Sadie - COLD BLOOD

[sansamour20 2]

this is such an awesome album and still no reviews? booo.

well, ever since I got it, I've been listening to the album nonstop. seriously. the only real bad thing about it is its lack of PV to display that awesome new look of the band.

I'll remove Dress, Crymore, Toge, and Juggernaut from this so.. not really a review, but comments. here we go.

1. 慟哭 (Doukoku) - I'm in love with this track. Definitely my favorite. From the sample, up to the full song itself. aaaa.. I'm not really a sadie-ballad-type of fan, but this is definitely their best ballad yet. The way the lovely chorus was sang, you can really feel the intense emotion pouring from it. And aki's piano♥ 9.5/10

2. LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD - Never mind the fucked up title. lol This is still a cool heavy tune to balance everything in the album, w/c surprisingly contained more slow-mid tunes. Nothing much to say about it, it's good, but nothing special really. I love Aki's bass solo though. 7/10

3. 砂漠??シンドローム (Sabaku no syndrome) - Now this is definitely nice. I love it. I feel it lacked something in the chorus though, not really a crazy built-up one, but I guess it's just the style of the song. I love that part when Mao mentioned the title at the early part. ^^ 8.5/10

4. Deathtopia - This, i think, should've or would've been the carrier for the album. A kick-ass cool song, sufficient of Sadie's heaviness, melodic guitar play, and Mao's engriish? I will fall asleep forever here... lol I love its intro, and Mao's entrance after that. Then that unique type of chorus, and all the styles Mao used. I love it when he sings in diff styles in one song, especially that enclosed whisper thingy he does often. This is definitely ♥ 9/10

5. Graceful Angel - At the sample, I was like, hey, this sounds like Knife? but then again, after listening to the full song, it has its own thing, and its an even much better song than the latter. It's good. 8/10

6. 霞??消??る?? (Kasumi ni kieru hana) - I don't care if some would think that this song is another one of those over-used Sadie recycled tunes or whatever. It's a pretty song. Very catchy chorus, quite so since it's being repeated like 4-5 times in the entire song? lol anyway, not too much creativity in this one, since it's really simple, but i still like it!! 8/10

7. GIMMICK - Now this! this is the type of song that originally got me hooked in the band. Their UBER catchy, danceable, and all out FUN FUN FUN tunes. lol I loved this so much, I can't stop moving whenever I listen to this. Another one of those Sadie signature songs that gets you hyper all throughout. 9.5/10

8. 瞼??憂鬱 (Mabuta no yûutsu) - Another beautiful ballad. Yes, Sadie's getting good in this aspect. I still like Doukoku better, but this is also very very nice. Easy in the ears, lovely melody, just plain good. and of course, Aki's piano again♥ 9/10

9. Dress unplugged - Better made than their previous unplugged version of Kagerou. It span for more than 7mins, but it didn't bore. Maybe I'm being biased when I say I can listen to the whole piano arrangement even without Mao's voice since Aki's piano playing just melts me but NO, Mao's voice is absolutely stunning here. I love his solemn singing in here, and of course his shudder-inducing heightened seemingly painful voice. you just gotta love the leaders' duet♥ 8/10

[LIDL 692]

Opened by 慟哭 (Doukoku), the album seems set to a melancholic mood. Which perhaps the whole idea/concept for the album. Cold Blood as the album title seems a way to address someone that are on antagonist role, the person who cheat and break the relationship between two hearts. Mao sang whole heartedly in this opening track. He didn't sounds like he used to, at least until chorus breaks in.

Followed by Juggernaut that were one of three singles released for this album, as we knew. So nothing much to say. And then LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD chime in. It was nice, though at some guitar parts i can't help to think about GazzetE. Doesn't implying they copy pasting riffs though, so please watch that out.

Nothing much can be said for this third song in the album, it just sounds like typical VK hard songs.

Still neat though.

And then, 砂漠??シンドローム (Sabaku no Syndrome), i like this one better, just sounds more structured despite the fast paced tunes. And every members just sounds trying more than what they usually did in this song. Which i appreciate muchly. Thereafter, we have 棘-toge-, was a final single of the consecutive three.

And was the best one too, for me anyway. Medium tempo with emotional lyrics, or should i call it "cheerful ballad"?

And we're already half way listening to the album.

And so far so good, nothing too bad but nothis so great as well. What's next? Will there be ground breaking song? Well, let's proceed to listen the second half to find out.

started by deathtopia, the intro was a bit tricky.

You would think it gonnabe a ballad, and goes "Oh, no~~!" but then it became faster and bolder which may make you cheers "YAY~~!"

It is a nice song, though honestly, with this kind of title, i would wish something that really touches heart. i was wishing something very dark, gloomy, depressing , on both the lyrics, and music that any trip hop artist could do twice better for this kind of title. Though wishing things like this may be too high for Sadie standard.

Hm, i found that ドレス (Dress) is boring. And again, when Mao was speak-singing, it brought my minds to Kodou by Dir en Grey, just the style of talking, not the music, i must note this before any fanatic would burn me alive with gasoline for saying such blasphemy.

Graceful Angel came after, somehow i enjoyed the music on intro. The aprt where the low basslines were met with guitar shreds. It's so KoRn-ish!

But overall, the song was bad, i only looking forward the korn-ish part verse after verse tbh. theat the only good thing from this track.

And then i was wishing for no ballad come follows cos that would be too predictable. And..., that doesn't happen, quite.

霞??消??る?? (Kasumi ni kieru hana) was a power ballad track, i enjoyed it though. To hear Mao singing, is something i always enjoyed more than when he screams or growls. Still, nothing special for this track.

Hmmmm, Girugamesh?? That's what i think the very first time listening the computerized hand claps on GIMMICK. And seriously, i didn't even trying to compare Sadie with anyother bands. It just happened.

Even the whole base for this track are very girugamesh-y.

Probably my favourite track from this album, as i really enjoyed it when i hear the first time in single format, クライモア (Cry More), nothing much i could say, it's been reviewed earlier. It's cheesy as fuck, but it's catchy so any of your arguments is invalid. And regarding 瞼??憂鬱 (Mabuta no Yuutsu), probably one best track for this album. This should be a single, this just so good, despite the mediocre-ness. But it's exceptional, and a good closing track. I didn't count the unplugged as closing track cos you know, it'sa bonus track, not a part of main album.

It conclude every emotions that the speaker feels quite good, though could be much better.

I must say, doing an unplugged track tend to be a gamble for artist. It's either, one need to totally rearranged the song to meet the quality for a song to be sung in acoustic. Or one need a vocalist with characteristic and powerful pipe, so songs would have more soul when sang with minimal distortion. And ドレス (Dress) (unplugged ver.) doesn't meet that standards, unfortunately. Especially Mao was more to blabbing than singing. Seriously, at least 1/8 of the track was him whispering some desu desu desu. I found that irritating.

It doesn't quite grasp on to my heart nor ears. Lucky the piano rendition is nice, so one could ignore the vocal and just focus listening to the music.

Overall, it's a so-so album. The up side, the sound quality is clear, even i just got the 128 rip.

The down side, it's very mediocre, while many songs are potential to be produced better than this. Given enough time they had since the last single release to this album release, which is quite long enough for artist that doesn't really have busy schedule, i wonder if they really trying?

In the end, it's back to your own ears again.

This is my personal opinion after listening the album few rounds with my music player. Which some of you may disagree. Which is fair. I just hope this can be accepted with an open mind.

[minre 13]

I'll just make a general comparison between this and Master.

COLD BLOOD's singles were worse than MASTER's.

COLD BLOOD's 'bad' songs were worse than MASTER's. [LOOSING is like all their other pointless English? songs, I just can't take them. And Graceful~Gimmick set... augh.]

