#106: The Black Swan - 蟲聲 (mushigoe)

[The Reverend 3566]

 

 

Tracklist:

1. 蟲聲

2. デルタ (Type-A only)

2. 六花の歔欷 (Type-B only)

 

- Love them or hate them; but don't do either based on this single

 

I was able to put into words the biggest reason why I’ve liked 儿 (Jin) ( The Black Swan/ Nega) while attending The Black Swan’s one-man live in June of last year. I realized while Jin was pouring his heart into one of their trademark overwrought, overlong ballads that no one else is able to tread the line between embracing the tropes of Visual Kei and mocking them like Jin has. He doesn’t just tow that line, he and his bands have taken up permanent residence there for some time now. Take 2015’s “I’m Shit Noodle, But…” off The Black Swan’s 失愛と依存、その感触 single as a prime example of this ability to live the VK lifestyle, tongues firmly in cheek. VK is a genre so built on the idolization of characters that it is downright scandalous when it’s publicly revealed that band members have engaged in mostly innocuous activities like having girlfriends or smoking some weed. The Black Swan wrote a banger turning this image of the impossibly virtuous band member on its head by shouting about their enjoyment of sex, drugs and money; a value system that is traditionally accepted in rock’n’roll but rarely espoused by people in the VK community.

 

I enjoy Jin’s nasal warble; I appreciate uniqueness and passion more than a traditionally ‘good’ singing voice…which Jin certainly does not have. I think it’s often unnecessary to have two guitarists playing downtuned/seven+ string guitars and a bassist basically occupying the same sonic space, but all the guitarists are competent. I also thoroughly enjoy that the drummer has achieved a slight amount of separate-from-the-band fame by being a scary looking VK dude who adopted a tiny, stray kitten.

 

With all that being said, I was disappointed when The Black Swan announced recently that they’d be disbanding next May after more than three years together as a band. They have not announced any other releases, though this being VK, I assume we’ll get a best-of release with a new warmed-over B-side or two, so 蟲聲 might be the last gasp of this particular band of VK provocateurs.

 

The title track “蟲聲”--after it gets the acoustic intro from “Chop Suey!” out of the way--is the kind of song that Jin and The Black Swan will be remembered for; a little all-over-the-place compositionally, a riff that sounds like the guitarist would be walking toward the camera in the video, a plethora of vocal styles (some squeals, slightly flat singing, deathcore-inspired growling, some gang shouting), there's slightly haunting piano to highlight the sombre mood, the chorus that Jin uses for about 30% of his songs. All-in-all this is probably the least interesting track on this single.

 

This being a VK single, of course there are multiple versions to buy to get all the songs. The A-Type version of 蟲聲 contains “デルタ (Delta)”. Critics would say this song sounds a lot like someone took a solid Dezert song and sprinkled some fart-sounding drop-A riffs and strained vocals throughout; to which I couldn’t make much of an argument except to say the chorus is deliciously catchy no matter if someone else would’ve done it better or not. I like the gravelly whisper in one channel under the singing that Jin does to end the song too. The B-Type song "六花の歔欷" would seem to be a very lengthy track by VK standards, but Jin fans will be unfazed after epic-length experiments like “虚しき「生」の寓意≒「死」の真意” and “Ousia”. This track pales in comparison to those other 7+ minute songs, mostly by not differentiating itself enough (all the usual ingredients are there: piano, acoustic guitar, etc.), but it does have a pretty stellar falsetto wail right before a smart guitar solo @ 3:50 and it gets points for not trying to scare the listener with unexpected guitar explosions, but rather is simply a solid, longing ballad throughout.

 

The Black Swan will go down as being mostly a logical evolution of Jin’s sound during the latter days of Nega that continued their quest as one of the more polarizing bands in VK. Love him or hate him, Jin will get you to have some reaction. But don’t take my word for any of this, my favorite Jin project is freakin’ Perestroika ;).

 

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by The Reverend