Dir En Grey - Dum Spiro Spero (2011)^{Release ID: 1121}

Now this band, Dir En Grey, would've been a band I would listen to full-time, except... I DON'T KNOW JAPANESE!! Well maybe not most Japanese, but I've learned some when talking to a younger Japanese friend of mine, and the word "Nani" (What?!) is all over the internet. But if I have to review a mostly Japanese album to progress through a clan challenge, then consider it done! Dir En Grey's hard, eclectic, hard to label experimental metal sound would make them Japan's Into Eternity, if not for their visual-kei roots and appearance. Their eighth album Dum Spiro Spero (“While I breathe, I hope”) shall be delivered as an impressive Japanese extreme metal collection.

If there's one thing Japanese musicians (pop, rock, or metal) always have, it's the iconic clean singing. That's what Japanese anime shows usually have. The band's vocalist Kyo has that great singing gift. He can really show off his soaring vocal hooks while still doing harsh vocals, all at artistic ease. Call him the "Japanese Devin Townsend" if you'd like, but there aren't really many Western metal vocalists who can try every trick in that guys' book.

The opening "Kyōkotsu no Nari (Cry From a Lunatic Bone)", begins with soft melodic piano before things become experimental with wordless screams from Kyo, sparse guitar work, and strange percussion. The first actual track, "The Blossoming Beelzebub" kicks off the downtuned distortion of guitars and bass and rolling drums. Don't expect any shrieking yet! Kyo starts singing in high falsetto that almost sounds like a female opera singer with tension building. The progressive interval might explode into action but it still doesn't. Great song but it just doesn't have what the heavier fans wanted... Until the furious "Different Sense", complete with powerful riffs, vocals ranging from growling to shrieking, and blast-beats. There's still some clean singing and melody though. "Amon" is an awesome song that sounds like Amon Amarth in some parts.

"'Yokusō ni Dreambox' Aruiwa Seijuku no Rinen to Tsumetai Ame ('Nesting Within the Dreambox', or Cold Rain and The Philosophy of the Mature)" (one of the lengthiest song titles I've ever read) has beautifully surreal clean singing one moment, then Deathspell Omega-like chaos with omniscient heavy bass and frantic shrieking the next. "Jūyoku (Carnal Desire)" once again has the band going berserk with sonic extreme metal while having gorgeous melodies, broken apart by sledgehammering death metal riffs, giving way to longer harmonic lyrical passages. Man, there are some times when Kyo sounds like one of Jim Carrey's meltdowns in Liar Liar! "Shitataru Mourou (Tricking Ambiguity)" continues that pattern, with transitions from J-rock to tech-death and vice versa while the lyrics transcend. In "Lotus", Kyo continues to shine with his beautiful clean singing over extreme instrumentation. A potential anime theme! The clean singing keeps going in "Diabolos", the album's long theatrical 10-minute epic. It's filled with melancholic atmospheric alt-rock that later builds up into rapid-fire death/thrash metal, before the storm strips back to the calm.

"Akatsuki (Dawn)" is the best song here. I love it! That song reminds of Gojira in the instrumentation, not the vocals. But what's also close to being the best is "Decayed Crow" which is the most death metal song of the album that sounds like if Mike Patton joined Suicide Silence. "Hageshisa to, Kono Mune no Naka de Karamitsuita Shakunetsu no Yami (The Violence And the Darkness Of the Burning Heat Entwines In My Heart)" (another one of the lengthiest song titles ever) is once again ultra-heavy with a blend of clean singing with a frantic mix of growling and shrieking. That song was in the Saw 3D soundtrack, a year before the rest of the album. After all that wild heaviness, the power ballad "Vanitas (Emptiness)" starts with an acoustic melody before getting slightly heavier dynamics. More balladry is hinted in the closing track, "Ruten no Tō (Tower of Vicissitudes)" with a poppy power metal section before unleashing the last of the brutal chaos for this album.

Dir En Grey's Dum Spiro Spero is one of the most intense albums I've ever heard with sonic diversity and avant-garde heaviness. I wish I could come back for more, but the Japanese lyrics are absolutely difficult to understand and lowered down a potential masterpiece for me. I so need to learn more Japanese in the future....

Favorites: "The Blossoming Beelzebub", "Different Sense", "Amon", "Lotus", "Diabolos", "Akatsuki", "Decayed Crow"