Up Hold - Intersect Of Light & Dark

Other than going after other albums with Up Hold's non-album songs, like 10 Templates or the alternate soundtrack to Beck, I've pretty much found all of Up Hold's main releases-- I'll go after the CD/VHS combo single for Sight at some point, but it isn't going to get me any material I don't already have. All this EP really offers that's in any sense new, if you already have Deepness Of Disorder, is two B-sides smack dab in the middle: "Dimension" and "Signals", which sound like they'd fit right at home in the final cut of the album anyway.

The two songs that did make it to the album aren't very different; "Emotions" is the only one with a discernable difference, and that's just that the synth outro is a little longer. They aren't the best tracks on that album, either; I intentionally waited to upload those to YouTube so I could put up the whole EP there, but if this hadn't existed, these would've been among the last tracks I'd have considered uploading. Really, only get this if you've become an Up Hold completist... the B-sides on this are alright, but the material on Fork was overall more interesting.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Intersect Of Light & Dark

2. Dimension

3. Signals

4. Emotions

I assume this means they want demo tapes? I wonder how many bands sent something to them.

Up Hold - Engine digipak

Admittedly, I'm still reeling a bit from the disappointed tone of yesterday's article, a piece on Up Hold's disappointing final album Deepness Of Disorder. Let's lighten things up a bit by posting a variant! Engine. If you're a dedicated reader to this blog, you know it, and you know I love it. There was also this thick hard-cased digipak version.

Now, I don't know if this had an obi or not, but from what I've seen of other, similarly made digipaks, perhaps not? It has a barcode on there, which obis usually have, but Limited Records didn't print a barcode on the obi for the jewel case edition, so I wouldn't know. If any readers can confirm, I'd like to know!

There isn't much else to say, other than, I guess, read the original article here! It's a great album.

It may look it but trust me, the jewel case version doesn't fit in the digipak. Although that would be really cool.

Up Hold - Deepness Of Disorder

When I wrote my initial wave of articles on Up Hold back in January, I had been able to find every Up Hold release on Buyee except this one, strangely enough. Back then, I had predicted that this album, their third and final, might end up sounding like the kind of radio-friendly nu metal that polluted American airwaves in 2002, the year of its release. I predicted this despite that I couldn't, in good conscience, totally consider Up Hold nu metal-- they were still a hardcore punk band with a few stylings of that genre thrown in, come their 2000 album Engine.

I was correct.

When I finally found this for purchase, it was on Amazon, and it took literally a month from initial payment to delivery. (EMS has spoiled me.) When I finally popped it in, I was horrified-- the band went drastically softer for the most part, in a way that screams "selling out" more than it does "maturing sound", and of my days collecting Japanese music, this has easily become the most disappointing experience I've had with an album from a band I really like.

However, as I went through a few selected songs on here, transcribing their lyrics for my typical YouTube upload, I focused more on the sound of this album, and it began to grow a bit on me. I don't know if I'd say I like it as an album, but there are definitely spots I do like. But in any case, this album is the least good of Up Hold's entire discography, and what makes that claim sad for me is that this was their last full album. Their occasional forays into their older sound make for some of the better songs here, but the one notable example, "Sign", blatantly copies its intro directly from "A Man Shaped Box" off of their first album Water. There are a few tracks where this softer style is actually taken into some interesting directions, including "Programmed", easily my favorite song on here, but that's the exception, not the rule.

My overall recommendation would be to try and find this if you're curious, or wishing to complete a collection of this band, but otherwise, stick with every release before this one. On a related note, my copy of the Intersect Of Light & Dark single/EP has yet to arrive, but two of the songs on here are from that release, and they aren't by any means favorites here. Alas, I will get around to posting about them shortly after that shipment comes in.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Lies And Truths

2. Inner Blank

3. Raise Or Moment

4. Entrance New World

5. Programmed

6. Emotions

7. Sign

8. Catch The Future

9. Intersect Of Light & Dark

10. Flowing

11. Afraid Of Illusion

All three albums, together at last. From good, to better, to not nearly as good. :(

Up Hold - Engine

The second album by Up Hold, their first full album on Hell Hornet/Limited Records, has the band setting more comfortably in their nu metal direction, while still having the intensity their older work contained. While the instrumentalism was simpling town a little more, Tatsuya Igarashi's English lyrics were getting stronger, still maintaining that "writing music in your second or third language" abstractness but thematically becoming as uplifting as the band's name might have implied. While I haven't heard anything from their final album Deepness Of Disorder yet, to say that this is the crowning achievement of the band at this point in their career is an understatement.

