Definitely not the best way to end their career, but it's pretty obvious by now that they don't have anything else to do musically, and this album just proved it. I'll end up liking every song here, but I was expecting much more - not to mention that I'm truly bothered by the lenght of the album, the fact that they included a SE song to an already short CD and also by Shiki, which is probably their weakest ballad, right at the end of their last effort.
I disliked everything once I heard the 128kbps to be honest. I was expecting something epic, but I only got three singles (which are far from being their best), a 2:20 song which could've been much more developed - especially considering it has some great ideas - and more recycled stuff. The stand-out track for me was definitely 鬼咆 at first; lovely guitars at the beginning and the whole thing just works.
Now as I'm listening to the 320kbps version, I don't dislike it so much. Sure, I'm not delusional to say they did their best, but it's an overall cool album. There's still tons of stuff to complain about, especially in regards of song structure, but also a few things to not overlook. 契 fits well in their dancey catalogue and works nice enough as a single off this particular album; also regarding the singles, 白ゐ嘘 still remains as the best one for me. 隠恋慕 has some cool ideas despite its disappointing lenght, and I wish they would've worked more on this one; sadly, it seems they didn't even try. 鬼還 has a very remarkable, almost shizuku-ish chorus, but I still have to get more used to this one.
鬼咆 still remains as my favorite - I love the guitar work on this one and it kind of reminds me of another great (and vastly underrated) song from them, 故郷, from the 誓ノ月 single. However, it still seems to lack a spark in the song structure, but the overall result is satisfying enough. I still don't know exactly what to think of 魔夏の世の夢, but it seems like a grower - and + points for sounding like something that wouldn't feel out of place in [gozen], right after 諷説 or 異邦境.
Eh, long-ass review, but I'm biased and they are my favorite Japanese band so I don't even care. As I said, I was expecting much more from a last album. This one is still pretty lackluster, but it's a fun CD to listen to once in a while I guess, though it pales a whole fucking lot in comparison to their other stuff. It seems like they didn't even make an effort to make this great and just threw whatever leftovers they had left just to release a last album - they barely even used the koto, which was being EXTREMELY overused in their latest stuff. Anyway, they're definitely not going out with a bang, but they have enough material to be back them up for a long time.
