Featured Review #71: DEZERT - 最高の食卓 (Saikou no shokutaku)

[emmny 4139]

最高の食卓(saikou no shokutaku):
01.「あー。」(a)
02.「君の子宮を触る」(kimi no shikyuu wo sawaru)
03.「ここにラブソングを」(koko ni love song wo)
04.「問題作」(mondaisaku)
05.「追落」(tsuiraku)
06.「排泄物」(haisetsubutsu)
07.「おいしい脾臓は笑わない」(oishii hizou wa warawanai)
08.「セイオン」(seion)
09.「宗教」(shuukyou)
10.「ピクトグラムさん」(pictogram-san)

 

| The best table turned out to be the best material DEZERT have released thus far

The first words that pop into my head when I think of DEZERT are twisted, dirty and frightening—an image influenced by the band's dark looks, Chiaki's smeared lipstick and the brutal horror tone their MVs take. The image fits the music, with grinding guitars, pummelling drums, clangy bass and vocals that could cough blood and serenade you within the same song. As part of the “revival-kei” movement, they sit toward the more alt-metal inspired side of early/mid-2000's visual kei, wearing their MUCC, 蜉蝣 and D'espairsRay influences on their sleeves. The band had a relatively still 2015, with their sole releases being 3 live distributed singles and a 'rarez' compilation album, but with the announcement of their second full length 「最高の食卓」and the arrival of new guitarist Miyako (ex-Moran, Vivi) replacing KIRA after his departure, they were back on track. I was especially interested to see how Miyako would fit their sound, as his previous band Moran was a far cry from DEZERT. In general, he's a brilliant replacement and some might say an improvement on his predecessor—the guitar work on 「最高の食卓」is a lot less dry than KIRA's, and at times it reminds me of a dissonant, sour version of his guitarwork in Moran with a healthy dose of Alt-Metal as well. The best example of this is on「君の子宮を触る」, with the intro and subsequent guitar funky flicky chord freak out sounding like the opening of Eclipse by Moran, just doused in acid and left to decay. Miyako fulfills this half of DEZERT's guitar work very well and his treatment of the drop A chugging riffs is equally interesting. Whereas KIRA made more powerful riffs in the lower register, whenever Miyako drops that low, it's used more as a textural element than a brutal riff. The perfect example of this is the ninth track, 「宗教」, which feature a guitar so hideously distorted its hard to make out exactly what he's playing outside of a grinding wall of fuzz. Miyako also shifts between clean/distorted sounds a lot, further drawing out the juxtaposition already present in Chiaki's compositions. The verdict on his performance on the album is that it was nothing short of insanely brilliant: no guitarist can match his sound and that's nothing that could have been said for KIRA, who—while entirely competent—definitely relied on a set template, such that it wasn't hard to hear exact songs he was borrowing from.
 
The rest of the band is sharp as always, and they tend to play in a tight interlocking style that seems unlikely for a band only together for 5 or so years. SaZ is unique for a visual kei bassist in that he makes himself heard despite generally playing lower bass lines; he's placed high up in the mix so that his dirty and punchy tone fills the space perfectly. I particularly love his slap bass sequences and interplay with Miyako on 「あー。」, 「君の子宮を触る」 and 「おいしい脾臓は笑わない」with special mention to the first track. While on 「君の子宮を触る」and 「おいしい脾臓は笑わない」 the guitar and bass weave in and out of each other, on「あー。」they focus together as an intense assault on the listener. SaZ thumps along with the doomy guitar line in the chorus and switches to a more delicate slapping during the verses when the rest of the instrumentation, spare a ghostly guitar arpeggio, drops out entirely—sounding like drumsticks being tapped together. Much like the guitars, the bass serves a dual purpose in being the rhythmic core of the album, as well as providing texture.
 
While Miyako and SaZ have their fascinating interplay throughout the album, the same kind of vibe comes off of drummer Sora's performance as he plays off all the other musicians and even the vocal line. A highlight for his drumming comes in 「ここにラブソングを」, where Sora blasts through the first verse, but smashes his cymbals to compliment Chiaki's vocals in a way that seems as if they're bouncing off each others' accents. Throughout the album there's an attention to detail in Sora's drumming that's hard to come across with newer bands, with the frequently cited「君の子宮を触る」as his most adventurous performance. Chiaki's performance is equally adventurous, he plays with a variety of different vocal deliveries throughout the album. On the choruses, he's not afraid to delve into his higher register and pull out a pretty falsetto—i have no complaints about his clean vocals, he has a lovely voice. Of course, the bread and butter of DEZERT's sound is contrast, so the pretty vocals on the choruses are matched by hideous growls and dirty vocals as Chiaki can spit it out as good as the rest of 'em. While high screams are absent, they're not too missed as they've never been in Chiaki's arsenal to begin with. A new addition, or maybe just a feature i'm noticing more of on「最高の食卓」compared to their prior work is this weird rap-talk thats featured prominently in the verses of 「ここにラブソングを」, 「問題作」, 「排泄物」 and「宗教」. It differs greatly from track to track, sounding like a stoned rapper on fast forward in 「ここにラブソングを」, a disoriented grandpa in 「問題作」, punchy rapper on 「排泄物」, and a vaguely dazed, orgasmic version of himself on 「宗教」. It gives each track its own flavour and mood in a way that clean singing alone wouldn't be able to accomplish. I can't comment much on the topic of the lyrics as no translations have been posted yet, but a quick run through Google Translate hints at some pretty weird stuff in additional to Chiaki's usual lyrical theme cocktail of murder, death, and despair.
 
