DIR EN GREY - DUM SPIRO SPERO

[xxDaInReUxx 0]

Now that the album has sunk-in, I, like everyone else, can start giving out some numerical values.

Kyoukotsu No Nari - Like relentless said, it accomplishes what it was set out to do: create a unique mood for the album. Is it my favorite opener? No, but it is not bad by any stretch of the imagination. 7.5/10

THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB - This song confused the hell out of me the first time I heard it, and it still does. The seemingly lack of direction just throws me off. It's definitely unique, but not one of my top songs on the album. 7/10

DIFFERENT SENSE - There really isn't much left to say about this song ... it's just flat out terrific, and showcases DIR EN GREY at their absolute best. 10/10

AMON - I found myself disappointed at first when the song came out about a week before the leak. The lack of strong melodies put me off, but like the album, it honestly takes multiple listens to truly grasp. Again, not a favorite, but a tune I will surely keep listening to nonetheless. 7.5/10

"Yokusou Ni DREAMBOX" Aruiwa Seijuku No Rinen To Tsumetai Ame - Love everything about this song. The vocals are absolutely top notch and the quick transition changes are great. 9/10

Juuyoku - While the sample left a bad impression for me, the full song completely changes my opinion. Kyo's vocals in this song are ridiculous and the guitar work is truly impressive. The clean vocals that come in at around 2:48 are some of the strongest sounding on the entire album, making me wish that vocal section lasted a few more seconds. 9/10

Shitataru Mourou - Almost exactly the opposite from Juuyoku.... while the sample left me wanting more, the full song was a bit of a let down. I still find myself enjoying it a little, but not much more to say about it. 7.5/10

LOTUS - I'll jump in with the masses and agree that the mixing improved the song tremendously. I always liked the song, but hearing it in this new light makes me love it. 9.5/10

DIABOLOS - We all knew and expected this to be the VINUSHKA of DUM SPIRO SPERO, and it does not disappoint. While completely intimidating at first, the song becomes just as accessible as VINUSHKA despite it's length. The clean vocals and melodies are beautiful, while the heavy sections are brutal. The entire song transitions well, and the nearly 10 minutes moves by pretty quick. Amazing song. 9.5/10

Akatsuki - This is just brilliant. I feel this is the band just screaming out "Yeah, we are still the same DIR EN GREY". Unique melodies, interesting instrumental work, and constant flashbacks to older times are all found here. 9/10

DECAYED CROW - It's heaviness is the biggest strength, yet biggest weakness here. Live, this song will be terrific, but on record? It just leaves me wanting more.. a lot more. 7/10

Hageshisa To, Kono Mune No Naka De Karamitsuita Shakunetsu No Yami - Once again, I love the changes the song underwent. Those who say the single-version sounded stronger are correct, but this version just flows within the album better. The chorus sounds better than ever. 9/10

VANITAS - Beautiful. Soft. Tender. Everything you expect from DIR EN GREY when they choose to slow things down. The vocals and harmonies and sweet and free-flowing, and the emotion being portrayed is extremely evident. Lovely song. 9.5/10

Ruten No Tou - I really can't add anything to say about this song... It's a masterpiece. It is undoubtedly the strongest, most powerful song on the album. 10/10

If it takes DIR EN GREY another 2 years, 10 months to put out their next album, I won't care, because it will literally take me that much time to discover the intricacies found throughout and to wrap my head around the entirety of this record. Like every album they put out, there are low-points.. but the high-points are so high that they can completely overshadow the sections that aren't that great. I applaud DIR EN GREY, once again they set out with something new in mind, and ended up creating a true work of art.

[clow_eriol 240]

It's a great album!!!

4.5/5

[finnthesubhuman 26]

Kyo did whispered growls back in 2008. Watch The Rose Trims Again and it's very clear. His growls suckedddddd. Now they're great! And they're different at the same time because of how full and "wet" they are, they possess the same technique as pig squeals but aren't quite there yet. It's a cool combination.

