[March 2016] Music Pick

Welcome to my super late recommendation post. I might as well name this a April music pick. 

SID All Singles Best - SID

Being more of a casual listener to SID's music, I bought this compilation album off of CDJapan as a way to know their music even better. Mao's voice is very suitable for ballads as it can be gentle and even passionate at times. SID pulls the pop rock style very well falling into the ballad category, but sometimes a slightly harder rock song also proves to be their forte. SID All Singles Best takes you through all of SID's era's starting from their indie days until 2016. The compilation album also comes with a new song, Yumegokochi.  It has a melancholy sound to it and as a ballad, it's soothing to the ears very much like a dream.

I was first exposed to SID from Kuroshitsuji by listening to Monochrome no Kiss, a rock song mixed with what sounds like accordion. Later on, I picked up more of their songs from anime openings like V.I.P, ANNIVERSARY, and ENAMEL. They are very upbeat for the more hot blooded listener. One of my favorite songs is Otegami, a rock ballad mixed with Japanese-like instrumentals. I would say they are quite famous and I would recommend this album to introduce them to a new listener.

No Music No Weapon - Golden Bomber

I wrote about a year ago how much I appreciate Golden Bomber's work. Even as a gag band, they've been pretty successful and managed to survive this far. I revoke my previous statement about how their types of performances can only be limited to Japan. Seeing how fluid they are with changes, I don't see why not trying to reach international audiences. No Music No Weapon is an example how variable their music can be. It's rock, dance pop, and ballad all mixed into one. Kiryuin Sho being the vocalist, main composer and lyricist shows how much of a hard worker he is.

This album has their songs from their singles, 101 Kaime no Noroi,  Laura no Kizudarake, and Shinda Tsuma ni Niteiru. Like previous MVs, these songs come with accompanying humor. I have to say, I found Laura no Kizudarake to be quite amusing because of the pun they used at the very end. Their other song, Yokubou no Uta, is a parody of past visual kei bands that have gotten extremely popular such as Malice Mizer, Lareine, and old school Dir en grey. As usual, the rest of the songs on the album are parodying some sort of topic. Go on one hell of a musical ride with Golden Bomber.

Creature - Deathgaze

Deathgaze is a nagoya-kei band best known for that harsh metalcore sound and death metal influence. They are dark, gloomy, and angry in both look and sound. For me it's hard to like or even remember all their songs because they can sound the same over time making nagoya-kei a niche genre of Japanese rock and metal. It can most likely explain why they are the only nagoya-kei band that is worthy enough to be known to a more mainstream audience. As they are in hiatus at this moment while their vocalist, Ai, is embarking his solo activities, I decided to revisit their album, Creature. I remember when the SILENCE/THE END single came out, I was excited to see them produce new work. USELESS SUN had me hyped for a brief moment and quickly I lost interest. RING THE DEATH KNELL is one the few songs where I can differentiate from their other songs.

Dim - the GazettE

I had a conversation with my co-worker the other day after discovering that he was a metalhead as well. ("Slipknot was my childhood." Cue laughter.) Among the English speaking bands, we also talked about Japanese bands, one of which I brought up the GazettE. Arguably my co-worker felt that Dim may be the peak of their creative success. I have to agree that Dim was a very successful album where I liked almost all their songs. I reviewed DOGMA in a previous monthly pick post. Although I was positive about it, I still think it feels weak compared to Dim. Dim really set the mood of decay and grimness.

My most memorable songs from the album are THE INVISIBLE WALL (which I used for a school assignment one time), LEECH, and DISTRESS AND COMA. The GazettE were very adventurous in this album. You can hear that they experimented with many different styles of playing and composition. For the first time, they included a song that lasted more than the usual four minutes, Nakigihara at seven minutes. The inclusion of the one minute instrumentals was a nice touch for extending the album tracklist. I found Shikyu really unsettling even though it's a distorted cry of a baby.