Gazette - Guren/Siva - Wrong of Justice

PSC has been on the fail bus for the most part lately. There's no denying it. Alice Nine is terrible. Miyavi is formulaic. Kra is dull. Gazette has been disappointing. Now, Screw, Sug, and Kagrra may be a glimmer of hope, it's not big enough to make the other bands take a look (Except in Gazette's case), and not small enough to make them look like Undercode. But that middle ground makes it hard to be interested in PSC releases.

Like this one. Gazette has been lookin' gooood. That's a bad sign. When a no-longer-VK-sounding major band starts VKing it up, they're obviously compensating. They released Guren recently. And I don't think anyone heard it on time. Except die-hard fans. And I consider myself a moderate fan of this band. I can forgive them no matter how crappy they get. 'Cause I admire Ruki. Musically and visually. But.. Guren, which sounds like a very weak Kagrra song fails to make me go "Wow that's a new step" even though it is. It's a weak slowie that belongs on track 6 of an album. So I only watch the PV to stare at them. The sound is just a background thing. So onto Kugutsue. This song has so much potential. It has some catchy screamy bits that could be awesome live, but then the guitars are weak, and stay in a comfort zone, as with Ruki's constant comfort zone vocals. But I actually really like this song. I think Ruki's inability to scream in a smooth manner helps songs like this, and their guest singers' inability to sing in a manner that isn't unusual and kinda jarring, too. It works! It puts spice on this otherwise bland and dull song. It's also nice being able to hear Reita's voice clearly. So next is our vonus truck. I guess they knew that people are going to want to see the Guren PV with Ruki's mic-fellatio really bad, so they didn't have to try to do anything with the vonus truck but one thing. Make money. Sap fangirls by luring them in with a vonus truck that they can't hear until buying or downloading. And in this case, buying BOTH VERSIONS to get a poster. How does this stuff possibly get so many people? In short... YOUR SEXY CAN'T SAVE YOU FOREVER!!!

So on the Undercode side is Siva. With Wrong of Justice. I won't go on about it, but basically, this single should be called "We Don't Care, But You Should Still Buy Our Stuff" It's uninspired, generic, and dull. It's hard to keep up with a band that only comes up with one good riff for every five songs. Their demotype song was awesome, and the first two singles were tolerable. But this is not. It just goes in one ear, irritates me a bit, and falls out the other. In (relatively) short... VK BANDS ARE GETTING LAZY AND IT'S HARD TO DEFEND THE NEW ONES NOW THX ALOT.

Billy - Bouquet

Billy is an amazing band. I reviewed them here once, and I wasn't..ready for them at the time. I was still getting used to them. They're a band where one listen isn't enough. Their music is so intricate, unusual, and sometimes even atonal, that on first listen it just sounds like.. noise. Or in other cases, generic Oshare-tinted VK. It takes me a while to get used to every release they make. Even this one. I decided to hold off on reviewing it until I understood it. And now I do. So here goes.

The album starts out with Brilliant Bouquet & Braveheart Boy. Kinda.. boring for a first song. The first song is supposed to pull me in! Not push me away! Honestly, this song almost made me lose my hope for how good the album could be. 'Cause it was exactly what I feared from them-- actual genericness. So it gets skipped.

Butterfly United is as usual, stellar. The beginning of the song is very.. misleading. When I heard the OHP sample, I was like "Oh no!" But the rest is just as unpredictable and crafty as their normal work. The verses and prechourus nearly contrast with eachother, and the chorus brings an oddly familiar feeling. Baku's voice doesn't fail to hit notes here how he would occasionally on Bio-Sokeisuru BIO. I'm more than impressed with this.

Casablanca is pretty lolzy. They have an interesting way of the "swingy song". But they're not fooling me with the drums ripped from their song, Another Seisyun-Jidai, which is alot better than this.

Closet Love Story is just.. there. Fillorz.

Liar Game made fall in love with this album. Wow. It's.. AMAZING! The atonality is here, and so is Baku's weird singing.. and the random happy chorus. That's a recognizable Billy trait-- and they do it with sheer awesomeness here. The pre-chorus has such a great note choice from all the members. It isn't missing anything at all. And the weird background stuff in the chorus is also well-executed. I also like how the guitar tone is sort of.. thin. It really works for this song. And, on top of it, their teamwork really helps it.

Nikundaegao is a great remake. The only copy of the original on the interwebs is in terrible quality and skips and is damaged. It's great how I can finally hear the whole structure of the song. Now, the guitarwork isn't as good on this one, and the bassline isn't half as cool-- but I still love it. It became its own song. Mostly because of the vocal performance and the more audible drumming. I can see how its dissonance can throw people off, and the general weirdness may not be appealing to most, but that really makes me love the song. It's a hard song to hum for the most part, and I find that very appealing. Overall, I'm blown away even if it's not as strange as the original.

I never liked Mikaduki.

Will Smile is another remake. Not a good one.

Lagrange Point is boring and obnoxious about how boring it is.

be.LI[Eve] is another great one. It definately requires patience, since it doesn't hit from the start. It takes a while to build up and finally get to the good parts. It takes a while to get there, but it's still worth it. But.. the fact that it takes a while makes it less likely that I'll just turn it on and jam.

Rose Helicopter... .. ...next.

Wakusei Venus is sweet! It has a mysterious, dark feel to it. But in a different way than their Babies, Goodbye kind of mysterious and dark. It's beautiful when it finally blooms into its full form and gets to the chorus. The progressions, the chords, the path the song takes.. it's just mindblowing. It has a mid-90's kind of note progression (which they do alot), and they always make use of the corny synth in the most creative ways I've ever heard in non-gothic visual music. The vocal lines to the chorus are the kind that make you want to sing it with all your heart. It's wonderful! I love this song.

(Song with extra long title) is basically the lyrics to an older song of theirs, but with pianoey synthey things. And nothing else.

Willian Henly Bobbin is a vonus truck.

Despite the terrible songs, the awesome ones are of epic awesomeness. So it's forgivable that there are forced oshare songs. So, in closing... VICTOLY!!!