Not the same technique at all, pig squeals are made by grinding falsecord until it cracks, then using the lips and tongue to curve the sound. Kyo's doing gutterals.

Uuurgoiii. Not ureee.

[Bonki 0]

a) It's not screaming it's guttural growling and pig squeals. Kyo did screaming on TMOAB and he fucked up his vocal cords and before then he did fail-screaming which didn't sound like screaming at all and more like him just gerbiling over the music.

But anyway, for someone saying that they appeal only to the kids you seem to forget what the entire visual kei movement is - grown men scantily dressing to attract young women because it's appealing to the kids. For goodness sake's, their entire visual era was them appealing to the kids! Your statement makes no sense, especially within the context of this specific album. DSS is one of their more original records and this and Uroboros sees them play with energy that you don't hear anywhere else in their discography. Whether or not it clicks with you is a separate issue but at least this isn't standard American metalcore (TMOAB), LUNA SEA covers (Missa) or Yoshiki-fied typical late 90's visual kei (Gauze).

c) Boringness is a personal thing. Can't comment on that.

Well it really doesn't matter what it really is, frog noises, pig squealing, my point is that it just sounds terrible.

With your "b" response, sorry on not being more specific but I meant the music.

The reason I say this is because I had the mentality of "hey this song is metal and it has screaming, I LIKE IT!". Also I know a lot of kids that have that mentality as well. So that is what I meant by appealing to the kids. I am not talking about how they dress.

Also if I'm not mistaken they don't dress visual kei anymore.

[Asakusa 95]

he/she didn't get the point

[Saaam-chan 50]

don't mess up guys !!! ~

Fact is... they worked long on the album... I started to listen it... and it blowed my mind right away !! BOOM ~

Every track is special and I feel like i am in a diffrent world... and every song tells me another story ~ and its just amazing how the band raised the songs and... I don't know... but that music sounds really high technique for me...

anyway... 8.5/10 from me !!!!

[Pretsy 1343]

I am taking my words back

This is actually one of the best J-albums in 2011 (along with Beautiful Freaks - seriously)

Vanitas has grown on me pretty much, thanks to it's Kasumi-ish / Zakuro-ish vibe in some parts

Also: Shitataru Mourou is amazing as well - it's pretty basic but its much proggier than all the dull & boring diru tracks you know

Ruten no Tou makes me want to repeat this record

9,5/10

(fixing my review for BF a bit later)

[Asakusa 95]

I love how DSS is that difficult non-easy listening.

I love how this album manage to change the listener's opinion: (before)HATE - (after)LOVE

this album, ladies and gentlemen, it's not for just one listen.

[nekkichi 6043]

probably.

I tried to get into it in the past few days, and it bored the hell out of me already, even the seemingly better 2nd part.

won't be listening to it again in a very very long time.

[Tony 1]

This album keeps growing on me. With every listen you notice more and more of those little intricacies of each song. The attention to detail of every instrument, every sound is really amazing.

I might have to revise my initial 7/10 review, I think its worth an 8.

[dannemannen 69]

So after all - best songs on the album are...?

I would say vanitas, Different Sense and Ruten no Tou. All of them deserve the rating 10/10. What about you guys?

And the absolute worst one? I would say Decayed crow, so boring uninteresting growl song.

[mopkins 42]

different sense, juuyoku, diabolos, and ruten no tou are the greatest

decayed crow and lotus are least greatest

[Wonrei 108]

For me it's Akatsuki,Dreambox and Ruten no Tou.Those 3 are just perfect.

My least favorites would be Different Sense and Shitataru Mourou though Shitataru has been growing on me.