At this point, the album's theme of contrast has come up a lot, and this is stated in「最高の食卓」more through the individual songs than anywhere else in their discography. The verses are especially oblique on here, usually minimal and understated with not a lot going on and a good usage of space within them. They're frequently paired up with sugary sweet choruses, and this is—for the most part—the formula for the album. The fact that it comes across as a formula can be a positive or a negative in any case depending on one's preference. It can be seen as a negative as while there's more diversity within tracks by way of odd guitar lines, increased attention to detail and vocals changing a lot from track to track, the structure itself rarely changes. However, this leaves each song to have their own flavour and tells them apart from one another in a way that their previous material hasn't often been able to do. This is what separates「最高の食卓」 from their debut full length album「タイトルなし」in a huge way, as「タイトルなし」 played with diversity more as an overall concept with odd song structures and running times, but usually drawing from a limited sonic palette.
 
「最高の食卓」's the flip side: the songs structurally are more conventional—but they draw from a larger set of influences and style in a way that doesn’t come across as constricted or monochromatic as its predecessor. The songwriting is equally strong on both albums, but whether the more mature, multifaceted style of「最高の食卓」 or the savage force of「タイトルなし」tickles your fancy—its ultimately up to one's preference. On the topic of nitpicking complaints, the running length is around 35 minutes—which is cruelly short for 10 songs, but DEZERT pull off the shorter songs equally as well with the longer songs. The sole exception to this being 「追落」, a ballad previously released as a live distributed single that isn't interesting enough to justify its nearly 5 minute length.
 
With 「最高の食卓」, DEZERT stay true to the sound they've spent the past 5 years developing while surprising listeners with unexpected touches and more mature songwriting and musicianship with the addition of new guitarist Miyako. While it lacks the outward brutality of prior releases,「最高の食卓」replaces it with fascinating new textures and details, keeping their sound fresh. I gasped when DEZERT announced their tour final at ZEPP Tokyo, a massive venue that seems far out of their class and far too large for them to fill up. However, if「最高の食卓」is any indicator of their artistic ability—I don't see a sold out ZEPP TOKYO cheering during the encore while 「ピクトグラムさん」 plays in the back with confetti flying out over the audience to be out of reach within the next few years. If you've been curious about DEZERT but never jumped in, I highly encourage you to try「最高の食卓」. It's an odd place to start as it's by far their most inaccessible record, taking quite a few more listens than usual to get immersed into. I find it incredibly rewarding regardless, displaying songwriting chops few bands in visual kei even get close to while merging a deliciously weird sonic palette of old and new, heavy and light, grotesque and beautiful, catchy and utterly alienating.

 

Available for purchase at CDJapan.

[blackdoll 907]

the contrast between his singing and his screaming which has gotten better is a bit funny, cause its "wtf yelling at me all of a sudden, sweety"

[TetsuAkira 289]

Yaaaaaaas emmny!

 

 

Thanks for this review, I loved this album and you captured every reason that makes me enjoy it so much. Good job!

[emmny 4139]

"wtf yelling at me all of a sudden, sweety"

LOL basically chiaki summed up in a phrase

 

Yaaaaaaas emmny!

 

 

Thanks for this review, I loved this album and you captured every reason that makes me enjoy it so much. Good job!

thank you for the kind words, im happy you enjoyed it as much as i did \m/

[Jigsaw9 6783]

VERY nice and high-quality visual kei record, surpassing their debut imo (which was already pretty cool to begin with, tho nothing extra-special). This is pretty much what I expect to hear from a band in 2016: a good variety between older and newer influences, not hamming it up too much, but still packing a punch while standing out from the crowd. Not to mention, the songs are real solid too, for the most part. This will be on my 'best of the year' list for sure.

[emmny 4139]

VERY nice and high-quality visual kei record, surpassing their debut imo (which was already pretty cool to begin with, tho nothing extra-special). This is pretty much what I expect to hear from a band in 2016: a good variety between older and newer influences, not hamming it up too much, but still packing a punch while standing out from the crowd. Not to mention, the songs are real solid too, for the most part. This will be on my 'best of the year' list for sure.

YAY JIG good to see u on the DEZERT train hehehe!

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

I really liked this album and I definitely agree that it's a lot more mature than their first release. Their PV track is fantastic--I like the dissonant and math-y guitar work and the change of general timbre is surprisingly refreshing. They're definitely branching out--while they're still doing the dark-rock meets nu-metal thing well, this album doesn't stick to just that formula, like the post-hard-core inspired "セイオン" and groovier "あー。"

 

I didn't know there was a PV for that song, btw:

 

 

 

Visually, too, their current look is :eye_emoji: :eye_emoji: :eye_emoji: