it is announced at GOATBED live at Shibuya CLUB QUATTRO at 2015/12/04 that their new album "FANDEATH" will be released at their live since Shimokitazawa GARDEN at 2016/03/04, which will include songs from their previous live-distributed CDs
dieS & emmuree live-limited coupling CD "DIES N' ROSéS" will be released at their 2-man live tour "DIES N' ROSéS" since Ikebukuro CHOP at 2015/02/10 and up to Shimokitazawa MOSAiC at 2015/03/27 (4 songs, 2,000yen)
[track list] emmuree song covered by dieS dieS song covered by emmuree DIES N' ROSéS-dieS ver.- DIES N' ROSéS-emmuree ver.-
…。【サイレンス】(silence) new maxi single "やさしいせなか(yasashii senaka)" will be sold in advance at their presents live "沈黙の、宴。(chinmoku no utage)" at Ikebukuro CHOP at 2015/03/10 (1,620yen)
Ever since MOAB, there’s a been a divide in the diru fanbase between people who love the bands early material and despise everything they’ve done in the last couple of years. However, I have never been one of those people. I enjoy every album they put out and it’s great to see how much the band has matured as musicians. That being said, Unraveling is the first release I can say I’ve been disappointed by.
For me this release was flawed from the start. I have no idea why the band decided to remake songs that were good/awesome to begin with. They put all this effort into redoing their songs and in the end none of them were as good as the originals. That’s not to say they are bad songs, but they don’t have the magic that the originals have. Sure, the songs have more layers, cool guitar work and superior sound production, but however more complex sounding and modern they are, they don’t live up to their former selves. Seriously, diru, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it. And it begs the question, why put all this time into remaking all these songs, when they could have just made a fresh batch?
There are several issues that seem to plague the remakes. One of them is melody. In the bands attempt to reflect their current progressive metal style and their maturity as musicians, the more melodic aspects of the songs were lost. And for me, the melodic aspects of their old songs were pretty much the heart and soul of the music. Yes, in terms of music theory melody is there, but it no longer drives the songs. It makes a song like Bottom Of The Death Valley, a song I originally love, sound void and lifeless in a very bad way.
Another issue is that band just seems to be trying too hard with these remakes. You’ve got kyo’s unnecessary vocal wails and unintelligible growls, way too much palm muting in the guitars ( again further stripping melody), and with all these added layers of guitars, vocals and instrumentation the songs lack atmosphere. Compare Macabre and it’s original counter part or even Kasumi.
The only song I feel got close to the magic of the original was The Final. Everything else was fail. As a diru fan and guitar nerd I appreciate the effort and musicianship that went into the remakes, but they just don’t compare to the originals. And of course, I’m going to compare them to the originals because they are the standard those songs set. I feel the band would have been better off making original songs rather than remakes. The bad part about this is that now they’ll probably play the remake of these songs live rather the original versions. I always wanted to hear the orginal Kasumi and BOTD live, but I guess that won’t happen now.
I really hope they stop with these remakes. Next they’ll mess up Cage.
I give it a 7/10.
Despite, not living up to standard, I can’t deny the musicianship and some of the interesting aspects that came out of the “re-imagining.”. However disappointing this was, it’s still a good release IMO.
And on a side note, Shinya’s drumkit does sound a bit off. Some of the snare work and hi hats sound weird.
