Review Summary: Nightmare answer the question posed by their previous effort with a resounding "not to be."
Initially, when they were a fledgling neo visual-kei group; full of ambition and vigour, Nightmare never had a problem with unleashing a torrent of material upon their fans within a short space of time. All of their classic era albums, Ultimate Circus through Killer Show came out within a short 5 year span. It all caught up to them with their move to Avex’s music group and suddenly, all of that flair that they possessed when they were starting out dissolved. Carpe Diem, released as a way to celebrate their 15th anniversary sees the quintet finally reaching the end of their rope.
While their previous outing saw things looking up a little for the group, it still didn’t contain that little bit extra that has come to be expected from the band. For a little while, they showed that they still had a little bit of that passion that made them so special, that made them stand out amongst the slew of X Japan/Luna Sea/Dir en Grey worshippers that exploded at the beginning of the new millennium and continue to bog down the Japanese music industry today. While this spark could be seen glowing on To Be or Not to Be, it only comes through on Carpe Diem like the moment a light bulb blows; it’s brighter than usual for a split second and then it’s gone forever. It starts out so promising with “
Siva”, a slow burner with an interesting texture that doesn’t shoot itself in the foot with a lack lustre chorus, one of Nightmare’s biggest curses of late. The single “
TABOO” also shows signs of the group still containing a sliver of chemistry, the guitars doing their signature tangents and the rest of the band holding the track on a pedestal with their respective talents.
But the rest of the album couldn’t be more to the contrary. Because of the albums nature as a means of marking their 15th anniversary, the album occasionally alludes to the groups past efforts. Unfortunately rather than providing Carpe Diem with an air of nostalgia, it provides it with a derivative tendency. A half-hearted attempt to send fans back to the emotional zenith they found on Anima is found within “
Nyuumetsu -entering nirvana-” in the form of a pseudo ambient bridge a la the track Sessou. But that and “
Siva’s” reminiscence to the song Pandora from Killer Show are the only times it’s subtle. The other time’s the group try to “tribute” their past material just come across as a straight up lack of original ideas. For example, the song “
Demand” uses the exact same hook as the song Cherish from their self-titled grotesque bar the change of one word. One only needs to listen to the intro to the song once to know that the rest of the song unapologetically rips off a certain classical piece (the name of which is unfortunately alluding me). This is of course without even mentioning the disgrace that is “
THE DOOL.” A simple look at the tracklist of The WORLD Ruler will tell you all you need to know here; i.e, it’s a 40 second long jam. There’s even what appears to be an attempt to reboot their Gianizm series under a new theme with a continuation of Gokujou Noushin Rengoku – Isshiki from To Be or Not to Be in the form of “
Gokujou Noushin Rengoku – Nishiki”(a basic grasp of the Japanese numerical system is all that is needed to have a guess as to how they are naming the entries in this new series). However “
Nishiki” is actually one of the more interesting pieces on the album, displaying some interesting rhythms and movements, but as per usual lacking in the chorus department.
But on top of all that, most of the album is incredibly dull with little to no execution of ideas. Songs like “
NAMELESS” pass by without even grabbing the listeners attention, highlighting the groups inability to utilise electronics for any real purpose. Carpe Diem is plagued by uninspired song writing and boring performances from the group, particularly from lead vocalist Yomi whose talents have all but disappeared. His performance is nasally and depthless, no longer possessing the ability to make his voice soar like it did in the group’s heyday. But whereas on past efforts the rest of the band have been able to compensate, on Carpe Diem there’s hardly any sonic passages that are able to save the album from being absolutely poor. Any good the songs “
Siva” and “
TABOO” manage to give the album, trite like the ear piercing riff in the verses of “
Koukotsu” come and strip it away. The worst offender on the album is probably the track “
Quints.” This is for two reasons; the first being that it had potential for the first couple of seconds before Sakito’s riffs, Ruka’s rhythm changes and the sugary electronics fully kick in and the track starts to come across as calculated and predictable; and second the embarrassment that is the songs chorus. When I reviewed To Be or Not to Be, I was under the impression that they could never write something more abysmally cheesy than Drasitica, but “
Quints” is the antithesis to that. If definitive evidence that the band have lost the ability to pen a good song was needed, the chorus on this track seals it:
No more lyric that tells a lie
And no more music that makes money
I know it is contradiction
Cause maybe I love it
Count my fingers 1 2 3 4 5
And count my buddies 1 2 3 4 5
I know that we are still alive
I believe we can do everything.
Undoing any sense of musical maturity that the band appeared to have with 8 lines.
Coming across as more of a desperate cry for help than a celebration of their 15th year writing material together, Carpe Diem is the biggest waste of ideas the band is yet to put out. The band can only manage enough inspiration to open and close the album well, the closing track “
Tao” being one of the best cuts on the album, the bands triumphant chord sequences returning for what is a short 4 minutes, but they do not have enough power left to fill the gaps between with enough decent stuff to make the album worth the 2, 800 yen it costs. Good ideas are far and few here, and when they are present it’s within a slew of rubbish. More of a self-parody than a tribute to their past material, Carpe Diem sees Nightmare completely loose the plot. Their habit of constantly releasing material finally coming back to bite them, perhaps this signals time for them to put the project on hiatus and regroup. In the end, one thing is certain: the ambitious and promising J-rock quintet that captivated listeners with their infectious flair and inspiring song writing is dead.
