12012 - 12012

[Licio123 181]

Still giving the album a second spin, but I'm enjoying it. The "headbang" tracks aren't anything to write home about, but for now, I really like SUICIDE, Suiren, En and FORTITUDE.

I'll add a track by track review tomorrow.

MADARA: Kinda creepy intro, but nothing really happens. meh. 5/10

SUICIDE: Damn those previews that... preview the worst part of a song! SUICIDE is actually a pretty good track, and by that, it's when Wataru is not growling. He just can't do it. But other than that, he sings really well, the guitars are pleasing, and the chorus is nothing revolutionary but I liked it. 7/10

BAAL-ZEBUL: Wataru screams this whole frekin' song, and that is enough for me to just put it away. Not intresting instrumentally wise, also. It starts as nothing and end as nothing. 3.5/10

ABUSE: Yet another song that Wataru growls and screams, but this is a bit better, The chorus isn't so bad, and a few parts of it are actually listenable. But nothing great. 5/10

Suiren:: Suiren marks the start of the best part of the album. This is a ballad-like song, very emotional, and with Wataru singing. At last. Still nothing out of the ordinary, but much better than the last 2 songs. Also gives a dark vibe that made it more enjoyable. 8/10

Jasetzu: This is a heavier track, but so, SO much better tha the first 3, more balanced vocals and the guitar is quite nice. It gave me hope that the forthcoming headbanging would be more inspired. Good track. 7.5/10

En: The structure is really similar to Suiren, but while the other was dark, this one gives me a lighter feeling, soft to the ear but never boring. Wataru really shines on this one and the solo is short but sweet. Wataru's WOAOHOOOOOAHAHA is a nice way to end the song. XD 8/10

HESITATION: I was going to give this a 6, but man, this is actually a pretty good song! Heavier but with good singing parts, in the chorus especially, and a nice solo. Not on par with the previous 3, but good nonetheless. 7/10

FEROCIUS: Bah, just not good. A pretty boring track, guess they wanted to make something dark and heavy, but failed. 5/10

HIDE & SEEK: Nope, too much screaming, too "in a hurry". Growls, screams... no. Chorus is not that bad, but no. Pretty weak. 5/10

MADMAN: Wha... almost like H&S but even worse. Oh boy. 3/10

FORTITUDE: After 3 bad songs, I really didn't expect this. FORTITUDE shines, and is the best song of this self-titled. The instruments are great, the guitar is awesome, emotional singing by Wataru reminds me a lot of Over. Not only this is the best song here, but better than any on SEVEN, Mar Maroon or DIAMOND. Great, great surprise. 9.5/10

OVERALL: 7.5/10

When it was announced, this album was instantly my most expected of 2012, since they took a long break and almost disbanded. After the previews, the hype was still there but I was expecting the worst. In some tracks, the worst happened, but Suiren, Jasetzu, EN and especially FORTITUDE kept my faith on this band alive. They can do better, SEVEN was easily their best IMO, but this is not as bad as I expected after the disastrous previews. A good job by 12012, but not great.

Oh, and it's clear, the DEG influence is there. I don't care what people say, I guess it could have been worse if they tried to create a style of their own. XD. And getting inspiration from other bands is not bad, since I don't think they ripped them off.

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

My track by track is up at ShanethVarosa.Tumblr.com.

I usually say "read if you want" but I'm actually proud of the little rant I had at the end XD

I was overall disappointed in the album not by it's badness, but in how indifferent I was. Most of the tracks were just uninspiring, but the silver lining was Fortitude. That, imho, was a really outstanding song.

[minre 13]

almost all the choruses gave off the exact same feeling that it just really annoyed me.

I would have almost liked the release if not for that.

[froggyman75 28]

I'm doing this review as I listen to the album for the first time so not everything here is my final thoughts. If I give it another spin I'll add my final thoughts later.

MADARA - intro/10

Standard intro is standard. Nothing much going on here.

SUICIDE - 5/10

Didn't enjoy this song too much from the PV but listening to it again now it's growing on me. Wataru should really stop those horrible growls that he's trying to do though. It's almost enough to make my ears bleed. The chorus sticks with me though.

BAAL-ZEBUL - 2/10

Okay, what the fuck is this? I'm getting a very (earlyish) Girugamesh-esque feel from this song, but not the good sort of feel. Wataru's growls are once again, atrocious. This song just isn't clicking with me at all.

ABUSE - 3/10

Same with the last song really. The chorus in this seems really out of place but it's better than the rest of this song. I'm liking this more than Baal but it's still just not that good.

