3 posts tagged “lynch”
Oh look, a Jrock review after so long, lol. This is Lynch's new album, and tbh, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. Lynch does have a tendency to sound repetitive a lot, and even though I adored ADORE, the second advance single was just the opposite. But this album seems to facilitate a nice shift in style for them. Also, is that cover art awesome or what?
lynch.
SHADOWS
Genre: rock, metal, Nagoya
Release Date: 07-08-09
Price: 3333 ¥
Label/Distributor: wint
Tracks: 10
01. Last Nite
02. Adore
03. Maze
04. Evilly
05. I Don’t Know Where I am
06. Ambivalent Ideal
07. The Blasted Back Bone
08. Shadowz
09. Cultic my Execution
10. Marrow
LAST NITE starts out with a combination of heavy riffs and piano. Hazuki's singing is rather subdued, almost mixed in the background. The bass solo at about halfway through is pretty awesome, as is the drum breakdown that follows. This is really a nice, complex song with heaviness and atmosphere. ADORE was previously released as a single, and this version is slightly different, by about 12 seconds. I'm not sure if I like it quite as much as the single version, though I'm not sure why. MAZE is one of my favorites from this album, contrary to like, everyone else. I love that throbbing bass that is threaded throughout, and the beginning of the song was hard and chunky. I also like Hazuki's vocals in this. I have a love/hate relationship with them generally. Sometimes he sounds awesome, other times painful. This is more of the former. Guitar solo at a 1:30 from the end was cool and unusual for them. I liked the bending vibrato to finish it off. This song doesn't chug along as quickly as LAST NITE, but is awesome nonetheless. EVILLY is next and starts out with a mess of sound. It goes on to be a pretty typical Lynch song with loudness and growling. It's not bad, but as I said, typical, and it gets boring in the last minute or so. I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM continues the trend of all caps in the title, lol. Hazuki is relatively proficient at saying the title, and weirdly, my first thought going into this was that it sounded like a heavier L'Arc/Tierra tune. I don't know if it's the singing or what. But either way, it's unusually melodic for a Lynch song. Another nice guitar solo. I'm hearing a trend here. AMBIVALENT IDEAL is another advance single, and it has the distinction of the one I didn't like. It's a little better here, but still overall, rather boring. THE BLASTED BACK BONE is a short, heavy track that smacks of typical Lynch sound. Low on my totem poll for this album. SHADOWZ is the title track, with the addition of a 'z'. Hard, repetitive, boring. Overly muted guitar solo at the end can't make up for it, and the static just kills my ears. CULTIC MY EXECUTION starts out with piano, similar to the first track, only the piano doesn't make it into the next part of the song. Some whispery vocals from Hazuki top heavy riffs and machine-gun drums, and then the piano does come back. This song transitions between hard and soft, but always remains dark and sinister. It effectively saves the downward spiral of the album's second half. MARROW is the final song, and it fairly single-handedly destroys whatever the previous song was trying to salvage. The speed drumming, and poorly placed speed drumming at that, immediately got on my bad side. Then there's some acoustic stuff in the middle, and I dunno, it's just kind of a discombobulated song.
Ok, this album really sounds to me like they're changing something, somewhere. It simply doesn't sound like their previous work, with the small exception of a few songs such as ADORE and EVILLY. Perhaps they're trying to get everyone used to it. But, as is pretty standard with me, I like it when bands change, and that puts me in the minority of opinions out there, I've noticed. The first half of the album is very strong, but I couldn't help but notice how it got weaker after AMBIVALENT IDEAL. Mostly because a lot of the new sound was tossed out the window in favor of an older style. Almost as thought they wanted to reassure everyone that they hadn't fully converted. Which is why I'm calling this a transition album, albeit a better than average one.
