics are pretty straight forward delivered ala early Linkin Park, Adema (who was pretty horrible) and a lot of the mid 90s’ early 00s’ bands.
There isn’t anything terribly original about this song, but I do like the build up and the electronic elements implemented in the chorus. I also think Muny is a great vocalist and has a steady strong voice for the style.

03. Get Out

I really like this song, it reminds me A LOT of Mad Capsule Markets, it’s got a great steady beat and I love the driving electronic drumming beat under the guitars. It reminds me a lot of bands, but mostly MCM, maybe a bit of early Satic-X and Pitchshifter (all groups which I love) . I think this should of been the title track honestly, it’s not as generic as The Escape and has more production value overall then the previous track.
The vocals on this are different and almost echo Manson in a way, it’s got that dragging exasperation that Manson puts across in his vocals, most notably on newer releases.

04. Walking to the Sun

I really don’t like this song, it’s generic as it comes. I like it for what it is, but as a standout song, it’s probably the weakest on the release. The vocals and clean, and as always he does a great job, and they sound good, but it’s just another track that sounds like so many other bands. I’m not sure what direction they were trying to achieve with this song, other then being radio playable.
The tired riffs and setup into the chorus just has been done so much, and done to death, that I don’t think this was a good choice given the earlier tracks in the cd.

05. Riderz from the Ghetto

I’m not sure what amuses more about this song, the title or the actual song itself. It’s an ODD song, it pushes into the rap element, and is full on rap-core with this track. I really enjoy this track, and I like how it’s 50 cent meets multiple rap groups haha (see LOUD ROCKS VA DISC).
I really the the underlying beat on this song, it’s got a slow feeling but the song is pretty fast and has a neat build up into the chorus. I think I just really like how grind/groove metal this is in some parts, and then how suddenly gangsta it is all in the same breath.

I mean, they are Riderz from the Ghetto…don’t fuck with them.

OVERALL: B-

As much as I like Nu-Metal/Rap-core, this mini did have some lacking points, as in a song or two were kinda generic and forgettable, but I did enjoy if for the most part. It’s got a lot of catchy hooks, and some amusing lyrics and musically they are pretty solid. I think with their next release they should mix more industrial into their efforts and more rap.

Resuming the recent Diru coverage, the band has recently released Y.A.R. (Yet Another Remake), this time in the form of “Tsumi to kisei”, a remake of previous GAUZE staple “Tsumi to batsu”:

I’ll be blunt here: it sounds exactly like all their other remakes, which all sounds as if they were made in the studio during the DSS or UROBOROS sessions. The vocals are awfully muddled, deathcore like screaming again, bass is thicker & the structure of the song is played around w/ @ liberty from the band:

If I sound disinterested, it’s because I am. At this point, it should be very obvious to anyone that these remake singles & b-sides serve only one real purpose: money.

I don’t mean that in a cynical, everything new sucks attitude, actually. The only people that would be interested in buying these remakes (a majority, anyway) would be the newest fans that have ignored, unintentionally or intentionally, the band’s output pre-UROBOROS. Naturally, it would make sense for these fans to be inclined to like it more due to it seeming like a “new” song to them.

I risk elitism here, & this is my opinion obviously, but the original sounds much better to the ears (the vocals are actually audible). Sadly, either ignorance or sheer audacity, there are a lot of new fans who would claim it sounds better when half of them don’t bother w/ the band’s back catalog anyways. Hilarity further ensues when the charges of their old stuff “isn’t metal enough” are brought up, as if Dir en grey were *always* a “metal” band.

But I digress; the band’s gotta make a sale right? As much as I love Dum Spiro Spero (I bought it 3 times, after all; 2 deluxe copies are going to be given away @ some point), & I look forward to the now confirmed UROBOROS remaster that might salvage an otherwise technically accomplished album, I don’t blame them for doing this. A lot of their newer fans are eating up these remakes, & while I don’t speak for all older fans, I can say the reaction is lukewarm at best. I fully expect a remake of their remakes to pop-up at some point in the future if 2 albums later they’ve moved on to a different style, to be honest.

OVERALL: D -

While they display technical ability in this remake, it comes across as uninspiring & ultimate un-necessary; at least in the undecided remake they decided to change the lyrics a little:

The rest of my reaction can be summed up thusly: