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!!!

The Indies Lineup #2

Waruiyatsu! (c/w old(er) photo from Cure) is a promising young band. It seems they'd be better live, but from what I heard, they're excellent. In a weird way, too. None of them are especially talented, but together they're great. They're basically your average VK band, but they do the average sound so well, it's good. I've been listening to their single, guaku since July, and I still like it. Can't wait to hear more from these guys. Approved!

Lucy seriously needs to release something. I stumbled across a live recording and it was absolutely stunning. Their bassist plays an upright, which is like, the coolest thing ever. The singer has a Mako-esque voice, except he can actually scream and growl (And really well, too!), the guitarists use dissonance in a way that doesn't sound like a cheap metalcore band, and the dark gloomy mood isn't overdone. Moar! Moar!

Chariots, the new project of Riku, the ex-singer of Phantasmagoria, still minion to Kisaki. I suspect there's a Pumpkin Head guitarist in this band. I can sense his style. But when it comes to these guys, three of them are very talented. The singer and the guitarists. The bassist and drummer are just.. there. Their single, Jade/Cold Pray is pretty interesting. It has something for all kinda of fans. Jade for the people who like hard VK (Like me!!!) Cold Pray for those symphonic-type-VK-people.. and Marvel for people who like boring vonus trucks (with bits of awesome!). Approved.. for now.

Dali fell WAY off of my radar a while ago, but they look super cool right now so I decided to at least poke at their new mini album, the world is mine. It came on and I wasn't really expecting anything special, but I was pleasantly suprised by it. They sound more.. slick and maybe a little badass right now. Except.. All of their awesome was concentrated into two songs, and the others are sub-par. But that's alot better than they've been before December 12th. Approved!

Suicide Ali, who doesn't have good pictures, and has really hard to get music hasn't impressed me with their recently surfaced single, Representa. It's not bad, but it's not really good either. It's just.. an average industrial-influenced rock song. But.. their re-recording of THIS NEW ORDER is absolutely horrible. The song was good in the first place, so why re-record it with ameteur mixing, bad vocals, and horribly recorded basslines? There's basically no point in that. So.. next.

I honestly expected Billy to suck. It didn't. Butterfly United is amazing. Their musicianship and cooperation is so nice. The notes they choose are very.. unusual. It's hard to predict where they're going with a song, which I like. Tons. The only actual complaint I have about them is one I've been thinking about many a time lately. Tsubuku, their bassist is not as prominent as he used to be anymore. This seems to apply to many bass heavy VK bands as of late. The sample that was on their site honestly had me worried. It was oshare-covered syrupy cheese. Which would taste pretty bad. But.. like Dozing Green, it had me fooled! It turned out to be really good. Nice job, Billy. Approved!R-15 a.k.a. R-18 a.k.a. Catheline a.k.a. make up your frickin' minds is an example of a band who makes no progress. Their mini album, Beautyful Sad Song is not only spelled wrong but not very good. Mamo can't sing in that voice. He should sing more naturally or.. not at all. He's good at the growly stuff with the singety sing chorus, but a whole song where he keeps trying to actually sing? no thanks. It worked on their single-type-thing, Nihil Party, but on this one, he isn't singing the right notes and it sounds just awful. It's not even the adorable kind of "he can't sing" like early GHOST recordings. Well, at least they look nice.

VK Fashion #1

Screw, the perfect blend of just about every band out there! Their look for their album Fusion of the Core was funny because you could tell who plays what by just looking at them. Blonde vocalist, red haired guitarist, black haired bassist, brownish haired drummer. But now, there's a bit more going on, even if the vocalist does look like Ruki. Everyone else looks really boring and generic. This is one of those bands who obviously won't be visual for long. Pretty soon we're gonna see them in suits.