SUIREN - 7/10

Standard ballad here really. Generic as fuck but it's the best and most listen-able song so far. Wataru should stick to singing this way rather than the horrible operatic singing he was doing in Suicide. I actually quite like this song.

JAZETSU - 6/10

This song starts off a lot better than the other "heavy" songs. The bass drum clicking is REALLY bad though. Wataru's growling is once again, horrible. They could have just got rid of his growling from the track during that bit between the verses, during/after the "solo" and the outro and this song would have been a lot better. Overall though this song is definitely the best harder song so far.

EN - 8/10

Another pretty decent song here. I get a bit of a Rentrer en Soi vibe from this. No horrible screaming, decent singing and no horrible drum clicking. I think they actually managed a song I can consider good on this album.

HESITATION - 5/10

Starts off good and then Wataru came in... I'm starting to see a little trend here. Another "pretty okay" song. Nothing special but at least it's not filled with horrible growls.

FEROCIOUS - 4/10

Thanks to the vocal effects, Wataru's screaming actually sounds listen-able. Although those talked verses sound pretty horrible. Not liking this song much though.

HIDE & SEEK - 7/10

This is actually the only song that gives me a Dir en grey vibe. The song started off pretty bad but I actually quite like this, well, at least a lot more than their other "br00tal" songs.

MADMAN - 1/10

Thank god this song is only 2 minutes. Drum clicks and horrible screaming all over the place.

FORTITUDE - 9/10

Another (present) Girugamesh-esque song. I think this is probably my favourite track from the album. Not much else I can say really.

Overall - 6/10

While this album has a few good tracks (Fortitude, En, Hesitation, Suiren) this album is just pretty shit. I enjoy this album a hell of a lot more than Mar Maroon and I still find it better than most indie-VK bands but for 12012 and an album that's supposed to be "back to their roots" this album does a pretty crappy job at it.

[sai 868]

I already had a feeling I wasn't really going to enjoy this album. After a good listen I'm now ready to give my thoughts about it. And it ain't gonna be pretty.

First off, absolutely nothing makes sense. These are songs put together on a record, but I just don't get what they're trying to say here, or better DO here. It's completely filled with those metalcore inspired songs, full of grunting and screaming, with the same sort of chorus over and over again. Messy doesn't have to be a bad thing, but with 12012 it just doesn't work. The composition was rubbish. The drums were not even noticable, apart from the annoying CLICK CLICK CLICK in all those heavy songs, the bass had its moment and the guitar did nothing interesting either. Then we come to one of my main problems of this album: Wataru.

No matter how much I love the man's voice, it's like I'm not listening to the same man anymore. He has completely ditched his former style of singing which I loved (and he showed off very well on their previous album SEVEN) and seems to have turned into a copy of several singers combined. His grunts are beyond awful (even ASAGI grunts better than this), his screaming is below average and his normal vocals sound like someone just kicked him in the balls multiple times. We heard on one or two tracks on SEVEN that high notes aren't what he should be focussing on, because he can hardly reach them. He has improved on this record, but when he does it so often and in such bad tracks, I can't not hate it. Every single time one of those similar choruses comes in he tries doing the chorus in a high operatic voice, what I'd like to call the Kyo trend (going back to somewhere end of 2009).

If there's one thing I hate, it's people comparing pretty much everything with DIR EN GREY. Inspiration is different than just clear rip-offs, and inspiration doesn't have to be a bad thing if it can help a band find their own sound and produce good music. This however, was just an awful rip-off. Everything DEG did on MOO 12012 tried on this record. I never liked MOO for the exact same problems as I described for this album. The only remotely good non-boring track FORTITUDE can't save an album entirely filled with rubbish.

What were they trying to do here? Return to their roots? Take up a new style? If the first, you've done a horrendous job at it, SEVEN went into a much better direction than this did. If the second option, drop it immediately and find something to do that doesn't abuse my and everybody's eardrums. Only positive thing I have to say about this is that the production was really good, only the way the instruments were used just wasn't the way it should've.

3/10

[Masamune 72]

Won't do a track by track review as the album doesnt deseve it, was boring, generic and the songs were just plain BAD.

Sai has pretty much said everything that needs to be said, i really liked FORTITUDE.....that was it.

[Saaam-chan 50]

The album was pretty okay for me ~

but i was never a big fan of them... So i didnt have any expections for this~

but i dont understand all the hate ...

Its still better then all the new visu indie crap out here...

