植松伸夫 - Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack [1997]

Much unlike FFIV, this actually has some really good writing mixed in. When he does evil and dark, it's very good. However, the more regal stuff feels too childish and weak. The whimsical stuff is TOO whimsical and ends up sounding camp. The battle music is usually pretty good. There are a few recurring themes that do get annoyingly repetitive and really tiresome by the end of the album. USE THEM SPARINGLY, NOBUO! While he does a great job with most of the dark stuff, the Sephiroth themes are actually some of the weakest of the dark songs. Sure, this is one of the best from the FF soundtracks up until this point, but, damn, that's not saying much. The old FF soundtracks are really over-hyped by people that don't know what good songwriting is. Most of it is shitty and bland. Damn, this thing is just waaay too long and there is way too much crap in here that really doesn't need to be on the soundtrack.

Rating: 5.5

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/uematsu/index.html

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

ZONE - N [2004]

Typical High school Pop Rock song to introduce us to the album. At least the chorus is pretty catchy. "BeaM" is certainly the highlight of the album. I still think that they don't realize what makes their band desirable. It's not good songwriting, because it's mostly average. It isn't serious vocals or slow ballads. IT'S THE CUTENESS. So far, they are averaging about 1 cute song per album, which isn't good enough. I listen to ZONE for the cute, happy, feel-good shit. But ok, if they want me to review it like a serious album, then I will. The songwriting is average. The creativity is... well, there isn't any. It's cliché and copy-cat all the way through. There aren't any high-points to the album at all. It's not all that catchy. It's too long of an album for what they have and there's a shit-ton of repeats. Props for the one song that breaks with the normalcy of the ZONE sound, "prayer". "true blue" is ok, too.

Rating: 4

http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/ZONE/

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

ZONE - O [2002]

The appeal of a pop band like this is the cuteness of the songs. "証" starts things off trying to be all serious, but ends up being derivative and gutless. I expect the shameless copy-cat nature of the underlying music, but there still needs to be an actual reason to listen to this. Unfortunately, "さらりーまん" continues with the boring and predictable seriousness. At least "Sae Zuri" is soothing and calm. Thankfully, "GO!" gives the listener a small taste of the cuteness that we were fucking looking for all this time. "一雫" is acceptable, if nothing more. Overall, it's pretty weak and mostly what one should expect from a pop band. Not all that catchy. Boring. Derivative. Amateur. Though, it isn't flat-out bad.

Rating:

http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/ZONE/

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

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

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

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

Taro Bando - F-Zero X Guitar Arrange Edition [1999]

This is more like it. The guitar distortion isn't anything worthy of Death Metal, and neither is the production quality, but the live instruments and production really add to the punch of the songs. The drums are oddly produced with a few toms having WAAAAYYYY too much bass put on them. The solos are lovely shredding rock solos that remind me of old-school metal. The songs are much more cohesive and have been rearranged to actually feel like a song from start to finish instead of a looped track for the purpose of continuing forever.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.last.fm/music/Taro+Bando

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

Taro Bando - F-Zero X Original Soundtrack [1998]

Ok, so it's nostalgic. However, the production quality suffers quite a bit from the required performance of the game. So, it's not all that immersive an experience to listen to the soundtrack. There's potential for many of the riffs that is never realized thanks to the production quality. That said, there's a lot of filler on here, too. The nice thing is that there is a good deal of variation in the feel of each song.

Rating: 6

http://www.last.fm/music/Taro+Bando

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

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

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

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

girugämesh - GO [2011]

"Opening" introduces us to the dance aspect of giru. "destiny" starts off on a bad foot with the very emo-inspired style. However, redemption is slightly at hand when the chorus kicks in to reveal more of a high-school rock feel. Sure, it's cute and I want to like it, but damn is it fucking cliché these days. It really feels like they've traded in their balls for a nice heaping plate of vagina. That said, it's better than NOW and feels like it has more passion. Every once-in-a-while a pretty damn good section slips through the cracks, too. "MISSION CODE" is probably the only major highlight on the album. I'm just so sick of the gradual mutation into a more pop-friendly "metal"... there's virtually nothing left of the bite and attack they used to have.

