IBUKI - ExMyself (Review)

When you have been doing something for a long time, sooner or later you will want to become popular. For Ibuki, Disqualia became such a project, which aimed to catch the listener as quickly as possible. But experiment with a rapid rise on pedestal failed. Reason for this was not difficult to predict - rapid audience growth will necessarily affect the intellectual value. Well, this artist has seen many projects and now we see a rather interesting solo album.

My Rating: 87/100

Source - amazon.co.jp

After the failure of band Disqualia she had to recoup, restore its self-conceit. Accordingly, from this album you expect something interesting or at least new. Of course, this phrase can be interpreted in different ways. But here is only one question: this artist will show real skill or finally break talent on mass market cliffs? In the answer to this question, first variant prevails.

This release is not always easy to describe. Nevertheless, album sound is quite diverse. There are songs with the influence of pop music and hook rhythm section (2, 6 tracks), a rather peculiar modern metal (1, 3, 4 tracks), power metal with a skank beat, aggressive constructions and metalcore breakdown (5 track), as well as slow songs that are aimed at maximum impact on emotions (7, 8 tracks). This is an interesting album structure - in the beginning there are songs that are interesting from the point of view of performing technique (sometimes diluting with some pop), and at end there are songs that are interesting from the point of view of emotions. Listener's mood is controlled from beginning to the end of album and this testifies to good composer's work. It's also noticeable that the composer worked very carefully every composition, every passage, every bar, every note. In general, composer's work is good, although the 3 track looks like a quickie.

To say that vocalist simply complements this picture means insulting such a great talent. It has long been known that Ibuki is an excellent vocalist. And here we see another confirmation of this fact. It's noticeable that over the voice and vocal parts worked very long - performance is excellent. It's also noticeable that vocal parts were created very carefully, taking into account a very large number of shades - there are no flaws towards the vocalist, which is very big rarity. Although vocal parts are not original everywhere - 3 track is very similar to song Mad Desire (Disqualia).

In instrumental parts, it's hard to find something amazing - too much attention is paid to voice. But here is not just a compilation of patterns, but their correct use with all the attendant shades. Although the synthesizer is also a lot of attention. Here you can hear strings (5 tracks), acid (6 tracks), industrial synthesizer (1, 6 tracks), piano (7, 8 tracks). Guitars's sound of is also diverse - here you can hear both classical (2, 5, 6 tracks) and modern (for rock music) sound (1, 3, 4, 7 tracks). However, great guitar solos are also a positive thing. Rhythm section also sounds good and varied. Here you can hear hook structures (2, 6 tracks), standard heavy metal drumming (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 tracks), blast beat (5 track), skank beat (5 track), Booty Camp beat (5 track).

Crown is not just pictured on project logo. Here is not just a huge amount of high-quality work. Here you can really hear something new, not another copy of band Around The Nation. So you can forget the frightful fairy tale "Disqualia" and listen to this solo album again and again.

PS: Special thanks to Timothy Snider.

Her Name In Blood - Power (Review)

I know many projects that perish under the press of standard ideas. I have already enumerated such projects and will not repeat them. I'll just say that I recently got acquainted with the new album of Her Name In Blood. And this time everything will be quite simple.

My Rating: 59/100

I remembered it because here I see a similar path of development. More precisely, this can not be called development. Nevertheless, when I took off the headphones, I asked myself "what the fuck did I hear right now?". Here you can hear modern hard-n-heavy on hardcore rhythm section, a dropped guitar tuning (Drop C) and a very malicious voice. I would not say anything about general concept, but in fact they used to play metalcore / deathcore with non-standard ideas. You can also notice a very standard naming of tracks.

It's noticeable that composer's work became easier. Of course, this became apparent 4 years ago, in the release of 2014. But it's in this album that the composer is finally mired in mallcore patterns. Yes, it can not even be called "work" - it's just a simulation of activity. It seems that the composer did not have any ideas at all, but it's necessary to work. The result is very standard ideas.

Although this release is not so bad. For example, vocalist. Vocalist tries to portray diversity. Here we hear an attempt to escape from the solid growling into more classical techniques. I can not say that this is going well, but the attempt already indicates that he is not afraid to show his abilities.

Instrumental parts - everything here is very predictable. Here it will not be possible to find something interesting. Everything is so standard here that I don't even want to discuss it. But even with a great desire to do this will not work, as most of the impression is the work of sound designer and arranger.

I did not describe this album in great detail for one simple reason: the higher you climb, the more you fall. I can say that in this album a lot has been done correctly. But compared to DECADENCE and THE BEAST EP, it will seem like a total disappointment. Where is this enthusiasm, which can be heard in the early releases? Where are the constantly changing compositions and non-standard ideas? Where are the interesting shades in performance? Where? The album caused a lot of questions. Too many questions for a positive evaluation. And I believe that the project will not live long. If this is not the end, then it is very close.

Arda - Severnyi Krest (Review)

Once I saw a letter on my e-mail. Content was approximately this: "You write reviews on Japanese bands. You don't have good music in Russia? ". I thought about these words. Russia have good music, but all good bands were created in 80s and 90s. In last 20 years Russia has no decent bands.

My Rating: 74/100

Source - www.metal-archives.com

Russia has a stupid financial system - unfinished capitalism, which was created by immigrants from socialism. And if a project lives longer than 4-5 years, then it can be titled "legendary" - it nothing fundamentally can stop. But I will not discuss our system, I'll tell you about an interesting band. Band was founded in 2000. 17 years of activity in the world, which changes every hour is a great indicator.

Let's start review with composer. Very weak composer's work. Artistic task is formulated very simply. Performance at a very high level, but work of composer is frank quickie. It seems that composer did not exist at all. That is, instrumentalists improvised during the recording. I don't want to say that it's bad. But if we want to do work well, then we need to prepare thoroughly for this.

Lyric about courage, heroism, strong personality is a very fertile soil for many metal bands. This is a very good theme. Yes, these guys don't get the material from most interesting angle - not enough just to drive at full speed, road can be bumpy. What can you do, Eastern Europeans, they are like that. But it's worth noting that voice is wonderful. Feels very strong vocalist. Vocal techniques are monotonous, but voice is very good.

Instrumental especially does't stand out. But it's performed exelent. An interesting decision to use several guitarists: several people can solve an artistic tasks with maximum shades. But also there is one strange decision: use of a guitar with dropped tuning. For power metal is typical use of guitars with standart or Drop D tunings. Sometimes you can hear Drop C tuning, but this is a rare phenomenon for power metal. But here we hear Drop B tuning. A high voice with a low guitar tuning is a strange decision.

Rhythm section also sounds good. But sound is monotonous. In fourth track drummer tried to portray diversity, but it turned out badly. Again bad work of composer.

Band has an excellent level of performance. Their advantages perfectly hide shortcomings. They have a great talent, but in the end we see only an middle-rated European band. But this is not the most interesting thing in this entry. Like many well-known bands, they follow the already known way. And this is what I don't like Western bands - they have reached a certain level, after which they keep it. No steps forward, no new ideas, only normal retention. Yes, one can hold discussions for a long time about the fact that everything is relative. But they can do better.