Phuuu...

But i understand your dissapointment ... When you really love a band... And they come back as semi metalcore...

Then it sucks...

But at least .. they are back... And we can look forward to better releases !!!

[relentless 254]

1. Madara -- Your typical Dir en grey-esque intro 2/10

2. SUICIDE -- The musicianship is pretty good but Wataru's growls and screams kind of ruin it, he needs lots of practice. 6/10

3. BAAL-ZEBUL -- The Blossoming Beezlebub intro for 5 seconds then it turns into your typical Japanese-VK-BR00TAL METAL sound though there is one or two decent moments 4/10

4. ABUSE -- What the hell is this? Completely out of place "chorus" too. 4/10

5. Suiren -- typical ballad and awkwardly placed especially with how ridiculous this album's been so far 4/10

6. Jazetsu -- Early girugamesh riffs with a Dum Spiro Spero writing state of mind, still kinda boring 3/10

7. EN -- WUHH OHHH WUHH OOHHHH WUHH OHHH WUHHHHHH OHHHHH WUHHHHH OHHHHHHH WUHHHHH OOHHHH <--- Wataru trying to do Kyo's harmonies, fails miserably. 2/10

8. HESITATION -- Starts off with a riff Red (or any other christian metal / post grunge band) would write and then goes into something else entirely. The chorus is pretty cool though 5/10

9. FEROCIOUS -- If D'espairsRay sucked just a little bit more 3/10

10. HIDE & SEEK -- Some attempts at blast beats, the song is just wayy too straightforward with nothing rewarding. 3/10

11. MADMAN -- Wat.... 1/10

12. FORTITUDE -- surprisingly a veryyy good track that showcases Wataru's vocals in a positive light. One of the only good things about the album especially with how it naturally picks up and ascends into a pretty solid climax. 8/10

In Sum: A few things. People often state that Mao is the biggest Kyo wannabe, but I'm pretty sure this album proves it's actually Wataru. I know comparing Dir en grey to anything is unfair and borderline douchey (unless done right!) but Wataru isn't afraid to wear the strong influences on his sleeve to make them so obvious. He idolizes Kyo. And to assert that, now they're suddenly remaking old tracks with a new touch? What other band on the SAME LABEL as them has done that previously? Oh wait...

I'm sure the band switched to Firewall to follow their leader samas but also to make an album that they wanted to without little interruption, but that's not always good. The album holds almost no consistency for each track and that has always been 12012's weakness for me -- they have great concepts through albums but they never hold a similar tune to make it a GOOD album. The only thing that wraps this up in the end is Fortitude but even that ending is weak and doesn't reference anything previous. This album was a mess and a pain to listen to.

4/10

[jduv86 224]

It was ok....I don't think this needs a track by track review. To be honest nothing really stood out to me. Hopefully this is just a "getting back into the swing of things" album. I look forward to new and better releases now that they are back.

Miss the "Play Dolls" era.

[Zeus 7997]

I've never been the biggest fan of 12012 even though I enjoy their early work around Knight mare era. I'll warn you now though: this review is going to be harsh. Zess was not pleased.

Let's run down all of the good things that people hit before: Suiren, En, Fortitude, recording quality. These three are the only tracks worth listening to on this album with Fortitude easily being the best of them. These three songs sound like they were penned in a different session when 12012 were actually trying to write music before they said "fuck it, let's switch gears".

The rest of the album is garbage. The intro isn't even ominous - it's just two minutes of monotonous droning - and every track that I haven't mentioned on the main CD is an amalgation of strained grunting, muffled screaming, uninspiring drum lines, inaudible bass and lame, monophonic, and chugging guitar lines all run through the recycled song factory...and that's pretty much it. There's no substance to half of these songs and when it wants to go into a chorus it's always the high, operatic Hageshisa type which sounds just plain awful. There's nothing left to criticize because there's nothing here to criticize. There was literally NO effort put into composing any of these songs at any point. None. At all.

All of the re-recordings are inferior to the originals. Whilst Wataru's singing voice has improved, his harsh vocals bring everything down. Sad thing is that the re-recordings are fairly enjoyable but it's probably because the band's actually doing something instead of playing tryhard metalcore and attempting to be evil. The re-recordings don't sound half as anemic as the new material though.

That's all 12012 (the album is). When they aren't trying to be hardcore, they deliver the best tracks on the album which shows that 12012 can still make good music when they put some elbow grease into it. Instead they decide to brazenly chug through three or four songs in a row while Wataru gargles and it results in the worst record of their career.