Rating: 6.25

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

girugämesh - NOW [2009]

Techno-metal-glitchy intro track... standard operating procedure for these guys just with more of a house dance beat. Well, ok, congrats to them for slightly surprising me. I thought for sure that I knew exactly when the guitars and metal section would come in during "bit crash", but it turns out I was off by a few measures. Oh fuck no... "NO MUSIC NO REASON" scares me a bit with the very Swedish melodic shital verses... please don't go the way of DELUHI. "ALIVE" re-centers the circle back to what I'm used to with these guys. Finally, "I Think I can Fly" attempts to move things forward a bit, but the heavy parts are actually the weak link in this song. The verse riffs are definitely beginning to degrade in quality. A worrying number of sections are feeling like filler on this album. Gah, I wasn't a fan of the rap shit on MUSIC and time has not fucking sweetened it for this album... "nobody" will never be listened to again. And now with "睡蓮" I'm hearing copy-pasted riffs that have been copied FROM PREVIOUS SONGS ON THIS ALBUM. This is a very "meh" cd. There's almost no substantial progress to their style, the repetition is starting to kill me, the riffs aren't inspiring, and anything that could be considered catchy is too cliché and emotionless that it just falls flat on its face. All that said, it could have been worse... they could've used more influence from the Swedes. The only standout I can think of is "DIRTY STORY"... parts of "GAME" are good, but the fucking verse riff sucks cock.

Rating: 5.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

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

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

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

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.

girugämesh - MUSIC [2008]

Dance and glitchy intro track. "Break Down" is even more accessible than previous girugämesh stuff... certainly more Pop Metal now than real metal. That said, damn it's fucking catchy and energetic if stock and uncreative. Production is quite punchy and alive. "ULTIMATE 4" is much more metal with some nifty effects to create some trifle of dynamics. "FREAKS" follows on. "アングリージュース" has a bit of a funky feel combined with some electronic LFO stuff. It's quite surprising that they can follow a very catchy album like girugämesh with another very catchy album and still feel relatively fresh. There are more than a few riffs I've noticed that have been recycled from past albums and shoved into this new context, but it's not that distracting and it doesn't happen often enough to piss me off. I'm happy that they added a few more influence to the music, but they ARE influence that are really popular these days and one gets the feeling that that is the reason for bringing those influences in. Well-done, nonetheless.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

夢中夢 - 夢中夢 [2006]

Much more classical inspired beginning than rock and metal. It has a very charming darkness to many of the songs tempered with beautiful strings and piano. "不浄幸福讃歌" really has that metal attitude and grinding distortion to the beginning. This is where it becomes clear that the production, while suited very well for the light, beautiful, and dark arrangements of previous songs, needs to be polished for the metal stuff. That said, the production still gives it a lovely and spacious feel. Part of the spaciousness of this album also comes from the sections of music that are very minimalist and simplistic. The album is a bit long, but certainly brilliant in its execution and I never really got bored despite the minimalistic last few songs of the album. It only feels slightly less polished than il y a and it certainly doesn't have the same energy, but then, they seem to have gone for a more sedate energy on purpose. Extremely effective album.

Rating: 8.75

http://sound.jp/mutyumu/news/underconstruction.html

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ZONE - Z [2002]

The first track could use a bit of pitch correction on the vocals. OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!! "GOOD DAYS" is so fucking happy it's impossible to not smile while listening to it ^__^!! The "kyu kyu kyu"s are cute of course, but the song isn't nearly as strong as "GOOD DAYS". In fact, that's the only really strong song on the album. Even so, everything is just what you'd expect from Pop. Nothing creative, but decent. Honestly, I'll probably only listen to GD more than once... and I'm sick to death of all the different versions of secret base.

Rating: 5

http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/ZONE/

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

夢中夢 - イリヤ - il y a - [2008]

Beautiful string intro track. I was kind of hoping for more of a new age sound based on the intro, but so far the rock is wonderfully done. It is very much reminding me of Touhou's music thanks largely to the piano parts. It's almost noise at times. I'm really warming up to the opera-style vocals. Damn, "火焔鳥" is full of surprises... even a slow-speed blast. I can't even imagine what the rest of the album will sound like with so much being thrown into the first song. "眼は神" has some heavier parts injected into the beautiful ramblings of the piano sections. There's a lot more metal influence than I was expecting. "ドクサの海の悪棲" is so wonderfully brutal and dark that I feel all else in my life is melting into the blackness. They've pulled off a wonderful trick with the drums; when a more sedate and beautiful section is playing, the drum production is nice and fits in without feeling overly powerful, but when a metal-inspired section comes up the drums suddenly become extremely punchy and even over-compressed at times. This album is fantastic all the way through. There's just barely enough variation between songs to keep each song feeling mostly fresh. Though, most of that variation seems to come towards the end of the album. The songwriting is lovely. The beauty is moving, and the heavier parts really remind me of some underground post black metal. The only thing that could be considered a problem with the album is the production of the guitars during the heavier parts. They don't have a distinct sound, are buried in the mix, and are mostly inspired by the noise genre. Despite that, the guitars have a brutal and uncompromising charm to them. On balance, the metal parts are a bit stock for the genre that they are borrowed from, but I don't mind much because of how they are neatly fit into the songs.

Rating: 9

http://sound.jp/mutyumu/news/underconstruction.html

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