Album: アリス九號. - VANDALIZE

Vandalize

alice nine.

Date released: 14.1.2009.

Track list
1. the beautiful name
2. 百花繚乱 (Hyakka ryouran)
3. RAINBOWS
4. Kiss twice,Kiss me deadly
5. CROSS GAME
6. 昴 (Subaru)
7. www.
8. Drella
9. MIRROR BALL [VANDALIZE EDITION]
10. イノセンス(Innocence)
11. Waterfall

The pretty much awkwardly titled third album by the pop-rock oriented Visual kei band alice nine. Even though last year's single output was pretty much disappointing, one thing I've learned when I was listening to their second album Alpha was that when it comes to albums, alice nine. don't really dissapoint. Zekkeishoku packed quite a punch with it's bright yet powerful song pallet, Alpha was similar but on some parts more intense. The main question is: Did VANDALIZE follow the same path?

VANDALIZE opens with a wide and wast the beautiful name which can be almost described as Viva la vida by alice nine. These guys sure love to rip-off songs for their album openers. The globe-hugging, bright chorus that soars in the air combined with background epic strings sure birngs some Coldplay reminiscence, but such style really emphasize a rather irritating trend these guys are following: loud, flashing choruses coupeled with playful pop-rock melodies into songs that sound all alike.

The album lifts some hope with Hyakka ryouran that delivers a really good Alice in Wonder Land reminiscence, the electro flair gives a special kick and it all sounds great until the copy/paste chorus that calls back to reality. God damn, it's like Shou can't sing the chorus in any other way than on this soaring, loud way that seriously irritates. The choruses were more creative back at the time when Shou didn't sing so well like now, at least he tried to compensate his vocal limitations with something new. Now he simply sings every single god-damn-chorus in the same way.

Then we come to the disco-power-rock anthem Rainbows which sounds just as surprisingly powerful and refreshing like on the single version. Following Rainbows is this very interesting and groovy garage-club-rock'n'roll piece Kiss twice, Kiss me deadly with a laid-back, seducive feel and I must admit that even the obnoxious female backvocal abuse sounds here more than fitting and it works! (Unlike with some other bands *coughgazettecough*). Despite some really good ideas Kiss twice, Kiss me deadly lacks some certain excitement even though the different approach does make it kind of memorable.

CROSS GAME reminds us on the uninspired, formulized same-titled single that was released a month or so ago (don't know nor care) being totally tiresome in it's flashing INYOURFACE chorus and flow (the song quality of alice nine. singles is unfortunately reversly proportional to the guitar quality). Subaru has got this quiet, almost ambiental intro and it moves to a glimmering guitar intro fitting for the starry song title. What starts pretty much atmospheric (the ambiental start reminds me on Mugen, bet Saga wrote this one)  turns just into another alice nine light song like Eraser, but less memorable.

But then www. and Drella come...
My God.... www. and Drella would have made the BEST ALICE NINE SINGLE EVER.

www. may seem to have a strange title at first but in this song this title has a complete other and insightful meaning (World Wide Warning / World Wide Despair). www. has got the riffs and guitars as if they were taken straight from the GazettE's last single LEECH, especially the main riff reminds on the one from HOLE. Even though somehow reserved on the verses, the song has got a intense, incredible chorus with expressive guitars in the back and Shou delivering one of his better performances. And the guitar solo is simply beautiful, simple but very expressive and it just strenghtens the overall bitter mood of the song. But the jawdropping continues on Drella which is a pure metal song! It's got the chunky grinding riffs, it's vicious, hard ground-shaking piece with some serious attitude. Though Shou's relatively mild vocals don't exactly fit, but the way he sings and how his voice is distorted it all leaves a crooked, mad kind of feel. An unexpected metal surprise from this POP-ROCK band.

As a break from the intense album middle comes MIRROR BALL but in a piano arrangement which brings the song's feelings a bit closer. I've seen this arrangement for the first time on their last DVD as a live performance and I really liked it and I'm happy they've used this version for the album (the original version would have simply too much Shou's chorus bombs for me).

The album ends with a generic alice nine pop-rock piece Innocence and Waterfall which sounds like Subaru which sounds like atmosphere which sounds like Eraser... yeah it's alice nine recycle time. If people would have recycled trash as alice nine does songs, there wouldn't be any ozone holes (caused by the very hairspray abuse by Visual kei bands). Waterfall is, despite the promising intro, the ARMOR RING of VANDALIZE, a ballad-at-the-end that doesn't want to end.

VANDALIZE is indeed the weakest album from alice nine., not because of the song quality but because the fillers on this song outmeasure the songs that are actually really good, even amazing. Alpha and Zekkeishoku didn't have such power-tracks like www. and Drella on Vandalize, but their other tracks were worth more the while than those on Vandalize. Despite that fact Vandalize still offers more listen-worthy material than 2008 alice nine singles did and doesn't really fail on the premise that Alice nine albums are worth the while.