Versailles - Holy Grail

[dannemannen 69]

Alright - It's here! Go for it!

I'll come back with a detailed review myself later.

Edit: oh man, remember forever is beautiful

[Spectralion 394]

In the name of HOLY ALGEBRA... I really really excited with this album. Since Masashi joined, from some point I lil bit dissapointed with their work, but from the other side I really interested with their release. Okay, i become contradicting myself... So, this is the "new" versailles isn't? I dissaponinted at first time i hear the preview from MASQUERADE, but the full PV was so AWESOME and I can't get enough from it. Maybe HOLY GRAIL is really in my TOP waiting list, and walla... It's already in my playlist now... and, I feel really happy now... ^^

I just making a highlight and ponit for each track from my side... Review are just each person thought, and this is my though...

1. MASQUERADE - AWESOME, I already played it a ton times and I still not getting bored with it. Masashi's bass tapping are AWESOME. The intro and outro are so great. When I see the PV, it's like watching a movie because the intro like a movie background sound... For me, It's ASCENDEAD MASTER Mk.II 10/10

2. Philia - Plain... There is no different from the single version... It's great but boring... 6/10

3. Thanatos - Song with a slower pace. Masashi's bassline are great. The solo are great. But it's kinda boring and forgotable. 7/10

4. Flowery - It is just me or anyone sense LAREINE influentce in this song?! Hizaki and Teru's dueling guitar are great and Masashi's bassline are just great. Oh, I'm forgot to mention Yuki's double pedal are great too... 8.5/10

5. Remember Forever - I really-really love versailles ballad song's. This song are beautiful... So I add this one are to my favorites song's box... But, I don't suggest to listen to it three or four times straght, two time straight are still bearable, but I swear it will became boring as hell if you listen to it more than three times... 8/10

6. DESTINY -the lovers- - Oh, the additional part are quite interesting, piano and orcestra sound are improved, and the recording quality are wooping up... but the rest are still same... not really special... just another great song from versailles 8/10

7. DRY ICE CREAM!! [Remove Silence] - KICKASS!! Althogh it's far from par with ZOMBIE or Red Carpet Day, but it's really GREAT and making me shake my head... I agree with some random guys that say this became the greatest song from versailles... I really want to know why they making it's title like that?! Is this just because the intro sound like an ice cream truck's sound??? 9/10

8. Threshold - It's an instrumental... but it worth to listen... 8/10

9. Judicial Noir - The single version was great, but some part are quite dissapointing. I think this song are no different with the single version... They sould to retake this one I think... Although, I love the organ sound there, it's making the atmosphere feels different. The last chorus are great, that's the best part of this songs 8.5/10

10. Love will be Born Again - Woah, Kamijo's engrish are beautiful! CMIIW, is this the first acoustic song from they?! It's really beautiful... Or it's just me that's too sentimental and melancholy... I give a perfect score for this one! 10/10

11. Vampire - YEAH! the intro are making me remember to The Red Carpet Day. I hope this song are more kickass then DRY ICE CREAM!! [Remove Silence], but it's not even go anywhere from Philia and making me lil bit dissaponted... But, overal, this song are GREAT! 8.5/10

12. Faith & Decision - Here there goes... the 10+++ minutes song are coming... The intro are kickass and promising but making me worried it's a 10+++ minutes instrumental song. Suddenly Kamijo's voice are sound and Thank GOD, they didn't make a 16 minutes instrumental song... Because the main part of this song quite boring, I only give 7.5/10

13. The Theme of Holy Grail - Just as I expected... They put the intro in the last track like JUBILEE... It's like a cycle like Peace's says... 7/10

I satisfied with this album... Yeah, the "new" versailles are coming... I think this album will stand in my ear for a while and some song will shuffle in my playlist for a long time... Overall 8/10

Highlight : MASQUERADE, DESTINY -the Lovers-, DRY ICE CREAM [Remove Silence], and Love Will be Born Again.

I think making a 16 minutes song are quite pointless, just making two or three song, despite making one progressive song... Because it's kinda boring looking to same title for 16 minutes in my JetAudio... Versailles, you should learn from Alice Nine... they can make a 13 minutes song without making me bored...

[Masamune 72]

Short Review

All the songs were nice, except "Love will be Born Again" (Engrish made me cringe)

Pretty boring album, was hoping for a few heavier songs.

6/10

[LIDL 692]

i kinda feel there's too much "epic" ballad in this album.

And very lacking for up tempo numbers, which making it sounds too tiring.

still decent, some nice songs here and there, but after great JUBILEE,

it's not my mistake to wish for something better and heavier than that as follow up.

I must say am quite unimpressed by it.

Perhaps their weakest effort by far.

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

My expectations were exceeded by this album, but then again my expectations were pretty low and they're my favorite band so I already sort of knew I wouldn't be dissappointed. I don't want to do a huge track my track detailed review, but I'll grade each of the songs and then give my highlights and my least favorites:

1. Masquerade - 10/10

2. Philia - 8/10

3. Thanatos - 8/10

4. Flowery - 8/10

5. Remember Forever - 10/10

6. Destiny -The Lovers- - 8/10

7. Dry Ice Scream [Remove Silence] - 9/10

8. Threshold - 6/10 (Just because it could be longer)

9. Judicial Noir - 10/10

10. Love Will Be Born Again - 10/10

11. Vampire - 9/10

12. Faith & Decision - 10/10

13. The Theme of Holy Grail - 5/10 (again, length)

Highlights:

Faith & Decision I felt was absolutely stunning and totally epic. Those who didn't think it was epic probably don't have the intention span to keep up with a 17 minute song, and it's okay. It was hard for me on my first listen through also, but after 25 times it gets easier.

Love Will Be Born Again had a beautiful melody and Engrish doesn't make me cringe, I rather like it.

Remember Forever was a beautiful ballad that I truly loved.

Disappointments:

The fact that The Theme of Holy Grail wasn't an outro like Episode or Sound in Gate. They probably could've done a lot more with that. Threshold, too, for that matter was disappointing. Could've been longer and more theatrical.

The singles, though mastered/recorded perfectly for the album, were still some of the weaker points. Minus Judicial Noir, which has always been a favorite to me.

Overall: 9.5/10.

[minre 13]

The singles were definitely the weak points of the album [except for Judicial Noir, which is still awesome], though the intro to DESTINY is nice, but i doubt I'll ever listen to either single again.

Dry Ice Scream [remove silence]... is still too long and nonsensical, though the song itself is decent enough.

And I rarely ever listen to pointless outros - though threshold was nice, I wish it were longer.

Faith & Decision is endearing, given the time to be patient.

Love will be born again, despite not understanding some parts, is lovely.

Vampire and Thanatos were nice surprise because I thought it'd [Vampire] suck, while Flowery is rather pointless.

Remember Forever was a nice ballad, though it'd probably get tiring after a bit.

Inferior to Jubilee, since there isn't all that variation it feels? And tries to be too epic. [despite Jubilee being like a film...]

But it is definitely better than NOBLE, since I utterly hated that piece of trash. [albeit the single ep for it carried the only good songs...]

.......7/10? simply because of the batch of weak songs like Philia, Flowery, Destiny, Outro, etc...

[nekkichi 6043]

Only skipped singles.

Better than their previous album, new bassist is good too.

I mean, they finally have a pronounced bass-line, isn't that awesome and shit.

[Number Girl 48]

i kinda feel there's too much "epic" ballad in this album.

Nooo! Not X-Japan syndrome!

[Zeus 7997]

Don't feel like/don't have enough time to write a long-ass review, so I'll just leave short thoughts on each track. These feelings aren't final though since I've only listened through the album twice, but it's enough for some basic thoughts.

1) MASQUERADE gets a 10/10 from me. It's got everything I need; nice riffs, decent progression, great vocals, nice middle section, great PV. This is an all around-great track from Versailles. Maybe not their best, but the best they've done in quite a long time.

2) Philia gets an 8/10 from me. Like I said in my long Philia review I knew it was going to grow on me over time - which it did. The new mastering on the track also did wonders for it because it sounds much better than the single version, so for that alone it gets bumped up a point. Other than that, not much else.

3) Thanatos gets a 7/10 from me. Sounds nice and experimental but I need more listens so that rating definitely will change.

4) Flowery also gets a 7/10 from me. Once again, more listens may increase that score. Both of the songs sounded great but they haven't grown on me yet.

5) I honestly do not remember much about Remember Forever. I remember it was long as all hell though. Obviously, more listens. No grade for now.

6) DESTINY -The Lovers- gets a 5.5/10. The new intro is nice but it's an intro for an intro and that's redundant. Plus, it doesn't mesh with the rest of the song. New production value is once again nice, but the song is still boring.

7) DRY ICE SCREAM gets a 3/10 from me. This was just all around terrible, didn't fit in this album and had some terrible synth work IMO. Should have been left off.

Threshold also didn't need to be here. Feels more like a filler track. Would have been better if this was fleshed out more but it barely breaks two minutes so I'm not rating this interlude.

9) Judicial Noir is one of the better songs on this album and that I have a problem with, because I don't like this song. It works within the context of the album though and this too also saw some polishing in the studio. It gets a 7/10. Next.

10) Love will be born again gets a 4/10. This, unfortunately, I do remember for the Engrish (which I do not like) and for the fact that it was extremely boring. Not at all touching IMO - Kamijo needs to stay away from the English. Stick to Japanese because you're better at pronouncing it. Nice try with the acoustic guitar though.

11) Vampire gets a 5/10. The song feels cheap and plastic-like and doesn't hold my attention, just like the PV.

12) Faith and Decision gets a 6/10. Reason why is because there's just too much song in here. I listen to Boris so I'm accustomed to repetitive hour-long songs but they use the art of hypnotism and slight change in tempo to signify a new part in the song. This feels like two songs smashed together with the first part feeling like Silent Knight Part II and the other feeling like some other Versailles song I've already heard. Had this been split up into two tracks, each would have received a higher score. I honestly think this was composed only because Kamijo and Hizaki are each having a war over who can craft the longest Versailles song. At 16 minutes this is ridiculous. You win Hizaki, now go back and pay attention to the REST of the songs on this album.

13) Theme of HG - Another interlude, sounds very similar to DESTINY's new opening, not interested, not rating.

Hopefully this grows on me. For now, most disappointing Versailles album. Will come back with a better review later.

[The Libertine 2]

Pretty poor... Most songs are boring or sound like they're trying too hard. Worse is when they're both! lol. I do quite like masquerade though. Noble and Jubilee are much much better.

[Augie1995 325]

My expectations were exceeded by this album, but then again my expectations were pretty low and they're my favorite band so I already sort of knew I wouldn't be dissappointed. I don't want to do a huge track my track detailed review, but I'll grade each of the songs and then give my highlights and my least favorites:

1. Masquerade - 10/10

2. Philia - 8/10

3. Thanatos - 8/10

4. Flowery - 8/10

5. Remember Forever - 10/10

6. Destiny -The Lovers- - 8/10

7. Dry Ice Scream [Remove Silence] - 9/10

8. Threshold - 6/10 (Just because it could be longer)

9. Judicial Noir - 10/10

10. Love Will Be Born Again - 10/10

11. Vampire - 9/10

12. Faith & Decision - 10/10

13. The Theme of Holy Grail - 5/10 (again, length)

Highlights:

Faith & Decision I felt was absolutely stunning and totally epic. Those who didn't think it was epic probably don't have the intention span to keep up with a 17 minute song, and it's okay. It was hard for me on my first listen through also, but after 25 times it gets easier.

Love Will Be Born Again had a beautiful melody and Engrish doesn't make me cringe, I rather like it.

Remember Forever was a beautiful ballad that I truly loved.

Disappointments:

The fact that The Theme of Holy Grail wasn't an outro like Episode or Sound in Gate. They probably could've done a lot more with that. Threshold, too, for that matter was disappointing. Could've been longer and more theatrical.

The singles, though mastered/recorded perfectly for the album, were still some of the weaker points. Minus Judicial Noir, which has always been a favorite to me.

Overall: 9.5/10.

My words exactly, thank you.

[D.L.S 11]

My expectations were way to high, they are my favorite band after all. They disappointed big time, though.

1. Masquerade: 10/10 - A perfect Versailles song! I love everything about it.

2. Philia: 7.5/10 - I love this song, but it's definitely not my favorite by them.

3. Thanatos: 6/10

4. Flowery: 7/10 - Teru never disappoints, however Kamijo did for me in this song.

5. Remember Forever: 7/10 - I like it a lot, but I couldn't tell you anything about it.

6. Destiny -The Lovers-: 8.5/10 - I've always love the "new" intro, so I'm glad that it is permanently attached to Destiny.

7. Dry Ice Scream [Remove Silence]: 7/10

8. Threshold: 8/10 - I think it would have sounded better before Vampire and that it should have been a longer more complex song.

9. Judicial Noir: 8/10

10. Love Will Be Born Again: 3/10 - Honestly, I'd rather listen to Episode which is 10X better than this.

11. Vampire: 7/10

12. Faith & Decision: 6/10 - Faith should have been separated from Decision.

13. The Theme of Holy Grail: 8/10 - I always love Kamijo's SE's

How I feel about all of Versailles' albums now:

Jubilee=11/10>Noble/Lyrical Sympathy=9.5>Holy Grail 7/10

[Rosà 37]

So now my turn for a short review:

Masquerade - just great, I have no idea, why they shared the best song from the album so early. But it's specific climate, which I really do like, also 10/10

Philia - one of the better songs from their last two singles. Chorus so easy to remember, melodic, quite nice, catchy tune. One of typical Versailles, but the voice is somehow irritating... 8/10

Thanatos - I was really curious about this song, because it's first Masashi song for Versailles. I must admit, I like it, but for me it's strange, too much in MDM style... bass lines are pretty nice, but refrain a little... kinda... soft? What the hell? 8/10

Flowery - I don't remember this song, I haven't noticed, when it finished... To be honest i've heard this motives used here somewhere, but i dunno, where exactly... No rating so far. I'll give it some more listens.

Remember Forever - why it reminds me "Prayer" at the beginning...? Nice ballad, but a little boring... 6/10

Destiny -The Lovers- - I began to like it, but this orchestral start is not necessary... What for? Incompatible with the rest of the song... 7/10

Dry Ice Scream!! [Remove Silence] - Hizaki just got crazy, what is this? The worst track on this album. Is he ran out of ideas or what? 3/10

Threshold - When Teru said that he's working on something darker and harder, I didn't even expect it would be an SE only... Nice one, I'll give it 10/10, but I'd be happier, if Libido were here...

Judicial Noir - something changed on an album version? I don't know... I don't like this song too... too fast, bizarre, chorus too melodic for this kind of song.. I've expected something heavier, or even darker before single... 5/10

Love Will Be Born Again - melodic, silent... but the lyrics... In English it's just banal, but still beautiful in some way... I don't care about Engrish. It should be understood. 7/10

Vampire - Too much MDM at the beginning... I don't know yet, what to say. No raiting so far

Faith & Decision - OMG, perfect song, but without this 7-minute-long instrumental beginning 8/10

The Theme Of Holy Grail - just nice SE. No raiting, it should be at the beginning, not at the end.

Overall raiting: 7.2/10. Nice one, not so epic, as I thought. They've changed. But if it's better or worse way, we will see in the future. Not disappointed, but they could've do better, because they can!

