paradoxal

Welcome to MH! We might not share the same music taste now, but wait until I'll start throwing some recommendations... justkidding

"The best of the best of albums will be released next year"

Artist: NEMETH Album: Creature Score: Generic sentence for a generic release.
Everyone can thank paradoxal for this review. While in the chat, she suggested I try this out if I were in the neighborhood for something new. The most apparent thing from this experiment is how different my music taste is from the average visual kei fan. So, if you don't find yourself always agreeing with how I feel about these types of bands remember that I'm in a different place musically than most MHites.

I'm not going to whitewash anything: brutal kei is not my thing. Never has been and never will be. This is overly aggressive visual kei with a twist: there are some ideas here and there. I'll mention a few in this review. In between "here" and "there" is a lot of nothing interesting and a vocalist attempting to recreate sounds outside of his vocal range. His clean vocals are a little flat but he can harmonize and will improve with some practice. On the flip side, he's going to destroy his vocal chords if his vocal fry technique doesn't improve. Harsh vocals are not good by virtue of wrangling out any sounds possible and visual kei bands need to stop doing this. It never sounds good and never sounds like how it should. There's training that he must go through to achieve the power and technique missing in his delivery. So I'll just make a blanket statement now that every single attempt at sounding brutal on this mini fails. Charles Lee Ray II and Ellie in particular sound like a mess featuring lots of badly juxtaposed elements.

So that leaves us with three songs worth talking about and those three songs don't suck as much. The compositional formula is nothing new: aggressive verses into lighter choruses. NEMETH doesn't do anything wrong with it. The riffs are nothing special. I caught one reminiscent of G (Luna Sea)/Unknown...despair...a lost (Diru)/S.I.N. (-OZ-), so use that as a benchmark of "riff variety". Beautiful Distortion features some ideas where they switch it up with an attempt at polyrythmic riffing (note: they didn't actually nail it). I'll give them points there for trying. But much too often, there's just slow breakdowns, bad harsh vocals, and nothing in between. There was not a single solo or progression outside verse-chorus-breakdown interchange. An upside to this mini being short is that none of these songs drag on. If they were any longer all the songs would suffer for it.

Lackluster production for an indie band shouldn't be a surprise. I do want to mention the prioritization on heaviness over power. Metalcore works best when there is power and energy behind the music to deliver that rush. That power is not present here. The guitars have more weight to them than they should and while the bassist manages to poke through here and there with some interesting lines the bass pedal and most of the drummer is muffled. His omnipresent cymbal riding, which borders on abusive, is his only claim to fame. He has some moments like at the beginning of Curse and Beautiful Distortion where he is actually audible, but balancing in the mix is required. Not having a budget is one thing. Not having any balance is another.

At the end of the day, if this is the best that heavy visual kei band have to offer for me count me out. Another dime a dozen band that doesn't sound too bad but won't be going anywhere. If you like music like I've described, this is another solid metalcore release for you. But I'm positive that even within this scene there are other bands that do this sound better.

We all know he's actually Jun anyways.

look at my status

I can dig this

My take on DIV, didnt really want to post but I like them, so:
Defined signature sound, unique approach to electronic infused rock music, relevant themes in songs, one of the best lyricists, amazing clear voice with unique deepness, defined and fun guitar, defined personalities, great production quality, high release rate, well managed and the fanbase always knows what is going on. Etc...
I would say, along with others I know, that Zero One was one of the best albums of last year as well.
I guess it helps that Chisa is over with the fan girls as well...

...and there will be Types A to X.

SET-LIST at 2014/07/29:
 
01.GARNET
02.DEATH POINT
03.DEVIL'S PARADE
04.MIRROR

I agree with you 100%. Utakata is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and actually I agree with you also that usually VK ballads tend to be very disappointing.
But still I do have some favorites:
 
Lycaon - 愛はきらめきの中に ～Acoustic Ver～
X Japan - Crucify my love (ok this one's cheesy as fuck but it's soo pretty!)
Para:noir - December 24
 
Out of those three my favorite is probably December 24. It's so freaking beautiful.

The funny thing is this mini-album is really too bad that not much people cared enough to discuss about it. It's just "let's agree with Zess, there's not much more to say" haha
 
When they first revealed they were making a new mini-album for their anniversary, I got excited for it. I thought "wow something big is coming" and then they released a preview for STALIN. They just put some random catchy refrain on it. Ruined for me. Then I waited till the mini-album to be released. What a... what's that? e-e I liked Haisou no Chou a little bit to be honest, but I can't even remember it, it's not the kind of song I listen ten times a day. Maybe BORN can already disband?

What?  No, that would be totally unfair.  It's because that outfit is extremely stylin'.  I like to consider myself a bit of a fashionista, if you want to know the truth.

looking at the setlist, i want a dvd!

digi always reminds me of some mix between Bambi and a pin-up model!
 
I saw this interesting make-up tutorial, and I wanted to try the eyeshadow she showed in it. Normally I don't use eyeshadow, so of course the make-up session turned into taking-selfies-and-photoshopping hour.
 

 
(Pfft, the wig is too up and three hours of sleep -eyes.)

I always look so sad in pictures when I'm actually quite happy, lol.
 

A damp bath towel.

Lol what a fucking emo, listening to FFDP and shit.
 
http://www.last.fm/user/corpsedancer

gurl 9,000 Lycaon plays, rly? you ain't fooling no one leaving iTunes playing on repeat overnight for that top listener spot
 
http://www.last.fm/user/penny-lee

Kuruto injured himself in March but has been back in action since May actually, which is great to see.
 
 
 
Aki's clean vocals were what drew me to the band in all honesty. He has a good range, doesn't sound (too) whiny or over-the-top, and generally does what a good vocalist has to do. I'm not quite sure what you mean by not "singing from the heart" - because to me he sure sounds sincere enough XD
 
In any case, people familiar with me will know that barring a handful of exceptions I'm not a big fan of metalcore and I find at least half of those stuff unlistenable (sorry). Still, I find Arlequin to be 1 of those that tread the line between metalcore and pop exceptionally well. Emblematic of this is, of course, their self-titled demo which showcases their versatility that (hopefully) can only improve with time.
 
Oh and my favorite song is 白死蝶 (though it's probably oh-so-boring to most other fans )

They're the like 1 random brvtal beep-boop-core band that's actually good. I enjoy most of their stuff, although their Stella single was pretty underwhelming. I see that they are also doing well in terms of domestic sales, so that's always a good thing (especially for being on a very new label). 

How am I supposed to hold my orgasms? 

Things you never hear VK bands say:
 
 
 
 
sorry i had to 

Hold your orgams, here you have their new look!!!

source official twitter: https://twitter.com/despairsrayinfo