Dir en grey -- 'Uroboros' [review]

Dir en grey - Uroboros
The End Records (11/11/08)
Metal (Melodic) / Rock

While perhaps not quite at the level of Opeth or Dream Theater, Dir en grey is Japan's answer to the aforementioned bands, proving it with a solid decade-long career and this, the band's seventh studio album.

Uroboros is a mixture of metal and progressive rock—a combination of beauty, bliss, horror and destruction. Dir en grey combines elements from all corners of the metal/rock genres to put forth a cacophony of pandemonium, all the while vocalist Kyo, singing almost exclusively in Japanese, wails, growls and grunts along like a frenzied madman.

Opening with the one-two punch of the instrumental "Sa Bir" and epic "Vinushka" (which clocks in at over nine minutes), it's clear the band is happy to take chances. While "Vinushka" may come across as bloated at moments, the song is a sonic journey, bouncing from acoustic beauty to peaks of power metal and depths of death metal, again and again.

The band takes its experimental approach even further with "Stuck Man", a head-banging blend of funk and death metal.

But it's those moments of tight musicianship when Dir en grey produces its best songs. Take the straight-forward "Red Soil", with its driving riffs and stutter-stop verses, or the blinding fury of "Doukoku to Sarinu", or the radio-friendly modern-rock feel of "Glass Skin". These 3- to 4-minute songs display a better sense of the best the band has to offer as opposed to, say, the self-indulgent 7-minute plus "Ware, Yami, Tote..." that aims for epic but hits overly-dramatic instead.

Two nice touches with the album: the liner notes contain all the lyrics translated into English, which shows the band weaving tales of reincarnation and guilt; and two versions of "Dozing Green" included on this set, one sung in English, the other in Japanese (which only shows that, with a frontman like Kyo, it matters not what language the songs are sung in).

Any fan of Opeth, Tool or any progressive metal outfits will find more than a few things to love on this album.

Various Artists -- 'Gigantour 2' [DVD review]

Gigantour 2 [DVD]
Image Entertainment (4/22/08)
Unrated
66 minutes

"Gigantour is the spirit of heavy metal captured in a festival. It was about people going there, and the musicians being treated with respect, and an audience feeling like they’ve been treated with respect. And everybody walking away—the entertainers and the entertained all in agreement that it was a great environment.”
—Dave Mustaine

With Ozzfest down to one show this year, Gigantour seems a worthy successor to be the summer festival to carry the torch of metal to the masses. While on face value there appears little difference between the two tours, Ozzfest tried to pack a lot of bang for the buck, shoehorning more than a dozen bands into the course of a single head-banging day. Many a year it seemed quantity ruled over quality, though with so many bands from which to choose, concertgoers still got their money's worth in the end.