Review Summary: A somewhat promising full length from a very promising, young visual kei band.
Visual kei, whether you hate it or love it, has some pretty extraordinary talent in it. Versailles, Malice Mizer, and even old school Dir en Grey are some very common names when thought of talented, and breakthrough visual kei bands. Admittedly enough though, however, visual kei has lessened its concentrations on hard rock/metal throughout the more recent years, and many more "pop-friendly" bands popped up (aka: the oshare kei movement). However, a few bands are making a stand, and trying to bring the edge of visual kei back. One of these bands is R-***ei.
R-***ei is a pretty recent band, but have made a pretty respectable ruckus in the bowels of the visual movement. Once known as R-15, the band shows a pretty big influence of bands like Marilyn Manson (who they impersonate pretty well onstage, I might add), Madeth Gray'll and Dir en Grey... especially Dir en Grey. Although the first two tracks show lots of overwhelming influence, by the time "Gyokusai Melancholy" starts, you are greeted with a chant through a megaphone, followed by a chaotic breakdown. The unique sound continues on the swing-styled track, "Oyafukou Toori wa Kyou mo Ame", which is a very solid track indeed. Alternative rock grounds are explored on the next track, "Shosen, Watashi wa Neko Desumono", which has a lurking rhythm and haunting vocals attached. A haunting and outstanding followup track to the sound of the album. When the next track, "Rojiura no Onna", comes on, it's a nice instrumental of a chaotic swing sound, and has a very nice bassline in it. Not a very big standout track, but it's an interesting fill.
At this point, the album starts to lose its charm, and becomes a bit tiring. However, the interesting sound on the track "National Kid" is worth mentioning. But other than that, the album has no real big pickups from here on out. All and all though, the album is definitely an interesting find in the visual kei circuit. Among all of the watered down bands that are coming out of the circuit nowadays, it's nice to see a band that's willing to keep its roots by any means necessary. However, the album's uncompromising nature and pretty straightforward sound made it suffer in the end. But if you're into fresh visual kei music, that hasn't been manufactured the f^^k out of, and has a heavy twist to it, then give the album a spin. Not recommended to common listeners outside of the visual circuit.
