June 2021 Feature Release – The Gateway Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Gateway has been selected by myself. It's 2008's highly regarded "Uroboros" album from Japanese alternative metal outfit Dir en Grey.

https://metal.academy/releases/1120

I did my review, here's its summary:

Once a Japanese Visual Kei/glam rock band, Dir En Grey toned down their earlier imagery and focused on becoming something greater and more modern. Their superb songwriting will surely persuade listeners to enter the Japanese alt-garde metal realm! Their 7th album Uroboros further establishes the unique genre the band has reinvented, all in emerging triumph. It is an exploration through new territory while staying familiar to earlier fans. They continue to expand on the earlier pop elements but twist it with the metal sound that would dominate this album in sonic talent. And seeing how I can better tolerate both Japanese metal bands and bands in other languages besides English, I should have no problem as I explore songs that range dark gothic prog-pop to thrashy death metal, whether both styles are together in one song or apart. If you enjoy this alt-garde metal kind of style, this would get you hooked. Dir En Grey have made one of the proudest achievements in the history of metal!

5/5

I can't say that I enjoy "Uroboros" anywhere near as much as Andi does but I can't deny that it has a unique charm about it. The production & musicianship certainly made it a much more appealing prospect than it may otherwise have been & I respect the over-arching ambition behind a lot of this material. There's a whole plethora of different influences getting tossed around here but if I had to find the best description for Dir en Grey's sound it would be "progressive nu metal" which isn't a term that I ever thought I'd hear myself utter before now. Sure there are a couple of tracks that take a more conventional alternative metal route (see "Torugo" & "Dozing Green") but there's far more material that sounds like Korn in my opinion. There's a general aura of experimentation about the album that sometimes crosses over into the genuinely avant-garde on tracks like "Red Soil" & "Reiketsu nariseba" however when taken in holistically you'll find that the album is more progressive than it it bizarre with "Glass Skin", "Ware, yami tote..." & "Inconvenient Ideal" all residing firmly within the confines of the progressive rock banner.

There are a couple of things that I struggle with a little here. Firstly, I'd be lying if I said that the Japanese language vocals don't annoy me a touch. Kyo is clearly influenced pretty heavily by Mike Patton's more psychotic efforts & does his level best to create the most unusual & polarizing sounds imaginable at times. At others he goes for a deep deathcore grunt that I find pretty annoying while his normal singing voice is nothing out the ordinary for Japanese metal & sees him achieving a mixture of rocks & diamonds. The other qualm I have with the album is its general quirkiness. The word "quirky" & I don't get on & never have. I like my music to be predominantly fairly serious so the eccentricities of Dir en Grey's sound sometimes go straight over my head. As do some of the nu metal riffs.

But at the end of the day, it's hard not to like a record that's this artistically challenging & well-executed, even if it is a little jerky at times.

For fans of Mr. Bungle, System Of A Down & Korn.

3.5/5

I had never listened to Uroboros before writing my review and I can honestly say I enjoyed my time with it. As an avant-garde, genre swapping album, there is some genuine quality and care that has gone into each of these songs and highlighting Dir En Grey's influences without overtly ripping anyone off.

That said, this is an album that is very difficult to get through from top to bottom, simply because of all of the whiplash. The tonal shifts are drastic and unprepared, and can quickly diverge from radio friendly alternative metal to music snob, pretentious wanking in only a matter of seconds. I liken this album to last months featured release I Let It In And it Took Everything; both albums see a band splitting the difference between alternative metal and progressive/avant-garde music and metalcore respectively. And in each case, the alternative metal takes precedent, at least for me. I can see why Daniel suggests SOAD as preemptive listening for Uroboros because this album represents the next stages in creating a hybrid of alternative and progressive metal. And while I could never pass up on that (hello Tool), I know a lot of metal snobs who will.

7/10

I gave this one a listen towards the middle of the month and even though I made it all the way through twice, I have zero motivation to go back to it. I can't deny that it's an intriguing and unique listen given all the stuff Dir En Grey stuffs into it, but Uroboros hits a certain chord in my biased brain that just makes the whole thing straight up annoying to me. I have the same issue with System of a Down; I don't find anything they're doing captivating or worthy of a deeper dive because the jagged song structure and constant grating dissonance of random elements just puts me off of listening to this kind of stuff so much. One of these days I'll be able to fully articulate why I can't stand stuff that sounds like this, but that's all I've got for this month, just some good old personal bias. 

2.5/5