COLD BLOOD's 'good' songs were worse than MASTER's. [Nothing like Ageha or Swallow. Though Deathtopia isn't half bad.]

Intros are on par since they both set moods. [imaginary though does it better...]

There more growls, but also less unique songs.

Though there were some nice parts across the album, I just couldn't deal with how generic each song felt, or they just felt completely odd.

Regarding 瞼??憂鬱 specifically and I believe across a number of other songs... the rhythm guitar ruins what would have been an epic song.

As apparent since their Kagerou single: lack of effort. Are they EVEN trying?

Definitely Below Average.

[nekkichi 6043]

As apparent since their Kagerou single: lack of effort. Are they EVEN trying?

the only thing they're good at is consequent release flow, quality and progression-wise they're dead.

[minre 13]

As apparent since their Kagerou single: lack of effort. Are they EVEN trying?

the only thing they're good at is consequent release flow, quality and progression-wise they're dead.

haha. I guess so. but such bands always manage to attract more fans, mysteriously enough. [or not? no clue]

[sai 868]

Before I start with my review, let me say that I absolutely hated listening to this album. On the first listen it wasn't that bad but after 2 or 3 listens I really got the urge to start destroying things. I decided for a detailed review to sit through the whole songs, but it took a lot of patience and courage to do so. This is without a doubt one of the most boring, uninspiring and unoriginal albums I myself have ever listened too. I admit, even SCREW's X-RAYS is better than this crap. Seriously, from the stuff they released the last 1,5 years I only liked Dress, Juggernaut, Little Prayer and Kagerou. It's just too much bad screaming and br00tal riffs that are pretty much the same in every new song. Mao ruined half of this album for me as well, I really wanted to brickstone him halfthrough.

慟哭 - I don't really hate this track or anything, in fact it's pretty well done and I wouldn't mind listening to this on a shuffle, but never as an individual track. It's just not good enough for it. 7/10

Juggernaut - Seeing as the first track wasn't that bad and the fact that I love Juggernaut, at this point I thought the album wouldn't be as bad as I expected it to be. Oh, how wrong I was. Juggernaut still kicks ass though: 8/10

LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD - Apart from a spelling error (I think?) this title is pretty ridiculous. I think I would've liked this song if it wasn't full of the awful vomiting screaming. Mao's screams are bad, the background screams are even worse, though the instrumental is pretty nice. Moving on, I already hate re-listening this again. 4/10

砂漠??シンドローム - Intro is boring as hell, Sadie (and other bands) have done this way too often. Once again awful screaming. What the hell is up with his grunting on this album? I'm pretty sure he can do better. Not that I'm a big fan of grunting but compared to this shit even Asagi grunts better. The chorus is awful and it sounds like they made it in 5 minutes because they were too lazy to think up something decent. 4/10

棘 -toge- - The only title track of the singles I didn't really like. It's actually pretty cool, the riffs are nice and so is the pre-chorus, I just don't like the chorus. For the rest it's OK. 6.5/10

deathtopia - The beginning made me think this was going to be a nice, calmer, 'Chizuru' kind of song, but how wrong I was. The second Mao started screaming and the up-tempo started I was like 'urgh'. Mao sounds like he's vomitting again. His grunting is awful, I hope he starts realizing that as soon as possible. The slow parts with the whispering is pretty cool as well, the rest is just plain disgusting. 3.5/10

Dress - THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. I needed more of this. Dress is seriously one of the only Sadie songs that doesn't bore me after a while, like the Master of Romance album pretty much did apart from Kagerou. Even though the grunting still isn't that good it's better than on the previous tracks. I pretty much like everything in this song. 9/10

