MEJIBRAY - Emotional【KARMA】

[ricchubunny 2013]

Well, since it's their first full album release i didn't knew what to expect.

But i'm very pleased with these guy's, they're really growing rapidly...

Well...my opinions :

Fell to the HEAVEN - Good intro song!It can be boring depending on my mood, but i really liked it. 8/10

Wrath of GOD - MEJIBRAYish song. Of course i loved it 9.5/10

いつか君に殺され死ねるなら - Another very MEJIBRAYish song. I love the chorus! 9.5/10

偽りの仮面じさつのうた - A unexpected song. But i can't listen it without think "am i listening Royz's eve:r?". So it bothers me a litlle bit... 6/10

Anemone - Well...at first i tought it would be a boring 10 minutes song. But i was wrong. I really love it. The melody is so beautiful, and i love the lyrics too...Tsuduku is love 10/10

Spice - WHAT A AWESOME SONG!!!!!!!Love the bass!!! 10/10

Invisible Tower maker - WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA it sounds like ViViD's 69-II inspired song but...........can't stop love it 100/10

EIPHILIA - Totally totally totally love oh my gosh i want to listen it at live! 10/10

Mechanical beauty - I really liked this intro but the song is...meh... 4/10

Mechanical beauty - I tought it was going to be a SuG song. Ok, nop, but its...well...hm...ok song. But...well...meh... 4/10

Final : 8/10

I think its a pretty good job. I just love this guy's more than before now, and i'm supporting them for eternity.

Sorry for kinda weird review and bad english but...I want to see you guy's opinions too!

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I was really looking forward to this album, and it didn't disappoint. Here's my two cents, song-by-song:

- Fell to the HEAVEN: Awesome mood-setter, though a bit too drawn-out. Reminded me of DEG's last two albums in atmosphere.

- Wrath of God: typical MEJIBRAY - nice and well-executed but nothing special.

- Karma -Gareki no Mantichoras-: Still one of my faves from them. I like how they re-recorded it, sounds kinda stronger maybe.

- Itsuka kimi ni korosare shineru nara: Lovin' the fast metal parts, almost a Northern melodic black/death style! The rest is usual solid MEJIBRAY. Cool song.

- Sabbat: Already know it/love it.

- Itsuwari no kamen/Jisatsu no uta: I absolutely adore this song! Cool guitar+bass work goin' on, and the whole thing is really "together".

- Anemone: Drags on more than it should, but better than what I expected. Nice guitars and chorus (usually the chorus is the downfall of slow songs for me).

- Spice: that riff feels like I heard it before somewhere, lol. Pointless song, not very interesting (that mellow part is good though).

- Invisible Tower maker: Epic pop-rock track, one of my new faves. Vaguely reminds me of major J-rock (but with more "meat", haha).

- EIPHILIA: Almost typical MEJIBRAY with some more conventional "neo VK" guitars, plus an infectious chorus. Lovin' it!

- Mechanical beauty: Holy electro-rape, Batman! Has both amazing and amazingly irritating parts, lol. Interesting experiment, that's for sure.

- Chameleon YUMMY: A punky SADS rip-off vibe going on, but still it's good fun. The type of song that they can repeat infinitely on concerts, haha.

- KILLING ME: Nothing really new here, already like this one. I would've preferred a new song as a closing track though.

All in all I pretty much liked this release. There were lots of outstanding good parts, but also some mediocre/heard-it-before things (but nothing I would label bad or unlistenable, thankfully). I appreciate their very light experimentation with electronics/programming on a few songs, it added an interesting dimension. Overall, I'm impressed. I hope they won't burn out too quickly at this amazing pace they're releasing stuff. They should go on some vacation or creative break now to keep delivering quality, haha (yeah, that probably won't happen). I'd give an 8/10 for this album, nice one!

[minre 13]

I would have liked a majority of the songs if it weren't for the vocals.

Almost every single song had some vocal section that bugged me.

Be it the filtered screams, the backing vocals, the verses, the choruses.... there was always something.

Also, for some reason, there's something about the song order that throws me off.

Not much of a review, just a general complaint, but favorite songs were probably Anemone [though it took a couple listens] and Mechanical beauty, though Eiphilia wasn't too bad.

