Girugamesh - Gravitation

[BrenGun 2259]

Also as requested

 

This release is difficult to write down my thoughts.  to which kind music does this belong? I always forget. lol. screamo maybe? can someone tell me again?! lol 

 

It's simply something typical of the genre where this music belongs to. bit heavy, bit soft, bit electronic sound, heavy drum sound, heavy bass guitar, not much heavy guitar. all mixed together. Vocal is clean. sound also sound like bad METAL sometimes. it's just something between rock electronic and metal music. which makes also each song sound the same.  There is no cool real guitar solo, or a nice bass solo or a FETT drum solo. not real pure METAL heaviness.

Even now I still don't get this genre at all. I prefer real metal shizzel. which real metal drum and guitar.  and not just some heavy drumming which sound like "Metal" but what isn't Metal because it's to soft. But what isn't ROCK too. because it doesn't sound like "real" rock.

 

Of course you really can dance and maybe even headbang on this kind of music but I personal never ever will have the feeling that this kind of shizzel is THE SHIT ()/

 

Girugamesh is vocal strong. His vocal always fit the music whatever they make. However his way of singing in REDMAN is much greater.

I did do like Monster but this mini alum or big maxi single how you call it.. its simply boring. it doesn't sound better as Monster our any of their previous album. all their music simply sounds the damn same now. There is nothing new. there is no big surprise at all. They really should get rid of those boring "now in music". Where are the real old Visual Kei Gothic elements? Where are the real rock elements? 

Somehow it's a pity that the young people from now days like this kind of shizzel. Even if it's alright and good but it's always the same. It was cool a few years ago when it was new, but now... no thank you.

They would have balls if they would make some Gothic Electronic nu Metal screamo shizzel. lol Get the gothic back giru! otherwise they will stay boring for me.

 

This release is simply to boring for me to give ratings or opinion for each song... since to me every song sounds the damn same.

 

my own rating on my taste:

Rating without taste: Satoshi could at least sing with more feelings to make the songs sound different.

[blackdoll 907]

i'm done with them now, since they are just another j-core band. and coderebirth was better even tho the harsh was boring. would have been good if he kept his original harsh, cause his "OHHH *OH*" sucks. and can he even do lows?

 

*listening to GOKU (NOW)"

[kurenaishineek 646]

i'm done with them now, since they are just another j-core band. and coderebirth was better even tho the harsh was boring. would have been good if he kept his original harsh, cause his "OHHH *OH*" sucks. and can he even do lows?

 

*listening to GOKU (NOW)"

They are not j-core , j-core is techno , its a japanese version of hardcore trance .

Girgamesh new style is a mix of alternative metal riffs and drums , with modern rock elements and melodies . Also screamo is a hardcore punk subgenre , so no its far from that .

Also DarkWater you forgetting some big things here ,

1st they are not visual kei anymore so saying where are the vk elements is kinda out of place .

2nd they a mainstream rock band , so getting pop elements in their music is standard , and should be expected .

3rd There is no such thing as real rock , its just something made up by ppl who want all rock bands to sound as they think true rock should sound , but there are many rock subgenres .

4th metal can be soft as well , melodic power metal bands sometimes are not even tagged by ppl as metal cause they dont sound that metal , there are also bands who play atmospheric symphonic metal that are also tagges as rock . Also if you would think about oldschool heavy metal that could be what you mean by true metal , than you would notice that it was a lot more softer than todays heavy metal , sounding more like todays hard rock bands .

Otherwise , good review .

Maybe ill write my own review later , when i get the ones for the fanzine done and will have some spare time .

[Furik 832]

I like it. A lot better than their last album can't remember what it was called. After their Live Best album, I knew they still had it in them and this proved it. Reminds me a lot of their past EP Reason...something. 4/5

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

I mentioned in the actual download topic that this is the first time that they've released anything since their VK days that I've enjoyed what they've done. This is the first time in recent memory I can say I'm a fan of what they've put out. There seems to be a lot of different rock genres mixed together on this EP that makes it interesting which is something that similar bands (*ahem* Crossfaith) really lack. Until now I wouldn't have considered Crossfaith a similar band and wouldn't have made the comparison, but having heard a couple of Crossfaith albums and thinking "Wow this is good, but I wish I could distinguish one song from the next" and that's what Girugamesh has done with Gravitation. I think another thing Giru has going for them is that I really really like Satoshi's voice so it doesn't just sound, to me, like generic metal core band #687. 