Sug is so adorable. Just look at them! It's just too bad their looks are all they have going for them. The outfits are pretty nice, especially Takeru (You know, the only member people care about, despite the fact they're all lookers). The vest is so cool. The hairstyles aren't so great, but they're made up for by everything else. If only I liked them...


wearing matching clothing-- a sign of suckage! Look what it did to Alice Nine. While before their visuals had me interested, and they had a certain aura, but now they look like.. some band. If it weren't for Tsubuku (green/pink/black hair) and Mi-ne (glasses), I wouldn't know this was Billy. Blegh.


SHUGA DESU-- I mean, Sugar is lookin' fly with their elaborate costumes. I'm definately liking it. Everyone's outfits are so detailed and well-designed with nothing tacky or out of place. Koto actually has this really cool skirt thing going on but you can't see it here, unfortunately. Their official page, http://sugar-ant.com/ has full pictures of each member. I've always considered Sugar to be a very well dressed band.


Danger Gang is looking cool, too. Waka's hair is so cool. The colors work so well. Drummerlady is looking a bit awkward with the funny hair and odd makeup (which reduces her prettiness by like 50), but everyone else is looking cool, even if they are just.. their normal selves with bigger hair.


Siva has never looked cool until now. The guy on the far right who's name I won't bother learning has really really cool hair, and from what I can see, cool makeup too. Everyone else is.. everyone else, but they still look awesome. They look like they'd sound pretty good, but unfortunately they'll never top their first song, Beautiful Drug.


LM.C.. Maya is cute blah blah Aiji is old and wears tons of makeup and requires photoshopping.. their outfits are boring.. blah blah blah.


Unsraw is.. still Unsraw. The vocalist's hair finally doesn't look like crap, but otherwise, everyone else is just.. the same as they were before. Not that I'm tired of it. I'm actually quite fond of it, but they don't seem to change often. I wonder how long they'll wear those masks.

So! Now for our awards...

Most adorable: Sug
Best dressed: Sugar
Best hair: Siva
Best makeup: Siva
Worst dressed: Billy
Best all around: Sugar, Siva (It's a tie!!)

Billy - Wednesday ~I did to die~/lynch. - enemy

Merry frickin' Christmas. Here's some presents.

Billy - Wednesday ~somethingsomethinghere~ (download) is a pretty good single for an up-and-coming VK band. All jokes aside about the album art and their current 'outfits' (More like.. birthday suits..), they're talented. The main track sounds rather spooky, without collapsing under its own weight. The song is kind of ploddy and useless in some parts, since they can't figure out a better way to go into the chorus. That chorus that is gotten into through boring means ends up being worth the few seconds of boredom. The song goes through all this strange winding, keeping the bands strange enigmatic sound. The ending though.. it's kinda corny. They could have just ended it. For real. The b-side, Mother Goose is interesting but not interesting at the same time. I find myself having the song in my head, and not remembering what song it really is. I don't mind it, though. It's a good listen. The problem, though, is that they don't really sound like anyone but they don't sound like themselves either. Though.. their mini albums are really good.

lynch. - enemy (download) is what I wanted for a while. It has the heaviness, the groove, and the punch to keep me listening. It's a bit short, but that helps it stay fresh without ramming two more minutes of the same stuff into your ears. Its companion, STARZ is awesome just for the verses, and the first note of the chorus. The chorus kind of throws the song off. The first note is like "YAY" then the next just droops into popland without even sounding the least bit smart. I just keep thinking "I bet a thousand bands have done this before, and in more than one song." The repetition of the opening vocal line at the end is too short, strangely. Therefore, the song stops abruptly. ...Then into my ears leaks this crap that some may call a 'bonus track'. Well this, my friends. This.. is a 'vonus truck' (a la Lolita 23Q) Hazuki whimpers while some limp strumming is playing in the background. I can't listen to it for more than one third, so I can't tell you how the misery stops (Song ends) or how the torture drags (song goes after that one third). I mean, all I can imagine with this is they walk in some small crappy studio at 4 in the morning, all tired and such, attempting to make something interesting. Oh well. Usually vonus trucks aren't good. ::eyes 12012::

So there you have it! A day when I decided to review something, and it happened to be the day designated as Christmas.