REALies - NuAGE

[Mei 276]

i hope to receive my copies this week or the next one, and then i'll post the pv.

the release itself didn't dissapoint me (to my surprise). at all.

rayka's voice fits this poppish genre quite well; he just has to get rid of that deaf-like tone he has.

NuAGE: 3.5/5 the chorus is a bit weird but the post-chorus is nice. the rest of the song is tolerable. rip quality isn't the best so i can't say much about the drumming and guitars.

D.O.P.E: 4/5 liked the intro. distorted voice is nice. synth me likes. i like the way rayka's voice finds its way to the chorus. probably the best song of the single. the only flaw (-typical of all v kei bands-) is the pseudo-rapping. besides that, song is great.

ヒカルセカイ: 3.5/5 i cant get the chorus out of my head and i totally loved the bridge to the guitar solo. but still the song lacks some creativity. rayka's voice sounds totally flat and uninspired.

Overall: 3.5/5 i prefer rayka's heavier side, with those mad growls he used to execute back when he was in brodiaea. but still, this gayer side of his aint bad at all. imo they need better musical composition and a better lead guitar. NuAGE is definitely a nice debut single, that might be liked by oshare listeners perhaps, but please, if you like music not for the aesthetics better start with brodiaea, then synside, then REALies.

[Zeus 7997]

I knew I wouldn't like it but since I liked brodiaea a long time ago I decided to give it a chance just because.

And my god this was bad.

NuAGE is the single track and overall it's pretty unremarkable. It sounds like a metalcore song that tried to go poppy by cutting out all of the harder influence and replacing it with synthesizer, rapping and auto-tune. It didn't work. Rayka still can't sing and he seems to have gotten worse since he left Synside, which I didn't even think was possible. Even his harsh vocals are pretty bad. Then there was the repetitive synth which only take up space in the mix and adds nothing to the song, the very bland breakdown and the chug-chug-chug riffs that seem to be there only to bridge together parts of the song. They didn't even try. 1/5

ヒカルセカイ started out promising but by the it hit the chorus it was over. I will say that overall this song works much better than NuAGE. The synth isn't omnipresent and adds a shred of melody here, although the portions of the song without it sound much better. In this song, it seems like the band had some ideas: the attempt at tremolo picking in certain parts was nice, plus the group shouts remind you that there's other people other than Rayka in the band, plus there was a solo that while pretty unremarkable, is better than the breakdown that was in NuAGE. The problems with this song is that there's no hook, no memorable riff (I forget what the riffs sound like while I'm listening to them!) and the omnipresent synth that drowns everyone out. 2/5

Next, I also want to explain to certain visual bands that when you spell out an acronym the last letter is also supposed to have a dot! F.T.O, G.A.L.D, F.O.P.M, D.O.P.E...can anyone please remember the last dot? It brings out the punctuation Nazi in me.

Now, about D.O.P.E...it has the best integration of synth and riff on the whole single. That's it. I want to ask Rayka where his brodiaea style harsh vocals have gone, because this is unacceptable. They were better in Synside, and Synside was overprocessed to hell and back. The verses consist of something Rayka says heavily auto-tuned in Japanese plus "brah brah brah brah oooo". I also want to call shenanigans on the Rayka's vocal melody in the chorus because I could swear it was lifted out of another song although when you sound this bland it's hard not to. D.O.P.E also has another breakdown which for all intents and purposes is just as bad as the one in NuAGE, which makes me think that D.O.P.E is just "heavy NuAGE". No. 1/5.

Overall this gets a 2/5, which I still think is pretty high but the math doesn't lie. This is just really generic and there's nothing special going on at all. If Rayka knows what's good for him he'd team back up with Lin, KEI and Mahiro and reform brodiaea because at least that band put out some good tunes from time to time. I mean, look at Carcass! Here, I'll link the video:

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Listen to that! Better synth, a much better riff, better integration, no lame breakdown. Sure, Rayka is a little weaker on the projection side of things but it's not like he's any good and he's honestly not that much worse. I prefer him here than on Synside or REALies tbh but that's not the point. Everything is put together and nothing's thrown in because they needed to fill up time. Everything on this single sounds like a mish mash of things.