 

In summary, this was an excellent follow-up to Monster, my current favorite LP by the band and I'm sure they'll keep this momentum up for their next few releases.

[BrenGun 2259]

@kure,

There is real rock, but then we need go back to the 60～80ties. There are still bands who play that style. Its simply rock whithout adding all those strange elements.

ARB, th ERockers, the roosters are nice example of real rock.

To your points.

1, yes no vkei anymore but even in their kei time they ready played this kind of style just not so strong as now. But you can hear it clearly, this type of music turned into this kind of music.

2 you call them alternative metal, so its not rock... XD

4 even this kind of metal.... its truly new soft metal. Well not that new, if i think of soft metal i don't think of this kind of metal... this is truly boring soft and has somehow nothing to do with real metal. Aka how we knew metal for years until this kind of softy plopped one by one. XD

But as said, I don't understand anything of this new hype sub gerne what seems to be alternative metal. (￣ー￣)

No wonder why it sound nothing special since its simply something as, we can't play real metal so lets add some random electronic pop elements some random heavy riffs and tada a new suck musical genre has born (^^)v

Guess that clears up a lot.

Just give me old metal styles and no styles which are born more recently.

Nu metal was still one of the best new metal sub gernes. But giru aren't that at all and never was.

[blackdoll 907]

They are not j-core , j-core is techno , its a japanese version of hardcore trance .

 

when i say core it means alot of things (hardcore, post-hardcore, metalcore, deathcore(even if its more death metal), beatdown, electrocore, nintendocore, djent) because of the common riffage. i never mentioned screamo.... so they are just some j-metal band work for you? also don't stick core in a box because they can mix shit up.

http://youtu.be/trPcGFcPASo?t=36s

http://youtu.be/mYdqbittzpk?t=25s

http://youtu.be/F_q5hSyufTM?t=1m28s    <===== sounds like core to me btw

[BrenGun 2259]

So wtf is giru now?

???Core or new alternative metal?

Or maybe mix of core with taste of alternative metal?

Some shizzel somehow even sound a bit like screamo.

(￣ー￣) 20～10 years ago naming a music gerne was at least easy...

Nowdays I don't understand a fuck about those gernes anymore...

Its getting harder the last 4～5 years.

Still amazing how "core" is turned into how its nowdays.

[Greyen 173]

Both ShanethVarosa and Furik took the words right out of my mouth.I believe this is their best release in years and I'm glad they finally put the energy back into their songwriting, I was left wanting more and if this is just a small taste of their next full length, I' m very excited for it! Not going to do a review for each song but overall this an easy  

[Ro plz 1290]

To me it seems as if its MONSTER part two but more ballsy. The guitar work is what really draws me to it and GO AHEAD is hauntingly scary and is the best song on the track because its raw and that breakdown is nuts. As far as the rest of the songs go, I will admit that I do see some repetitiveness going on but I can deal for the most part. My hope is the same hope that I have for the GazettE's upcoming releases (which Ruki did speak on recently btw) and that is that they grow and build up from what they are doing. This current era of GIRUGAMESH shows that they actually do know how to write music again and is pretty much done with all that poppy nonsense. I wanna see where it goes from here.

[kurenaishineek 646]

@DarkWater , Alternative Metal is not a new hype , this genre exists from the late 80's , and the hype around it is cause its metal , but more mainstream friendly . And BTW if you want to use phrases like real metal and real rock and than go saying nu metal was better , than its hard to take you seriously . People who would say real metal would be those hardheaded metalfanatics who say only the oldschool metal genres are true and all the new ones are crap . Yet you use this phrase and say you like nu metal , well now i saw everything . Oh well there are different ppl and different tastes , you can go and make tags for bands and their music , but you cant do them for listeners . But okay lets not talk more about this , as i found your review interesting i might have a sort of a challange for you for reviewing , i would like to see your opinion on this one http://monochrome-heaven.com/index.php?/topic/29796-soundwitch-romanesque/?hl=soundwitch .