Graceful Angel - The opening sounded original for once. Then the typical br00tal riffs started and I already felt like going to the next song. WHAT IS UP WITH THOSE DRUMS. Mao once again RUINS this song. The normal vocals are pretty cool, but once he starts grunting... The chorus is OK apart from the grunting. Not going to keep it on my iPod though. 4/10

霞??消??る?? - I actually really like this one. No grunting, good clean vocals and a nice instrumental. This is wat Sadie should be doing. It sounds like a fresh breath of air. 8.5/10

GIMMICK - Seeing as this started off pretty cool, the synth, the HEY!'s in the chorus are pretty damn awesome. I don't like the grunting whispering, but the chorus makes up for it. I have trouble sitting through the grunting though (which isn't as awful as the rest on the album). 7/10

Cry More - Haters gonna hate, but I love Cry More. The screaming Mao does (what he should be doing instead of that awful grunting) and Mizuki's background screams all sound very good. The chorus is awesome as hell. 9/10

瞼??憂鬱 - Boring ballad. Don't like it very much, it just doesn't touch me. Compared to other Sadie ballads this is pretty uninspiring. Swallow Rain any day, plz. 4/10

Dress (unplugged) - As much as I love the original, I hate the unplugged version. It sounds like they just slowed down Mao's voice and pasted a piano in the background. Just no. 3/10

Overall: 5/10

Even though this album has some nice songs (Juggernaut, Dress, Cry More, 霞??消??る??) it's just not good. Look at this list I made in between the bars. Three out of those 4 were released before on a single. So the only new song that was actually good was 霞??消??る??. Two songs were decent and the rest was complete crap. Take a break, find some originality and then come back kthnx.

[Licio123 181]

Maybe I will do a song-by song review later, but gotta say thsi album is much, much better than what I expected. Love all of the songs, except for Graceful Angel.

[sai 868]

Seems like there are a lot of mixed feelings. We've got people loving it and people hating it. Worst part is that I've been waiting for a new Sadie album for a while and I expected a lot more of it, since I loved the singles leading to it.

Well...

[golffy_aoi 15]

22/7 as Pi

They have failed me since the release of GAIN Y^Y

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

For me, I'd say the album was really positive. I really loved songs like Deathtopia and Graceful Angel, and Dress, and Toge, and Kasumi ni Kieru Hana just to name a few. I think MASTER's high points were higher than the high points of this album, yet as a whole this album was better than MASTER. I'd give it an 8.5/10

[Furik 832]

This album has been on constant play for me. I can't stop.

After a few listens, it grew on me a LOT.

I would say it's on par with Master of Romance. MOR had better (and listenable) singles.

COLD BLOOD had no good singles.

Highlights: LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD, 砂漠??シンドローム, deathtopia, Graceful Angel

[Licio123 181]

慟哭 - A nice ballad, emotional song which starts the album really well. 8/10

Juggernaut - It was a pretty solid single, and it still stands as a good track here, even though there are 3 or 4 better songs. Enjoyable. 8/10

LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD - The engrish title made me the first time I saw it, but, who would knew, this headbang song is pretty awesome! One of the best of the album. And I hated BURST ZERO. LOL 9.5/10

砂漠??シンドローム - Love how this song is heavy but not THAT heavy, Mao does a really good job here. 8.5/10

棘 -toge- - Same as Juggernaut, a good track but not much else. 8/10

deathtopia - I agree this song could have been more emotional, the chorus is pretty good, and the instruments are great, Mao lacks a little bit here, which a shame. Still great. 9/10

Dress - The song that made me REALLY like Sadie. Good all around, though a bit long, doesn't feel so boring. Though I like other songs more than this today (older ones like Swallow Rain and PCM) it it's above avereage, love the drums here. 9/10

Graceful Angel - This one just didn't stick with me. Found it a little boring. 6.5/10

霞??消??る?? - Wow, this blew me out of the water. So different from anything they have done until today, calm and heavy, always fun to listen. 9/10

GIMMICK- The beginning made me , though the song is not that bad. Nothing special, though 7.5/10

