Some Quick Reviews

Looks like I’ll be doing five or six of these at a time. I’ll try to keep up more often though.

I talked about muddy cult before so I’ll now talk about Nega’s latest releases Dig and Ill. Dig is definitely the better of the two, being more inventive and creative, but the inclusion of an almost instrumental-like track at the beginning of a THREE TRACK single begs me to ask whether any effort was put into these releases. Dig provides some relief with the final song, guilt trip, climaxing into something worth hearing. idle, the other “song” on the release, starts out with some heavy riffs just to settle back into some softer music. I couldn’t really pay attention after that because it sounds like they just smashed the two together. There was no flow from soft to hard and the disc felt ambivalent. Ill on the other hand sounds like a rip off of some generic heavy metal band with overtly sexual lyrics. idiot beauty sounds like it’s channeling some GazettE and failing miserably, labia is good for the lulz but as a song fails worse than idiot beauty, and lust[er] appears to be just a decent track, but that can’t save the single. I recommend you get neither but if you must get one get Dig.

Dig: 5/10

Ill: 2/10

I never did review Guren or Leech by the GazettE so I’ll do it now. Starting off with Guren….I hate this song. Cassis is still the best ballad they’ve ever done and it sounds like this mixed with Bath Room (from their NIL album). I hate this song not because it’s bad, but because it sounds too stale. Another thing that bothers me with Guren is that the pace of the song is a lot softer than the guitars, and they seem to overpower at parts, especially around the solo and near the end. Guren is saved by the message of the song and the way Ruki sings it, although I wish there was a bit more emotion in it as a whole. Kugutsue sounds like a track that was left off of Stacked Rubbish, and if it were to be on that album it would sound a whole lot better than some of the trash that was there. Still riff laden, still full of screams, still drenched in the discordant female backvocals that make a good GazettE fan want to rip their hair out…but it works. The listener needs a pick me up after the title track and although this track does that, and does it well, in the end it doesn’t end up as anything more than a good hard rock song. And who can ask for anything more than that? The true gem of this single comes on the Auditory Impression, Kyomu no Owari Hakozume no Mokushi. If you needed one song to encompass all that the GazettE is, it would be this song. I can’t even describe how this song is, so just listen to the link at the bottom and know that I like this song very very much.

Guren ends up with a 7/10, mostly because of the last track. The Optical Impression gets a 5.

LEECH is what I was looking forward to as their next single. In a way, it resembles Kugutsue in having female backvocals and screams and being an overly brash track but this song has more direction and that “spark” that makes it all work. I place this single song above Guren but not by much because I think Distress and Coma fits slightly over this song. DISTORTED DAYTIME is an excellent B-Side that complements the entire feel of this single and honestly this is where the single should have stopped. But in the name of persistence there’s HOLE, which doesn’t FIT. Sure, it’s a nice riff and some good singing but to me it feels like half a song. Had it gone on for 30 more seconds with some definite closure and another verse I would have liked it but HOLE feels unfinished and unsatisfying. For once I’ll recommend the Optical Impression because you get the awesome music video for LEECH instead of the subpar HOLE.

This is said awesome video.

Auditory Impression gets a 6. Optical Impression gets an 8.

I promised to talk about Ambrozia so here it is. The first track is an instrumental that moves quickly into the second track “suckin’ on a lollipop”. IMO they should have just cut it out but w/e. suckin on a lollipop isn’t my favorite track on here, and the chorus is either love it or hate it so everyone has a different opinion. Personally I find the chorus bland and not irritating and it kills the whole badass feel of the song. Luckily the next two songs are more than awesome to make up for this bump. CamelliA is one of those songs where you must sing along and Alejandro is deceptive in nature with it’s Hispanic influenced beginning and parts. The ballad really fails to keep my attention but the end of [Delusion] ends this EP off with a bang. Overall, a good EP to listen to just in case you need to get into Lycaon.

And so it gets a 7.

Kyousouroku by Anti Feminism has gotten a lot of attention on my player recently and for good reason: it’s a damn good album. 27 tracks in all, but most of them fly by since they’re about a minute long. It’s a compliation album and a right bitch to find and download but you’ll love it once you have it. Standout tracks include “Shakai”, “Nationalism”, “STREET FIGHTING MUCH”, “Sperm”, “Go Go Anti Feminism”, and BAD BOY A, but if you like what you hear you might as well sit down and give this entire album a proper listen. Note that if you don’t like visceral punk rock influenced from the 90′s you’re not going to like this album.

Kyousouroku gets an 8 as well, because I hate filler tracks with a passion.