[The Great Album Debate] girugamesh: Music vs Monster

[doombox 4421]

 

10 years in the biz and girugamesh are still churning out albums for the masses.

With the recent release of their last mini-album "Gravitation" still making waves, I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about a couple of their previous works.

Just like the previous TGAD, l want to hear why you like these albums, or why you don't, and how they compare to each other in your library.

Don't be afraid to really dig into these albums and pick them apart. I'd love to read some in-depth analysis in these threads.

Here are today's challengers:

 

   vs   

As always, be kind to each other, please. The last time was great, let's keep it up!

[PsychoΔelica 648]

To me Reason for Crying is still the best thing Girugamesh produced to date, sorry. But I guess Music comes second.

[doombox 4421]

To me Reason for Crying is still the best thing Girugamesh produced to date, sorry. But I guess Music comes second.

Care to explain why Music comes in second for you? What are your favorite songs on it?

[Bear 1817]

Neither. I find both to be equally awful. I don't listen to this band outside of 13's Reborn and their earliest singles and EPs, however I do still give every new release a proper chance. Don't know why I do this, as it's been pretty obvious for some years that they'e not gonna make anything for me again. Everything after the mediocre self-titled album contains close to no good riffs, and if there's any good riffs there they're hidden behind an awful production, boring vocals, borings drumming and dreadful electronic elements. Yeah, not my cup of tea.

[DogManX 179]

Although I don't dig any of the albums, I'll have to go with music. It's way more various both in mood and composition. The thing about MUSIC was that the album essentially another girugämesh, just with a few more electronics added. Melancholic, aggressive and sad songs alike, I'd say that this album is amongst the most virtuous ones in giru's discography, and not only that, the compositions were good. No song sounded like the other, no melody felt overused.

 

Monster lacks in basically everything MUSIC is good at. Compositions feel lazy and repetitive, the vocal tracks are so predictable it's incredible.. and there's way too much electronics and autotune for my taste. So.. my vote goes for MUSIC.

 

..And yeah, I also think Reason of Crying is amongst their best outputs, if not THE best.

 

Favourite tracks on MUSIC: puzzle, イシュタル, asking why, お前に捧げる醜い声

Facourite tracks on MONSTER: MONSTER, VOLTAGE, Antlion Pit

[PsychoΔelica 648]

Care to explain why Music comes in second for you? What are your favorite songs on it?

Well at the time I used to really be into them I loved the digital effects xD I suppose my fave songs are puzzle, Ishtar, enishi, Smash, Melody and Omaeni sasageru minikui koe (but then the last three already appeared in Reason for Crying so nothing new there ). 

Actually I also liked the songs on 13's Reborn. Suppose it's not even second then.

[Ro plz 1290]

MUSIC will easily win in this debate imo.  It flowed flawlessly together with the previous releases I listened to. To me, its the most musically diverse the band has ever been. Its a nice and well done combo of both metal and rap. Also the placing of the tracks made it seem as if they were telling some kind of story. Also next to UROBOROS and a handful of other albums, I rarely change songs when listening.  MONSTER was also a great album because to me it was the bands comeback but with that said...there is a lot of songs that album could've done without. I can't get past the end chunk of the album without cringing and skipping. Felt like they threw in GO left overs there just to fill up space.

[VisualKEIcrasher 25]

MUSIC vs MONSTER

Despite being a girugamesh fan for only one year, I'd have to go with MUSIC. 

Let me do a song VS song comparison. 

----

-INTRO- vs Intro | -INTRO- takes the case in my option because what else is better than a compilation of electronic fast paced beats ending with a slowed down scream.  
 

Break Down vs Drain | Break Down goes for this one because not only was this the first girugamesh PV I saw but it was the first time I saw turntables incorporated into a Japanese band. Don't ge me wrong though, Drain has its good points but "Break Down"  was the first song I ever heard by girugamesh, <3 a classic.

ULTIMATE 4 vs VOLTAGE | VOLTAGE wins. ULTIMATE 4 was good but "VOLTAGE" puts in some type of monster like growls? distortions? heavy drumming is a plus in this song too.

