Rockerica

BIRTH

Date released: 7.5.2008.

Track list
1. BIRTH [PV]
2. 夢想花 (Musou hana)
3. Solid heart
3. Rebellion [Type B]
4. BIRTH (Voiceless)

BIRTH is the major debut single of the metal influenced Visual kei band D. Congratulations guy on your major debut. The title song BIRTH kicks in with gripping violin melody, roaring riffs and pulsing, heavy metal drumming. Asagi's singing isn't over-the-top as usual and it delivers a majestic hymn-like refrain beating down any metal influenced Visual kei band down to the ground (You won't see such elegance in Versailles Kamijo's singing). Musou hana is actually Dearest you, but with nu-metal bridges sprinkled with horrible English lyrics.

Solid heart has got groove!!! The weight is set on the warm bass and bass drum pulsation, with minimalistic riffs partially just calling, and partially roaring. Asagi releases his wast vocals on the strong and wiping refrain making Solid heart the only song on the single truly offering some excitement. The Type B 3rd song Rebellion is simply confusing crashing metal seriousness with the playfulness of like Lolita23q. It is catchy, but not something you'd listen while having a need for wildness. As the sugar on top bonus you get the Asagi-less version of BIRTH, ideal for those who can't stand his heavenly high notes or for whom he is the role-model for singing.

BIRTH is decent, well produced but not as near as exciting as the album Neo Culture was. Unless you're a fan of course.

Midnight Shangri-la/空っぽな唄~final cut~

Date released: 3.5.2008.

Track list
1. Midnight Shangrila
2. 空っぽな唄~final cut~ (Karappo na uta～final cut～)

I actually thought this was a regular single, but found out later it's a single that was sold at Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan live or something (though that won't stop real Merry fans on getting their hands on it). Still I'll take the honor (or not) to review this "special" single.

Remember the Merry cover of LUNA SEA's song PRECIOUS... that was released on the LUNA SEA tribute album. You know the song that was basically audioraping-turn-fun. Midnight Shangri-la takes a floor up. Midnight Shangri-la is the probably most hysterical song I've ever heard, turning into three and a half minutes of violent noise enough to damage your hearing. Hey, take all the screaming Kyo from Dir en grey has done in their songs and pack it into one song (on the screaming parts Gara even beats Kyo when it comes to sky high pitched screams) with a hint of paranoid hysteria and concentrated insanity and viola! You get a "song" (mildly speaking). In some strange and unusual way, I actually like Merry when they are sounding like having a seizure. And the yeah,yeah,yeah,yeeeaah,yeah! is quite catchy.

Karappo na uta was the closing song on their album nu chemical rethoric and the ~final cut~ version can be described as better. Gara's vocals sound very clear and expressing (though after Midnight Shangri-la practically everything sounds good). The song has got a very clean, almost sterile production, twittering high-pitched riffs and a very good and sharp refrain that will make you sing a long (with a additional vocal provided probably by one of the guitarists whose name I don't know nor care about). Average Merry but decent.

So either if you love ear-violence or the original Karappo na uta or both, give a shot at this single. Merry again managed to deliver their highly recognizable yet slightly mediocre sound.

So yeah yesterday I had my presentation of my favorite band on English. I was really nervous and my hands were slightly trembling. I asked the class to have understanding for what I was going to present them, noting that I have to make them try to understand something in five minutes what took me three years.

So after presenting the band (and getting an applause because it was really clearly and pretty said) I asked them what kind of a song do they want me to play. Did they want a ballad, a furious song, a rock'n'roll one or something completely experimental. They all expressed that they want to hear something "regular" that the GazettE have.

I don't really know why but I wanted to play something from NIL, since that album is one of the best I've ever heard. So I looked at my sister and asked her "Filth or Shadow?" and she said "Shadow". I regret it later, but well can't change that. No matter how prepared I would be, I'd always have a complaint.

So I played SHADOW VI II I. It was really loud so I could hear all the imperfections in Ruki's 2006. singing (which got really better after they've released Filth in the Beauty single). I also noticed that my heartbeat was synchronized with Kai's drumming (which was really scary). I didn't look at the class, just down at my table, wishing to kick Ruki in the balls every time he opened his mouth. I've noticed that the class chattered surprised on the bridge where Aoi plays his acoustic guitar and Ruki sings like he is from some boyband.

After the song, they've said that it sounded all right and cool and the teacher said it reminded her on System of a Down (O_O?). And when looking at my paper the teacher asked the most common question: "Are they all men?.

I've said: "Yes"

Guren GazettE

So yeah I've deleted my Last.fm account yesterday after about a year using it.
So many of you might ask themselves why did I do it and abandoned such a great site (which is true last.fm is an excellent site).

Well the reasons are:

1. I didn't profit too much having the account
When I activated my last.fm account it was fine, I could implement it on my sites, the scrobbling was ok and I had fun there. Pretty much positive. But soon I had to move my site to a host which didn't allow embedding flash content (recently it does, but I haven't figured out how). So no momently listening and top artist widgets, which well killed the magic of it. I also was irritated by the thing that you can only have normal RSS feeds for now listening charts but not for everything else.
I can basically do the things I want on Last.fm without an account.

