I have accumulated many personal reviews while listening to albums. My reviewing style is non-conventional and was only intended for myself. Sometimes I will only use one sentence to describe an album if I feel that is all that's required. Other times I will review an album while I'm still listening to it, leading to a song-by-song review of the album (bringing the size of the review to nearly dissertation-level). There are times when I will even come back to a review to add information that I didn't know when originally writing the review. The point is that I won't edit my reviews to make them more readable or conventional. My reviews are always a direct result of what I was feeling when I wrote them and I want to let that feeling come through.



Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Dir en grey - Macabre [2000]

Strange intro track. Persian feel until the metal guitars kick in giving way to the vocals only towards the end. "脈" kicks in with more of the creepy feel of the first track. There seems to be more metal influence in the guitar riffs now even if the distortion isn't turned up to eleven. It's only the second song and I've got very mixed feelings. The metal parts are pretty good, there's a noticeable expansion of creativity, more crazy vocals, but then there's also these light and very poppy J-Rock sections that make me feel a bit sick. "理由" seems to settle more into an actual style rather than the mish mashed randomness of the previous tracks. Much more rock now and for the first time in this album, there is solid and memorable writing. "egnirys cimredopyh +) An Injection" certainly feels a bit drug-inspired thanks to all of the phaser effects on the guitars. Fairly catchy as well. "蛍火" employs lovely violin parts to blend lighter alternative rock with Japanese folk with great results. "【KR】cube" marks a return to some of the more catchy songwriting while "Berry" lays a few lines of coke out on the table. "MACABRE —揚羽ノ羽三ノ夢ハ二蛹一—" is a fairly epically-long song with more good writing. "羅刹国" is a deep dive into the metal well. So, after a crazy, weak, and uninspired beginning, this album really starts to flourish and settle in to a pattern of solid songwriting and catchiness. Creativity and experimentation are a bit low, however.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.direngrey.co.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

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