[Number Girl 48]

I'm not a fan of Diru, but I tried to be as open-minded as possible about this because I heard it was good and I always try to give good music a chance. I also liked Uroboros a lot and seeing as this is going in that direction I thought I might like DSS too. So please don't flame me or anything, I will try to be mostly nice. ^___^ I tried it for another reason because Kyo's new hair cut is cute. ^___^

Things I liked - Instrumentals are awesome for a good percent of the song - some nice effects and added stuff in there. Tons of cool guitar solos. I also liked the general atmosphere of the album. Morbid, chilling - great concept throughout. If I ever decide to buy this - would be nice contrast from all my happy-skippy indie stuff. ^___^ Neat how they do something a little different with each song. No tracks can really stand out on their own though, it is an artful playground of sound. If they can make a few slight improvements, their follow-up releases should be killer.

Things I hated - Kyo, though he is very cute . . . I can't stand most of his singing. Especially that pseudo-falsetto type clean singing he does alternatively with his screeching/screaming. I guess it is supposed to add to that creepy mood, but it makes me giggle uncontrollably. ^___^ I suppose big metal people will also say "Well, you just don't understand how much talent it takes to make those sounds." Exactly . . . I don't. And don't care to because it sounds freaking retarded. Sometimes I can tolerate it, sometimes it sounds laughably terrible.

His regular clean singing sounds alright - hasn't changed much in ten years. Another thing I don't like is that the songs though not actually long, feel SO LONG. It is like a patience game to get through every song without skipping them midway or getting distracted and start looking at kitten pictures on Google.

Not gonna do a song-by-song as I don't think that's even possible to do with this ^___^ . My top favorites were probably Different Sense (except the angry cat screeching, melodic parts were great), Dreambox (too lazy to write how whole name), Vanitas, and Ruten no Tou.

Lots of good stuff on there, but there were a few tracks that teetering on boringness or just plain horrible. I guess those are expected when you try new stuff.

Anyway . . . my rating is 7/10. Great effort.

[sebbivism 134]

After my 1st listening I had 4 songs that impressed the most on me:

VANITAS, 流転の塔, DIABOLOS and 獣慾 (I didn't include the singles because they're already big favorites)

But after 2-3 listening, I think I like VANITAS and 流転の塔 the best. I guess I will change my mind again and again but I'm just soo weak for Dir en grey ballads, I just love them and VANITAS spoke to me directly.

People have been talking so much about DREAMBOX and saying it's just so amazing, and I got high expectations for it but when I listened to it, I knew directly that I need more listenings before I can feel it.

DUM SPIRO SPERO was very complicated and difficult, I don't even know what to think about it yet.

[xxzer0xx 7]

JUUYOKU,DIABOLOS, DECAYED CROW, RUTEN NO TOU, MASTERPIECES e,e

[bakteeri 7]

Dir en grey, you just made an album that I enjoy thorougly. I like every single song. You haven't done that since Kisou. Fucking epic, dudes. Honestly I didn't believe this day would come, but it did. I hope they can only improve and never go back to the direction where they came from. Won't bother with a song to song review, but Dreambox, Decayed Crow etc, just so awesome. 10/10

[Wicked Teletubby 528]

still digging it o_O

I'm totally in love with DECAYED CROW, Juuyoku and VANITAS. other tracks seem pretty hard to understand for me. anyways, I'm more than just glad they did this record.

[Guest]

This was written while listening to the album.

Kyoukotsu no Nari - DAT PIANO. It just gave the idea how the whole album would sound.Made me shit my pants.The despair here is incredible. piano/10

The Blossoming Beelzebub - DAT PIANO[2].This is amazing,holy shit.First favorite.Really proggy.This is dense,holy fuck.Fuck Vinushka,this is where the gold lies. piano/10

Different Sense - drum and bass. worst single/10 also known as 6/10

Amon - fuck yeah,atmospheric,nice. fits/10

Yokusou ni Dreambox shit long title - what the fuck is this seriously my body likes this vocal melody.alot.HOLY FUCK THE AGRESSIVE PART,FUCK YOU DIR EN GREY THIS IS GOOD. bricksshat/10

