YOUR ANGUISHED WAIL SUPERSTORE

Dir en Grey - New Music - More Music Videos

I guess there's a reason that Japanese bands seem freakishly prolific. It was explained to me once that because the touring and promotional cycles are so short thanks to geography, there's time to crank out 65-minute albums every 16 months. But this theory discounts heavy-duty touring machines like Melt-Banana, Boris, Polysics, and increasingly, Dir en grey, whose Uroboros is out today. Honestly, after one listen I had absolutely no idea what was going on with the album. Riffs were randomly stitched together to resemble an audio companion to my sixth grade attempt at a Metal band crossword (a series of L's). 

But hey sometimes you can quickly distinguish an elusive album from a pointless one and Uroboros is the former, and brilliant too. It's easy to imagine singer Kyo interrupting a band meeting from a shadowy corner by extinguishing a cigarette on his palm and saying "This album we are setting out to make must be one. orgasm. after. another." And all the explosions, like "Dozing Green" (above), just make it more frustrating that as usual the guitars aren't heavy enough ugh and Kyo tends to wear out all of his good ideas by repeating them. He seems like the type to enjoy singing all wildly so as to discourage harmonizing (somebody call Bobby McFerrin), a suspicion corroborated by the vocals' conspicuous loudness. Too bad, cuz the scrubs sparkle and Kyo's best when he's organized. And not dancing.