Review Summary: Dir en grey's best album, has some great music. Very inventive...except for track 7. Ew.
Dir en grey are a Japanese band who defy classification. They are simply rock, because the band span every kind of quitar music you can think of, from emo to punk to metal to ska-punk to pop. Each album they release sees the band changing yet again. For MACABRE they were a dark and disturbed experimental band, for Kisou they were an odd, epic and emotional prog-rock group. By VULGAR, Dir en grey were kind of a prog-metal band gone punk. At the point of Withering to death, they were a crazy emo-metal band. But on their first album, GAUZE+, Dir en grey are simply rock. Nothing else you can say.
This is probably my favorite album by my favorite band ever, and I highly encourage anyone to check it out.
1. GARZE-mode of adam-
This song starts off with Kyo eerily counting from 10 to 5, when a drum beat with much distortion comes in. Just kind of an intro.
3/5
2. Schwein No Isu
Starting right where GARZE-mode of adam- left off, this song is basically a long chant of Geist Seele Wille Zeele (Mind, Soul, Will, Cell in German) but it has interesting choruses of some nicely done singing and whispering in the background. A fairly weak song, but somehow, the perfect opener.
3.5/5
3. Yurameki
A somewhat longish song, at 5 minutes exactly. It starts off with a beautiful intro (very emo :P) going into an amazing emotional verse with a simple drum beat. This song is very minimalistic, but yet one of Dir en grey's most beautiful yet. This was my favorite song off of the album on first listen.
4/5
4. Raison D'etre
Another good one, much darker sounding than Yurameki. Raison D'etre has the feel of a techno song if some black metal band (with a good singer) attempted to cover it. Not much to be said about this song: It's odd, it's good.
3.8/5
5. 304 Gou***su, Hakushi No Sakura
This song is the beginning of a section of some bad stuff. It's, quite simply, boring. Not much of any variation here, and the vocals are very simple.
3/5
6. Cage
Starting off with an incredible music-box intro, which (temporarily) reminds you of how awesome Dir en grey is after the last song. After the beautiful intro, it goes into yet another boring song, similar to 304 Gou***su, Hakushi No Sakura.
3.5/5
7. Tsumi To Batsu/Mitsu To Tsuba
Wow. I never thought it was possible for a band to write a song this bland. Easily Dir en grey's worst song ever, Tsumi To Batsu is literally 5 minutes of one guitar riff with a teeny bit of vocals thrown in. The most boring piece of S*** I have ever listened to through.
0/5
8. Mazohyst Of Decadence
And, here, Dir en grey decide to redeem themselves after the drivel that is Tsumi To Batsu. Mazohyst Of Decadence is an incredible epic, almost-10-minute-long song about...abortion. The song starts off with a sittar-like...uh...thing. The song then goes into a strangely provoking guitar riff, and then the vocals come in. Kyo does everything here, clean vocals, vibrato, and then a long section of just speech. And than i goes on to screaming, For over a minute. And then some more singing, This song is hugely creative, easily one of my favorites by the band.
5/5
9. Yokan
This is my favorite song by Dir en grey. The only songs that even come close are Mazohyst Of Decadence and Zakuro (off of MACABRE). This song is oddly upbeat, which causes it to seem really out of place on a Dir en grey album. And yet, it's the greatest song on the CD. From the vocals that you can't not sing along with, even though you'll just be making up the lyrics, to the incredible, amazingly simple guitar solo. And than, Kyo comes in over his own voice, and pretty much takes about 20 seconds and narrates his own song.
Wow
5/5
10. MASK
Starting with a political-speech sound clip, which is honestly the most interesting part of the song. This song is kind of like a very bad ska-punk song. Very very ehhhh.
2.5/5
11. -ZAN-
One of Dir en grey's heaviest songs. Starting with 40 seconds of creepiness, and than the actual song comes in. Lots of singing, screaming, speaking, whispering, and even just breathing, accentuate the incredible guitars in -ZAN-. Just listen to it, this song cannot be described.
4.8/5
12. Akuro No Oka
Wow, this one is another amazing song. Ranking with Mazohyst Of Decadence in length and even better musically. Almosy entirely acoustic, with amazingly emotional vocals and halfway through a crazy 4 minute guitar solo. Yet another incredible song.
5/5
13. GAUZE-mode of eve-
A continuation of GARZE-mode of adam, GAUZE-mode of eve- is a clip of Kyo counting from 4 to 1, and than just some flowing water and strange noises. Again, not really a song.
3/5
Note: There was also a special edition of the album released with -I'll- and JEALOUS, but those aren't really part of the CD, so I won't include them in this review.
Pros:
Great guitar solos
Kyo has the most amazing voice--from singing to falsetto to screaming to speech to whispering to breathing to everything else
Yurameki
Mazohyst Of Decadence
Akuro No Oka
Yokan
Cons:
tracks 5, 6, and 7 are kind of boring
Drums horribly simple
A bit too odd for many people out there
Mitsu To Tsuba is a putrid pile of disgusting vileness
Overall score: 5/5 (despite Mitsu To Tsuba, which really should lower the grade to 4/5, but the rest of the album makes up for it.)
There's a reason my only "similar albums" are by the same band--no one else is even slightly simlar.
