D'espairsRay - MONSTERS

[SUBLIMINAL 52]

BRB FAGGING.

I'll review properly when I'm done.

What do you guys think?

[Furik 832]

I'll post with my full review after i'm done listening. Just made it halfway into DEATH POINT.

[minre 13]

I only liked Human-clad Monster...the rest {usually] either go nowhere, or are ruined by hizumi's vocals.

Oh, I did almost like Falling...then the chorus came in.

Though it was to be expected; I fall into the group that hasn't liked anything since MIRROR.

BELOW AVERAGE

[ichiken 0]

I'm on devil's parade atm and it's the second track on the album that sounds like suicide ali

all the synths and such

that's the most surprising thing about it right now.

[ichiken 0]

it's miles better than mirror and redeemer.

[SUBLIMINAL 52]

FALLING is... well, it mimicks another one of their songs that I'm too tired to pinpoint.

And I perhaps had expectations too high for abyss, because it fell short. 13 -thirteen- is less exciting than I thought it was going to be initially, and it still reminds me of Marilyn Manson.

I do want to know why people continue to download their releases when they haven't enjoyed any of them since MIRROR, though. I am sincerely curious about this mentality.

Edited April 28, 2016 by SUBLIMINAL

[LIDL 692]

perhaps they felt confident from previews but then it doesn't live up the hopes they had for this album after having full hearing

anyway, since i haven't take this release yet,

i'll just zombied around for references.

[minre 13]

it's the SAME EXACT mentality about everything else.

people continue to download merry, dali, etc. hoping for former glory and always end up disappointed.

also, there is no excuse having been prepared after their singles...

*edit* and actually I refused to listen to the samples . it was just blind hope.

[SUBLIMINAL 52]

I don't have this mentality.

 

When I decide a band have lost it, I generally stop listening and hoping their new material will satisfy as much as their old music did.

 

I was just curious.

Edited April 28, 2016 by SUBLIMINAL

[ichiken 0]

omgz really?

I was surprised how good merry's monochrome turned out, compared to crappy releases they had for the past two years or so.

[Furik 832]

It's better than Redeemer, i'll give it that but it is nowherre near Coll:Set and Mirror.

So glad the album didn't have a "Brilliant" and "Horizon".

I'll try not to be critical here as I still love this band.. just not as much.

BUT i'm coming to terms with them never making another Coll:Set and/or Mirror.

This is probably their new direction so i'm getting used to it.

Human-clad monster: 5/5 Intense all around.

DEATH POINT: 5/5 Everyone knows this song by now.

13 -Thirteen-: 5/5 Amazing new style of drumming.

LOVE IS DEAD: 4/5 Great song but Hizumi ruins it in the chorus, so.. no 5/5

DEVIL'S PARADE: 4/5 Chorus sucks

dope: 5/5 Fucking incredible.

FALLING: 3/5 Drums are great but, yeah, that's about it.

PROGRESS: 3/5 Decent but just a filler.

FINAL CALL: 3/5 Wait.. a Horizon?! Wait, no this is Squall..

abyss: 2.5/5 The redeeming (no pun) jewel on this album. I'm lying.

Coll:Set>MIRROR>MONSTERS>REDEEMER

[-D-eadStam_aliv-E- 0]

Better than i expected and better from redeemer.

Best songs: Human clad monster and Falling.

[stylelover 1086]

its way better than redeemer.

short review , because i only listened to it once. Maybe my opinion will change after a few listens.

human clad monster: 9/10 . one of the best songs on the album

death point : 2/10

13 thirteen: suprisingly good, altough i didnt really like the preview 8/10

love is dead: 1/10

devils parade: liked the second half of the song way more than the first half 8/10

dope: boring 6/10

falling. best song on the album for me. 9/10

progress also great, but it gets a lil bit boring 7,5/10

final call 2/10

abyss boring. 5/10

[SUBLIMINAL 52]

The intro to FALLING = BRILLIANT's chorus, with a slightly different melody. I hope I'm not the only one who noticed that.

[evilcoconut 109]

I don't have this mentality.

When I decide a band have lost it, I generally stop listening and hoping their new material will satisfy as much as their old music did.

I was just curious.

God, this sfm. If I don't like a band's sound, I stop listening. It's simple and way better than bitching about every single release.

As for the album...I'm about to listen, lol. As soon as I'm done with the new SCANDAL single. ;p

[Des 289]

I love it. Not one song is bad. Album kicks ass. It felt a little but short though. The only song that comes near 5 minutes is the first. The rest barely makes it to 4 minutes. And the total count is 10 songs. That is not a very bad thing of course, but I was hoping for a few longer songs like 6 minutes or so.

[Number Girl 48]

perhaps they felt confident from previews

Oh, that's funny. . .I thought Amazon previews "sucked."