FREAKS VS INCOMPLETE | FREAKS. I mostly like it for the intro, seems that it'd start with something that'd be similar to a warning sign or alarm. Correct me if I'm wrong but Shuu did a good part with the "FREAKS" part of the song.

 

Zantetsuken -MONSTER ver.- vs Angry juice | The intro to "Angry juice"  is good but I liked "Zantetsuken" as a single, the monster version wasn't too good in my opinion, too different in riffs. 

 

antlion pit vs evolution | Sad to say from my pov, it's a tie. 

 

Resolution VS -INST.- | Resolution.

BAD END DREAM vs puzzle | "BAD END DREAM" was good and all but too many distortion or animal screams, growls, whatever you wish to call it. I did like how "-INST.-" transitioned into "puzzle" though, that was nice. Winner = puzzle. 

 

Asking why vs Live is Life | Live is Life. 

Zecchou BANG!! vs DEAD WORLD | DEAD WORLD. The combination of Nu-metal and electro really kicks in around 2:10 of the song which makes it more favorable. 

Another way vs Ishtar | Ishtar seemed to be a small building point for the final track, "enishi". Another way won this one, the start of the song has a good momentum but then the song gets a bit annoying then it re-gains its momentum. 

ALONE vs enishi | enish no contest. 

 

So far my favorite album by them is GO

[beni 2149]

I'm sorry I can't do an indepth explanation like everyone else have done but I simply can't choose favourites with certain bands and Girugamesh is one of them. I mean, the hate their album 'Now' got I didn't even understand. It was my first listen of theirs and I still love it. I'm thrilled with any sound they release so my opinion really sucks on this hah. I'm easily pleased and impressed.

[evilcoconut 109]

Definitely MUSIC. Loved a ton of songs on there. Monster was good, but somehow pretty forgettable and I think I expected more from it than it delivered lol.

[Mr Bacon 106]

I guess Monster. Not my cup of tea, but not the abomination that was Music either.

 

I fall into that category of people who stopped listening to girugamesh when Music came out. God, that record was awful.

Goku, 13's Reborn and Reason of Crying are their best works to date. Although I have to say that Gravitation didn't sound bad at all.

[filth_y 189]

Neither. I find both to be equally awful. I don't listen to this band outside of 13's Reborn and their earliest singles and EPs, however I do still give every new release a proper chance. Don't know why I do this, as it's been pretty obvious for some years that they'e not gonna make anything for me again. Everything after the mediocre self-titled album contains close to no good riffs, and if there's any good riffs there they're hidden behind an awful production, boring vocals, borings drumming and dreadful electronic elements. Yeah, not my cup of tea.

 

Exactly my thoughts. Everything said.

[kurenaishineek 646]

Monster of course , Music was already at the part where it was hard to call it good , it was average and the last album where they still got onto something . Monster is the first album where they again start to sound like rock not pop rock band , and had a lot of songs ive liked like Drain and Incomplete , and if i would have to mentiona good song from Music it would be hard as most of them sounded similar to each other and where a little too repeatable .

Of course if the question was for the best album theyve released it would be for sure Reason for Crying , Freesia is still one of the most beautiful heavy ballad on my playlist .

[Ito 2438]

While Music is hardly a fantastic album, I still enjoy it. On the other end, Monster isn't bad either, but it was entirely forgettable. Sure it wasn't the abominations that were NOW and GO and was most certainly a step in the right direction, it didn't stop it from being bland and forgettable. I don't remember a single song off of Monster and haven't be compelled to spinning again after its initial release (and Gravitation is so much better that it is makes Monster obsolete imo) while I can still think back Music and actually can remember the songs in my head.

That and I love the weird ass instrumental track before Puzzle on Music.

[ghost 2687]

I didn't really get into either album all that much, but after listening to Monster again just last night, this is what I can say.

I don't remember much of it (I was awake enough too).

I haven't listened to Music for a good 2 years and I still remember most songs off of it.