@blackdoll , the screamo part was still at DarkWater . Also i only meant you used j-core as tag for japanese bands playing core genres like metalcore and hardcore , but in the end you used and already existing genre the wrong way . Its a little similar to what ppl do with trancecore and electronicore , where the first one being a hardcore techno freeform genre , and the second being a mix of metalcore and electronic elements . I know what you meant but it turned a little confusing to someone who listens to j-core and actually i still have to listen to this album and for a second i thought they started playing techno .

[BrenGun 2259]

Nya giru isn't nu-metal at all, its doesn't sound like any nu metal band.

They don't fit inside (for me, or nu metal has changed like crazy too).

Giru is simply for me alternative only. Because to much of different types of styles.

I name such music from now on, "new age alternative" which can be rock,metal, core etc.

Since I don't think you can put giru im a real box. To much different elements.

Thanks anyway (^^)v

But I gonna check your new review request. (*^ー^)ノ♪

[blackdoll 907]

@blackdoll , the screamo part was still at DarkWater . Also i only meant you used j-core as tag for japanese bands playing core genres like metalcore and hardcore , but in the end you used and already existing genre the wrong way . Its a little similar to what ppl do with trancecore and electronicore , where the first one being a hardcore techno freeform genre , and the second being a mix of metalcore and electronic elements . I know what you meant but it turned a little confusing to someone who listens to j-core and actually i still have to listen to this album and for a second i thought they started playing techno .

I'm not sure i follow, but we are good right? lol i'm out

[Tetora 625]

girugamesh - gravitation

 

 

WRITE-UP:

 

 

The first mini-album from what can be seen as the `new` girugamesh that comes off as `solid` no matter which way I look at it, from the quality of the tracks, to the production, congruent sound, and tonality.

 

After what quickly became my favorite Girugamesh release, the album MONSTER, they took a slightly different approach with their LIVE BEST, and have now returned to put out a mini-album that would be redundant as an album, but feels perfect in it`s five track form.

 

What girugamesh seems to have done is perfect a sound. The tracks all play out with complete conviction, absolutely dialed transitions and compositions, and what must be the best production quality and mastering of their career to date. The perfect, seamless approach to their sound is what struck me the most in my initial listens, and defines this release to me. To get a taste for the sound, listen to the gravitation track, this would be the most new-user-friendly track. If you can stand to go a little harder than that, then you should hear out the rest of the album.  Unlike Monster which played with different elements in a looser way, this release sticks very closely to a familiar center, although it does employ new elements influenced contemporary sounds as well, though none of these define the songs; the main dish is always the giru-sound, it`s never someone else`s sound with giru sprinkled on top, which fans of their current key elements should be able to appreciate.

 

Overall, you are getting a masterclass in the core of modern girugamesh, executed beautifully, with five tracks of straightforward head-bangers that plays out seamlessly, and is very friendly to the repeat-button.

 

 

Track Count: 5

Listens: 15-20

Production Quality:  Absolutely blown away from the sound of this one, a heavier album, but without as much as a rough edge as MONSTER`s production. The sound-stage and depth of the lows as well as their placement is quite something.

 

 

Overall Rating:

 

 

Worth the Purchase?

 

At a price lower than what some bands charge for singles, and almost half of the cost of many of the other mini-albums in my collection, I would say if you like the title track, then yes, it definitely is more than worth the price.

[finnthesubhuman 26]

Nu metal was still one of the best new metal sub gernes. But giru aren't that at all and never was.

 

There's so much wrong with that sentence and this is coming from a nu metal fan. Aside from the fact the name nu metal is a misnomer and the bands who play the music style are really playing hip hop with distortion pedals or maybe some brand of detuned grunge, unless they're Slipknot in which case they have much in common with NWOAHM (and if you really, really believe KEEP ROLLIN' ROLLIN' ROLLIN' ROLLIN' is remotely metal, I feel sorry for you), Girugamesh's MUSIC has some of the most nu metally elements I've ever seen in Visual Kei (if you can even call them that after the first album) -- especially Volcano, which borrows a riff from a SOAD song.

 

Let's get some things straight.

 

If you sound like Korn, early Linkin Park, middle-era Sepultura, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park or Linkin Park, you're playing nu metal.

