Brahman - 其限 (Sorekiri)

This is officially the first time I've gotten a Japanese CD in my hands upon release day, and it likely won't be the last, either. This showed up in the mail yesterday, straight from Amazon Japan in an atrociously mangled DHL package, but this CD thankfully survived the ordeal in immaculate condition. This is the new single from Brahman, a Japanese punk band who has been around since 1995, releasing two of my new favorite J-punk albums, A Man Of The World and A Forlorn Hope, earlier on in their career.

This single was released as an appetizer for Brahman's upcoming 2/4-disc 20th anniversary compilation album 尽未来際 (Jinmiraisai), which is currently scheduled for release on August 12th in three different editions. The most expensive of the three will contain a few extra goodies such as a photo booklet and a reproduction copy of their original demo tape in an elegant box package. However, only the A-side to this single will be featured on the upcoming compilation, so if you don't want a bunch of material you may already have, spring for this. Who knows if it'll show up on another album of more new material somewhere down the line?

As for what I thought of the little material here, I have no clue how it fits into Brahman's more recent material, since I haven't listened to their last two albums of new material yet (I have a copy of Eternal Recurrence forthcoming, but that's re-recordings of their entire pre-A Forlorn Hope era), but it fits pretty well with the softer material on A Forlorn Hope and The Middle Way. It's good to see that Toshi-Low has committed to fully Japanese lyrics now; from what I've heard out of Eternal Recurrence and recent live shows where Brahman played older material, his English vocals had deteriorated to a significant degree.

My copy of this single is the limited edition 2-discer, which includes a bonus DVD of a show from Brahman's recent "TOUR 1080°", which I haven't been able to play yet since I don't have immediate access to a Region 2-capable DVD player. However, I noticed that the two B-sides to this single were included in their set for this show, while the A-side wasn't. Not a big deal, but strange. If you're interested in keeping up with Brahman, you have no reason not to get this single, really.

The tracklisting for the CD single is as follows:

1. 其限 ~sorekiri~

2. 終夜 ~yomosugara~

3. 汀に咲く ~migiwanisaku~

The tracklisting for the live DVD is as follows:

1. For One's Life

2. 賽の河原

3. Speculation

4. 時の鐘

5. 汀に咲く ~migiwanisaku~

6. 終夜 ~yomosugara~

7. Causation

8. 警醒

9. Answer For...

10. 霹靂

11. 虚空ヲ掴ム

12. 初期衝動

Babymetal US Edition

I found this in an FYE on Tuesday for seven goddamn ninety-nine. As unfortunate as it is that Japanese acts only seem to get popular abroad when they're marketed as novelties, especially in this day and age where everything "weird" gets memed to hell and laughed at, the bright side is that Babymetal's album got released in the US, where I was able to get it at an honest to goodness brick and mortar retailer. Life is great sometimes.

I know a lot of metalheads who will explode with rage at the very mention of Babymetal, which I can understand to a degree-- metalheads demand authenticity, and the thought of heavy metal being created and packaged as J-pop by a team of pop producers is as inauthentic to the concept of "true metal" as one can get. However, I just don't consider this a genuine metal album, moreso a genuine J-pop album, which it's excellent at. There really isn't a moment on this album that feels like it's dragging the entire effort down. It also gets pretty close to being genuinely great metal at times, just with young Japanese girls supplying mostly clean vocals.

This is one of many releases of the new international edition of the album, where you sacrifice the lovable luxury to get a couple nice bonus tracks instead. Road Of Resistance holds up with the quality of the regular album, although I wish there would've been a second studio track instead of the live version of "Gimme Chocolate!!" they threw on. It looks like one of the other international releases of this album, one from Europe, was given the digipak treatment, which I may try to seek out at some point. Hell, I still want a Japanese copy of this for the obi. But for the moment, this will suffice for all my Babymetal needs.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Babymetal Death

2. Megitsune

3. Gimme Chocolate!! (produced by Takeshi Ueda!)

4. Iine!

5. Akatsuki

6. Doki Doki ☆ Morning

7. Onedari Daisakusen

8. Song 4

9. Uki Uki ★ Midnight

10. Catch Me If You Can

11. Rondo Of Nightmare

12. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!

