Review Summary: With their debut, Undead Corporation wear their hearts on their sleeves and succeed at it.
Influences: we've all had them. Influences can help guide artists whenever they're first starting out to help foster their own ideas and shape their overall sound and image. Sometimes an artist can follow another to a tee, and sometimes those influences mold an artist into their own unique entity, even if it takes a bit of time to get there. And that brings our attention to Japanese melodeath project Undead Corporation's
Gensoukyo Kara Chyou Koutetsu Jyuuteii Bakuon(roughly translated as
The Super Heavy- & Bass-Steel Metal Loud-Sound from Gensokyo, quite a mouthful there guys). From the band name which feels like a homage to In Flames' "Zombie Inc." from
Colony to the album cover which plasters that same album with what appears to be anime girls, Undead Corporation are clearly wearing their hearts on their sleeves.
Now just from first impressions alone, it would be easy to dismiss Undead Corporation as just another In Flames-influenced melodeath band in a genre that is flooded with them, but thankfully they do bring some of their own ideas to the table. The album opens with "A Land Resplendent With Nature's Beauty", nothing much more than a short, calm piano intro that leads into the real opening track "Star Voyage 2008". Right away the song begins with simple yet raw riffs by Unlucky Morpheus member Hirano Yukimura, triumphant synths and cymbal crashes before quickly leading into quicker, more complex riffs and pounding drums that is soon followed by a short solo. After all that, Yukimura's vocals come in, and they're a great accompaniment to the melodies presented here, alternating between high shrieks and more low, guttural growls. Yukimura's vocal style here offers a unique experience; there really isn't anyone offhand I could compare it to.
Undead Corporation's also not afraid to throw some other influences in their sound as well, with the next track "Sunny Rutile Flection" having chugging riffs that are more on the metalcore side of things. It's not as impactful as "Star Voyage 2008", but it helps show that the band is open to different styles of playing. The follow-up track "Can't Sleep Because It's Nighttime" however does a much better job at implementing this style in a more interesting way, combining these chugging riffs with melodic piano leads and soaring guitar solos. If I had to pick any song from this album to highlight its strengths, it would certainly be this one.
Of course, being a melodeath band, you've got to have great melodies, and
Gensoukyo Kara Chyou Koutetsu Jyuuteii Bakuon has plenty of them. Aside from "Can't Sleep Because It's Nighttime", "The Refrain of the Lovely Great War" and "Illusionary Sputnik Night" do a great job at showcasing Undead Corporation's knack for catchy melodic leads and solos, with "Illusionary Sputnik Night" especially excelling at combining melody with intensity with it's complex, fast riffs and pounding drum beats. Another interesting thing of note is the final track of the album, "Sunny Milk's Scarlet Mist Incident", which opens with a calm piano intro similar to how the album began before devolving into what appears to be... grindcore? Yes, right after a slight bout of feedback, the listener is suddenly pummeled with intense riffs and blast beats with vocals containing no cleans whatsoever unlike other songs on the album, all before finally slowing down and ending the album. This track is the shortest and perhaps most intense on the album, and while not really doing much on it's own, it offers an interesting finale to the album that only Undead Corporation could give.
I've already mentioned a few times how raw the sounds are presented here, and while in some ways it adds to the music, it hurts in others. The production of the drums sounds real hollow, as if the drum parts were being made in a drum program than on actual drums. And of course, you would be right to assume that, as before Undead Corporation recruited an actual drummer, all the drum parts were arranged by other member pinetree in a drum program instead. Some may also be put off by Yukimura's vocal style, as I feel like it could take a bit of getting used to for some listeners. Overall, there's a real amateurish production here that is understandable coming from a debut album of a band with only two members.
Gensoukyo Kara Chyou Koutetsu Jyuuteii Bakuon has much more to offer than what it seems at first. Sure, it's a rough start that has a decent number of flaws, but it's also a hell of a start as well. With more polished production, Undead Corporation could certainly take what they're presenting here and elevate it even higher. Don't let it fool you,
Gensoukyo Kara Chyou Koutetsu Jyuuteii Bakuon is definitely worthwhile of your time. Give it a try, you just might be surprised.
