New visual rock band started in the US! https://www.facebook.com/pages/DiVOID/1417608438556359?__mref=message_bubble
Our first single MOTH is currently available on Bandcamp! Please check it out!
Members:
Kiyoshi
Part Vocal
Nero
Part Guitar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nerodivoid
Gt.SAN(ex-FESTER-->「13」-->NEGA-->the:Ø) has joined Black Gene For the Next Scene at 2015/02/25, and new line-up will hold their first live at Shinjuku ReNY at 2015/03/01
Artist: Vermillion-D Alice Syndrome
Album: 鴉/IX
Score:
Surprisingly lackluster, despite all the effort put into it.
Setsuna is one ambitious guy for sure.
He started in his basement playing unremarkable trance music themed after Dante's Inferno until he was enraptured by the allure of the guitar, and has been inching towards metal since 2008. Every release from the now defunct 黒夜葬 got darker, heavier, and more melodic as Setsuna improved his metal sensibilities and dropped his trance ones. He achieved his greatest wish in finding a vocalist, and in one motion cut some ties with the doujin scene by forming VDAS. Despite the fact that they cover no themes from any franchise, there were still pictures of anime girls on the covers of their last three releases and they faithfully showed up at all the events to sell their merchandise.
In a way, 鴉/IX represents a total split from the scene it was birthed from. All doujin imagery has been eliminated from this album in an effort to appear as a serious metal band. Unfortunately for them, there are too many problems with 鴉/IX to consider their transition complete. Without the guiding light of ZUN, the duo have forgotten what made their music so interesting in the first place.
Let's start from the beginning: there is too much going on within each song. On one hand, this is the best production and mastering job that VDAS has ever had. On the other hand, there are enough riffs for three albums shoved into one. It's great when artists hold nothing back and can engross the listener entirely in their style, but 鴉/IX is suffocating. The result is a disaster. Each song feels like an album on it's own; with the exception of closer "And Then There Was None", every song goes on for over eight minutes. There are some cool moments in each, but it's inevitably ruined by another, more questionable inclusion. In comparison to previous works by these two, both together and separately, they expressed more with less musical brushstrokes. This sounds like they tried too hard to be progressive and failed. It's difficult to highlight a standout track because they all have the same problems. It's been a while since I wanted to shut off an album because I felt like I heard everything by track four.
This is how a band can fail by doing too much. Setsuna has always been guilty of throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, but this is the first time where it hurts more than it helps. By incorporating more deathcore, more symphonic and gothic elements, more solos, and more operatic vocals, Setsuna and RIB have challenged themselves to be something greater. But neither know how to balance their aggressive moments with their more tranquil moments, and 鴉/IX quickly loses all sense of dynamics. Most tracks start from an ominous, foreboding intro and explode into a flurry of deathcore and pop choruses. Since each track has so much content, the first three tracks provide so much listening material that the last four tracks don't have enough individuality to distinguish themselves.
VDAS could have condensed 鴉/IX into a more listenable experience by shaving a few minutes off of each track. The largest offender here is the penultimate track "零ノ柩", which also happens to be the longest track clocking in at an almost insufferable thirteen minutes. Roughly half of it is spent listening to RIB's whiny, nasally falsetto, which does nothing to make the time pass faster. It's a shame too, because when he isn't straining himself RIB's style bears more than a passing resemblance to the visual kei scene. This could be a draw to many metal fans here who don't mind less than stellar vocals. If you're anything like me and prefer impeccable vocal performances, this is simply going to annoy you on multiple levels.
The more one pushes against musical boundaries, the more those boundaries push back. Vermillion-D Alice Syndrome was eager to push themselves, but they were not able to keep their creative influences balanced properly. As a result, their sophomore effort is a complete mess. It shows some promise, but overall I feel their concept was executed better on previous releases. I would recommend this to only the hardcore metal lovers that don't mind nasal cleans betwixt their growling. Everyone else can safely skip this album.
gnk777 reacted to Nero_DiVOID in New Band DiVOID [Duality in the VOID]
