Dir en grey's fourth major album is here, and it is hard to imagine a more awaited J-Rock album this year. Especially among fans outside of Japan, Dir en grey seems to be incredibly popular, so there was a lot of buzz going around about this album in our message boards when it was released. Well, let's cut through the hype here and get to the bottom of what this album is really about. Track 1 is titled "audience KILLER LOOP". When you first turn this one on, it sounds like it is just going to be an intro track, but as it progresses, Kyo begins singing and a melody develops. Kyo's singing is really beautiful on this track, with some sudden very loud parts where he becomes briefly somewhat more aggressive. If you think this song is loud and hard, you haven't seen anything yet. This is one of the more melodic pieces of the album, and actually quite good. This makes a good introduction to the album, and I almost wish the rest of it were more like this song. Track 2 is called "THE III D EMPIRE". This track is pretty noisy and chaotic, some moments more than others. The parts where Kyo repeatedly yells "SPARK AND SPARK" is a little bit much, as well as the yelling in unison from the rest of the band. I can't say that I enjoyed this song all that much. Track 3 is "INCREASE BLUE". This is a really weirdly good song. It's diverse, it's crazy, yet it is somehow catchy. Kyo's chanting is almost more like rapping than singing at times. The chorus itself is a little repetitive, but leading up to that anyway, it is a pretty interesting ride. This song has a lot of different things in it, and that keeps it fresh throughout the duration. I can't say it's a masterwork, but it's a cool track at any rate. Track 4 is called "shokubeni". This one's not too bad. The chorus is kind of catchy, and the instrumental arrangement is very dramatic. It's loud. It's cool. Track 5, "sajou no uta", is slightly more melodic than most of the new tracks on the album, although the chorus can be somewhat monotonous. Otherwise there are some nice guitar parts in this song where they let up just enough to let the instruments sing instead of scream. This is an all right track. Certainly not their best, but just fine. Track 6, "RED...[em]", is an interesting one. It leans toward the slower tempo among their songs (but not too slow) and it is one of those songs that really lets Kyo get emotional and wail with all of his heart. We like that. This song has some very beautiful moments, despite its hard exterior. There is one part in particular between verses where the guitar is playing with the drums, yet the two don't seem to match -- It's as if they're both playing in completely different time signatures or something. This song messes with you. It's just weird; as soon as you think you've figured out how that guitar part fits with the drums it gets off again. This is really one of the coolest songs of the album; no question. Track 7 is "ashita naki koufuku, koshou naki ashita". This is what we're talking about when we say that some of their songs can get a little too noisy and messy for some people. Right away this song kicks into high gear with a quick drum intro, and the guitars immediately begin playing at full throttle. Kyo's singing is the best part of this song, ranging from playful and interesting, to repetitive and somewhat annoying. At 3 1/2 minutes, this one isn't too long, but all-in-all it's not too bad, if not one of the more memorable tracks of the album. Track 8 is another new one titled "MARMALADE CHAINSAW" (that's a cool name). This hard and loud song (surprise, surprise) has a striking moment of melodic clarity in its chorus, where we finally get somewhat of a catchy melody (but it doesn't last). I remember hearing the sound clips for the album before it was released, and I thought this sounded like one of the coolest new tracks. Now that I've heard the whole album, I have to say that this song is somewhat of a disappointment, since in its entirety it doesn't compare as well to the rest of the tracks as I thought it would. It's still pretty good, I suppose. Track 9 is their latest single, "kasumi". (The first old song of this album is on track 9, and all three of the reused songs are cluttered together toward the ending!) If you ignore the fact that it isn't a new track, "kasumi" is without question the best song on this album. It was a gem of a single when it was released, signaling that this band was getting really serious about making music again. It is a beautiful, yet still hard, rock song, displaying Kyo's unique melancholy vocal style at its best. This is just such an enjoyable melody that only gets better with age. We get back to the new music again on track 10, "R TO THE CORE". (The "R" is backwards actually; isn't that clever?) This track is almost more an intermission than a song, at only 1:47 in length. It's a nice fast burst of energy. Kyo's down and dirty melodic yelling somehow has its charm. Not bad at all for such a short little thing. Of course, if it went on too much longer, I would probably start to get annoyed. Track 11 is another one of the singles on here, "DRAIN AWAY". This one is also a pretty good single, but not as good as "kasumi". When this single was first released it signaled the band's return to a more melodic, less hard style, which had been epitomized in their mini album released the previous year, "Six Ugly". "DRAIN AWAY" is a nice diverse romp with a catchy melody mixed in with some short quiet and reflective moments. This song doesn't fail to deliver the energy necessary for a great rock single. Track 12 is a new song called "NEW AGE CULTURE". This song is the pinnacle of the noisy, directionless music on this album that is quite likely to turn off some listeners. Expect fast, repetitive guitar riffs, monotonous drumming, crazy and sporadic voices from Kyo, and yelling in unison from the entire band. It's loud, it's not very melodic, it's pretty repetitive, and definitely very strange. It is interesting, I will give it that, and that ending is a weird surprise. Although it's hard not to enjoy this on at least some level. Track 13 is "OBSCURE". This song sounds kind of like "DRAIN AWAY". It's another noisy song with a sudden melodic chorus that brings everything together. Otherwise, it's just weird. Overall, not bad, but not one of the best songs on the album either. Track 14 is the oldest single on this album, "CHILD PREY". This single is very catchy, if not only because it is incredibly repetitive. There aren't much for lyrics here. Kyo's chorus basically repeats the same phrase over and over again, followed by a section where the band repeatedly yells and Kyo says "Child prey." There isn't much to this song beyond repetitive noise, and yet there is a method to the madness and it has a way of drawing you in, especially if you watch the cool CG promotion video that goes with it. There is one part of the song where it suddenly gets really beautiful for a little while. The last track is a new song called "AMBER". This moderate-tempo song sounds somehow more like a traditional Dir en grey title, with its incessant, dramatic guitar riffs, much like something off of "MACABRE". This is one of the few new tracks on the album that is really structured more like a traditional pop song, with the verses and chorus all about where they should go. This is a good song that truly rocks. I think it's the best new song on the album. Dir en grey's latest album is just too loud and too messy for some music fans to enjoy (even more so than most of their previous albums), so right off the bat it will be pretty inaccessible to some listeners. However, if you are into this kind of "nu-metal" style (that's what we're calling it I guess), then it's hard to do much better than Dir en grey's latest. I can see how, given some time, any rock fan may come to really like their earlier albums like "MACABRE", but "VULGAR" brings the band's over-the-top style to the next level. On this album, only a small number of the tracks, such as singles, "kasumi" and "DRAIN AWAY", are truly melodic in style, the rest being all-out hard-metal shockers made for the true hard core metal fan. Whether or not you will like and want to buy this album is completely dependent on your tastes, so make sure to try out the sound clips. Keeping all of that in mind, I still personally recommend this album because it contains 12 new songs, most of them pretty decent, with very little filler.
Buy it here.
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