Cry More - I love this song. It's really fun, although Mao's growl's are like it just makes the song a mini LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD, but better instrument-wise. 9.5/10

瞼??憂鬱 - Up there as one of their best in COLD BLOOD. Absolutely perfect, I love 愛??????孤独??支??者 and サヨナラ??果??, but this is my new favorite ballad by Sadie. Mao is just awesome here . 10/10

Dress (unplugged) - Nice to listen to Mao and the piano, but I take the original over this any day. 7/10

Overall: 9/10. This band suffered the girugamesh effect for most people, singles that were "meh" and an album that was LULZ. I liked both bands' singles, but GO was really LULZ. COLD BLOOD isn't. It's the best of the year, until now. Great job Sadie.

[iSin-Sama 4]

Didn't really care much for this album. *yawn*

[Tony 1]

I haven't listened to any singles off this album, so every track here is new to me.

慟哭 - good

JUGGERNAUT - good

LOOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD - not good

砂漠??シンドローム - not good

棘 -toge- - good, very poppy for Sadie.

deathtopia - boring, sounds like a tryhard Meisai.

Dress - good. very good. great arrangement. best song on the album.

Graceful Angel - not good.

霞??消??る?? - good. anyone get a D'espairsRay Trickster feeling from this track?

GIMMICK - very different sound, does drag on for a bit but i like this. like the simple use of synth.

Cry More - eh. its ok, nothing special.

瞼??憂鬱 - another ok track.

Dress (unplugged) (bonus track) - its pretty. mao's got a voice, and he proves it here.

I stopped listening to Sadie after Kagerou. Never bothered with the new singles because of so many bad reviews. But I think we were all wrong to dismiss them. Strangely, its the heaviest songs that are the weakest here. Before, it was the softer tracks they couldn't master. This album isn't perfect, isn't good as Master..., but they've still got it. The variety here is nothing short of outstanding.

7/10

[Rize 1593]

This album is not bad as it looks like, it's pretty awesome if you listen it a couple of times ;3

After all, they did their best

[The Libertine 2]

慟哭 9/10 Really great beginning to album. Great emotion and fairly powerful. A few spots singing was weird though.

Juggernaut 7/10 Not terrible (actually the better songs of the singles). But song structure is not that good. The chorus is a little annoying but I don't hate the verses.

LOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD (ONE O MOTHER FUCKERS) 8/10 Well done hard hitter. Mao's growling is pretty good and has gotten better in last years.

砂漠??シンドローム 6.5/10 Enjoyable filler

棘 -toge- 3/10 Could really do without this song. Annoying at times. Don't like the instrumentals/vocals either. pretty shit

deathtopia 8/10 I like the heavy/not heavy thing going on. Kinda pretty actually.

Dress 7/10 Would be a great song without the chorus. Every time that comes back I get disappointed. Rest is very nice actually.

Graceful Angel 4/10 *snore* bad riffs and boring

霞??消??る?? 8.5/10 Has a great feeling. Love the high note parts. Pretty simple but works well.

GIMMICK 5/10 Don't like the clapping thing. A bit nu-metaly IMO. Not my cup of tea, coffee, or cocoa. I can see this being fun live though with the chorus??

Cry More 8/10 : )) Just like it.

瞼??憂鬱 9/10 Nice closure to album. Very pretty!!

Overall: has its winners and losers, but most jrock albums these days do. I'm at the least surprised there were as many songs as I liked. Wish they had a little more diversity in sound, experimenting with different instrumentation. They've been around long enough they should be doing that. 8/10 I guess.

[Ito 2438]

I can honestly say that this album was a lot better than I expected. I kinda dropped Sadie as I found my interest in them to be fading, but I thought what the hell, I will check this album out anyways. Whi9le it isn't magical, I think it is pretty good. I have already spun it more than MoR, which I can hardly remember at this point, so I can't say if this was a better album or not. But long story short is that I have been enjoy it.