2. Scrobbling
It wasn't rare that the stuff my sister was listening got scrobbled. She has got a completely different music taste than I have and yeah that often screwed my charts. Of course you could delete that but sometimes you had to wait an entire day for the songs to be available for deletion. One day she listened to Cinema Bizarre and my recently listened list had to suffer an entire day before I could remove that. BAD!
Also I never listen to music on my computer (where music is scrobbled) but over iPod. Sure they did have the function to scrobble music via iPod, but in most cases the Last.fm software said Your iPod had nothing new to scrobble (No shit! What about the hundreds of songs I listened since the last time I've uploaded my iPod?). So mostly my recently listened list was empty.

3. Radio function
Yes the radio was a cool function as well as the playlist but then again you could only embedded it through a flash widget and not rarely it had only 30 second versions of songs. Plus since I majorly listen to Visual kei artist most of them had no song previews nor complete songs. An the most interesting thing was that you couldn't embed your own radio when you were logged in, but when you were logged out yes. Nice logic.

4. Artist names and tags
Last.fm literally forced you to rename your artists correctly, which is a positive thing, but then again my iTunes software sometimes couldn't rename an artist and sometimes I got a completely different artist scrobbled because the artist I listened shares the name with 5 others. And not to mention 3 and more variations for some artist's names (example: alice nine, Alice nine, Alice Nine, alice nine., アリス九號, アリス九號.; not to mention some others). They did put voting for correct names, but still it is irritating.

5. Random friend requests and shoutbox comments
I often got friend requests from the most random people just because we share one or two artists. That is kinda annoying and not to mention that MOST of last.fm people do that. Or give comments like Great music taste! Nice bands etc.... I'm not into such stuff.

6. People forming groups
From fanatic fangirl groups to hate/anti-something/flam groups, there wasn't a group you couldn't find on last.fm. Okay some of them were interesting and entertaining (even some hate groups) but well most were pretty shallow. In a lot of groups you could see people argue about this and that. As far as I've read in Last.fm policy insulting and similar is forbidden, but Last.fm sometimes did gave the impression as the biggest battlefield on earth. Music should unite and make people tolerant and peaceful, not be a means of argument and hate. As long as that will stay so I won't even consider coming back to last.fm. I respect every person and it's musical choices whether I like it or not.

7. Honestly DO you really want people to know what are you listening?
Some may say yes, others no. Prejudice is human, and I know people (even I, though I tend not to) judge others by the music they listen. So you could basically not give a damn about somebody just because your music compatibility is low or none? Or because you listen to different artists? I consider the things I listen via iPod as my private thing, sure I share some artists I listen via reviews but that doesn't mean that that is all I listen to.

Really and I don't need so many internet services. Takes too much of my time.

Thank you Last.fm, it was nice, but I'm better off without an account.

 

So browsing around the software I've found on the DVD of the latest Croatian computer magazine BUG I've found an excellent program that will be to joy for all of you wannabe guitar heroes (including myself).

Revolver

Date released: 23.4.2008.

Track list
1. EDY [PV]
2. BLACK-TAIL
3. the surface
4. Moon Light Snow Rabbits
5. July VIIth

Even though I've had this single for at least a month (this is what you get when you have good intentions: your friend leaks your debut release on the internet a month before it's release), but out of fairness I have decided to review it after it's release. Vistlip is a young, talented Visual kei band who deserves better friends than the asses who leak their stuff.

Vistlip's debut mini-album Revolver is quite impressive (not mindblowing, but still pretty damn cool) and shows vistlip as a band with big potential. Edy rips off with fierce guitars and screaming that reminds on Aoi from Ayabie being insane. Surprisingly, the vocal Tomo sounds a lot like Sou from Lolita23q with his shivering, fragile and cute voice (can't help to notice that sometimes he is really quite and can't outloud the band). Vistlip are a Koteosa kei band of some sort with their songs which blend catchy melodies and pretty much hard riffs. Black-tail surprises with an epic instrumental, dramatic melody and overall strong tension with makes the song have depth. the surface is somewhat similar, but more rock'n'roll wise.

Although I am a fan of somewhat harder music, I couldn't resist the charms of Moon Light Snow Rabbits, which is my personal favorite on the single with it's emotional, gripping riffs, sparkling melody and a beautiful chorus which is a firework of emotions. Really this song got me at first listening. July VIIth unfortunately didn't, because it is the type of boring song bands make to end a live or optionally a mini-album with, stretched out and uninnovative.

vistlip is a band you should keep an eye on, because they've really got talent. Remember my words: they might be the next Koteosa big band.

MERRY GO WORLD

Date released: 16.4.2008.

