For the record, I did not have any expectations whatsoever for VANITAS. With the Dir en grey-screaming title, the two lackluster singles (even though the main riff of FABLE IN THE COLD BED was enjoyable a little while) and a "new sound" that was absolutely bland, NEGA couldn't set a much lower new standard for themselves. Now, I do enjoy their early work (pretty much all of their first three mini-albums), but I have come to the conclusion that things have steadily been going downhill for them since about 2008. PERESTROIKA was a nice detour with some fresh songs and pretty interesting synth-laced breakdowns when it didn't sound so much like Withering to death.-era Dir en grey. Since their "rebirth", I've felt that all of their songs now have to feature the "new" elements to their sound, the synth or the vocoder, for better or worse (in the vast majority of cases, for the worse).
Now, VANITAS is pretty big concept-wise and draws up some potentially interesting ideas. However, all of NEGA's attempts at being serious fall short of these ambitious goals and turn out to be no more than horrid musical amalgamations, more often than not featuring entire sections of various songs from Dir en grey's two latest albums. The lead track, 虚しき「生」の寓意≒「死」の真意, shows this ambition - with a pretty much meaningless first 5½ minutes or so featuring the obligatory sleazy chorus and the UROBOROS-style breakdown, it grows into something with an actual atmosphere during the drum/bass solo, only to go haywire ("guys we can experiment with our sound guys we are serious now for real") with the pseudo-classic piano duelling Yuu's frenetic drumming which then turns into a generic "build-up" part... The rest is nothing to write home about and after the 10 minute mark or so, it is simply meaningless to continue listening to the track because the chorus and the heavy part appear in the exact same way and progression they did the first time around. The track comes "full circle" and we're left with what we started - nothing.
The rest of the tracklist isn't that redeeming either. I honestly half expected hearing 狂骨の鳴り in VANITAS VANITATUM and as such wasn't surprised, but that track actually worked as an intro and (albeit barely) managed to build up a kind of ambience - only to have it shattered with the next track. PURGATORY, while having a disgustingly "metalcore" intro, actually has a somewhat pleasant, redeeming main riff as well as a chorus that doesn't make me want to barf, unlike the following track, FABLE IN THE COLD BED. On PURGATORY, I can actually stand Jin's horrible screaming and the song itself isn't long enough to make me too bored with the repetitiveness. Following the seriously irritating FABLE IN THE COLD, which by the way shatters what was left of the ominous atmosphere of the intro, is the obligatory ~jazzy~ track of the album, GOODBYE HUMAN. There is absolutely nothing in this track, save for the somewhat entertaining guitar solo, worth mentioning. 糜爛故に hangs on one riff that becomes boring in about 10 seconds. It is the only purely heavy song on this album and it has absolutely no sense of progression whatsoever.
As for V-ROCK IS DEAD, I really don't see what the commotion is all about. In my opinion, it being the only track with a maxed out PERESTROIKA factor in their sound, the song is for me far more interesting to listen to than, say, 糜爛故に, WILL or DELUGE. Whether it is a parody song or not is to me completely irrelevant as I can actually listen to this. Next up is 躊躇うことなく「 」を傷付けた指先は、途惑うことなく穢れた「 」を飾る, no doubt excluded from their DELUGE single to score some edginess and ~true musicality~ points for the band. This is NEGA songwriting at its dullest, as this makes no impact on me at all.
Following the 12 minute song made purely for the band to have a 12 minute song is WILL, a song that actually manages to be somewhat nice. That is, up until the curiously out-of-place chorus which turns the sleaziness up to its highest level on this record. The rest is your typical, boring ballad with ~epic~ guitar soloing. 2012, albeit possessing an interesting synth line and a listenable main riff, sounds like something that would fit more in REALies' discography, not NEGA's. DELUGE is insanely boring metalcore with no redeemable qualities. HINDSIGHT, one of the few okay tracks of this album, has now been provided with a generic rain SFX/piano intro. I'm not a fan of the chorus but the rest of the song sounds strangely listenable, considering the rest of this album. OMNIA VANITAS isn't even worth typing about, as it is the usual piano and whispering "mood setter".
If I weren't nauseatingly tired of the musical elements used and re-used ad infinitum in NEGA's recent songwriting (the typical breakdowns, the whispering over heavy parts, use of vocoder, use of synth and/or piano breakdowns, excessive use of synth strings, etc.) already, I definitely am now.