13. Ijime, Dame, Zettai

International Edition Bonus Tracks:

14. Road Of Resistance

15. Gimme Chocolate!! (Live at O2 Academy, Brixton, London)

Back Drop Bomb - Venometeoric

Here we are at the last Back Drop Bomb album I will be covering for a bit. It will be a while before I can grab my copy of The Ocracy, and it might be a while longer than that before I can reach for copies of 59days Preface and Loftinaction. In any case, this is the last album that BDB released under Toy's Factory, and how does it stack up to their awesome comeback album Breakdawn? Well, it might be a bit unfair to call this the Nipsong to Breakdawn's Micromaximum, since it isn't nearly as bad as Nipsong, but it is another somewhat unfocused album after an excellent and cohesive album. I really hope that isn't the case with The Ocracy and Loftinaction...

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things to like about this album, whether it be from the sweet guitar solo that "The Light 'N' The Dark" rides out on, or the great instrumental that is "The Knight", or "Great View", which is an excellent track to open on. But throughout the album, there's a recurring feeling of incohesiveness and a lack of focus that draws up flashbacks of Nipsong. It's awesome that BDB continues to get more eclectic in their musical output, but there are times when it can get too eclectic for its own good, and those times happen pretty frequently on this album. What I can give this album credit for in spite of this, at least, is that the album doesn't feel barren in its mixing, so those bits of reduced focus come off smoother.

The packaging is something I really love about this album, though, and made me a little disappointed that graphic design this awesome wasn't housing an album that quite matched it. Just about all of the printing on the front cover/liner note booklet, back cover and obi strip is holographic, and printed on an extremely glossy, semi-thick paper stock. It feels great to hold them, but it does make them a pain in the ass to photograph. Thanks to my usual flash photography, the covers and obi all come off less colorful and less bright than they actually are, as I've seen occasional cover scans look. But rest assured that every bit of this CD's packaging is gorgeous.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Intro

2. Great View

3. Tokio On The Horse

4. Don't

5. Nobody Gets It -The Beginning Of Conga-

6. The Light 'N' The Dark

7. Far To Go

8. The Knight

9. World Wanna Be

10. Not Never

11. Anything

12. Losin'

13. Outro

Back Drop Bomb - Breakdawn

After the incohesive disappointment that was Nipsong, it's hard to imagine if Back Drop Bomb could've gotten their old magic back without nabbing a new saxophonist. When I originally gave this a spin (I grabbed this, Nipsong and Venometeoric at the same time) immediately after finishing Nipsong, it was a nervous and difficult sit. After some time with this album, however, I've incredibly warmed to it. It manages to be both eclectic in its musical influences and cohesive in its presentation at the same time-- Nipsong's failing was having the former without a direction to accomplish the latter. I'm still not entirely sure if BDB even had a certain direction in mind while recording this album, but the end result turned out really well whether they did or not.

The album still has its weak points with ridiculously sudden switchups in a few songs-- "In Order To Find The New Sense" is pretty guilty of it, and "graySONGzone", while a bit more streamlined, picks up this issue towards the end-- it isn't to the extent that Nipsong has them. The vast electronic backdrop that scours this whole album is much welcomed, and provides a nice cushion for when BDB start drifting into almost-too-experimental territory for a bit. The mixing is also very heavy on both the bass guitar and kick drum for a lot of the album, which I always appreciate.

All I can really say now is pick this album up and give it a couple spins, and it might come around for you as well. From what I gathered from domestic reviews of this album, Japanese listeners really liked that BDB was finally writing songs that had Japanese lyrics. I do appreciate it as well, but I honestly don't mind either way, and I dunno if other Western listeners will find that a point of praise or contention about the album... although it would be stupid to get mad over an album from Japan having Japanese lyrics, if you ask me.

