sukekiyo "Immortalis"
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| Released April 30, 2014 |
I was waiting for this album to be released as I was excited to see another side of Kyo. I knew that I wouldn't get the chance to listen to it since it came out during my week of finals and everything so I would have to wait longer. Now that I have gotten a chance to listen to the entire thing, I am very pleased to say that I enjoyed every song on this album. It's like what Kyo said in his interview that this album is not exactly a pop album, but catchy like a pop album. The genre is really unclear and it doesn't need to be in my opinion. Some songs like "vandal" and "the daemon's cutlery" are very avant-garde sounding with Kyo's unique scream/growl or whatever you like to call it. I wasn't too interested at "vandal" at first, but that song grew on me. "Mama" and "in all weathers" are the more lighter songs and upbeat sounding. My favorite songs are "aftermath" and "zephyr". I like that brooding sadness in "aftermath" and the unsettling 'happiness' in "zephyr" though I have no idea what the lyrics mean at all. The song titles are very interesting to read at a glance. "Latour", "destrudo", "hemimetabolism", "nine melted fiction". As always, Kyo's lyrics and titles are like a puzzle waiting to be solved and the answer is never concrete. It's always something that can be interpreted in more than one way. "Uyuu no Sora" and "hemimetabolism" have a very uneasy feeling when I listen to it. It's scary and eerie. "Koku" has a sad melody, but it's very graceful as "koku" means "swan". I saw someone use "kusugi" and in this case I'm not too sure whether I should use the on reading or the kun reading of "鵠". In most cases, translation sites use the on reading which is "koku".
Wagakki Band "Vocalo Zanmai"
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| Released April 23, 2014 |
I am so happy for Wagakki Band. Having discovered them on NicoNico, I was hoping for their great success and I am happy for them having to sign on to the avex label. They are now major and "Vocalo Zanmai" is their debut album pretty much. They are all covers of popular Vocaloid songs made famous through NicoNico. I like their arrangements of the songs using traditional Japanese instruments and it really celebrates their culture. I wish that in China they will come up with something similar using Chinese instruments and have that become a main theme rather than just that one song on an album. Part of the reason is that I've always enjoyed Jay Chou's mashups of hip hop with Chinese music. I am hoping that in the future, Wagakki Band will start making original compositions. The songs that were covered were mostly upbeat and rocking in nature and they translated well in gagaku.
Yuzu "Shin Sekai"
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| Released February 19, 2014 |
This album actually came out a while ago and I never got a chance to listen to it other than seeing "Houri Itai" broadcast as the ending theme for HunterXHunter. I was first introduced to Yuzu through HunterXHunter in fact and learned a bit more through a Shin Domoto Kyoudai appearance. I really liked the duo since then and started listening to their music. Their previous album, Land, had a circus theme and Shin Sekai is more of a folk album. It combines Japanese folk or Western folk with acoustics. Sometimes it is sung in a folk tradition, but Yuzu's vocals really shine. All songs on this album are very nice to listen to. "Houri Itai" is still my favorite song out of all the songs though "Hikare" and "Utopia" also are on my list.
SCAPEGOAT "Akai Bathroom"
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| Released April 9, 2014 |
I can't make a list without ending it with some visual kei rock in it. "Akai Bathroom" is a maxi single and this is my first time listening to SCAPEGOAT. I am pleased to say that I liked this maxi single and hopefully I can get more variety when trying their other songs. A lot of bands fall into the cycle of sounding like cousins of the GazettE with similar vocals and musical composition. The reason why I happened to like this maxi single was the nostalgia of the GazettE. Unless I see more variety in the other songs, I will most likely forget their songs. On the positive side, I think the musical composition is pretty solid. For instance, I liked the acapella in the beginning of "Akai Bathroom". It's something like a deranged killer singing something twisted.
BIOSPHIA "Fierce"
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| Released April 2, 2014 |
The two songs that stuck out to me were "CRACK" and "Hakenkreuz". Otherwise, the other songs didn't particularly stand out from each other. At least they weren't trying to sound like the GazettE. My first song by them was "SCREAM" which was something suggested to me by Youtube. Indeed all the songs were "fierce" to listen to. They are energetic and not something to sip tea to.
BORN "The Stalin-666-"
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| Released April 9, 2014 |
I read some poor reviews on this album and this is my first time listening to BORN. They do sound a lot like the GazettE and I think like SCAPEGOAT they've become part of the visual kei cycle we keep seeing. I wouldn't say that their music is downright bad but it just doesn't distinguish itself from other music out there. Needless to say, you can start picking out which GazettE songs they riffed off of. I'm not sure why they named their mini album, The Stalin-666-. Unless I find out what their concept is, it just seems like it's part of the shock culture we commonly see in visual kei.
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