Dir en Grey - The Unraveling

This is a bit late, because this mini-album was released back in April, but have been so busy that I haven´t been able to write about it before now. First off, the contents of the Order-Only Deluxe edition:

DISC 1 : CD
01. Unraveling
02. KARMA
03. KASUMI
04. KARASU
05. Bottom of the death valley
06. Unknown.Despair.Lost
07. THE FINAL

DISC 2 : CD
01. MACABRE
02. Unraveling (Unplugged Ver.)
03. THE FINAL (Unplugged Ver.)

DISC 3 : DVD
01. RINKAKU (Shot In One Take)
02. Kiri To Mayu (Shot In One Take)
03. Shitataru Mourou [LIVE]
　　*Live Take at TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FORUM HALL A on December 25, 2012
04. Juuyoku [LIVE]
　　*Live Take at TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FORUM HALL A on December 25, 2012
05. INTERVIEW ON THE UNRAVELING
06. THE UNRAVELING (Scenes From Recording)

So as everyone can see, this edition consists of 2 CDs and 1 DVD, and one larger booklet containing the lyrics for all the songs both in Japanese and English, which I think was a really nice touch, and a fancy box to hold everything. For most places you had to order this some months before the release to ensure that you´d get a copy, because it´s a strictly limited edition, but as soon as I saw the tracklist back when they released the information, I was sold. For me, this released felt like a renewal of some of their old songs, that in themselves never really opened up to me in their original form so was very much looking forward to it, before even getting into the unplugged versions of Unraveling and THE FINAL.
I´ve always loved the unplugged versions of the songs Dir en Grey have made, completely changing the songs into something completely different, and most times very touching. As to what comes to the songs themselves, I really like the re-makes. They feel fresh and new, making up a new image for the new Dir en Grey. I read around the time of the release that a review of this album, and the writer thought of this as a nod towards the bands old fans, that might not be that much into their newer albums, and also because they really don´t play all that many old songs anymore, having stated that once they close a door, they won´t open it again. So this is a nice way of taking up their old songs again.
As to what comes to the unplugged versions on this album, I feel that I´m completely mesmerized by them, because they´ve yet again managed to make and create something wonderful. The dark atmospheres in the unplugged version of Unraveling, and the balladlike THE FINAL. At first I was surprised how little they changed THE FINAL, but I see that it wasn´t necessary to do much with it because it´s such a beloved song. And I´ve seen many calling and unplugged version of THE FINAL a Disney song, but for all it´s worth, I really enjoy it. It´s for me one of those touching moments that you don´t get all that much with Dir en Grey. Kyo´s voice works wonders in these kinds of slow songs, and I love him to pieces for it.
The DVD shows the band in full action, the two first songs being studio lives, so to speak, and then 2 songs from their Christmas Day live from last year, which I was very eager to hear because we haven´t had all that much live material of old songs being sung after Kyo´s surgery. Sadly the interviews don´t have any subtitles so there isn´t much a non-japanese speaker can understand from them, but for those who understand them, I´m sure appreciate them very much, and it´s yet again nice to see some clips from the recording process of the band.
Overall I really like this release, and think every Dir en Grey fan should give this a listen, even if they haven´t been into the band´s late escapedes. This release would probably also serve well for a new face to this band´s music, because it´s very versatile all-in-all. Now off to hoping for another tour of Europe where the band would come to Finland again so that I´d have a chance of seeing them live again~

Bioshock Infinite *no spoilers*

What a game... Seriously, this was one of the best games I´ve played in a while, apart from having played the original Bioshock the day before because of not having been played it earlier.

But onto the box itself:

As the picture suggests, I got the Ultimate Songbird Edition with a ton of extras coming in the box. Many special editions of games haven´t had that many things happening in them, but Bioshock definitely made the box worth the price. 

-The songbird statue is really awesome-looking with the box housing it being made very much according to the world the game is set in.

-The artbook is nice, has a lot of concept art from the game, showing the conception of some of the characters during development. I just think it´s a shame that they didn´t put in the whole artbook, but only a small excerpt because for the price the collector´s edition was, they should´ve been able to put the book in its full form in my opinion.

-The Murder of Crows keychain, which is very detailed, though perhaps a bit big for a keychain.

