Counteraction -V-Rock covered Visual Anime songs Compilation

[sai 868]

Since I always find it interesting to review these compilations, I decided to start a review thread for the new one: Counteraction -V-Rock covered Visual Anime songs Compilation-. This is basically bands covering bands who made songs for certain animes. Since I've never watched most of those animes that were on the list (and I'm absolutely not going to), all I have is the old originals. Seeing as most of these are pretty standard anime songs anyway, I'll probably manage.

The compilation starts off with a cover by NoGoD called INVOKE (original by T.M. Revolution). Due too huge amounts of lulz and funny videos, my standards for T.M. Revolution covers are quite high. I of course expected this to have a typical NoGoD sound, because they are still a band that can pull off songs and give it their own sound which will make you think: hey, this is NoGoD! I am not in the least disappointed with the final outcome. My nerves were pretty much washed away after the intro. The only thing that bothered me was the guitar at some parts, it was a bit too overused in the background. I know it tried to match the synths of the original song, but it would've been better if they had left it out. The solo however is top notch. Props to NoGoD for this cover.

Next up is ギルド (GUILD), covering Nightmare's THE WORLD. ギルド is band that has not done anything new, but they are a young, fresh band with nice ideas and their own sound. When I heard they would cover THE WORLD I pretty much knew this was a perfect choice. This is a song that ギルド can use their our sound on and transfer it to a song that they pretty much could've made up on their own. Hearing the outcome of it doesn't surprise me in the least, because I already knew it was going to sound exactly like this. Once again, I am pleased.

Next up is アンド's (AND) ROCKET DIVE (original by hide). This has been covered on another compilation (by Megamasso), so I was quite curious how アンド would cover this and try to make it their own. The outcome of this attempt to make it their own is...absolutely horrendous. I don't even know where to start: the drums are awful and monotonous, the typical アンド synth has been used in the most horrible way possible and the way Ikuma sings the chorus makes me cringe in multiple ways. I think the way they interpreted the song was pretty bad as well. ROCKET DIVE is a fun, rocky song, but take that fun part out and the entire song falls flat. アンド did just that, they took all of that out and tried to make it more br00tal. Also whoever does the solo needs to be shot. Megamasso pulled it better.

モノクロのキス is a song I really like, as I am quite a fan of SID. Seeing DaizyStripper cover it was fun. Yugiri sometimes misses the cue, but I love how they used their typical piano sound in the intro and in the other parts of the song. I will probably not listen that much to this cover as I still prefer the original, but it is a good attempt on which you can hear they really tried to make it their own and not totally butcher it.

v[NEU] is a band I never really liked for their own songs, but I must say that they can do covers pretty well. They don't really change the original that much, but adjust it just enough to give it their own sound. 真夏の扉 is another example of this. The original is a standard anime song, so there was not much to work with here. It's just a fun song with not that much going on, so this might also become quite boring after a while, but we'll see.

DIAURA has been quite popular among the new VK bands (yet not as hyped MEJIBRAY), but I never really got into them that much, even though I really like the sound of their vocalist. Seeing as this song mostly focuses on his voice, I am really fond of it. What I like so far about this compilation is that the bands on it are actually TRYING to make it sound decent and not completely butcher the original by trying to make it their own completely different version. Alright, I'll take アンド as an example of how not to do covers again, like ever again. Anyway, I like DIAURA's cover, deal with it.

The next one I was quite curious about. GACKT is one of the artists that got me into Japanese music, and one of these songs that did so was Lu:na. GACKT vocally totally destroys this song (in the good way), so I was quite indifferent about the fact that an oshare band like HERO with a pretty bad vocalist was going to cover it (seeing as I expected a "heavier" band (like D for example) to be doing these kind of songs). The outcome of this cover is surprising. HERO decided to not make it their own, and it's damn good that they didn't. Another example of the fact that these bands this time around AREN'T out to make their original creators cringe out in despair. The vocalist is actually really tolerable here, and he even pulls off the difficult notes. Played it safe, but a good choice to do so.

1/3の純情な感情 is a song that has been covered countless times. I've never heard of FEST VAINQUEUR, but that intro was absolutely horrendous. It gets better afterwards, but it's pretty similar to the original and the other covers. Nothing outstanding, but still a good original song, so I'll let that awful section at the beginning slide. Eventually. I hope. URGH.

I never liked LM.C. Rubbish compositions, bad choruses and a vocalist with a voice that annoys me every time I listen to it. That aside, I actually love the song 88. I am so incredibly happy that this group called EVE has a vocalist with a voice that doesn't annoy me, they actually changed the riffs a little (for the better, it makes it less standard) so it kind of sounds less like an anime song. I think the original will go to the recycle bin and I'll keep this version. Very happy with this.

AYABIE I CAN'T. 堕天使BLUE is great. I honestly didn't expect AYABIE to do this cover so well. Yumehito sounds great on this track, and you can definitely hear that he's been receiving vocal training. I think there's not much more to say here.

OZ have been kind of bad lately, in my opinion. ハルカ… however is a great cover, even though Natsuki still sounds pretty bad at some points. After listening to them for over two years now I've overcome this part, so if you look past that it's actually a pretty nice cover. Love the guitar work on this one as well.

Seeing as アンド butchered this song completely (again) on another compilation it is now up to 樹威 (Jui, ex-Vidoll) to settle the score. This version sounds like a Vidoll cover to the max, and I'm certainly not complaining about this. Jui's version sounds more fresh and exciting than whatever アンド tried to pull on that first compilation. I didn't expect this cover to be as good as it is, so props to Jui.

宇宙戦隊NOIZ is a band I never really got into, though their songs seem good to me. I don't know why I never did, I think I found them to be...too standard? I have nothing against standard, as this entire compilation is pretty much filled with standard but this is like standard standard. It's not bad at all, but I won't be replaying it that often. I love the heavier character they gave this song without destroying it though, so compliments for that one.

I never liked Awoi. I never liked FOREVER LOVE. I never even liked X JAPAN. So it's pretty natural that I find this boring and awful. I have spoken, nothing more, nothing less.

Overall, if I had to rate this compilation I'd give it a 8.5/10. All songs range from great to pretty good, except for アンド, which takes the cake for worst hide cover ever and the FEST VAINQUEUR one, but that was not half as bad as ROCKET DIVE. FOREVER LOVE was boring, but that was the bad stuff.