Well I promised a review of Return to My Blood so here it is:
1. The Beginning 02:50
2. Return To My Blood 02:44
3. Hell’s Blast 04:45
4. Brand New God Pt.1 04:05
5. Brand New God Pt.2 01:43
6. Unfounded 04:27
7. The Lost Actuality 03:29
8. Disgusted 05:00
9. Beautiful Murder 03:13
10. The Metal Bastard 05:01
11. Kou 4:40
The first track, aptly titled The Beginning, is a track full of acoustics. Well, thanks for stating the obvious. You might have well called this “song” or “music” or “Track 1″. ACOUSTICS! My goodness, after listening to Hell’s Blast I never thought that this band would open with something like this. I expected something soul-crushing, aenurysm bursting, neck straining rock piece. This is a nice surprise and there’s no switch half-way in. I’m almost not sure if this is METAL SAFARI because it’s so unlike them. And for that, I love this band so much right now. It’s nice, experimental, taking risks, and it’s just long enough to keep my attention but not short enough to be crap. It fades out slowly and goes into the next track, which is Return to My Blood. YES, SOME HARD ROCK. It’s a nice contrast to the first track but the guitars somehow match with The Beginning. It’s something almost as jarring as THE MARROW OF A BONE’s beginning but this track is a few seconds shorter than The Beginning. This hard rush of adrenaline is pretty cool and I like the guitars. Describing themselves as a metal band with groove was an apt description. Finesse in guitars, notes that are being hit, drums that aren’t overbearing…this is why I listen to Japanese metal. And let’s not forget the vocalist’s vocal notes. He’s pretty diverse with his vocals and he gets pretty close to what he would consider “singing”.
And the music video sports some pseudo-Bloodfist scenes and them rocking out with graffiti. And that makes any band badass.
I TRIED not to like HELL’S BLAST at first. I really did. But for some reason, when this song was playing a smile cracked over my face. I’ve fallen into softer music lately but this song brought me back to the metal side. I don’t know what happened to me but HELL’S BLAST smacked me like a little bitch and said “headbang”. I was also a little off in the single review: there’s a bit at the beginning and some finesse at the end that’s absent in the PV, but overall my thought’s are the same about the riff at the end. When I said they should have busted out another riff at the end in the song review, THEY DID ON THE ALBUM!
The guitars are nice and polished and the beginning with the guitar and bass mixing thing was what got me started. If this were an instrumental, it would kick ass. The vocalist might put some people off that insist that they need digitized “singing” in order to enjoy a song (which is why metalcore and rock in general is an acquired taste, and bands like Genitals don’t do it justice). This is definitely one of the better songs on this album, and I’m listening as I type ^.^
I’m going to smash Brand New God together as one track even though they’re two seperate ones. It comes in where Hell’s Blast left off and it comes from a fade in to a nice riff. The drummer has some funky sense of rhythm here and the vocalist is roaring as usual. Really, only the first track is actually a track, since the second one is barely a minute long. I don’t like this one as much as I liked Hell’s Blast but it’s still a solid song. Well, the first one anyway. I can’t even describe the second as a SONG. The overlaying of the vocals might seem a bit extreme near the end of the first track but it’s nothing too serious. He does roar a lot in this song, I must admit. He’s even got a Genital’s growl thrown in there for good measure. The first song ends with a fade out and the second song begins with some guitar. It’s not overbearing or loud. I think it might be acoustic but I can’t really tell.
^(0_0)^ He’S SINGING! ACTUALLY SINGING! AND HE SOUNDS GOOD! It’s a shame this track is so slow but it’s alright. I’ll take some diversity over none. The guitars and the singing begin later on in the track but the beginning diversity was enough for me. Wish he didn’t scream out the track -_-
Unfounded…..another massacre of the eardrums. I was just praising this band for the diversity but then this comes along. It’s self-explanatory. It doesn’t really stand out to me too much at the beginning until he busts into the chorus where he’s pulling a sing-scream style like Mao. That’s a tad interesting until he stops and the guitars take over. The change in tempo threw me off for a while but the middle has some voice distortion that was pretty cool. I think The Beginning and Brand New God spoiled me with his singing voice so I can’t stand to hear him scream his ass off so much right now. The doom metal riff in the middle isn’t pleasing me either. It’s not my favorite here but I have a feeling I’ll rarely skip it just because it might hold the album together. If you want a headbanger, stick with HELL’S BLAST or RETURN TO MY BLOOD.
The next track is definitely a change in the beginning. I felt Unfounded to be a little dragging in parts but the unexpected riff at the beginning held my attention for a little while. The Lost Actuality is up there with Hell’s Blast for me on this album for “most intense headbanger” but it seems that once you hear one hard rock track, you’ve heard a good portion of them all. He does variate his screams here, unlike the former track. What puts Hell’s Blast up there on my list is that he sings more than he roars and he doesn’t overlay his screaming with more screaming. He does that here on The Lost Actuality but I like the riff so shoot me. And the PV doesn’t seem to want to play for me. Don’t shoot me for that.
I wasn’t expecting Disgusted to be any ballad, so I braced myself for a hard rock number. I was right hehe. The problem with the last three tracks is that there isn’t enough variation between them to make me remember each, and they kinda mesh together. If I listened to them seperately, I think I would like them, but right now Disgusted is just another headbanger.
Beautiful Murder might have an advantage here. I took a short rest after Disgusted because I was, well, disgusted. The only thing that this song seems to want to murder is my headphones. Roaring like he’s getting anally raped at the beginning tells you that this song is not that different from those that preceded it. I think I might remember this song a bit more because of the riff. I’m following it better than I was with the last three tracks so this track gets a little bump up. He also does the sing-screaming here which I really like a lot.
The Metal Bastard? DO I NEED TO TELL YOU THAT THIS IS A HARD ROCK TRACK? WELL THEN WHILE I’M AT IT LET ME TELL YOU THIS SONG SPORTS A SICK RIFF. I’m not looking for complexity with this band anymore, even though my opinions of Unfounded to Disgusted stay the same. Hard, fast metal is what this album’s all about, and anything different is a nice surprise. I’m starting to think that this band is very repetitive with what they do, and that they’re good in moderation. All the tracks are starting to blend together at this point. None of them are especially BAD, but it’s just that there isn’t enough variation between them for me to be able to remember then when I’m not listening to them. In my book, The Metal Bastard gets the same grade as the last four tracks have just because it’s not different at all.
Kou…..now this is what I mean by different. It’s still a hard rock number in the vein of Metal Safari but it’s seperating itself from the last five tracks. It sounds like throwdown with a fear factory chorus thrown in. Put it up there with Hell’s Blast; it’s awesome, even if it’s been repeated throughout the album. The PV doesn’t seem to work right for me, and it sounds nothing like the actual song. I think it’s sped up unintentionally. It’s miles better. And the SOLO….it’s just YES. Kou is definitely the best song on the album.
If you want Pantera in Japanese, look no farther than Metal Safari. All I can say is “fuck. yes.”. If you’re in the mood for musically diverse pieces, don’t try this. It’s all one headbashing fest after another with some surprises sprinkled in. If you’re about to stick your foot up someone’s ass, use this first. You’ll scare the shit out of someone.
Now, to wrap it up:
Overall rating: 4/5
Best Song: Kou
Worst Song: Unfounded (hey, I had to pick one and I liked this the least)
Recommended Listen:
Kou
Hell’s Blast
Return to My Blood
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