'Tis a promo copy, like the back of the obi shows.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Intro

2. アティピカル

3. Like 8 Beat

4. Boogie & Swerve

5. The Maze

6. Oh, Oh

7. In Order To Find The New Sense

8. High Times

9. スリル

10. Twisted

11. graySONGzone

12. Amplitude

13. Outro

Back Drop Bomb - Nipsong

Something happened to Back Drop Bomb between Micromaximum and this album. Something that would end up changing the direction of their music for the rest of their time on Toy's Factory. They lost their saxophonist. The effects of this loss were already felt on the 2254 Universal EP, a release that split the four-year difference between this album and Micromaximum right down the middle, but BDB managed to squeeze out some great material for that EP, like "Sigh" and "Remind Me". Except for a few songs here and there, and the inclusion of "Remind Me" from the aforementioned EP, this album represents a dramatic fall in quality after Micromaximum.

It's a shame, because there are quite a few good ideas interspersed through the numerous tracks on this album, even in the weaker links. Whenever vocalists Takayoshi Shirakawa and Masashi Ojima unite for some sweet harmonies, the result is more often than not a shining moment on whatever track it happens on. But a lot of the album feels directionless, incohesively patched together from ideas they just couldn't find a way to flesh out into full songs. The weird mastering on the album doesn't do much to help the barren musical landscape-- if anything, bringing the drums really high in the mix makes it feel even more barren. I don't know what happened for them to lose their saxophonist, but I really wish they didn't, because the presence of one would've helped this album in a lot of ways.

If nothing else, this album has a lot of cool stuff thrown in with it. This particular 2-disc deluxe edition came with a "bootleg" CD of a couple live renditions of some of their songs. I haven't listened to it, because live albums just don't really do anything for me most of the time, but at least the song choices are pretty dope-- one song from Micromaximum, two from the 2254 Universal EP. They also threw in a sticker of the logo they created for this album, and I always appreciate cool feelies.

Oh, one extra disclaimer: the version of "Never Shined" on this album is not the awesome version playing in this music video. That version was released on the Diversive Audio EP they put out in 2004, a year after this album came out. You might ultimately be satisfied with just grabbing the two aforementioned EPs that bookended this album's release instead of this, if you're not in it for collecting every release the band put out.

The tracklisting for Nipsong is as follows:

1. Intro

2. Flip Out

3. Mastadabestah

4. From Experience

5. Instant Triumph

6. Understandin'

7. Never Shined

8. Dub Beyer

9. Remind Me

10. Your Choice, Your Decision

11. In My Position

12. Missin' The Point

13. Nothin' Phony

14. Down To Earth

15. Ram Atomic (原始的魂)

16. Perspective

17. Outro

The tracklisting for Official Live Bootleg CD is as follows:

1. Back And Forth/Never Too Late

2. Sigh

3. You Up Around

Back Drop Bomb - Micromaximum

Outside of a few appearances on split EPs and compilations, there wasn't much material from Back Drop Bomb other than yesterday's covered mini-album before their transition to Toy's Factory in 1998. They quickly released an EP called Rough Introduction For The Next (which I don't have yet, unfortunately) in January of 1999, and then dropped Micromaximum, their first full-length album, a few months afterward. Containing two re-recorded tracks from Rough Introduction ("Flow (It's Like That)" and "Turn On The Light"), a song from their early split EP Back Drop Bomb Vs. Echo ("That's The Way We Unite"), and a bunch of altogether new material, it's the perfect transition piece between New South Hand Blows... and their later albums.

Since it's an album on a somewhat major label (granted, one that regularly signs hardcore punk bands, but still), it stands to be expected that their sound would pop up a bit, and indeed you can hear traces of their earlier hardcore punk sound dissipate as the production value rises. In spite of this, their other influences rise in prominence, so the music doesn't feel watered down or anything. From what I've heard of their later albums so far, this reigns supreme as my favorite BDB release, since it's a perfect fusion of the elements of their sound... however, that could of course change at any given moment. Check out the samples below and you'll see what I mean.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Intro

2. Bounce It

3. Blazin'

4. Clap

5. That's The Way We Unite

6. Never Seem To Last

7. Turn On The Light

8. Live And Direct

9. You Up Around

10. R.O.C.K.S.

11. When The Man Have Realized The Sound

12. Flow (It's Like That)