To rank below Mar Maroon is an accomplishment. 3/10, with a reserved spot in "Worst of 2012" already.

[platanity 99]

I'm the only one that like the album... This means that I like Sh*t xD. not a Review per track but a give it 8.5/10, nothing more to say !.

cant i agree more

i mean i do tend to have an open mind (unless its like drastic vk with girly makeups and ridiculous dresses from some mediocre renaissance period)

but at the same time i do agree that wataru's performance isnt as polished like he used to in the indie ages ,

but he DO sing, altho its a production record where he can try as many times as he wants to reach his favorable pitch and notes .

01 - 斑 : 01/05 - it wasnt anything special but it wasnt that horrible either . but nothing to mention .

02 - SUICIDE : 03/05 - decent "12012-ish wataru style" chorus . but i do admit wataru's growls are not something you want keep listening to

03 - BAAL-ZEBUL : 02/05 - the only part i want to point out is the wataru's background vocal during chorus . besides , nothing special

04 - ABUSE : 03/05 - i really liked the chorus , i mean lingering between notes was a nice melody !

05 - 睡蓮 : 04/05 - altho the intro reminded me of old school girugamesh but hell, and the piano solo seemed to be replaced from a guitar solo , but sill nice !

06 - 蛇舌 : 02/05 - nothing special besides wataru's high pitched vocals ?

07 - 艶 : 05/05 - maybe its my best pick from album . i like this melodical grieving guitar riffs . the vocal works are flowing pretty nice too, no drastic breaks .

08 - HESITATION : 02/05 - i dunno but i got to say that this song reminded me of dir en grey a lot . especially background guitar riff that looks like been chopped off from repetition of hatred of dir en greys and all over .

09 - FERO CIOUS : 02/05 - catchy verse but else , , , nothing special to mention

10 - HIDE & SEEK : 05/05 - my second bick , altho the structure or the flow reminds me of different sense of dir en grey , typical rush through and chorus breaks . still nice chorus . and also , i like this kind of chorus where the drum loops run around together with the vocals and guitars

11 - MADMAN : 02/05 - it almost sounded dead tired version of rentrer en soi satsuki voice but im sure wataru wasnt intending to .

12 - FORTITUDE : 05/05 - my last best pick . neat jpop-ish intro narration verse and nice typicial 12012 style chorus .

13~15 BONUS TRACKS : 03/05 - well 6 party stood out the most but if these are really remakes ... im not sure .

---

i just want applause to the courage and effort to turn things around ,

considering that 12012 lately has been doing all that flashy-colored all over-stuffs .

especially the concept and their outfit fashions taken much points from me

(except wataru's mimic version of c-sleazoid kyo...i hope he doesnt try the clockwork orange copy tho)

they could have done much better .

especially wataru growl points and song structures .

they seem to lack details here and there . guitar tones and drum sounds . i see many missing points also .

but overall , 4/5

[Prophet 168]

I've never a big fan of them... So, i dont expect anything from this release..

To be perfectly honest I don't like comparing bands, but it's just a big lie not to say this, no matter how many time I listen to these tracks, I get the feeling that they are trying to reach out Diru's level with their music exploration. A complete failure tho.

01. Madara - Kinda Creepy, but that's all. (2/10)

02. Suicide - Pretty decent for me, Wataru's screams are ranged from Decent to Super Annoying here, his high-pitched vocals at the chorus is not that bad, and the overall instrumental is quite "ok" here. (7/10)

03. Baal-Zebul - Ok by judging the title, i was expecting "The Blossoming Beelzebub wannabe" in this song, but it turns out to be a complete meaningless shit. (03/10)

04. Abuse - Nothing much to say, too generic. (04/10)

05. Suiren - Oh, a break track from the whole "br00tal" stuff so far, pretty decent song, Wataru's clean vocal is definitely better than his screams, growls, or shouts. (6/10)

06. Jazetsu - Intro starts pretty good, most of the vocal parts are definitely Kyo-wannabe here, i can feel it all the way, but I give Wataru a credit here for his effort, it's not that bad actually. And surprisingly i like this track. (7/10)

07. En - The instrumental is decent, but the whole things are just way too generic. (05/10)

08. Hesitation - The intro gives me Dum Spiro Spero's feel, but the rest are just plain boring. (03/10)

09. Ferocious - Another Dum Spiro Spero wannabe song, but it's super lame, super boooooring! (02/10)

10. Hide & Seek - Can't say much.. (03/10)

11. Madman - short shitty song (01/10)

12. Fortitude - Ok now the song which everyone has been praising above, it is catchy allright, Wataru sure knows how to sing this song well. But still, it's not my cup of tea. (06/10)

