Opened by 慟哭 (Doukoku), the album seems set to a melancholic mood. Which perhaps the whole idea/concept for the album. Cold Blood as the album title seems a way to address someone that are on antagonist role, the person who cheat and break the relationship between two hearts. Mao sang whole heartedly in this opening track. He didn't sounds like he used to, at least until chorus breaks in.
Followed by Juggernaut that were one of three singles released for this album, as we knew. So nothing much to say. And then LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD chime in. It was nice, though at some guitar parts i can't help to think about GazzetE. Doesn't implying they copy pasting riffs though, so please watch that out.
Nothing much can be said for this third song in the album, it just sounds like typical VK hard songs.
Still neat though.
And then, 砂漠??シンドローム (Sabaku no Syndrome), i like this one better, just sounds more structured despite the fast paced tunes. And every members just sounds trying more than what they usually did in this song. Which i appreciate muchly. Thereafter, we have 棘-toge-, was a final single of the consecutive three.
And was the best one too, for me anyway. Medium tempo with emotional lyrics, or should i call it "cheerful ballad"?
And we're already half way listening to the album.
And so far so good, nothing too bad but nothis so great as well. What's next? Will there be ground breaking song? Well, let's proceed to listen the second half to find out.
started by deathtopia, the intro was a bit tricky.
You would think it gonnabe a ballad, and goes "Oh, no~~!" but then it became faster and bolder which may make you cheers "YAY~~!"
It is a nice song, though honestly, with this kind of title, i would wish something that really touches heart. i was wishing something very dark, gloomy, depressing , on both the lyrics, and music that any trip hop artist could do twice better for this kind of title. Though wishing things like this may be too high for Sadie standard.
Hm, i found that ドレス (Dress) is boring. And again, when Mao was speak-singing, it brought my minds to Kodou by Dir en Grey, just the style of talking, not the music, i must note this before any fanatic would burn me alive with gasoline for saying such blasphemy.
Graceful Angel came after, somehow i enjoyed the music on intro. The aprt where the low basslines were met with guitar shreds. It's so KoRn-ish!
But overall, the song was bad, i only looking forward the korn-ish part verse after verse tbh. theat the only good thing from this track.
And then i was wishing for no ballad come follows cos that would be too predictable. And..., that doesn't happen, quite.
霞??消??る?? (Kasumi ni kieru hana) was a power ballad track, i enjoyed it though. To hear Mao singing, is something i always enjoyed more than when he screams or growls. Still, nothing special for this track.
Hmmmm, Girugamesh?? That's what i think the very first time listening the computerized hand claps on GIMMICK. And seriously, i didn't even trying to compare Sadie with anyother bands. It just happened.
Even the whole base for this track are very girugamesh-y.
Probably my favourite track from this album, as i really enjoyed it when i hear the first time in single format, クライモア (Cry More), nothing much i could say, it's been reviewed earlier. It's cheesy as fuck, but it's catchy so any of your arguments is invalid. And regarding 瞼??憂鬱 (Mabuta no Yuutsu), probably one best track for this album. This should be a single, this just so good, despite the mediocre-ness. But it's exceptional, and a good closing track. I didn't count the unplugged as closing track cos you know, it'sa bonus track, not a part of main album.
It conclude every emotions that the speaker feels quite good, though could be much better.
I must say, doing an unplugged track tend to be a gamble for artist. It's either, one need to totally rearranged the song to meet the quality for a song to be sung in acoustic. Or one need a vocalist with characteristic and powerful pipe, so songs would have more soul when sang with minimal distortion. And ドレス (Dress) (unplugged ver.) doesn't meet that standards, unfortunately. Especially Mao was more to blabbing than singing. Seriously, at least 1/8 of the track was him whispering some desu desu desu. I found that irritating.
It doesn't quite grasp on to my heart nor ears. Lucky the piano rendition is nice, so one could ignore the vocal and just focus listening to the music.
Overall, it's a so-so album. The up side, the sound quality is clear, even i just got the 128 rip.
The down side, it's very mediocre, while many songs are potential to be produced better than this. Given enough time they had since the last single release to this album release, which is quite long enough for artist that doesn't really have busy schedule, i wonder if they really trying?
In the end, it's back to your own ears again.
This is my personal opinion after listening the album few rounds with my music player. Which some of you may disagree. Which is fair. I just hope this can be accepted with an open mind.