[bakteeri 7]

Doing a fast lazy review.

Human-clad Monster

When the song started, I almost wanted to change it, the intro riff was so boring and weak. But when the singing started, it got better and better, and at the chorus, it became epic. Gotta love those basslines. It's a great song, but why the hell did they pick it as the starter song? It doesn't work at all. 8/10

Death Point

Still loving the chorus. But it kinda feels like the song isn't working so well as it did with the PV. The repetiveness is even more apparent. But it's still pretty good, especially for a PV song. 7/10

13 -thirteen-

So, so simple. Yet, so so addictive. I love it. The composition sounds like a hit song that could've been written in the late 60's. It's just genious. 9/10

Love Is Dead

Still not liking it. Roud round and so on. 5/10

Devil's Parade

This song has it's ups and downs. The chorus is great, but first verse just simply sucks. This song really represents what they said in their interview. They wanted to do music you can dance to. The part at about 2 mins is really cool. 7/10

Dope

At this point I honestly couldn't remember a thing about this, so I had to listen to it again. It's ok. Pretty basic Despa song. Nothing new. Kinda forgettable, but nice to listen to. 6/10

Falling

About time a normal cool upbeat song. Verses, choruses, pretty much all the parts are really cool, melodies are very well done. I've missed this. It's not exactly like Coll:set, but not it's not faggy like most upbeat songs on Redeemer. 8/10

Progress

Another song which I can't remember anything about. Kinda like Dope, it has their signature sound. Playing it safe. It's a bit better though. Main riff sounds really mellow. It might have needed a bit more synths though. Verses were a bit weak, but chorus was nice. 7/10

Final Call

This song has potential to be really good, but it's kinda lacking. Probably mostly, because the basslines are fucking terrible. Where's the wanking man? Guitar solo was nice, it's nice to hear those, since they're really not overusing them. Unfortunately. But Karyu isn't the greatest guitarist ever, so yeah. 6½/10

Abyss

One of their best ballads. Great way to end the album. Their melodies are really great, when they don't sound like half-arsed. And the basslines are really cool. Zero should stand out more often like this. 9/10

Much better than Redeemer, not sure if it's better than Mirror.

[evilcoconut 109]

So far I love Dope, Love is Dead, Devil's Parade. The rest aren't standing out much to me right now. But I usually need some repeats to really get into an album. I think it's solid though, and like someone else said, not really any bad songs.

[SUBLIMINAL 52]

As for my ratings...

Human-clad monster: without a doubt this is the greatest song on the album. Karyu wasn't lying when he said this is essentially all of their music rolled into one. 8/10

DEATH POINT: on par with Bullet; tremendously catchy, smart choice for a promotional track. Doesn't showcase Tsukasa's talent as well as it could. Flimsy bass, too, but it's overall an unskippable track for me. 6/10

13 -thirteen-:  I thought this was promising when I heard the preview. Brilliant marching drum beat, but it's a relatively empty song.  It could have had so much more energy a'la Fascism (I hope it doesn't replace that at Japanese lives) Again, reminds me of a Marilyn Manson song I can't recall the name of. 5/10

LOVE IS DEAD: Everyone has heard this song. It was love at first listen for me, unwittingly borrowed from 80s synthpop or not. I love it when they slap a nice layer of synth over their songs. Fun, flirtacious, danceable rock. 6/10

DEVILS' PARADE: This is another one of my favourites. Wouldn't be out of place on the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, lol. This is what Tsukasa promised. Digital horror.  This must be the song they included the staff vocal recordings on, too. 7/10

dope: This and DEVILS' PARADE make quite a pair. I agree with Furik, this is incredible. That's all there is for me to say about this. 8/10

FALLING: Been done before, it basically could have been a single to follow BRILLIANT, KAMIKAZE and HORIZON. However, 2:38 is this song's saving grace. 5.5/10

PROGRESS: Love the melodic layers of guitar. Although, to be honest they shouldn't have grouped this, FALLING and FINAL CALL together at the end of the album. 6/10

FINAL CALL: Everyone has heard this, too. I could echo the two above brief reviews here. Except I loved the oriental feel to this song when it was first released and, again, the guitar work. There is nothing boring about these songs singularly to me, but they can be difficult to tell apart when grouped together like this. 6.5/10

abyss: The preview led me to believe this could possibly be another PARADOX 5, so I was admittedly disappointed when it was more of a Screen/Kaleidoscope number. Two listens in, I was of the opinion that this was quite dull. However, this is my sixth and it's grown on me already. It's beautiful. Zero is actually audible! The guitar solo is lovely. Hizumi's voice is rich. The drums plod along placidly in the verses, then it escalates into an upbeat chrous. And it's an appropriate way to end the album, it trails off gloomily into an abyss. Gorgeous ballad, imo, very melancholic and melodic. 8.5/10

Overall: I agree with Des. It felt a little bit short. But I'm wholly, wholly satisfied with this album. Well above average release, and it's a pleasantly dark album. No terrible songs. I didn't hate any of them, and I hated three on REDEEMER and one on MIRROR.

