Dir en grey - UROBOROS [2008]

Ominous and quite cool first track. "Vinushka" establishes this newer style as one that is much more deep and beautiful than previous albums. If the rest of the album is this carefully written, I'll love it. It even dives very suddenly into thrash metal with some death metal vocals before dropping back into a more acoustic section. "Red Soil" is sadly a bit more straight-forward even though I like the Death Metal section in the middle. Though, the second half of the song does redeem itself a bit some more creativity and psychotic vocals. Unfortunately, the more metal sections on this album are produced in a very flat way and with weak guitar distortion that removes most of the metal punch from the songs. That said, there's a lot to love in this album; "nice" sections are absolutely beautiful, metal sections offer a nice change from the norm, there's still some creativity thrown in there, and acoustic parts create a wonderful mood. The album is a bit too long, though. So, I start to get bored just after the half-way point. Stand-outs include "Inconvenient Ideal", "Sa Bir", and "Vinushka".

Rating: 8.25

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Dir en grey - THE MARROW OF A BONE [2007]

"CONCEIVED SORROW" is a pretty track with piano accenting the softness. Then, without warning, "LIE BURIED WITH A VENGEANCE" takes a trip to metal city with somewhat catchy and very groove-oriented riffs. "THE FATAL BELIEVER" keeps going in the same direction with metal riffage and a more J-Rock chorus. "GRIEF" finally brings a very small amount of variation into the album with a more Korn and Coal Chamber-like feel to a few of the riffs. "凌辱の雨" fits more in to the slot of heavy Japanese rock. "ROTTING ROOT" passed by without me even noticing. "艶かしき安息、躊躇いに微笑み" has a good amount of catchiness and passion going for it. Songs like "艶かしき安息、躊躇いに微笑み" and "THE PLEDGE" are really good and the more metal songs have some good groove and crazy vocals. However, all of this is overshadowed by the fact that there's virtually no creativity anymore. So, the metal songs feel very clichéd and old-hat, while the other songs, good as they are, feel like something that any ol' Japanese band could do. The production feels like a bit of a step backwards with weak guitar distortion for the metal parts. Not and impressive album.

Rating: 7

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Dir en grey - Withering to death [2005]

Impressively heavy start to "Merciless Cult" and equally impressive calm and soothing middle section. The production, isn't quite as impressive since the distorted guitars feel a bit dead. "C" confirms that the Japanese Rock aspect is still alive and well in their style. I'm beginning to see why this album got more favorable reviews than VULGAR: the metal sections, while heavier, pander more to the masses quite a bit with the more melodic writing and even some breakdowns thrown in there. The album isn't bad at all, in reality, it's quite good. However, it's not as creative and captivating as VULGAR was.

Rating: 8

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Dir en grey - VULGAR [2003]

Four songs in and this is already an awesome album. The metal influence has remained integral, but they've ramped up the creativity and, equally important, the catchiness. There are many overtones of Japanese Rock. The songwriting is a massive improvement over anything they've ever done that it's almost like listening to a completely different band. They have finally become good song writers instead of just continuing to rely on creativity and genre-hopping. There is enough variation to keep things fresh. Even poly-rhythmic sections are thrown in there. The energy is staggering in many songs. I have no idea what could have possibly changed in 14 months to illicit such a wonderful change, but I'll be fucked if I say I don't love it.

Rating: 8.5

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Dir en grey - Six Ugly [2002]

"Mr.NEWSMAN" is a bit of an unbecoming start to the album. It's a live recording with somewhat poor production quality. "Ugly" kicks things up by moving back to a studio recording with better production. It's much more Heavy Metal than anything they've done previously. "umbrella" jumps back to the live recording. Overall, it's cool to hear Deg push themselves into metal, but the creativity is completely absent. If they can throw the creativity back into their new stylistic addition, all will be better. It's fairly classic as far as metal goes, too. At least the passion is there.

Rating: 7.25

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Dir en grey - 鬼葬 [2002]

Calm and ominous beginning in "鬼眼 -kigan-" before the shit breaks loose into a rocky thrash section. This feels much more raw than the previous couple of albums. "ZOMBOID" has a punky thrash feel to it. Good energy. "24個シリンダー" is a bit schizo with more sedated and darker guitaring and a build up to spastic vocals. A bit repetitive, though. "FILTH" isn't particularly catchy, but it's a quirky song that's fun to listen to. "Bottom of the death valley" is a bit more catchy. Another one with a more sedated feel. Luckily, there's a bit of variation, which is really a necessity on an album that is this long. Just before the middle of the album, a more electronic sensibility is introduced into the song writing. It also feels like the guitaring gets a little heavier. There's a bit more creativity on this one than there was on Macabre. The songs have more solid writing overall, too. Really not a fan of the chorus vocals in "蟲 -mushi-"... they basically ruin the song by wreaking of trying-too-hard. So, overall it's a mixed bag. There are some really good songs, and some pretty weak ones. However, the effort to push the creativity is there.

Rating: 7.75

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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

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Dir en grey - Gauze [1999]

They are certainly trying to spread their wings a bit with the more unconventional approach to rock. There's a bit more malice in the vocals. Things calm down considerably with "ゆらめき"; good and catchy, though. Most of this album has the air of Rentrer en Soi about it... certainly not a bad thing. Then, without warning, things suddenly change drastically with "蜜と唾" and then again with "Mazohyst of Decadence". Then, right back in to Progressive Pop with "予感"... boredom is obviously impossible on this album. It's the best of all styles. Much of it doesn't really stick in my mind, and the parts that are supposed to be stronger and more chaotic feel a bit weak compared to bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan. However, it's a great all-around-er and damn effective with all of the other styles that they experiment with. Certainly, it's an album-experience that is unique.

Rating: 8

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Dir en grey - Missa [1997]

The production quality lacks quite a bit of punch and is quite "dead", but it's pretty clear. "霧と繭" sounds stock from the perspective of the vocals, but the frantic thrash breaks with tradition just a bit. It is fairly repetitive, though. "｢S｣" has a few screams and feels a little more dark. You can tell that they want to move away from the stock J-Rock template that was set before them, but they don't seem to know quite how to do it. They use odd chord structures and the rhythms border on progressive at times. It doesn't do much to draw me in to the music and there's very little in the way of catchiness, but I do applaud the effort to not sound like everyone else.

Rating: 5.5

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