r...

Looking forward to it, his last mini was most excellent. Instrumental albums, and especially by guitarists can get very one-dimentional, but only if its SHREDSHREDSHRED, SCALEDOWNSCALEUPSCALEDOWN all the time.

I liked it too. It's their first post-reunion CD I enjoy. I'd give it a 6/10, enjoyable but still too many Ishii songs. The 2nd half is probably the strongest part of the album, and, as you can imagine, it's basically Ao running the show.

Songwriting credits if anyone besides Pretsy cares:

1- 吐イテ棄テロ - Song and lyrics by Ishii

2- JAP ザ リパー - Lyrics: Ao/Song: Ishii

3- 娑婆乱打 - Song and lyrics by Ishii

4- コック ア ドゥードゥル - Lyrics: Ishii/Song: Ishii and Kenjirou

5- その斜陽、あるいはエロチカ: - Song and lyrics by Ao

6- アイアイ - Song and lyrics by Ishii

7- 初恋中毒 - - Song and lyrics by Ao

8- すべてが狂ってる ~私は子供が嫌いです 編~ - Song and lyrics by Ao

9- 暗中浪漫 - Song and lyrics by Ishii

10- 最後の宿題 - Song and lyrics by Ao

11- 東京、40時29分59秒 - Song and lyrics by Ao

Thanks again, Xio.

Maybe next year we'll get a follow-up.

This is disappointing on so many levels, just like the 1st one.

The only redeeming versions are ADAPTER's and Moran. ADAPTER. couldn't go wrong choosing a CASCADE song. Love the verses. Probably the best version here. Moran did a great job, but my only gripe is that Hitomi/Sanaka/Kanoma is not as strong vocally as GACKT, but it's ok.

Megamasso, HERO, Chemical Pictures and Blu-BiLLioN are plain bad. JAM is an amazing song (the original, that is), but Tenten sings it like he's in a karaoke box. And he goes off key in the middle, fuck that. Way to destroy the song.

Blu-BiLLioN's arrangement is ok, love the main riff with the keyboard. But who is that vocalist and who said that he can sing?

Megamasso continues their utter suckage destroying one good 90's song after the other. The vocals seem to be pushed to the back of the mix, I dunno. The original is where it's at, ~again~.

HERO's arrangement is pretty close to the original, but Jin is horrendous as always. He's childish and not in a cute Sharaku/TAMA way.

The rest is very bland. Besides a couple of minor changes, they follow the original very closely. amber gris, 9GOATS, OZ, v[NEU], etc all play by the book and maybe too safe. Stick with the originals.

Rating: 03/10~