凛として時雨 - just A moment [2009]

Quite an explosive beginning to the album with "ハカイヨノユメ". Words cannot express how impressed I am with the first track. "Hysteric phase show" continues on with the high energy, quality writing, and willingness to break out from what they had previously established as their style. "Tremolo+A" is a fast-strumming acoustic guitar dominated song. I'm quite happy that the female vocals are now perfectly in tune... even if they have used pitch correction to iron out the issues a bit. This is really an incredible effort by these musicians. It's fresh and pushes the boundaries of their style, but it still feels like the LTS that I fell in love with so long ago. It's quite an incredible and stunning achievement. The production is a bit cleaner, but there's still a shit-tonne of reverb on the drums, vocals, and clean electric guitars. The ONLY problems I see with this album is that they included "Telecastic fake show" and the production could be using a wider frequency range. The higher frequencies are basically chopped off and I feel that they would benefit the drum production a lot (it would be annoying as shit if the guitars were allowed to expand into those frequencies, though).

Rating: 9.75

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凛として時雨 - moment A rhythm [2008]

One song... better be good especially coming from Telecastic fake show. Holy shit... it's a big song. Starts with Glitch, goes directly into very calm and slow with some building up happening after a few minutes. This is certainly a very different style for the typically Post Hardcore band. The focus is on subdued and calm song writing than the high-energy madness that had previously been a mainstay of their material. Shockingly, there's quite a bit of Glitch music thrown in here as well. The production is good and while I do miss the high-energy stuff, the calm and atmospheric feel is very appealing.

Rating: 8

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凛として時雨 - Telecastic fake show [2008]

Even more proficient songwriting on this album. The short length certainly helps out by allowing the band to focus all of their energy on just a few songs, and it really shows. All three songs are great in their own way and they're all catchy and beautifully written. The production is a bit more clear than Inspiration is Dead, but they haven't lost the grungy underground feeling at all.

Rating: 8.5

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凛として時雨 - Inspiration is Dead [2007]

Much more polished songwriting and structure. There's more catchiness here. The duality of the energy and tranquility are still there in spades. However, they are blended together with more expertise now. The production is a bit more forward than previous albums. This album takes the formula they had and pushes it a bit further.

Rating: 8

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凛として時雨 - Feeling Your UFO [2006]

This is mostly a continuation of #4 with slightly better production. Catchy, active, tranquil, exciting, and a lot more progressive than before. It's a bit short, but it has just a little more polish to it.

Rating: 7.5

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凛として時雨 - #4 [2005]

The first song is a bit lighter than I expected. The songwriting is pretty good, not really refined, but still effective. The production isn't incredible, but the drums have a nice natural sound to them. The guitars, however, sound like they were recorded over shitty wires or something. "傍観" is refreshingly somber. One thing that has me torn in three different directions is the fact that the vocals are often out of tune. HOWEVER, they are never FAR out of tune like many other Japanese bands, and on top of that, it really says something that they've outright refused to use correction effects on the vocals. It also lends a natural feeling to the vox and there are times during the verses where it feels even more right for the song than if it had been perfect pitch. Even with all of that justification, for the chorus sections there is no rationalizing it. Those two really need to practice their pitch, and if they want to sing out of tune to make it feel more human, then the best time to do so is during the verses. As for the songwriting, it's not really all that catchy, but it's still good.

Rating: 7.5

http://sigure.jp/

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