[Rize 1593]

I'm re-reviewing this after listening a few more times

1.Fell to the HEAVEN - Great song, starting really heavy and then pretty soft. ^^ Nice way to put out a song. 8/10

2.Wrath of GOD - Great! Like the instrumentals in this ;3 Really sticking into my head^^ 9/10

3.カルマ-瓦礫のマンティコーラース- - Already heard this song for a while, and still it's my favorite<3 Even it's re-recorded^^ 10/10

4.いつか君に殺され死ねるなら - De intro.. it definitely sounds like the same intro at their live on the Sabbat type B DVD @ the song APOCALYPSE♪ ^^ really an addict song^^ 8/10

5.サバト - At first when I heard it on the single, I didn't really like it... but after listening a lot to it, I finally liked the song, as the PV too with nice fanservice for the girls ;3

6.偽りの仮面/じさつのうた - Soft song, glad to hear more 1 tone vocals from Tsuzuku. 8/10

7.Anemone - Same as above... one of my good-night songs when I'm going to sleep 8/10

8.Spice - I'm not my favorite song... but I might like it later 6/10

9.Invisible Tower maker - Definitely my favorite, really an addicted song... damn 10/10

10.EIPHILIA - It's good.. 7/10

11.Mechanical beauty - <3 10/10

12.Chameleon YUMMY - This song actually really remind me to the GazettE - SLUDGY CULT... pretty same instrumentals.. and the way of vocals.. seems for me almost alike xD but like ittttt 8/10

13.KILLING ME - also re-recorded, a bit different from their 1st single, but still good! love the growthingie at the beginning somewhere~ 10/10

As I expected from this album, it's impressive!

Looking forward for more releases... and I hope also they keep a bit their ''dark-side'' too, since SLIVERS.EXE was amazing^^

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

(Wrote a full review on my Tumblr, but I get a little tired of shamelessly plugging it here, so I'm just gonna write a brief review):

Favorite song:

Invisible Tower Maker

Other favorite songs that were also 5/5, but weren't as perfect as ITM:

Mechanical Beauty

Itsuka Kun ni Korosa re Shineru Nara

Itsuwari no Kamen/Jisatsu no Uta

Anemone

Karma

Sabato

Meh level:

Fell to the Heaven

Wrath of God

Eiphilia

Killing Me

No!:

Spice

Chameleon Yummy

[Zeus 7997]

Not going to bother with a track by track, but I'll pump out a short paragraph.

Like with pretty much every visual release released on this side of the decade, the Zess seems to find things he dislikes all over the place. These are all but small fries when Emotional【KARMA】 is taken as a whole package but these are things that I think should have been worked on but haven't been. An example of one of these things would be Tsuzuku's growls. It's clear that he's not the best at it but I expected improvement between the release of CHI【MA】 IRA (as Genki in VanessA) and this. Yet this album shows that his gutturals show no progression and he still relies on vocal filtering and other studio tricks to make any of his harsh vocals sound listenable. How much of the blame lies on the production and how much on Tsuzuku is unclear, but either way, small fries...moving on.

I'll say it right now: Emotional【KARMA】 is unlikely to end up on my "end of year" best-of list. There simply are one too many tracks that aren't up to par. Tracks like Sabbat and Karma -Gareki no Mantichoras- show that MEJIBRAY have talent and the capability to channel this talent into their music. Then you have tracks like Wrath of GOD and Chameleon YUMMY which remind you that they're still about quantity over quality. Then there's Anemone, which make you wonder why in the seven hells this band is so inconsistent. Four or five clunker tracks does not a good album make.

MEJIBRAY does the light sound well and this album even shows a flair for experimentation but MEJIBRAY is a pretty average band - being a part of a scene that for the most part has churned out shit release after shit release this year makes Emotional【KARMA】 shine more than usual - that has yet to reach its full potential. This album would have been much tighter without the weaker tracks.

MEJIBRAY is looking to fill a hole in visual kei something fierce and maybe rekindle some hope in the scene. Even if they're not the most skilled, talented or original band ever, they're still out there trying and that's what separates them from 95% of the other bands in the scene. I think I finally understand the hype around this band now, even if I think its a little much.

Also just need to say that the promo pic for this album has to be the worst photoshop job I've seen in ages.