-A handyman figurine, which is seriously too small for anything, and don´t understand why it´s even there

-A poster for the Devil´s Kiss vigor, which looks nice and I believe can also be found in the game, so a nice touch

-A digital soundtrack of the game, haven´t downloaded it, but the game´s music is nice so fine by me. Would´ve been nice as a physical CD, but that´s my personal choice

Only thing in the game itself that bothered me, was that all the loading screens had the same short piece of music that played over and over, and frankly bored me quite a lot by the end. But besides that, the gameplay itself was really good, and didn´t notice any flags or bugs while playing, which a lot of new games nowadays have right after release. (I´m looking at you, Assassin´s Creed 3)

The story was really good, and had those twists that I came to love in the first game in the franchise.
The game is realy beautyfull visually, and I was surprised how much difficulty there was in the game, even on normal because all enemies hit fairly hard which made the game a fun challenge. Wouldn´t have been much of an effort to finish the game if it´d been too easy.
I seriously recommend this game to everyone who likes a shooter, or just a good game overall, because Bioshock Infinite was possibly the best game so far for this year that I´ve played.

Reviews, reviews... So much to listen to~

A lot of new CDs have been released since the last update, so trying to work my way through those slowly... Anyway, gonna go through new albums by Stratovarius and Lordi, plus the new Tomb Raider game that rebooted the franchise. So let´s get started:

Nemesis - Stratovarius

 I have been listening to Stratovarius for a couple of albums now, since Polaris, and the new album Nemesis is really something new. A fresh wind that brought new life to the band but kept the sound true to the band´s origins. Might be that the new drummer Rolf Pilve had something to do with how  the album sounds, who knows? I got the digipack book version of the album with two bonus tracks, and really happy about it.

The whole album sounds more like a whole, and I don´t think there´s a single boring track on the album, which is a first for me with Stratovarius, because I haven´t liked every track off the earlier albums, but they certanly did a good job here. Abandon is a nice opening track, the first single Unbreakable is really catchy and fun, and the power just keeps going. Stand My Ground has an awesome intro on the bass, and Halcyon Days has got me hooked after a few listens to name a few.

The band has definitely outdone themselves on this one, and I couldn´t be happies to go see them live tomorrow at Tavastia.

To Beast Or Not To Beast - Lordi

 

Lordi´s new album is also something that I looked forward to with interest, because their last album Babez For Breakfast certainly wasn´t a favourite of mine. When I first heard the first single off the album, The Riff, I was instantly hooked. The sound was so fresh, but still the old Lordi that I´ve grown fond of. And Lordi played with his voice, which really made the whole track stand out nicely. When the album was finally released on March 1st, I had to get my hands on it right away, and am not disapointed with it. The new drummer and keybordist have surely dune Lordi a lot of good, bringing in new sounds to the mixer, even though they´re perhaps not as visually fantasic as some earlier members, though still unique. The album is really whole, and doesn´t really have any uninteresting tracks, which I´m really happy about because the album sounds perfect and there isn´t a single track that I´d like to change about it. Even the track Something Wicked This Way Comes, that I was somewhat reserved to after the listen has become better with time, having it´s own charm along with the rest of the tracks. My personal favourite tracks off the album are probably We´re Not Bad For The Kids (We´re Worse), The Riff, and Horrifiction to name a few, though I really like them all. I´m sure very fan of Lordi will like this new album, because it´s got new sounds, but without forgetting the old, and there´s a lot of hooks to catch on it. Couldn´t be happier about it.

Tomb Raider

The new reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise by Square Enix. Where to begin? I was really reserved about this, because it´s a franchise that I like, and all the games released for the PS2 with the exception of Angel of Darkness haven´t been in my liking. The games we´re too easy and I played breezed through them in no time. I just couldn´t find myself touching them again. What I liked about the earlier games of old, were that you had to puzzle together clues to get forward, and it sure as hell wasn´t easy. Took me ages to get through them.

I bought the Collector´s Edition of the game with all the extras, but I´m not 100% happy with it, because the figurine for example is sloppily done with the joints not being coloured as in the picture, and somewhat hastily done overall, but besides that the box and artbook are nice. The book could´ve contained more and been bigger, that would have been nice, but what can you do.

