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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Such sexy metal., March 2, 2007
Dir en grey have always been a band of extremes. Over the course of their career they've taken the concepts of rock and metal and stretched them out into such attenuated brilliance that fans of all types have warmed to their goth-opera-metal-pop-punk combination. And as for Marrow of a Bone, well, I don't remember the last time an album prompted so many violent spasms upon first listen. It seriously made me weak in the knees. My friend Aaron and I just sat in stoned shock for fifty minutes, taking every available break to gasp and reach for a cigarette.
Yes, it's their heaviest album to date, but don't mistake such a quality for laziness or an attempt to comply with mainstream values. There is nothing predictable about Marrow of a Bone - it bounces around between song styles in such a head-spinning frenzy you'd think you were switching records in between. What sounds like metal at first often springs back upon itself into a major-chord pop chorus. The melodies are that much more affecting because they burst out of nowhere.
The fact that the band opens such a crazy album as Marrow with the looping balladry of Conceived Sorrow is so brave as to be called impetuous. Here, four musicians renowned for their crunchifying brashness accompany Kyo's swooping, melodious vocal with acoustic guitar picking and a piano part. Um, what? But just listen - it SOARS. It's better than anything on Macabre. It's a gorgeous piece of work - one that is immediately followed with a slab of death metal that packs the punch of a throbbing fist: Lie Buried with a Vengeance. The titles of these songs should give some idea as to their general atmosphere: The Deeper Vileness, Repitition of Hatred. Yikes.
Of course, this album also contains the track Namamekashiki Ansoku, Tomadoi Ni Hohoemi, which is utterly beautiful and sounds like nothing on previous albums. It has a wailing melody like a chorus of monks. It is heartbreaking, elegaic, and divine in execution. You'd never guess that this could fall into the same collection of songs as Agitated Screams of Maggots, which, if it were any more punk, would promptly expire from extreme awesomeness, or Grief, a wailing conglomeration of apocalyptic screams, tribal beats, and sinister whispers.
Ryoujoku no Ame manages to be pretty and intense at the same time... it moves like rain dripping down your car windows. The Fatal Believer is the kind of song that headbanging was invented for. And Rotting Root is a gorgeous little piece of weirdness that showcases whimpering, shouting, growling, sinewy guitars, and perfect harmonies interspersed with explosions of something that's supposed to be swearing in English but sounds more like Pig Latin. Gotta love Kyo-grish.
I was also going to write something about Disabled Complexes, but all my note says is `I just got too wrapped up in this song to review it.'
What was always extreme has become even more so. The hard songs are harder. The soft songs are softer. The guitars saw like serated knives. And Kyo can accomplish just about anything vocally, from demon voice to girly scream.
Not an album for priests or soccer moms. Everyone else needs to snatch up a copy, sit back, and bathe in its sexy glory. Just be sure to have a cigarette handy.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Giant and Angry, March 9, 2007
I had doubts when I found that this album could be purchased at my local FYE, and it was compounded even more when I heard that one of the songs was entirely in English. My only previous experience with this band was from their last album, which at first I thought sucked, but then grew into a beautiful masterpiece after many, many listenings (which seems to be a common occurrence with their albums). So, I was intrigued by the thought of a new Dir en Grey record, but I had my suspicions that American music companies had somehow convinced them to write music aimed more at American audiences. Fortunately, this is not the case.
First off, yes, this album is much heavier than the last one. I read reviews where people complained that all the songs sounded too similar and were too heavy and there was no direction and so on and so forth. But this is not entirely a bad thing.
This album is a world unto itself, swelling and instilling disturbing imagery, crushing angst, and a general sense of unease in the listener. This is the world that we all inevitably feel the need to visit from time to time. A place where we can just soak in our own disdain, crawl into a dark pit and scream at nothing or everything. There are ups and downs, oppression and freedom. There are songs that make you want to tear things apart and songs that make you want to cry. There are songs that make you feel okay with the world, and others that make you wish for the eternal black abyss to suck everything into it. Okay, now I'm starting to get a little overdramatic, so I'll get down to it.
When I first listened to this album, I got about halfway through and thought, "This album is unpleasant to listen to" (Note: My actual quote was much more vulgar and insane, so this is the simplistic, of-sound-mind version). But I knew the rule with this band, and forced myself to stick it out. Still, after one listening, I was not impressed. Where were the instrumental layers and flowing intricacies that I learned to love off of "Withering to Death"? Where was that guy that sung so beautifully and impressed me with original vocal patterns and fiery (yet melodic) intensity?..... Gone! That's where. And that doesn't even make for good grammatical sense, but that's how I felt. All I could hear was a garbled monotonous pile. Overbearing guitars and even more Overbearing vocals. This was terrible.
But I pressed on, I knew this record had secrets hidden in it that only the most adamant of listeners would be privy to, and I was going to find them. So I listened and I listened, and I listened a little more. And then a little more after that. And then finally, after many...many more listens, I found it. The invisible wall collapsed and that good old fashioned "Dir en Grey" Magic took hold. Soon I was running up and down the halls yelling crazily about how great this album was. I was also compelled to chase down and eat several squirrel-like creatures during this time period, but I'm pretty sure these two things had nothing to do with each other.
Anyway, I'll get to the point which I was supposedly getting to several paragraphs ago. This album is good, but not for everyone. Fans of "Withering to Death" may not find it as entertaining. It's grittier and unrelenting. There's less electronicky blips and squeeps and such, with a lot more focus put on the guitar riffs. It feels more basic, more stripped down at first, but this is an illusion. Those that will get this album and listen to it only a couple of times will most likely find it grating and boring and it will fall quickly into the nether regions of their CD collection. But for those of you who have the fortitude and courage strong enough to take a beating from this album again and again until your retinas detach and your head is stomped into the curb while your biting down on it (like that scene in that movie, with the guy...you know the one I mean), well than this album is for you.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intense, March 30, 2007
You might say Dir en grey has become westernized (They sure aren't playing shamisen, koto and taiko drums dressed in silk kimono, but wouldn't it be cool if they were?) that they've hung around with too many hardcore bands during Family Values.
Dir en grey has always been hardcore, you can hear echoes of it on Gauze (beloved and deified by most of the old school Dir en grey fans) and on Macabre (same thing, it's on a shrine of some sort for them)they have always pushed the envelope and on this album they push it right off the edge.
You got this aggressive yet mellow thick guitar style with these delicious basslines of Toshiya and drum beats. Kyo goes from wailing and screeching like all the demons in hell to softly crooning, and if you get the special edition version, you get to hear acoustic versions of several of the songs that are heartfelt and show that Dir en grey is determined to do what few bands these days do, they are determined to play every single form of rock they can and to cram it all on one album.
Some will complain it's numetal, some qill gripe that the old Dir en grey is no more, but the fact is that Dir en grey has and always will be about change and evolution and playing what they want and what they feel and that is what makes them so good!
Plus, you got to admit, this album is like nothing that is being played on the radio in the US. I can't even think of bands that make songs that are hard and mellow like the Deeper Vileness or Grief.
Whether you love it or not, Dir en grey will not bore you and will suprise and thrill you.
They will also sooth your soul.
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