So, I happened to get home from work today and waiting in my mailbox was my copy of WISDOM by the one and only ~ Of course I instantly loaded it onto my MP3 player and gave it a listen~ Let's start the reviews!
01 - IMMORTAL
I'm liking the way this CD is starting! The organ is nice and the instrumentation is quite good! I also really like this first verse! No vocals, but then when the chorus starts... I've heard this before... Let's add some vocals... I think the chorus from Kumo Onna would do nicely, because this is a blatant rip-off pretty much note for note. Still a pretty good song. And the instrumentation is nice~ I'll be listening to this again
02 - WISDOM
This song has a pretty spiffy bass intro, and then come the strings which are a little reminiscent of "domiNATE". It's catchy, has a beat, and you can dance to it. It has nice progression, but it's a little slow. I can see myself skipping this one in the future. (Wait, isn't this the title track of the CD?)
03 - The ONE
HORA is really experimenting with basses on this CD. It sounds kind of similar to the opening of WISDOM, except much more gravel-y. I do like the organ that kicks in, and it has a nice choir synth in the background.
04 - WASTE
The opening to this song is VERY nostalgic of Schwarz Stein to me. When the instrumentation picks up though, it's back to HORA. Then at about 1:03, it gets cool. And it sounds like something is building up... and then it falls back... This song could have been much more inpressive, I think, if it had vocals... And the piano sounds very lonely. This is probably going to be a skipper too ^^;
05 - FACT
Ooh, more bass play~ This one is mainly interesting for the special effects and using the same string parts I was experimenting with in a band in high school/college. So it sounds very nostalgic, though I didn't write it. It's a very mellow song, but I like the way it flows.
06 - BURIAL
Wow, this song is VERY uncharacteristic of HORA! It sounds kind of like a military funeral, except with some digital effects and a beat. What blew me away was the strings. They are very nice and melancholy. They remind me a bit of the ending cellos of "Kono Sekai no Hate De (At the end of this world)" by LUNA SEA. Easily my favorite song of the CD, though I don't see it being the most popular as it's not catchy at all and is cetainly not something you could possibly dance to. It would probably made a better ending track if the begining and ending weren't so abrupt.
07 - NOTHING
This sounds a little big like it could be a twisted music box song. For what is is, it's pretty nice and catchy, and pretty mood music. It's not something I would listen to without doing something else though (like reading a book, studying, eating a sandwich, etc...)
08 - RELIC
Ok, this on is a very simple song, but it's a rather nice melody. It really needs a fuller orchastration. If there were ever a HORA song that needed a classical string section, this is the one. The single piano sounds very lonely. It needs some chords or some backing instrumention other than the bells. It sounds nice, but very unfinished.
OK, so we have another vocal-less CD... But the compositions are fairly nice, though a few seem to be much too simple. This album felt very slow and laid back, though had a few good numbers I know I'll be coming back to. And we get to hear an updated version of Kumo no Onna (Listen to them back to back if you don't believe me!)
But wait! Wasn't there a disc 2?!
Yes there was, but it's hardly worth mentioning, I'm sorry to say... You'd thing there would be remixes or new versions, but it really is just songs taken off previous CDs and put together on one CD. If you already have all of HORA's other CDs, you might as well just make your own mix CD or a playlist. It was a little disappointing. For the record though, the tracklist is:
01 - SYNTHETIC ANTHEM
02 - MODULATE GOD
03 - DISTORTED WORLD
04 - PROMINENCE
05 - IGNITION
06 - RAY
07 - VENOM
08 - TRANSONICA
09 - ON FALLING
10 - GENUINE
11 - REFLECT
12 - INSANITY
13 - domiNATE
14 - INWARD
I guess it's nice to have, but it was kind of unnecessary.
So yeah, not a bad album! It's a shame it was the last one, though... I would have liked to see him have gone out with a bang. Or something a little faster paced. I'm fairly happy with this release, though! I'd give it about a 70/100 points.
And, discuss~!
01 - IMMORTAL
I'm liking the way this CD is starting! The organ is nice and the instrumentation is quite good! I also really like this first verse! No vocals, but then when the chorus starts... I've heard this before... Let's add some vocals... I think the chorus from Kumo Onna would do nicely, because this is a blatant rip-off pretty much note for note. Still a pretty good song. And the instrumentation is nice~ I'll be listening to this again
02 - WISDOM
This song has a pretty spiffy bass intro, and then come the strings which are a little reminiscent of "domiNATE". It's catchy, has a beat, and you can dance to it. It has nice progression, but it's a little slow. I can see myself skipping this one in the future. (Wait, isn't this the title track of the CD?)
03 - The ONE
HORA is really experimenting with basses on this CD. It sounds kind of similar to the opening of WISDOM, except much more gravel-y. I do like the organ that kicks in, and it has a nice choir synth in the background.
04 - WASTE
The opening to this song is VERY nostalgic of Schwarz Stein to me. When the instrumentation picks up though, it's back to HORA. Then at about 1:03, it gets cool. And it sounds like something is building up... and then it falls back... This song could have been much more inpressive, I think, if it had vocals... And the piano sounds very lonely. This is probably going to be a skipper too ^^;
05 - FACT
Ooh, more bass play~ This one is mainly interesting for the special effects and using the same string parts I was experimenting with in a band in high school/college. So it sounds very nostalgic, though I didn't write it. It's a very mellow song, but I like the way it flows.
06 - BURIAL
Wow, this song is VERY uncharacteristic of HORA! It sounds kind of like a military funeral, except with some digital effects and a beat. What blew me away was the strings. They are very nice and melancholy. They remind me a bit of the ending cellos of "Kono Sekai no Hate De (At the end of this world)" by LUNA SEA. Easily my favorite song of the CD, though I don't see it being the most popular as it's not catchy at all and is cetainly not something you could possibly dance to. It would probably made a better ending track if the begining and ending weren't so abrupt.
07 - NOTHING
This sounds a little big like it could be a twisted music box song. For what is is, it's pretty nice and catchy, and pretty mood music. It's not something I would listen to without doing something else though (like reading a book, studying, eating a sandwich, etc...)
08 - RELIC
Ok, this on is a very simple song, but it's a rather nice melody. It really needs a fuller orchastration. If there were ever a HORA song that needed a classical string section, this is the one. The single piano sounds very lonely. It needs some chords or some backing instrumention other than the bells. It sounds nice, but very unfinished.
OK, so we have another vocal-less CD... But the compositions are fairly nice, though a few seem to be much too simple. This album felt very slow and laid back, though had a few good numbers I know I'll be coming back to. And we get to hear an updated version of Kumo no Onna (Listen to them back to back if you don't believe me!)
But wait! Wasn't there a disc 2?!
Yes there was, but it's hardly worth mentioning, I'm sorry to say... You'd thing there would be remixes or new versions, but it really is just songs taken off previous CDs and put together on one CD. If you already have all of HORA's other CDs, you might as well just make your own mix CD or a playlist. It was a little disappointing. For the record though, the tracklist is:
01 - SYNTHETIC ANTHEM
02 - MODULATE GOD
03 - DISTORTED WORLD
04 - PROMINENCE
05 - IGNITION
06 - RAY
07 - VENOM
08 - TRANSONICA
09 - ON FALLING
10 - GENUINE
11 - REFLECT
12 - INSANITY
13 - domiNATE
14 - INWARD
I guess it's nice to have, but it was kind of unnecessary.
So yeah, not a bad album! It's a shame it was the last one, though... I would have liked to see him have gone out with a bang. Or something a little faster paced. I'm fairly happy with this release, though! I'd give it about a 70/100 points.
And, discuss~!