As for the game itself... I´m not really sure what to think about it. Yes, It´s Lara Croft, and she´s vulnerable and soft this time around, plunging into how she became what we know her as: The tough chick who can take take anything from anyone, and doesn´t give a shit about what needs to be done. I miss the old Lara, because she was so much tougher. There might be some continuation to this, I would think, because I doubt Square leaves it at one game, but time will tell. To me the new games was more like Uncharted than a Tomb Raider. Yes, the games looked visually fantastic, but it didn´t stand out at all. It felt like I played Uncharted 2 or 3 all over again, only with a female lead. And is it too much to ask for to get a decent and seriously hard Final Boss battle at the end of the game. When I finally made it to the end, in less than 24 hours after I´d bought the game with probably max 10 hours of gameplay (not sure though), it felt like a letdown when the whole thing was finished. I had a sour taste in my mouth because I had been expecting something very climactic and great at the end, but it just didn´t deliver... As I read in the Finnish game magazine today: Lara has unfortunately been left dragging behind in the game industry. There´s so much survival games out there, and the game mechanics of the new Tomb Raider are exactly like Uncharted with only a few differences. Uncharted is completely linear in story, which thankfully Tomb Raider is not, with a big open world to explore all the time, but the seeking of different items is not so amusing anymore, specially with the hidden tombs giving off a sign and text when you get near saying "Hidden tomb nearby"... Lame, Square, very lame. It really doesn´t have to be that easy!!! I wan´t a real challenge to these games, because there weren´t really any times in the game when I actually had problems with the puzzles, and could breeze through them without much effort. 

To sum things up, Tomb Raider is a nice game, that gives some thrills and is visually great, but it just feels somewhat lacking in the end. It´s worth a playthrough, but I doubt it´s anything I´d want to play again for a while because it doesn´t give that much of a challenge. And to put a special enemy right before the final boss that´s harder than the boss itself really feels stupid. I had to take a couple of tries to get the big enemy down, dying a couple of times, but got through the "final boss" in one try without even dying. It was just that easy. If they are going to continue with making Tomb Raider games, I at least hope that they have the decency of putting in a good final boss to the game, giving us a spectacular final battle that won´t be a let down, and a big finisher that gives you a feeling of accomplishement when finished.

Dir en Grey - Rinkaku

The postcard with the whole image that was used for the cover (For some reason it got turned upside down)

A sticker with the normal editions cover-image

The packaging

A photobook with lyrics and thoughts from the band

Inside of the packaging

Rinkaku is the new single from the Japanese band Dir en Grey, which has become one of my many favourites in a short time. Their sound is really great, but might need a while to get used to, because Kyo´s vocals range from low growls to high pitched screams in a matter of seconds.
Well, onto the single itself: Rinkaku was released in three different versions in Japan; The normal edition, the limited edition including a DVD with clips from recording, and the Deluxe order-only limited edition. Normally I don´t buy singles from artists because they don´t have that much on them, but what got my mind turned was the live videos on the DVD. For the Deluxe edition Dir en Grey recorded most of their main setlist from their Ratio Ducat, non Fortuna live in Japan in 2011. What makes it so special is that every song that they recorded was symphonic versions of their new and old songs that they played during the live. I was mesmerized by their symphonic version of the song Amon on the deluxe version of Dum Spiro Spero, so I just had to buy this to get the live DVD.
The contents of the single are as follows:
CD:
01 輪郭
02 霧と繭
03 輪郭 （Remix）〈Remixed by Akira Yamaoka〉

DVD:
TOUR2011 AGE QUOD AGIS Ratio ducat, non fortuna
2011.11.11 TOKYO DOME CITY HALL
01 AMON
02 LOTUS
03 OBSCURE
04 流転の塔
05 暁
06 激しさと、この胸の中で絡み付いた灼熱の闇
07 THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB
08 mazohyst of decadence
09 蜜と唾
10 「欲巣にDREAMBOX」あるいは成熟の理念と冷たい雨
11 DIFFERENT SENSE
12 DECAYED CROW
13 輪郭 (Scenes From Recording) 

 The single itself was released towards the end of December, but it took until a week ago to arrive in the mail, but I couldn´t have been happier when it finally dropped through the mail slot. 
The live is brilliant, and Kyo´s stage presense is of no match. Vocally the sound isn´t as pure as on the album, but that is to be expected from Kyo´s vocals anyway, because he sure hasn´t made it easy on himself. 
My personal highlights of the DVD are probably Amon, because I like the song so much, and then THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB, because of Kyo´s facial expressions. They are just so awesome that I can´t find words for it.
The main song itself, Rinkaku is also something that I can´t get enough of. I can play it on repeat and never get tired of it. It´s so fresh and overturning when it comes to the band´s concept, showing that you can´t ever guess what Dir en Grey will come up with next. It also shows that Kyo has made a good recovery from his operation from almost a year back, being the first release in a while. I´m also glad that Kyo´s harsh vocals are alive and kicking in Kiri to Mayu, the B-track of the single. This is going to be an interesting year following Dir en grey with a new mini-album coming out in april.