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.

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.

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.

girugämesh - girugämesh [2007.12.26]

Tribal-like intro track. "patchwork" has a great Heavy Metal punch to it. "Vermillion" isn't nearly as heavy. "stupid" invokes Slipknot. "shining" has a lighter feel that brings things closer to J-Rock. "Shiroi ashiato" is a particularly beautiful song that gives way to the kick in the nuts that is CRAZY-FLAG. Overall, it's a good album. Heavy, but with nicer songs to switch things up a bit. The techno/industrial effects add some depth to the songs. There's good energy throughout. Some songs have sections within them that fall a little flat, but 90% of the time I'm listening to a very enjoyable riff/section. All that said, yeah, I can easily point out that there's not much new here at all and no chances were taken. However, the soul is there and the songwriting is good.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - Reason of crying [2007.07.18]

Finally, properly heavy production. Much catchier songwriting than before, and even a hint of interesting elements mixed in with the more stock ones. I can tell that a lot more care went into writing these songs than previous crap. When I first heard this album years ago, I thought that the clean singing sections were more in line with "Emo", but obviously my ears were not adjusted to the sounds of Japanese Rock. "Melody" and "フリージア" largely fall flat for me. Ahh, here's the re-recording of "お前に捧げる醜い声" that I remember.

Rating: 7.25

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - 13's reborn [2006.09.27]

I already recognize one of the song titles... hopefully there won't be many repeats of previous singles on this album. The bass sounds like it's coming straight from Korn's 101-level class at the community college. The songwriting on the other hand is definitely making constant nods to Slipknot's self-titular effort. Even so, they do have some decent ideas that tend to mix things up a bit... however, like so many other bands, they limit these ideas to the song introductions. Good idea executed poorly.

Rating: 6.25

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - お前に捧げる醜い声 [2006.04.12]

Production quality is a little better. Hmmm... I believe they did a re-recording of this on one of their later full-lengths. It's firmly rooted in the Metal genre. Not all that inspired, but still catchy.

Rating: 6.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - 零-ゼロ--無景型円盤- [2006.04.05]

Production quality isn't the hottest. However, I AM liking the use of progressive drumming with a more tranquil Japanese rock aspect. The chorus and pre-verse go back to a more Metal punch. It's a good song, I can definitely see coming back to this one more often. It feels more than just 1-dimensional like the previous stuff.

Rating: 6.75

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - 理性壊乱-乱調型円盤- [2005.11.30]

Off to a bit of a bad start here. "Яeality" is straight up Japanese Hard Rock with no real attempt at Metal. Unfortunate. "Dirty Blue Blood" makes a valiant attempt to rescue the disk and, while it's attempt was heroic, it only managed to save itself in the end.

Rating: 6.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - 本能開放-覚醒型円盤- [2005.11.30]

...and they start right where they left off on 腐界の闇-迷叫型円盤-... but then, "沈む過去" takes a bit of a dive back into the J-Rock area. Luckily, "開戦宣言(D.B ver.)" kicks things back up a notch. Overall, production quality hasn't increased in the last three disks. I'm happy that they're getting more into actual Heavy Metal, but they still aren't innovating jack shit. At least it's fairly catchy.

Rating: 6.75

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - 腐界の闇-迷叫型円盤- [2005.09.14]

Ok and catchy start to the album, but it feels like more of the same. Ahhh, now they're speaking more of my language with "Deceived mad pain"... much more like. I really hope to hear more of it in later albums. Not unique and hardly creative, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.

Rating: 6.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - 獄-初犯型円盤- [2005.05.25]

A bit more catchy than 【開戦宣言】～企画型円盤～ and with slightly better song writing. Wow... "【獄】" is mostly a direct copy of a song from Slipknot's self-title album. The first four tracks are indeed fun, but uninspired. Production quality is pretty good, but it's more of a hard rock production than a metal production.

Rating: 6.25

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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

girugämesh - 【開戦宣言】～企画型円盤～ [2004]

Catchy for the most part. A bit more punk rock than metal. It certainly has much better production than I was expecting... I suppose this band was aiming for the mainstream right from the beginning. It's okay stuff, nothing special, but nothing bad either.

Rating: 6

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

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