Juuyoku- One of my favorite samples,fuck yeah this is good.Really well done. demon summoning/10

Shirutaru Monrou - Nice,atmospheric,felt like Amon to me. fits/10

Lotus - hey lotus I liked you single I like you here with bass.Felt like I was in hell and suddenly there's this light clearing the area.Vocals also sound more echoey?dunno how to say. single/10

Diabolos - Hey that echo.Hey whats wrong.HEY IS THAT MERZBOW.Sample comes.Oh hey.oh wait wtf can't describe actually

This is deep.2deep4u The whole way this shit works.Vinushka. X tending to infinity/10

Akatsuki - another favorite sample.sounds like you're lost in some forest and demons are coming to attack ya.Me likey

God this is good.DAT FUNKY SONG DAT RAP Funk/10

Decayed Crow - not really that original,but I like it's atmosphere and guitars.Who is that dawg distorting his guitar so much it sounds like aids? aids/10

Hageshisa - hageshisa/10

Vanitas - so here is ballad.at first felt pretty bland,but then the guitars came.Oh hey guitars.Now it's beautiful and kind of reminds me of old vk shit in the melody. sadballad/10

Ruten no Tou - It started like it was going to finish the album.Like dem guitars.Really nice,the sample was the shittiest part of the song.Really strong song overall.Could've been a single.Hope they make a pv or something for this. perfectcloser/10

Rasetsukoku - MOSHKICKASSHEADS/10

Amon(Symphonic shit) - harp.You dir en grey dudes probably knew harp is my favorite instrument ever did you? They should do an album with an orchestra now. Dir en Symphonic/10.

I loved Uroboros and got shocked by it at first.But this,my boys,this is another level.My favorite Dir en grey album

You should make a PNG image having this concept but with the DUM SPIRO SPERO album.. i think it would be quite funny lol

[Guest]

--My review so far as for my "bandcamp downloaded copy" of DSS--

Overall album : God mode epic/10

Exceptions : "Hageshisa To", "DIFFERENT SENSE" and "LOTUS" [what the fuck did they do to you, dear god.. sounds like shit now.. singles were better.]

In love with? : Ruten No Tou「流転の塔」, DIFFERENT SENSE「Single Vers.」, LOTUS「Single Vers.」 and Hageshisa To「Single Vers.」

[Asakusa 95]

^ lol DIFFERENT SENSE didn't change at all, just the intro at the end of THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB.

[Guest]

^ lol DIFFERENT SENSE didn't change at all, just the intro at the end of THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB.

While i agree with you, the sound from the single and album version are both different... but a bit faint.. most people won't hear it.

also, i did like the intro after TBB lol.. was awesome

[Pretsy 1343]

^ lol DIFFERENT SENSE didn't change at all, just the intro at the end of THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB.

Exactly, they said they would only re-record the early singles (with mixing issues, DS had okay mixing)*

*Hageshisa is not counted here - it was butchered completely, thanks to the courtesy of Jensen

[Wonrei 108]

^ lol DIFFERENT SENSE didn't change at all, just the intro at the end of THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB.

Exactly, they said they would only re-record the early singles (with mixing issues, DS had okay mixing)*

*Hageshisa is not counted here - it was butchered completely, thanks to the courtesy of Jensen

Well in their homepage it says that Different Sense was going to be a bit different,but nothing more than that lol

And it also says that Lotus was remastered and Hageshisa re-recorded with their 7 strings.Just getting this shit clear because people still seem to be discussing this.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Finally listened to this, yay!

I already wrote a long-ass review in Hungarian on another message board, so I'm kinda tired. So to put it short and simple: this album is godly. Everything, the songs, the arrangement, the sound, the lyrics, the booklet (translated lyrics FTW!)...amazing. Already one of my fave DEG albums (if not the favorite).

Standout songs: "Yokusou ni DREAMBOX"..., Juuyoku, DIABOLOS, Ruten no tou.

Rating: 8.5/10