Got the CD last night and I'm listening to it right now.
I guess the cover isn't bad; it looks to me like two furry eggs in a mess of cobwebs. The picture of Kaya about to eat the egg is kind of odd, and the egg looks a little like a cotton ball. Overall, I think the cover of Hora's Cocoon album was better. (I liked that album cover, but I never thought I'd prefer a Hora solo cover over a Schwarz Stein cover...)
Cocoon - Fallen: Oh dear, I'm not really digging this track. The vocals are nice, but the music... It was one of those track where Hora found a 3 parts that sounded good overlapping each other and built the entire song around those parts coming in and out at various intervals, just like the original track. There's no musical distinction between the verses, the choruses or the bridges. I like Kaya's vocals in the chorus, especially the final chorus after what I'm generously calling the bridge of the song. I *think* I can hear Hora providing deep background vocals on the final chorus, but Kaya has layered his voice and it sounds pretty nifty. Still, VERY little effort on Hora's instrumentation. I think they were trying to go for a "Kuro Ageha" vibe with this song, but they really missed the mark.
Succubus -2014 Mix: Right away this song has more energy than the original. The drums are a lot cooler and the new synth part is very good, though you've already heard it if you've seen the live DVD. Hora adds his own death voice echoing Kaya's "Nightmare!" during the chorus. The guitar is pretty cool and this song has a much better structure, so it's easily the best track on the CD. The original was never one of my favorite tracks from New Vogue Children and I like the new additions to this one enough to say that I prefer it to the original.
The verdict: I don't think this CD is necessarily *bad*, but it's nowhere as good as some of Schwarz Stein's past releases, demo tapes included. Instrumentally, Cocoon has so little going on and it's so repetitive (even by Hora standards) that I found myself zoning in and out during the song. Succubus has some nice new parts, so I guess the CD was with it for this, but this would have been a better A-side than a coupling track.
And just think of all the other Hora solo tracks they have to work with for their coming singles and albums!
You know you can't wait for their next stellar masterpiece, "L.E.M. -Illusion-!
(just kidding... But I remember at one point Gensou made a vocal cover of L.E.M. and sent it to me and it was really cool.)
*EDIT*
Anyone notice how they haven't even uploaded the cover art onto either website yet? Not on Hora's, not on Schwarz Stein's... Even Gebet got more attention than this single...
