Aldious - Dazed and Delight

[Zeus 7997]

Artist: Aldious Album: Dazed and Delight Score: A solid contender for AOTY right here. Also this album will now be known as Dungeons and Dragons.

The saddest thing about this album is that it's not going to make any waves outside of this forum.

Aldious can't catch a break. They're routinely considered a bunch of pretty faces that can play some chords and even their fans have begun to turn on them after the departure of their original vocalist Rami. Even amongst metal fans, there's something antagonistic about a bunch of girls who can actually play passable power metal. Reading up on other listener's reactions on Dazed and Delight will yield lots of criticisms, most baseless. So before I jump into the review, I'll smash any misconceptions you may have.

No, Aldious has not become poppier over time. Replace "poppier" with less redundant and you'll be right on the money. Dazed and Delight is the most varied Aldious album yet, featuring pop, alternative rock, and metal influences in one kick-ass package. They fixed the biggest issue from District Zero, which is that an entire album full of power metal tracks is almost unbearable to listen to. If you disagree, I challenge you to take the Inhuman Rampage challenge where you listen to nine variations of "Through the Fire and Flames" and try not to turn the music off.

This is a gigantic step in the right direction for them and I firmly believe that Aldious would have moved in this direction regardless of their vocalist. This small change in style accompanies a large change in production. The heavy slant towards prominent guitars in earlier albums have been replaced with a more balanced production. Now that the vocalist, bassist, and drummer are no longer second-class citizens in the mix, new life has been found in the rhythm section. This is at the expense of guitars lacking the crunch and punch from before, and also exposing vocalist Re:NO's shortcomings now and again, but the positives outweigh the negatives. I would have not heard anything like the bass solo and pedal combination in Imagination before this album, and it stands out even more because the bass is audible! There are multiple tracks on the album that shine due to this production change.

So in case you haven't gotten the message yet, this is a very solid album for the casual metal fan.

The power metal influence on D&D is less overt but still present, and Aldious has opted for a more bass-driven sound this time. This change was hinted at with their B-side Dark on the Other World single, but it's in full swing here. The rhythm section has also become more aggressive and prominent, lending needed energy to a lot of tracks at all the right times. I also have to give props to the bassist Sawa for her interesting bass lines on many tracks such as imagination, puffy eyes, and アネモネ. Their music often travels in directions I would not have expected, such as the chorus in 魅惑のパレード. It's not quite a solo and features nice progressive elements here.

I Don't Like Me is another surprise, remaining relatively subdued until the crescendo halfway through which blows the socks off of all their other ballads. Finally, for the power metal fans there's the Dominator, Megalomaniac, and Other World trio near the end of the album. Other World features an extended frilly outro to end the album on a high note, but is otherwise indistinguishable from the single version released earlier. Megalomaniac's solo is also extremely awesome, even if it's a bit on the short side.

There are a few negatives to this album. I found a lot of the solos to be a little too short and often found myself wanting more. The production is slightly lacking, missing a certain pop to the instruments that would have catapulted this album into the stratosphere. Re:NO also has some raw vocal takes such as some parts in The Breeze at Dawn (which is otherwise a fantastic track) and there are one or two less than memorable tracks around the middle. But that's really about it. D&D shows a much more polished and mature Aldious, lending myself to naturally describe them with lots of pretentious verbiage that doesn't really capture the large improvement from District Zero. Every band member poured their hearts, souls, and creativity into D&D and it shows.

If you're an Aldious doubter or haven't listened to them yet, this is a prime opportunity to do so. By not restricting their influences, Aldious are all the better for it and have created their most interesting album yet.