Edited April 28, 2016 by SUBLIMINAL

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I like this album. It has a nice ongoing dark atmosphere. Not doing a song-by-song review now, but these were the standout tracks for me: DEVIL'S PARADE, dope, FALLING.

I don't know yet how to precisely rank this among their other works, but I definitely like it better than MIRROR and REDEEMER. I'd give it a strong 7/10 or something like that. More or less, it delivered what I was expecting, so I'm content.

[nozomi 0]

It's better than Redeemer, i'll give it that but it is nowherre near Coll:Set and Mirror.

exactly what i thought

[Seiji 156]

okay~ let's see

Human-clad monster:

As expected from the preview, this song is outstanding! Really love the chorus!

10/10

DEATH POINT:

Good, addicting song

9/10

13 -Thirteen-:

HELL YEAH! A masterpiece! I love those drums and the whole song being so groovy

10/10

LOVE IS DEAD:

Love it since when I first saw the PV. Don't know what to add, just love it even though love is dead!

10/10

DEVIL'S PARADE:

again the "grooviness" is great. A bit boring though compared to other songs on the album

7/10

dope:

Very nice song, can't say anything against it, but not as great as 13-thirteen- etc., so

9/10

FALLING:

Sounds kinda old school d'espa-ish to me, I like it!

9/10 10/10

(while listening to it again I recognized the epicness of the chorus)

PROGRESS:

Personally, I think this song is kinda average~ not bad, but also nothing special about it

6/10

FINAL CALL:

With this album I suddenly started to like the song a bit more, but nothing special though.

7/10

abyss:

Good ballad, not outstanding, but it transmits a nice feeling

8/10

Overall: 8/10

For me one of the best D'espairsRay releases.

If only the tracks would be a bit longer...and if only there were more songs on it..

(is it just me or does Hizumi sound a bit strange on this album?)

[minre 13]

I don't have this mentality.

When I decide a band have lost it, I generally stop listening and hoping their new material will satisfy as much as their old music did.

I was just curious.

God, this sfm. If I don't like a band's sound, I stop listening. It's simple and way better than bitching about every single release.

As for the album...I'm about to listen, lol. As soon as I'm done with the new SCANDAL single. ;p

obviously, it doesn't apply to those that I don't show up complaining as much.

either way, it's hard to exactly know just when to give up. it's the feeling of not wanting to miss something just in case...

or something?

-

in the end, I suppose I can say that it IS better than REDEEMER, but neither 'satisfied' me enough to care.

still no collset/mirror, but at least one track mattered to me, and there were particles of light trapped inside every now and then, just waiting to come out and play. haha. oh well.

-

could also say that it was done out of mere boredom, which creates a more natural curiosity? *shrugs*.

[Zeus 7997]

Everything between DEATH POINT and DEVIL'S PARADE should have been left off this album. That comprises a good portion of my review. DEATH POINT blows, 13 -Thirteen- feels like an interlude. As a song, it goes nowhere and does nothing. LOVE IS DEAD is just an OK song and shoved in between 13 and DEVIL'S PARADE ruins it's appeal even more. DEVIL'S PARADE was good until that really weird breakdown that loses me. Not the greatest thing on this album but it isn't hideous. I have a feeling it might grow on me a lot with subsequent listens so it's somewhere in the middle. So yes, all of these songs could have gone, made MONSTERS into an EP and I would have been a happy camper.

Human-clad monster is an amazing song once it gets started. Best of the album. Hizumi actually sings (as opposed to some other songs on this album where he just chants or mumbles). MONSTERS needed more HCM. Next up on my praise list is dope. It has a simple guitar riff but it works. There's some more of Hizumi's singing and I think there's some growling in here as well. If it's not, it's FALLING. I have to agree with SUBLIMINAL on the BRILLIANT references but it's not as blatant as I thought it would be but the rest of the song works. Not as great as the two before it but it isn't atrocious either. PROGRESS had some of that delicious synth work they were raving about and Tsukasa's contribution to the album is distinct, which is better than what can be said about his addition to REDEEMER. Then there's FINAL CALL, which I oddly like a lot, and then the ending ballad abyss. It's not as epic as I thought it would be but it serves it's purpose and it's a good song. The third best on the album, tied with FINAL CALL.

My main problem with this album is that tracks two through five are too much of the same. Omit those and we have a winner. With those in this album's score in my book drops a lot. It's still a good album, the parts I like I adore and the parts I hate I abhor.

Mirror = [coll] > Monsters > REDEEMER

Put a large gap between Monsters and REDEEMER.