As with Water, this album was simultaneously released in 12" vinyl format, but since I generally don't collect vinyls of stuff I can't get on CD, I don't have that version in my collection. There is also a digipak version of this release, and I have one coming from the lot I purchased my second copy of The Unbleached in, but it doesn't look like it has an obi. For all I know, it never had one to begin with. No matter what format you find it in, though, do get this album. I doubt you'll be disappointed with it, especially if you've followed the band this far.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Sight

2. Creep

3. D

4. To Be Myself

5. Thorny Path

6. Fork

7. Hue

8. The Risk

9. Rise By

10. Inside

Up Hold - Fork

As we carry on to the second section of covering Up Hold's discography, I should mention that in none of that time did I grab the missing pieces of their collection (those being the snap-pack single/VHS combo pack of their single for Sight, the single/EP to Intersect Of Light & Dark, or their final album Deepness Of Disorder)...yet, but in that time, I did get another CD copy of The Unbleached that actually comes with the obi. As a result, it'll be a while after tomorrow's coverage of Engine that I'll be able to finish covering Up Hold, but I guarantee that it will be done eventually.

Anyway, onto this release... this is Up Hold's first release under Hell Hornet Records, a sublabel of now-defunct Japanese label Limited Records. It was issued on June 3rd, 1999, a good eleven months before the release of their sophomore album Engine, although the titular track would become the only one to actually make the final cut of that album. The 12" release of this features an alternate version of the cover that is similar in intent, but far, far different in execution.

As such, the material here is the first indication that Up Hold's sound had spectacularly changed after changing record labels. They were adopting a more nu-metal sound than they had when they were still on Slam Records, the new inclusion of clean vocals being one major indicator. To their credit, they still had enough hardcore punk essence and melodic integrity to make their brand of nu metal stand far above a lot of the newer blood the nu metal scene was taking in at the time. The second track on this EP, Out Of The Way, features guest vocals from Cocobat vocalist Hideki, and I can't help but wonder why this song didn't make the final cut of Engine.

I can see how older fans of them would be apprehensive about the different direction the band was taking, but on its own terms, it's a nice little collection of hardcore punk-infused nu metal, and in the grand scheme of the band's sound, it's a great harbinger of what is to come with Engine.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Fork

2. Out Of The Way

3. Recollect

4. Answer (a newly re-recorded version)

Up Hold - Water

This next piece of Up Hold's discography is not only their first full album, but their last release on Slam Records, before switching to Hell Hornet Records for their subsequent releases. Despite being considered an album, this release only clocks in at about 16 minutes, a feat that is actually shared by the single/EP to Fork, the disc that immediately follows this one. However, that is mainly because their songs got longer after the record label switch, whereas the longest track on here is only three minutes and eighteen seconds long.

This is the album where their nu metal influences started creeping in (it was, after all, 1997), as the musicianship got a little simpler, but on the flipside, their English songwriting got a little stronger, and they also experimented with writing a song in Spanish; the result, Mi Cuarto, is linked below. If you really got into their previous releases, you may note the simpler technical prowess on display, but it doesn't actually lose any of the intensity of Answer in the process. It is also one of the cheaper and easier Up Hold albums to find online, I've noticed, so if you want the tracks that I didn't link below, go track it down.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. [iksploud]

2. One Choice

3. A Man Shaped Box

4. Bartleby

5. Cliff Of Essence

6. Mi Cuarto

7. A Word*

8. Grounds Of The Way

*misspelled everywhere but the liner notes booklet as "A ward"

Up Hold - Answer

This debut EP from Up Hold was also released on 7" vinyl on August 25th, 1996, although I can't say for sure when this CD reissue came out; there isn't a copyright year later than 1996 anywhere in the liner notes that I've been able to track down, although since it makes a reference to Water, their first album, being "now on sale", I'm gonna assume that the CD reissue to this and The Unbleached dropped around the same time, if not at the same time.

Since Water is when I actually noticed nu metal influences starting to trickle in, this is a disc to judge their earlier, "purer" hardcore punk sound on. I also have to say that this has my favorite cover of anything Up Hold has released; it may not scream "hardcore punk" like The Unbleached's cover does, but there is something very aesthetically appealing about it.

Also of note, the title track to this EP was re-recorded for the single/EP to Fork, from their album Engine. It ain't updated all that much, but it still sounds as good as the version here.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Answer

2. Break My Wall

3. Day By Day

4. Emptiness

Up Hold - The Unbleached

Note: The original version of this article mistakenly listed this as the debut EP of Up Hold, since it's difficult to find solid information on these Slam Records releases.

Now it's time to start exploring the Japanese bits of that recent Christmas haul! Here, we begin with The Unbleached, the second EP from hardcore J-punk band Up Hold, released in 1998 by Slam Records. It was difficult to find proper release info for this disc, since Slam Records is one of those Japanese labels that doesn't print specific dates on their back covers or obi strips. (While I don't have the obi for this CD, unfortunately, I do have the obis for Up Hold's other discs from Slam Records, and those don't list specific release dates either.) According to Up Hold's website, this was released on April 25th, 1998.

As this band went on, their hardcore punk had nu metal influences slowly trickle in (while I can't vouch for the sound of Deepness Of Disorder or its corresponding single for Intersect Of Light & Dark, I'm gonna bet it sounds quite a bit like the more melodic, watered down nu metal of about 2002 to 2003), but as far as their Slam Records material is concerned, this is their most refined and hardcore material. It's a bit slower than the songs on Answer, but it is more complex than the material on Water, and it meets a happy medium that works extraordinarily for the band.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. TAT

2. Curves

3. Bosom

4. Acting