The Album Club: "Vitium" by Sukekiyo
 

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Time for MicShazam's pick for round seven. A side project of Dir En Grey. (Ducks)...

Rate, review, blah blah blah you know the drill by now...

Side project of the singer, to be exact. None of the musicians are in this band.

I don't know if anyone cares to discuss this but anyway Mord and I debated in plug.dj about how good Japanese band were. Mord took the position where they were inferior to bands from the West, while I felt they were equal to than bands from the West, sometimes even better than an average band. I often think about that. So what is your opinion on bands from Japan?

It goes without saying that Kyo came from a Heavy Metal band, however the other members in Sukekiyo were all from Visual Kei bands. A great example of Visual Kei is Aicle. I think the guitar player is amazing. He truly is a man of taste, his riffs and solos are always top notch stuff imo.

Aicle - C to Soprano

Kyo's main band, Dir En Grey, also started out as a visual kei band. There's an iteration of the band from before their first official album that sounds quite different.

Also, what the hell is going on with the vocals in the video above? :laughing:

Nothing, it's not English, he's singing in Japanese.

I just meant his voice. At first, I thought they'd pitched him upwards with a computer effect or something.

I like this. Smooth metal sound draped over J-Pop stylings.

Sort of like an updated B’zs

My guess was the singer for Aicle pitched his voice higher or sang in falsetto for the main vocal track when he wanted to stress certain syllables/words while he sang normal on the backing track. I guess the combination of the two gave it a computer effect.

Never heard of them. Hey while on the subject of Japanese bands, do you like Blues Creation or Speed, Glue & Shinki?

Those old psychedelic Japanese bands are cool af

How about マーガレット廣井 aka 88Kasyo Junrei?

looks cool

Doesn’t ring a bell though

88Kasyo Junrei are cool as ****. Just saying. I've been looking for their CD's for over a year, but they're hard to come by to say the least. They haven't really gone international yet.

Got any B'z recommendations? I listened to a random track on Youtube and thought it was pretty good, but I don't know what their best stuff is.

I'm hopeing the above comment was about this week's album and not about the track Nea posted above, but I'm not sure. I expected you to hate this album tbh

I like everything about this album. Despite how I don't think they've made a truly classic album yet, this is still a top scorer for me. I really like the layered, textured sound and the kinetic/melodic songwriting. The singer is excellent and more than a little varied in his approach. I really like the musicianship on the album, despite how the mix arguably gets a little overstuffed now and then. I just think this is such an interesting mix of modern Japanese rock music, metal, prog, pop and small dash of ambience that it keeps me engaged all the way through with ease.

There's something about the general sound and style of this album that grabs me. If I had a criticism against the album, then I'd perhaps like if they had some more quiet moments going here, but that's not a biggie. I just think some of the more laid back moments are among the best.

The band has two other albums as well (only one of which is on Spotify), but I picked this one because it's shorter and I expected it to go over about as well as a Quran reading at an alt-right rally.

10/10 - mucho fantastico. I hope this band sticks around, because I really want to hear what happens when they figure out what to do with this band and refine things a bit more.

Sorry I’m not a very knowledgeable fan. I saw them in Japan. It was like 90,000 people losing their **** and me thinking life is strange.

Interesting EP. I've been a Dir En Grey fan for years and am relatively familiar with Kyo's more solo-oriented work, but he's always consistent. 'Focus' is a pretty good flamenco-tinged ballad, and his usual prog-influences come to the fore often in unexpected places (King Crimson, Dan Swano, Queensryche, etc.).

I actually have no real criticisms here. Solid as a rock work from a real veteran.

8 out of 10

I love Dir En Grey. Been trying to get people in here interested into them, but to no avail. Actually surprised that you of all people like them :beer:

Not the type of music I generally listen to but I did find this one rather interesting. The production sounded quite good and I liked the way it was mixed and the way the instruments and vocals interacted throughout the album. There was a lot going on here and it sounded intriguing enough to me that I listened to it a second time to focus more on the layers of sound. Probably not something I'd purchase for my collection and not something I'll go out of my way to listen to but I enjoyed it and gave it a "Like."

8/10

Is it just me, or are people really half-assing this album club thing these days? I'm obviously not talking about Anteater and Psy-Fi, but just about everyone else who's supposed to be a member.

Time to trim some deadwood.

I'm very much behind, but with Karen being sick, then the Bowie classics and Metal Classics, and add in now the World Cup, time has been at a premium. I will catch up though. I'm, what, three albums behind at the moment?

You're legally excused. It's the other guys who need to bow down in shame and self-flagellate until they bleed.

I don't remember having that debate, but it sounds just racist enough to have actually happened.

Are you talking about your music collection?

Giving this a spin now. Like the Dir En Grey albums I've heard so far, there's some really good stuff and some totally meh stuff, a combination which makes it hard to be properly interested in the album. I found it kind of playing in the background as I did other things, with the odd track making me pay attention, but generally it didn't make that much of an impression.

However I expect it needs more listens and as I wasn't really focussed on it the first time I'll give it a few more tries, see if I can change that Meh to a Like, though I imagine that's as far as it will go. Best I can aim for.

When you've found out if it's "meh" or "like", I'd love to know what track(s) you liked the best.

Oh, you'll know.

I tried to make conservation from the beginning, and was slowly building up to album review. I even checked out the band that the guitar was in, 9Goats Black Out. But when I read the psychotic post I was like nevermind. That aint my kinda humor. I found it kinda disturbing.

Personally, being so behind as I am, I'm using a new mini-matrix to review the albums. Anyone who wants to use it from now on is welcome: I'll add it to the OP.

Any sort of familiarity with this album/artist, or are both entirely new to you? I only know of Dir En Grey, and that through of course MicShaz. Not familiar with any side-projects of any of the band members.
Expectations (if any): Hard to say. I doubt I'll hate it though.
Initial impression: Decent rock/metal with sort of post-hardcore overtones, especially in some of the vocals
Favourite track(s): "Leather Field", "Foster Mother", "Ameagari No Yuushi", "Maniera", "Focus"
Least favourite track(s): "Hakuro", "Celeste"
Overall impression: Decent album. Not blown away by it or anything, but not bad.
Chances of listening to further material from this artist? I wouldn't be averse.
Rating (not mandatory): 6/10
Comments: The same as the other two times I listened to it, unfortunately. It really isn't keeping my attention. I'm now on the fourth track and I didn't even realise. Mind you, the digital piano in "Foster Mother" is really nice. Picking up now. Not bad at all in the end.

You picked very close to what are my favorite tracks as well, so that's interesting. Foster Mother is probably my #1 if pressed to choose.

They've got two other full length albums - one of which is absurdly diffiucult to find anywhere - even on Youtube and Spotify, despite it being their newest album.