FINAL WORD: a transition album, I think. ★★★★☆
_______________________________________________________
Key:
★★★★★ = Excellent, flawless, perfecto
★★★★☆ = Very good, has some minor flaws
★★★☆☆ = Good, maybe a few boring moments, but overall enjoyable
★★☆☆☆ = Fair, bad outweighs the good
★☆☆☆☆ = Poor, possibly offensive to your ears
[2008.09.24] Plastic Tree - Utsusemi (album)
My relationship with Plastic Tree is sort of...simple. I like their stuff, and I like their sound. Even though yes, it's boring more often than not. It's a GOOD boring. It has this feeling of not trying to be anything. Part of this is helped by Ryutarou's ridiculously monotone singing. But the bass is usually always competent, as is the guitar. I don't really remember Nega to Posi, so I can't tell you if this one sounds like that one. To me it was much like any other Pura album. Consistent, with very few standout songs. It just sort of melts together. Although, Melt was one of those standout songs, ironically.
I haven't listened to it more than once though...
Other newish things that have been good or bad. The Unfade single from way back in August, which coincidentally is the last time I updated, was pretty boring. A lot of their stuff sounds much too much the same. SEX-ANDROID's new single was good, though unduly long. I really liked the Vistlip though. It showed a lot more polish than their first release. A band to watch, I think. The Studs singles have so far been fantastic, at least the a-sides. The lives are rather awful, but only because Daisuke is a particularly horrible live singer. I suppose you could argue that about him in general though. Similarly, Koda Kumi's Taboo single was mostly for the a-side, which was awesome, but I can't even remember the b-side. The new Lynch single was downright boring at worst and really only so-so at best. Nothing like their last one. They don't always put out strong singles though, so I'm mostly hoping there's an album coming up. Finally, if you don't currently listen to 9mm Parabellum Bullet, what the hell are you waiting for? Their follow-up to last year's Termination was every bit as awesome.
Older things I've been excited about lately...
Lance of Thrill. I'm not sure what to make of them, especially their sometimes shrill vocalist, but Iono, something about the music is pretty compelling. They're closer to metal than a lot of bands in that time period. Tourbillon are not as boring as I thought. Or they are, but it's a GOOD boring. BAISER were awesome. Something like Lareine, Phantasmagoria and Laputa rolled into one.
And that's it for now.
Lynch is what happened when Reo left Gullet and Hazuki left Deathgaze, back in 2004. They were also joined by Gullet’s bassist, Yukino (now in the Studs) for a short time as support. Currently their support bassist is Junji and they’ve recently added a second guitarist, Hisui ex. Hybrid-Zombiez. Their sound is similar to Deathgaze, with heavy basslines and rhythm, dark, down-tuned guitars and plenty of death growling. However, it’s generally more melodic and vocalist, Hazuki, can actually sing when he wants to.
This is Lynch’s first original release since last year’s album, The Avoided Sun.
lynch.
Adore
Genre: rock, metal, Nagoya
Release Date: 04-02-08
Price: 1,050 ¥
Released By: Marginal Works
Tracks: 2
01.Adore
02.An Illusion
Adore starts with a guitar squeal and quickly launches into a combination of pounding drums and Hazuki “singing” the verses as if he’s completely hoarse. However, it makes a good contrast to the chorus, which is actual singing and extremely catchy. The bridge is a bit of soft guitar strumming, before jumping back into the pounding and growling. This song isn’t genius, per se, but it is awfully catchy and if you like your rock dark and growly, you’ll probably enjoy the heck out of it. (I did.)
An Illusion is next. Unlike the title track, this song goes for a more industrial feel initially, with a synthy-sounding riff, but backs off into a softer, almost ethereal sound. The drumline is driving, but not pounding like in the previous one. The bridge comes at almost the same point as in Adore, but contains an actual guitar solo this time. The second half of the song is slightly different from Hazuki’s side, but the initial riff continues to repeat until the end fade-out.
Both songs are very strong and either one could have probably been the a-side. I only cede to Adore because it’s quite a bit catchier than An Illusion. Also, it’s more of Lynch’s typical sound. Despite the growling though, it makes plenty of use of Hazuki’s singing ability as well. If you like this style from Nagoya, I can at least tell you it’s a lot better than what Deathgaze has been releasing lately. ★★★★★
Key:
★★★★★ = Excellent, flawless, perfecto
★★★★☆ = Very good, has some minor flaws
★★★☆☆ = Good, maybe a few boring moments, but overall enjoyable
★★☆☆☆ = Fair, bad outweighs the good
★☆☆☆☆ = Poor, possibly offensive to your ears