 

Even though it fell short in my opinion, Music still had pretty catchy chorus'/break downs with songs like 'evolution', 'Break Down', 'Ultimate 4', 'asking why', and (to a certain extent) 'ishtar'. It was a re-hash of their Self-Titled with more digital flair while still keeping the catchines (Heck, I remember NOW better than Monster)

 

The only track Monster had me like was 'antlion pit' (although 'Incomplete' and the singles had pretty catchy chorus'. Just not my cup of tea).

Throughout the album I remember there being really cool riffs or electronic bits, but no real hooks or chorus' that, like Ito said, were memorable. Because of that it's difficult to put identities to individual songs. 

In the spirit of Halloween, it's more like a bag of mixed candies: It doesn't really matter what you pick up because they all start to taste the same. Except for the King-Sized candies some people give out. You keep those in a separate box. That's like 'antlion pit'. So basically, Halloween for Monster sucked and it only got one King-Sized candy.

Maybe better luck next year.

[Pretsy 1343]

MUSIC definitely. I still remember some goodies off the said album, such as '-INST.-'+ 'Puzzle'-combo, 'Break Down', 'Ultimate 4', 'Dead World', 'Angry Juice' and 'Ishtar'. Might just as well say that they certainly got a lot better after GO, but progress always requires some 'sacrifices' along the way - and unfortunately one of them happened to be the variety factor they cultivated in s/t and MUSIC.

[Flame-X 441]

Both albums are equally mediocre to me. I'll give MUSIC a slight edge because puzzle is my favorite girugamesh song. Most of MONSTER tracks felt like it was aimed at party animals. Resolution is the only song I kept from that album.

[eiheartx 1310]

None of them, seriously.

13's Reborn and Reason of Crying was the shit tbh. The next was just meh to me, these albums are painful and boring. I'll be glad if they follow the 'Gravitation' path in the future. My interest will follow too.

[NICKT 147]

Music for me.

I can honestly say that I've thoroughly enjoyed most of the album where as I find Monster's tolerable songs were all shown off before the album was released, as if they knew the only decent songs and wanted to hype it. I think the only song I liked that wasn't shown off before hand was Antlion Pit, which remains an odd track that pops up randomly sometimes on shuffle.

Personally, I think I enjoyed more songs off Music than I did their self titled, though Goku Shohan Kata Enban will always be my Girugamesh #1 probably just due to Having Betrayed Is Why.

[sai 868]

My vote goes to MUSIC as well. While I don't consider MUSIC Girugamesh' best work, I still feel like it does a much better job at etching itself into your memory. I haven't listened to MUSIC in full for about 2 years, I've listened to MONSTER twice, a few months ago. Yet, I remember so much more from MUSIC than I do from MONSTER. MUSIC was more varied and it also has my favourite Girugamesh song to be quite honest (puzzle). I found MONSTER to be very forgettable. It wasn't bad at all, in fact it was better than GO and NOW but it still didn't really hit me where it should. Gravitation seems to be a step in the right direction though!

[Nisimaldar 153]

Monster, because I'm able to embrace change

[Visutox 188]

I see things like this : MONSTER compared to GO is an improvement, MONSTER compared to MUSIC is a regression.

So my vote goes for MUSIC, this album clearly wins. I like both albums but in terms of heaviness they haven't produced something better than MUSIC imo, I regret the metalcore-ish tones they adopted since MONSTER even if they're pretty good at it. When you listen to tracks like Asking Why, DEAD WORLD, FREAKS or ULTIMATE 4 it's like getting a punch right in the face. Girugämesh is a band that likes to experiment new stuff and they always did it along the years, sometimes it's good, sometimes it isn't. They're maybe not among the most creative bands but certainly among the most effectives (debatable at times), they really enjoy what they do and you can feel it.

[PsychoΔelica 648]

I feel like Girugamesh stopped doing it for me because at the beginning of their career (circa Reason for Crying) their music felt fresh and way more energetic than it is now. I feel like it just got old. And the new image they embraced after Go doesn't help any Oddly enough I enjoy Satoshi's side project a lot more. Sorry I if got a bit off-topic