[madygrain 515]

I spected something more spectacular for this album since I liked the singles A LOT, but none of the new tracks kept my attention specially except the umplugged dress.

I think I have to listen it a bit more.

[gyakutai 12]

I didn't finish to listen to it because I found it quite boring...

[morbiusss 10]

i took my time to really get into the album. here is my result:

90% doukoku: really nice opener, really nice melody BUT maos last vocals in this track are horrible. "ah haaa, ah ha haaa, aha ahaaaaaaa-ha!". besides that his vocal performance is stunning here. another dislike (that goes for the whole album): production is worse than MASTER OF ROMANCE. the drums do NOT sound good.

70% Juggernaut: feels generic to me, but it has a nice riff. the only part i really like is 3:35 - 3:54 where mao sings

"nakushita ai to

kagayaku asu wa

shizukesa no naka , nani mo tsutaezu

hakanaki mama de kieta ..."

especially the "asu wa" in the second line i adore. he sang that in such a cool/melodic way. haha maybe thats a bit too specific, but well i just wanted to share it.

10% LOOSING MY BAD WAY OF ENGRISH PROUD: bad song. lyrical wise and music wise. place BURST ZERO in here, that floats way better!

90% Sabaku no Syndrome: i love this song, it has such an "old sadie" feeling to it, melody is very alternative, especially in the chorus.

20% 棘 -toge-: just think of that song sung in your mouther tongue. pure kitch and trash! dont like the melody at all!!!!

80% deathtopia: good fast-slow mellow agressive type of song, very "alternative" sounding. love the pace changes. epic track!

100% Dress: best single, such a dark depressing emotional outbursting track! love every second.

70% Graceful Angel: Another "alternative" sounding track. i repeat myself, i know. with alternative i mean that those songs couldn't have been singles, since they are not made for mainstream/charts, although graceful angel has a very catchy chorus. but this song could have been a bit shorter, the last break down (3:41 forward) shouldve been cut, too repetitive!

90% Kasumi ni Kieru Hana: Great beginning/riff, emotional chorus. i especially love the guitar work in here! very prominent in verse and pre chorus! maos voice is more silent than the guitars. cool!

90% GIMMICK: love this, overall very cool song. love the guitar scratching/howling in the main riff.

80% Crymore: haha, funny track. fun live verses, nice prechorus and chorus.

70% Mabuta no Yuutsu: nice ballad, but the chorus is a bit too simple in my eyes. nevertheless nice to listen to!

feels like a good album to me, but i will replace the LOOSING PROUD shit with BURST ZERO and toge with true world, those were amazing single tracks. --> pretty perfect album haha

[Ro plz 1290]

This album caught me by surprise. I wasnt expecting it to be this good...enh lemme break it down:

doukoku: Nice opener. Kinda reminds me of the opener for MASTER. Grabbed me and had it on repeat 4 quite some time. 9/10

Juggernaut: Loved the single (cept the b-side which sucked) 9/10

LOOSING MY WAY OF PROUD: Pretty nice head boppin/banger track. Cant complain here. 8/10

Sabaku no Syndrome: Def a track thats growing on me. I like the ending by Mao 8/10

-toge-: Probably one of my love hate tracks of the album. Sounds like a typical predictable Anime song...oh wait it is an Anime song.

Will add later.

[Pretsy 1343]

Sadie shows no signs of progression

5/10

[cidetodeath 7]

This album for me was better than their previous one. I really got into it and it had a set mood throughout and didn't feel like just a grab bag of songs. I'll give an analysis of each song later,but overall I'd recommend a once or twice listen to the entire thing and certain tracks as highlights.

[futoshi92 34]

I've heard this album about twice. I'm gonna edit this post to add my thoughts later.

[dannemannen 69]

Very good album. Definitely worth the money. 8/10 Sadie has become a quality band.