[TeruVersailles 0]

1.MASQUERADE-Absolutely sensational! Love the PV, the guitar solo is a little boring/generic Verssailles at some points but the ending easily makes up for that & Masashi's bass solo kicks ass! 9/10

2.Philia-Same as the single version, solo's were decent and that's about it, easily forgettable 6.5/10

3.Thanatos-One of my new favourites, the lyrics are awesome and the screaming in the background really sold it for me, the rhythms are a little plain for Hizaki & Teru it's almost like Masashi wrote himself the best bits xD 8.5/10

4.Flowery-LOVE IT, this is SOOO Teru all over. The guitar solo is awesome and I love the speed the lyrics are sung. GO TERU! 10/10

5.Remember Forever-My favourite. Hizaki knows how to write, the rhythms are perfect the solo is perfect, just incredible.10/10

6.Destiny -THE LOVERS--Well, it's Destiny with a little more intro, like it, dont love it.7/10

7.DRY ICE SCREAM!! [Remove Silence]-Odd, just odd. I like it but it's so bizarre & the lyrics are odd too possible grower!7/10

8.Threshold-This must be the "dark" piece that Teru mentioned a while ago, very nice but too short for me, would make a really good song!7.5/10

9.Judicial Noir-I really enjoy the fast pace of this song and the lyrics are really some of my favourite!9.5/10

10.Love will be born again-Do I need to say more than <3? The english is odd but nowhere near as bad as The Revenant Choir, well done Kamijo! 10/10

11.Vampire-I like it very much, it'll take some time to grow on me, great work though! Haven't seen the full PV yet however! Must watch!8/10

12.Faith & Decision-Pure awesomeness, didn't expect 7mins worth of soloing but wow it's great, Kamijos vocals seem very strong here as with the other songs, I love the length!10/10

13.Theme of The Holy Grail-Did anyone say X Japan? Art of Life style song, like it though & the way it's at the end, Jubilee circle #2!7/10

Overall; I really do love the album & some songs are just genius, however it just does not match the love I have/had for Jubilee when it first came out, Amorphous will always be my favourite song! Well done Versailles! KEEP ROCKINGGG! P.S, YUKI? WRITE A SONG P.S.S, MASASHI WRITE MORE SONGS ;P

[Augie1995 325]

Anyone else notice at 5:51-5:57 in Faith & Decision a part by Hizaki that sounded just like the outro to Philia?

[spleenmonkey 1]

all i can say is KAMIJO BETTER SING!!!!!!.. Remember Forever made me wanna slap him.. sounds so good.

[Number Girl 48]

^ I really don't understand this comment.

[kyoisKILLINGME 195]

......

ANYWAYS... um i enjoy the album alot and i think they did a really good

job on it and i gave it a 10 ^___^

[spleenmonkey 1]

i like to slap people when they do something good... its satisfying.

[jarrad 1]

I liked this album. Sure its no Jubilee but regardless I like it. Don't know whether its better than Noble or not yet as I have only listened to it once. The packaging for the Deluxe Edition is pretty cool though and the photobooklet is too.

[Number Girl 48]

i like to slap people when they do something good... its satisfying.

Oh, okay haha!

[LIDL 692]

i like to slap people when they do something good... its satisfying.

Oh, okay haha!

still awkward doesn't it?

[Spectralion 394]

This album still growing inside me...

I love this album, though it's still underwhelmed with JUBILEE...

I don't know why, Faith and Decision growing inside me... and I became love to that song...

[X-Marc 7]

Vampire was the only song that sticked after the first listen.

dunno, kinda dissapointed, i was hoping for something epic.

But D's Vampire Saga was much more epic imo.

[Licio123 181]

1. MASQUERADE - 9/10

2. Philia - 8.5/10

3. Thanatos - 8/10

4. Flowery - 8.5/10

5. Remember Forever - 9/10

6. Destiny -The Lovers- - 8.5/10

7. Dry Ice Scream [Remove Silence] - 8/10

8. Threshold - 8/10

9. Judicial Noir - 8.5/10

10. Love Will Be Born Again - 9/10

11. Vampire - 9/10

12. Faith & Decision - 7/10

13. The Theme of Holy Grail - 7/10

Great album, on par with JUBILEE. Faith & Decision is good, but 8 minute guitar wanking is too much.