August VK Reviews

Title: Ain Soph Aur *AWEFUCKINGSOME* Band: RENTRER EN SOI Verdict: 4.5 stars. 3 years ago, having a weakness for strong vocalists, Satsuki's lyrical prose and emotive voice inspired me to follow them. Their guitar play and compositions changed drastically throughout their 6 year stint. Highlighted in this compilation are hits from the effeminate (pre-) Sphire Croid era with songs like the wondrous "Shinwa", "Full Moon" and "Eyes of Forest" which I have only begun to familiarize with. Their later major albums started the expansion to Europe based tours and at that time RES' music swerved to angura-kei territory with "THE ABYSS OF DESPAIR", "I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO..." and "PROTOPLASM". The crown definitely goes to their 2008 works especially "STIGMATA" and "Last Scene" which in their final year happens to be their finest products. 32 of their best hits will not revive them, no matter how many times I replay this. They held so much promise that it's a shame for Visual Kei to lose one of its better bands. RES' powerful combination could've outdone so many bands of recent times that lack the quality they had. But they were ill fated to break during their prime. Sigh. Go for: 'Shinwa', 'STIGMATA', 'LAST WORD [ ]', 'Last Scene', 'JUST MAD PAIN', 'wither', 'JUDE', 'Eyes of Forest', 'I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO...', 'Full Moon'. New songs: 'STAY GOLD' & 'Tsuki ga Maioriru Koto no Nai Daichi'.

Title: UROBOROS Delux Unplugged Disk (First Press Limited Edition) Band: Dir en grey Verdict: 4 stars. Honestly there ain't much to review about this disk except that the four unpolished songs are definitely out of character. What you have here is Kyo's crisp voice bleeding your ears off (in a good way). The amount of changes he's screwed his voice over has culminated into this ingenious and mature style which I can't help but be grateful for. The packaging is a beauty in brooding black and red. And weighing at almost 2 kg, I lugged this back home on the LRT with a crick in my left shoulder for 2 days! But it and the bargain price are so worth it. I only need to figure out what to do with the LP records... *sweatdrops* Go for: -

Title: under-world Band: Merry Verdict: 1.5 stars. I downloaded this in February right before my old PC went kaput and after I recently successfully got to save all that data, I thought "Yay! Something to review in early August" but uhm I remember now why I don't like Merry. There are a few acceptable songs only because the rest is poorly written and leaves you wishing they'd pick up a few copycat abilities. They used to be monotonous and boring. But now this album is just unbelievably lazy. Go for: 'Piranha', 'Canary', '[human farm]'.

+ Bonus review: I’ve been unable to download Luna Sea’s GOD BLESS YOU concert for a year so when I found this cough pirated version at Amcorp Mall... (Insert squealing fangirl). Had I not felt the inexplicable pull to enter the pirated DVD shop I always ignore, I guess until forever oso I wouldn’t be able to watch the full concert. Since it’s expensive and it’s in sucky Region 1! Sigh. Anyway, since I’d already spazzed about the performances here, I’ll only spazz review on the DVD aspect and features.

Title: GOD BLESS YOU ~One Night Déjàvu~ DVD*AWEFUCKINGSOME* Band: LUNA SEA Verdict: 5 stars. The lighting, the passionate crowd, the unseen moments and sheer brilliance of the production captured in this DVD is the best way to experience a Luna Sea concert. There are almost no areas left untended by cameramen and seeing how vast the minimalist stage is, pretty amazing shots of the band and pans of the whole stage are abundant. I just love the swift camera work: plenty of close-ups on those legendary twirls and spins by J and Ino and oooh the beautiful shots with one or two members (especially when Sugizo and Ino are at the wings) aligned in the background of the same frame while Ryu gets emo in the foreground. I also really love the amount of screen time Inoran is given here *pinches his cheeks*. The ‘Miracle at Holy Night' TV broadcast of the concert has a couple of missing content here and there. So now I finally get to see the Shinya drum solo get rescued by J's rowdy bass solo and then the performances for "Fate" and "Mother". I've seen the cut-down version of this concert for the nth time and this DVD twice, but it hasn't become stale and I doubt it ever will be. So if anyone wants to try listening to Luna Sea, I'd suggest them to watch this first rather than downloading their full discography (I can pinjamkan too). The perfection of this concert will bowl you over, I promise. Go for: 'Rosier', 'Déjàvu', 'Desire', 'TONIGHT', 'Fate', 'Breathe'.

Title: Kimi no Uta PV *HOT* Band: abingdon boys school Verdict: 5 stars. YES! A hot new song to go with an equally hot PV. 10 seconds into the intro and you instinctively know these folks won't be disappointing you this time. I love the burnished tint and the Babylon-esque ruins as if abs dropped into a Lost-slash-Transformers movie set. Even the whole wind whipping works wonders with their cool hoodies. Can't wait for the new single AND album. Go for: -