I listened to this album a few times now, so let's see what do we have here~
VANITAS VANITATUM: I was surprised how good this was for an intro, especially how it transitions into a sort of mini-song. Nice one!
PURGATORY: I'm usually not too picky when it comes to Jin's vocals but his screaming here is kinda annoying, lol. The song itself is nothing special, especially after such a promising intro. Reminds me of the Grave from their first album (but that one was actually quite good).
FABLE IN THE COLD BED: When I first heard this song as NEGA's comeback after their year-long hiatus I was blown away, fantastic stuff. I still love it just as much, and it fits very nicely with the mood of the album. That creepy high-pitched chanting part is so awesome, as is the colorful synth-backing, among other things.
GOODBYE HUMAN: Easily one of my new favorite NEGA songs. It has that infectuous rollicking beat done to death by a few dozen bands already, but it still works. The chorus is really catchy with Ray's shouts, and the random samples are a nice touch too. It has a nice guitar solo too. A cool song to blast loudly and dance like a retard, lol.
Biran yueni: Kinda resembles Baku~kono akumu kurai tamae~ from their first album in its atmosphere. Just like that one, this didn't really grab me as anything special (more like annoying at certain parts), but it has some interesting bits. Sadly, these instances are not enough to save the song.
V-ROCK IS DEAD: A weird kind of sound but with the usual pessimistic NEGA attitude. I like how it becomes more and more dense as the verses go along (with their amusing lyrics xD). The chorus is pretty nice - would love to hear more Ray shouts though. Not bad actually! After my initial shock to the sound I became quite fond of this tune, it's a nice addition to the album's theme and sound.
Tamerau kotonaku......: This song could have been a lot better if they tightened it up a bit and got rid of 2 minutes. This way it has its cool parts spread out over almost 6 minutes (some riffs here, a solo there, nice pianos) but it becomes stale and boring quickly, once again the bland parts overbearing the interesting ones, like in track 05.
Munashiki 「ki」 no guui ≒ 「shi」 no shini: Clearly the centerpiece of the album. A gorgeous long track that builds from being slowly melodic to fast and furious, adorned with some nice little bits and pieces, like Ray's bass solo, or Yuu's little corner of going crazy on the piano and drums - pretty eerie. The whole song has such a nice atmosphere too, it really represents the overall mood of the album. I'm glad that they were able to pull off such a long song and made it so nice in the process.
WILL: the first real ballad on the album, and it's actually not bad. I'm totally not a ballad person and this is obviously not the best ballad in the universe (far from it, lol) but it's kinda nice and listenable. The main guitar part (with the piano and bass hints) is so simple but so pretty, I guess that was what initially drew me in. Kinda average but good to listen to.
2012: An instant favorite of mine. I love it when NEGA forget about their overt gloomy-depressive side and come up with stuff like this: a catchy VK pop-rock song (kinda reminiscent of 17sai no kodoku). The synths are a nice touch too, they add to the catchiness. A nice touching song.
DELUGE: whoah, total change of style, haha. I was already fond of this track before, still lovin' it. A nice overly aggressive NEGA song, half of what I love them for, so I can't complain. Not much else to say here.
HINDSIGHT: ugh, this track is still so boring as hell and doesn't go anywhere. If I could rearrange the album I'd get rid of this, substitute it with the 12-minute long song, and put REASONANCE in place of that one to track 08, lol. Would be much better that way IMO. Well I don't really have anything to say about this song, it's crap. xD
OMNIA VANITAS: ooh~ an outro with piano and random whispering, i.e. nothing we haven't heard before.
REASONANCE: of course NEGA tried to be cool kidz and put the hidden song onto track 69, surprise surprise. The song itself is pretty kickass however. It's a fast & mean - the style they're known for, I guess. It's good when they're doing it good, and here it works. Also has an obligatory hilarious-VK-lyrics moment in the form of the lines "I felt murderous / Like a dildo" ...now if that's not classy, I don't know what is, haha.
Overall I pretty much like this album. It's a nice continuation and improvement on their first full-length effort with more complex and thought-out songs. Of course I have to note that handful of dull (or downright irritating) tracks too. It's kinda like if the 1st album had an almost equal level of "pretty good", while this one has more contrasted swings between "whoah cool" and "ugh boooring". Dunno which one is better yet, but I sure do enjoy this one. My score would be a 7.5/10. A good follow-up to their first full-length.