 

Second of all, nothing about nu metal is technically impressive aside from the massive MTV following it picked up (and maybe a few musicians who managed to carry the entire band with their skill like John Otto back in the day). And again this is coming from someone who knows all the lyrics to most of the songs on Hard to Swallow. Nu metal was a term invented by the media to describe an aesthetic that popped up involving gothic and hip hop fashion mixed with metal instruments (specifically Coal Chamber) and lots of teenaged angst and I don't think many "nu metal pioneers" consider themselves "nu metal". They usually just say hard rock. Maybe it should have been nu rock but I doubt it has as much media appeal as rock never was in danger, while metal was losing momentum at the time.

 

Third of all, detuned riffs and screaming DOES NOT equal nu metal, and neither does rapping. Run DMC's Walk This Way thing might have rapping and rock mixed together but that doesn't make it nu metal. Emmure is not nu metal, regardless of what their singer claims to take influence from. In Flames is not nu metal. King 810 is not nu metal (I don't want think of them as anything tbh). What Girugamesh is playing now (and what they originally played) is not nu metal. And above all else DJENT IS NOT NU METAL EITHER and that goes for all deep syncopated riffs running unusual time signatures you'd normally have people associating with it.

 

Fourth, screamo is a genre, not a singing style. What you're referring to as screamo is termed "harsh vocals".

 

Girugamesh play a mixture of what's popular now. As a result, they're mixing post-hardcore, Japanese pop, dubstep (which is understandable, since they've dabbled in drum-and-bass in the past), and the aforementioned syncopated chugging. They include nearly all the staple elements of post-hardcore -- clean catchy choruses and minimalist chug breakdowns with underlying electronics. Sometimes they come up with some things that are interesting. I'm not sure whether this EP does consistently. Is it up to their current quality? I guess so. Do I like it? Not much.

 

Linkin Park.

[Augie1995 325]

I'm loving this really pointless arguments over genres on a review thread.

 

Gravitation is definitely a step forward for Girugamesh and their sound. Gravitation (song) was still reminding you of MONSTER a bit but all of the other songs just brought some raw intensity that hasn't been present in a Giru song in years! They're doing what Crossfaith should be building up on, whereas Crossfaith is starting to feel like they're crawling towards 2011 Girugamesh. Definitely digging this and i'm excited for some new releases.

 

That buildup to Vortex's breakdown>>>>>>>

 

Also, stop calling djent a genre. It's insurmountably ridiculous to use the purr a distorted palm mute on the bridge creates as the name for a genre.

[ghost 2686]

especially Volcano, which borrows a riff from a SOAD song

Suite-pee yeah?

[finnthesubhuman 26]

 

Also, stop calling djent a genre. It's insurmountably ridiculous to use the purr a distorted palm mute on the bridge creates as the name for a genre.

 

Please highlight the sentence in which I refer to djent as a genre and not just as a name for a sound (also sorry if you think both mean the same thing). Or for that matter where I call Girugamesh djent.

 

Suite-pee yeah?

 

I think so. I can't say I really enjoy early SOAD compared to their later stuff when they had some extra money behind their production.

[kurenaishineek 646]

@ZML. what you said was a lot true , but there was some stuff that was seriously sooo badly off that i was speechless .

1st since when SOAD is Nu-Metal "Girugamesh's MUSIC has some of the most nu metally elements I've ever seen in Visual Kei (if you can even call them that after the first album) -- especially Volcano, which borrows a riff from a SOAD song." , soooo what they are Nu-Metal cause they take a riff from a band playing experimental alternative metal ?

2nd After you mentioned Sepultura as one of Nu-Metal bands i thought im gonna get a heart attack . My friend whos a total fanatic of this band would go nuts if he heard this , this band sure was influencing the Nu-Metal scene but was never a band of this genre .

3rd Djent is not a real genre , some Progressive Metal bands that overuse that distorted palm mute technique call what they play as Djent .

[finnthesubhuman 26]

@ZML. what you said was a lot true , but there was some stuff that was seriously sooo badly off that i was speechless .

1st since when SOAD is Nu-Metal "Girugamesh's MUSIC has some of the most nu metally elements I've ever seen in Visual Kei (if you can even call them that after the first album) -- especially Volcano, which borrows a riff from a SOAD song." , soooo what they are Nu-Metal cause they take a riff from a band playing experimental alternative metal ?

