Before I start with my review, let me say that I absolutely hated listening to this album. On the first listen it wasn't that bad but after 2 or 3 listens I really got the urge to start destroying things. I decided for a detailed review to sit through the whole songs, but it took a lot of patience and courage to do so. This is without a doubt one of the most boring, uninspiring and unoriginal albums I myself have ever listened too. I admit, even SCREW's X-RAYS is better than this crap. Seriously, from the stuff they released the last 1,5 years I only liked Dress, Juggernaut, Little Prayer and Kagerou. It's just too much bad screaming and br00tal riffs that are pretty much the same in every new song. Mao ruined half of this album for me as well, I really wanted to brickstone him halfthrough.
慟哭 - I don't really hate this track or anything, in fact it's pretty well done and I wouldn't mind listening to this on a shuffle, but never as an individual track. It's just not good enough for it. 7/10
Juggernaut - Seeing as the first track wasn't that bad and the fact that I love Juggernaut, at this point I thought the album wouldn't be as bad as I expected it to be. Oh, how wrong I was. Juggernaut still kicks ass though: 8/10
LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD - Apart from a spelling error (I think?) this title is pretty ridiculous. I think I would've liked this song if it wasn't full of the awful vomiting screaming. Mao's screams are bad, the background screams are even worse, though the instrumental is pretty nice. Moving on, I already hate re-listening this again. 4/10
砂漠??シンドローム - Intro is boring as hell, Sadie (and other bands) have done this way too often. Once again awful screaming. What the hell is up with his grunting on this album? I'm pretty sure he can do better. Not that I'm a big fan of grunting but compared to this shit even Asagi grunts better. The chorus is awful and it sounds like they made it in 5 minutes because they were too lazy to think up something decent. 4/10
棘 -toge- - The only title track of the singles I didn't really like. It's actually pretty cool, the riffs are nice and so is the pre-chorus, I just don't like the chorus. For the rest it's OK. 6.5/10
deathtopia - The beginning made me think this was going to be a nice, calmer, 'Chizuru' kind of song, but how wrong I was. The second Mao started screaming and the up-tempo started I was like 'urgh'. Mao sounds like he's vomitting again. His grunting is awful, I hope he starts realizing that as soon as possible. The slow parts with the whispering is pretty cool as well, the rest is just plain disgusting. 3.5/10
Dress - THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. I needed more of this. Dress is seriously one of the only Sadie songs that doesn't bore me after a while, like the Master of Romance album pretty much did apart from Kagerou. Even though the grunting still isn't that good it's better than on the previous tracks. I pretty much like everything in this song. 9/10
Graceful Angel - The opening sounded original for once. Then the typical br00tal riffs started and I already felt like going to the next song. WHAT IS UP WITH THOSE DRUMS. Mao once again RUINS this song. The normal vocals are pretty cool, but once he starts grunting... The chorus is OK apart from the grunting. Not going to keep it on my iPod though. 4/10
霞??消??る?? - I actually really like this one. No grunting, good clean vocals and a nice instrumental. This is wat Sadie should be doing. It sounds like a fresh breath of air. 8.5/10
GIMMICK - Seeing as this started off pretty cool, the synth, the HEY!'s in the chorus are pretty damn awesome. I don't like the grunting whispering, but the chorus makes up for it. I have trouble sitting through the grunting though (which isn't as awful as the rest on the album). 7/10
Cry More - Haters gonna hate, but I love Cry More. The screaming Mao does (what he should be doing instead of that awful grunting) and Mizuki's background screams all sound very good. The chorus is awesome as hell. 9/10
瞼??憂鬱 - Boring ballad. Don't like it very much, it just doesn't touch me. Compared to other Sadie ballads this is pretty uninspiring. Swallow Rain any day, plz. 4/10
Dress (unplugged) - As much as I love the original, I hate the unplugged version. It sounds like they just slowed down Mao's voice and pasted a piano in the background. Just no. 3/10
Overall: 5/10
Even though this album has some nice songs (Juggernaut, Dress, Cry More, 霞??消??る??) it's just not good. Look at this list I made in between the bars. Three out of those 4 were released before on a single. So the only new song that was actually good was 霞??消??る??. Two songs were decent and the rest was complete crap. Take a break, find some originality and then come back kthnx.