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Listen to this too! An actual riff plus some drumming that stands out! And there's contrast between the verses and the opening riff that works much better than anything on this single! Plus the solo! That's how you do a solo, not that lame 8-bar thing on the last song (although I do appreciate the effort, I really do).

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This is why I'm extremely hard on anything REALies puts out because I KNOW Rayka can compose better than this. He has before! Hell, even Synside's UNDER THE RIOT (which is still generic as fuck) was more together than D.O.P.E, and Rayka composed that himself! Listen to it! Non-imposing synth, a riff that's actually distinguishable, a slightly better usage of harsh vocals...where has all of this gone? Why isn't any of this present anywhere? I just don't get it at all.

REALies started on out the wrong foot with this single. Based off this single, the cynic in me says they won't be around too long so I wouldn't advise any of you to get attached. When it comes to Rayka, brodiaea 4eva. Sorry fans of REALies.

[Mei 276]

was it that bad? D:

[Zeus 7997]

Honestly, yeah it was :\

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

Not liking this single at all :\

[filth_y 189]

This is why I'm extremely hard on anything REALies puts out because I KNOW Rayka can compose better than this. He has before! Hell, even Synside's UNDER THE RIOT (which is still generic as fuck) was more together than D.O.P.E, and Rayka composed that himself! Listen to it! Non-imposing synth, a riff that's actually distinguishable, a slightly better usage of harsh vocals...where has all of this gone? Why isn't any of this present anywhere? I just don't get it at all.

REALies started on out the wrong foot with this single. Based off this single, the cynic in me says they won't be around too long so I wouldn't advise any of you to get attached. When it comes to Rayka, brodiaea 4eva. Sorry fans of REALies.

Reading your review you sound a bit extremly prejudiced.

I dont know if Rayka wrote all the music, but to me it sounds way so that one of the ex-Ridiot members wrote all the songs since the single sounds like Ridiot meeting Undercode with an extremly annoying voice/singer. I never liked Rayka much but he destroyed the (generic but) nice music (like in all his bands). But this stands out to me because i kinda cared for Ridiot.

[Zeus 7997]

Alright so I'll bite the bullet and say that I don't know if Rayka wrote any the music. But what I DO know (and which is where a bit of my anger/disappointment comes in) is that he has composed better tunes in the past, which means that he can write music. And since he can compose, why he decided to settle for songs this mediocre is something I do not understand.

Never listened to Ridiot though which is why I probably missed a link there but even so...everything just went wrong on this single.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

I listened to the single with no positive expectations based on the sample I heard weeks ago, plus a general dislike of Rayka's voice. With that being said, it was just alright having those thoughts as a judgment on their music before I've even listened to it. They're not going to be something I actively try out, but I've heard more appalling releases before. Come to think of it, I was less disappointed than I was planning on being, and for some reason that annoys me. Instead of "hating it," I'm just "neutral about it."

[gyakutai 12]

I think it's awful if compared to brodiaea... but it's not that bad ò_ò it's ok. I will give it a 6.5/10. *too tired to do a proper review*

[ginHigure 22]

Alright so I'll bite the bullet and say that I don't know if Rayka wrote any the music. But what I DO know (and which is where a bit of my anger/disappointment comes in) is that he has composed better tunes in the past, which means that he can write music. And since he can compose, why he decided to settle for songs this mediocre is something I do not understand.

Never listened to Ridiot though which is why I probably missed a link there but even so...everything just went wrong on this single.

I totally agree with you i also loved brodiaea a lot too.

Hated synside and this new band REALies is the worst ever. I cant believe he degraded himself in such a way. I didnt like any of the songs in the single.

MY grade: 0/0

[golffy_aoi 15]

We have to give them a chance!!!! this is just their first single. Honestly, I think this band is better than Synside 100000times. Anyway, I do want Brodiaea back Y^Y

4/5