2nd After you mentioned Sepultura as one of Nu-Metal bands i thought im gonna get a heart attack . My friend whos a total fanatic of this band would go nuts if he heard this , this band sure was influencing the Nu-Metal scene but was never a band of this genre .

3rd Djent is not a real genre , some Progressive Metal bands that overuse that distorted palm mute technique call what they play as Djent .

 

1. Dropped their name there to prove Girugamesh was entrenched in the '90s pre-metalcore fad. The release is signifcantly more nu metal than MUSIC based on a sludgier mix, slower verses, less electronics and explicitly catchy singing. Instead they went for a JUMPDAFUCKUP chant chorus. MUSIC introduced bitcrushing, which I believe Linkin Park did quite often on Hybrid Theory. Additionally, did not include SOAD in "if you sound like this you're playing that" paragraph. As for SOAD being experimental, how about dem verse-chorus-bridge formulas.

 

2. Roots was produced by Ross Robinson and inspired the Soulfly sound, not to mention containing collaborations with Limp Bizkit and Korn, the inclusion of simplistic detuned riffs and angsty lyrics, and "creepy" atmospheric verses (see: Lookaway). It sits in the middle of their career between the thrash of the early lineup and the groove of the post-Max lineup. I have never heard anyone refuse this phase the nu metal tag -- not even the purists, who usually leap to it first as an insult -- for either Roots or Soulfly's initial two or three albums. And I believe my exact words were "middle-era Sepultura", were they not? If I said just "Sepultura" maybe there'd be a problem.

 

Have a critic's view if you don't believe mine.

Sepultura [...] hired Ross Robinson, fresh off of producing Korn and the Phunk Junkeez (I’m not making that up) and just months away from helming Limp Bizkit’s execrable Three Dollar Bill, Y’all, and they made a nu-metal album, complete with guest appearances by Jonathan Davis, David Silveria, and DJ Lethal (and, to my dismay, one of the unwitting godfathers of nu-metal, Mike Patton).

http://www.metalsucks.net/2013/08/14/noisey-vs-metalsucks-sepulturas-roots-belongs-in-the-ground/

 

Fun fact: searching for the term "nu-metal" in this page of user reviews brings up 26 results: http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Sepultura/Roots/276/

 

It's just that the music Sepultura play on here is mostly awful nu-metal.

No, instead this album has been a major force in the faux metal genre that is nu-metal.

It's such a bad combination of the worst nu-metal posturing and least appealing type of metal aggression.

Even by the standards of a nu-metal / rock album, Roots is an embarrassment. 

Roots is clearly one of the best alternative/nu-metal albums.

It was itself heavily influenced by newer sounds such as Korn’s mallcore creation, Faith No More’s experimental material, as well as the slowly emerging rap/rock scene known today as nu-metal, underscored by the fact that central figures in all 3 scenes provided guest work on here. 

 

3. Did not put the words djent and genre side-by-side. In fact, refer to previous post.

[kurenaishineek 646]

@ZML. Yeah sorry my bad i forgot this one album , you made your point . But lets stop that offtop i think we got a little overboard there , altough this was some interesting discussion .

[shizukasou 47]

I loved it! Probably haven't enjoyed a release of theirs this much since Music, which was different but a great album nonetheless. "Go ahead" felt a little weaker than the other songs to my personal taste but still, I think they did an awesome job. I'll definitely wait for their next works with a little more anticipation now.

[DogManX 179]

Got excited from the Aoi Mochi review, but it's .. not that special. It sounds almost like lynch nowadays. I didn't listen to Monster, but it sounds very much like NOW, just a bit more technical. Production is very good..for a djent metalcore band. I don't know if you can call it "evolution" if a band tries to sound like other bands.

[nullmoon 784]

Sorry to disappoint; personally I found the EP to be amazing. I was really impressed with Live Best and I just feel that this sonic baton was passed onto Gravitation, so to speak. 

[relentless 254]

More formulaic than the Quadratic Formula. The only good thing I can is is: "Well, at least it's not 12012 or Sadie"

 

 

What are they doing?/10