Track list
1. MERRY GO WORLD [PV] [Listen]
2. LOVERS [Listen]
3. I BELIEVE…. [B-edition] [Listen]
4. 未来図 (Mirai zu) [C-edition] [Listen]

I honestly thought that the title MERRY GO WORLD was some kind of 12012 ironical joke. Unfortunately, it's not. MERRY GO WORLD is probably the harshest song 12012 ever made, being so brutally merry that it's enough to cause every indie 12012 fan a heart-attack. Horrid and traumatizing with Miyawaki sounding as screamy and loud as if somebody is whipping him brutally on the back.

But to prevent an angry mob of fans and massive wave of heart-attacks 12012 has packed 3 really good songs. LOVERS is a passionate ballad with sparkling pizzicato riffs and a intense and strong chorus that doesn't sound worn out for the first time since butterfly. I BELIEVE.... breaks open with metallesque, electric riffs and goes to the dense and intense chorus similar to the one in the excellent song THE MOON, but more 12012 indie like. And if that doesn't seem enough we have Mirai zu that goes even further in the 12012 past and delivers distant, oriental flavored riffs and a upbeat chorus, that unites the melancholy of the indie phase with the confidence of the major 12012.

If you remove the 12012 suicide MERRY GO WORLD you actually get 3 very good songs reminiscing 12012 2-3 years ago and being a sure-shot to retrieve the old fans that abandoned the band after it went sounding more commercial, more public acceptive. All 3 songs don't exactly bring forth the former sound (lacking the genuine and strong atmosphere indie 12012 songs had) but come really close to it. If you stopped listening to 12012 when they released Cyclone I suggest you give the band another chance with MERRY GO WORLD (minus title song). Never say never. I wonder how 12012 will develop next?

Since the end of the school year is coming soon and I'm up to my throat with exams whose number is exact to the legally allowed number of exams per week, our English teacher has been so nice not to gives us an exam and to let us mostly relax on our English classes until the end.
So today we had to listen to this song which glimmering optimism almost made my ulcer pop and fill out the lyrics. Just as always when learning English through songs.
That was ok. Until the homework part...
Which is:

You have to pick your favorite song and play it and hold a five minute speech about the band and the song.

A homework most people would die for to have, right? Sure if you're an average teen listener stuck on MTV hits or the usual pop or rock classic artists (like well... everybody from my English class).

To say that my situation is slightly different would be understating. Especially when destiny has made that my so called favorite rock band comes from the land most people tend to generalize as Asians working vacation-less in high tech factories with their small eyes, big incisors, black hair and always bowing, invading every tourist spot in the world; that look hotter than most girls do (while not having boobs and having an extra something in between their legs) and whose songs would be to mild to describe as ultimate auditive chaos rock hybrid of various not rarely unmixable genres? And when most of the people (I know) find the term "Japanese rock" as funny and crazy by itself and I'm well in a school/land/*wider term* where is normal for teens like me to listen to the usual things you see on MTV?

PWTB2 the GazettE

So if I do manage to pull the talk out it is still a problem which song to play and describe. I don't have a specific overall favorite song by them, most of their songs are my favorites. I was thinking about Taion, but then again Taion begins with Ruki's uncorrectable English and does sound a bit harsh for your average listener (and the song has a special meaning to me I'm not sure I want to share). Another one of my favorites is the legendary Filth in the Beauty which would make an almost perfect choice if it weren't for the obvious incestuous lyrics (damn your perverted mind Ruki). I have to find some other T.T....

So yeah...
In short...
I'm screwed.

閉ざされた楽園

Date released: 16.4.2008.

Track list
1. 閉ざされた楽園 (Tozasareta Rakuen) [PV] [Listen]
2. 喜劇のタブー (Kigeki no Taboo) [Listen]
3. ト・ロ・ケ・テ・ル (TOROKETERU) [Listen]

As stated on Visuanavi Tozasareta Rakuen is Merry's sixth single up to date and their latest release after the last year's album M.E.R.R.Y.

Overall this single has got a somewhat restrained, hesitated feel to it. It is loud, it has got Gara's moan/screams, it is vibrant etc... but well not as Merry as it could be. Tozasareta Rakuen is another hasty Merry song similar to sweet powder with very interesting bridges but unfortunately a simple and annoying Merry chorus that mostly screws up every potentially interesting song.

Kigeki no Taboo is the best song on the single, with driving, rock'n'roll riffs that carry the mood and tension of the song and that are probably the best part of it. I ended up liking the song, even though I can't really explain why, it's not revolutionary, it's not mindblowing, the chorus doesn't fit it, but still I like it. Thanks to the guitar riffs.

TOROKETERU is a somewhat mixture of the mesmerizing orientalish riffs and aloof chanting from Seinen himitsu kurabu, and the obscure moshing crazyness of Charlie, being just as hysterical on the bridges as the both. The refrain sounds pretty solid, short, melodic, nice. But yet again brings nothing new, but makes good use of the known.

In a way I can say that this single is probably the best (read: Good enough to force me to review it unlike some of the former singles) I've heard and not as nearly as annoying as Komorei ga boku wo sagashiteru or Blind Romance, but still leaves out a faint and restrained feel making it not especially overwhelming also. But still worth a listen if you're into Merry and because of Kigeki no Taboo.