Overall: 5/10

[nekkichi 6043]

I don't really get why people complain about lack of variety on this album, I think there's about enough -

they're stealing from probably every notable VK release of the past 10 years -

abuse sounds like that shitty track from gazette's toxic,

suiren is easily smth recent girugamesh (or current boogieman line up) could make,

jazetsu to me is a reference to korn years of mucc,

EN sounds like typical soft kagerou song;

they hesitated to copy hesitation from MOO, but than slowed down and wrote baal zebub (that has indie gazette parts scattered around 1.25 onwards, just screams social riot machines/ruder to me);

ferocious is clearly traced from unsraw score sheets (if they bothered to write those), madman sounds like LOTUS speed up x 1,5,

madman is That Heavy Track that gazette put on each of their albums, discharge for example - except there's too much heavy poo on this album already;

fortitude is a glay-cover era to troll their major era fans (approx. 10, with 8 of them already fatally disappointed and 1 most obsessed stan hanging from the ceiling)

I sort of hoped that hide and seek would be one of their UCP time rejected demos, and chorus apparently comes from that era since it's good.

the rest of the song is horrible; the rest of the album is horrible; the self-parodies are 100 x horrible, especially with my room agony that had a decent start on play dools.

all topped up with the most off-putting guitar sounds and shittiest growls of Japan (some of those, I would assume, belong to the band and not wataru)

I wonder if my forefeeling that they'll disband on december, 12 th is right one.

they have about enough time to cash in with touring, release some VHS2DVD rarez through freewill, so 12 remaining 12012 fans could buy it and resell on yahoo marketplace, and say kaisan no shirase minna san ^___^

I give this album 10 divided by zero.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR DECADE!!!!!!!!!!!

[LIDL 692]

Well, trying the album because of their DEG influence tbh.

But i left unimpressed, i wish they could do the rip off justice,

i could at least respect them a little for the die trying efforts.

The album remains uninspired from the start until it finish.

Not even a moment that i can enjoy.

Well, perhaps i was too diluted with the dislikes by the time i am hearing this.

Gonna listen to them in next few months and see if this feelings remains.

also lol,

ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

I don't really get why people complain about lack of variety on this album, I think there's about enough -

they're stealing from probably every notable VK release of the past 10 years -

abuse sounds like that shitty track from gazette's toxic,

suiren is easily smth recent girugamesh (or current boogieman line up) could make,

jazetsu to me is a reference to korn years of mucc,

EN sounds like typical soft kagerou song;

they hesitated to copy hesitation from MOO, but than slowed down and wrote baal zebub (that has indie gazette parts scattered around 1.25 onwards, just screams social riot machines/ruder to me);

ferocious is clearly traced from unsraw score sheets (if they bothered to write those), madman sounds like LOTUS speed up x 1,5,

madman is That Heavy Track that gazette put on each of their albums, discharge for example - except there's too much heavy poo on this album already;

fortitude is a glay-cover era to troll their major era fans (approx. 10, with 8 of them already fatally disappointed and 1 most obsessed stan hanging from the ceiling)

This is probably the most beautiful writing I have seen in a while. I've never even really listened to 12012 before and kind of want to try this album to see if it is truly as entertainingly bad as everyone is saying it is.

[nekkichi 6043]

^ it' is a vag-ra tier uninspired piece of shit.

I gave it another listen the other day because I do really <3 hide and seek chorus, but for every step in the right direction they do a six mile long marathon run towards woods of mediocrity where Dir en grey were composing MOO (it's that forest from the MOO cover).

I also can't stop thinking that they had ohaitzwill in mind when doing most of composing because they're obviously targeting dir en grey fan moneys with this CD.

[Pretsy 1343]

Oh 12012, what is going with you? Did Yusuke's withdrawal affect you that badly?

I gave this album 3 chances to amaze me and you know what, I am not even willing to give this a spin anymore (Fortitude is the only one remaining in my library atm, the rest found their way in the recycle bin)

Inb4 12012 stans posting "profound" and "adequate" reviews in defense (go on, I'd like to see what's so "impressing" about this record, perhaps it's the charm of godawful vocals and "raw" mixing, right?)

4/10 (1/10 without Fortitude + calmer tracks)

Dynamite Tommy, stop butchering pls.