[EzExZeRo7497]

June 1st, 2014
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YT // ST by YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN (recommended by ninjaKIWI)
Psychedelic rock/progressive rock aren't genres that I venture often. It feels like you're on a mountain, and Raccoon Song is just the beginning of what's yet to come. The entire album is quite surreal and dark. Normally I'd be slightly anxious, but this album isn't quite something to be intimidated by. The sound is large for sure, but it's a bit comforting. Not in an ambient sense - I'm not quite sure how to explain that. Psychedelic sense, I suppose?

Very unique. Yt // St combines progressive rock, psychedelia and some oriental elements to create this sound. A sound that I can describe as different. Surprisingly enough, they create a very coherent experience. Oak of Guernica for example, combines dream pop and progressive rock. It sounds quite pretty - but it's a little too short-lived. It's slightly under three minutes long, I'd want that to be longer. It feels as if the idea hasn't quite nurtured yet. In addition, I haven't really heard anything like it.

Even the pictures I get from this album are hard to describe. The landscapes are in some inversely-coloured landscape, similar to the album cover. It's really odd, not many albums do that. The movements are very aggressive, far harder than any prog-rock or psychedelic rock album I've listened to. Honestly just labelling the album as mainly progressive rock or psychedelic rock would be absolutely ridiculous. This album shouldn't have an arbitrary genre tag on it. It's too different from their influences.

The instrumentation in almost of these tracks are top-notch. I am a sucker for distorted guitars, and this album has a lot of that. Drumming is insane, especially in the latter half of Reverse Crystal // Murder of a Spider. It's large, it's ominous, it almost feels like thunder. The latter half of the track just feels like one huge thunderstorm. It's a beautiful sight - but at the same time it's so odd.

The album is short, 31 minutes long. There is a considerable amount of variation here, though. You have progressive rock, psychedelic rock and stoner rock in the first four tracks alone. The fifth track is predominantly J-pop - but it's not like Shiina Ringo or Utada Hikaru. The heavy instrumentation would make those comparisons invalid. While not my cup of tea, it's an interesting track. Actually, I can probably say the same for all of these tracks. They are all interesting in their own ways - and that's what makes this album so unique.

Incredible combination of many genres that I'm very unfamiliar with. What really makes this album stand out is that it's very unique. At the same time, it is also the same reason why I don't enjoy it as much as I really should. It is a very odd sound - one that I am completely inexperienced with. It doesn't click with me as well as something like shoegaze. This album seems like something that would grow onto you, albeit very slowly. It's a little too much for me to like at the moment. It doesn't really faze me, but that's probably because I haven't let it sink in yet. It's a very interesting sound though - I just haven't reached that familiar ground. Maybe I'll get to this album some other time. I still think it's a decent album as it is. Some of these tracks are quite nice to listen to, despite the harshness.

Album Highlights: Crystal Fortress Over The Sea of Trees
Track Average Rating: 3.14/5
Overall Rating: 6/10
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sHimaU / Goreshit / Sub-69 Split by Various Artists
There are a couple of albums that are in my music player that I want to clear up, that's not in my backlog. This is one of them. This album is a compilation of tracks by three artists - namely sHimaU, goreshit and Sub-69. Not too familiar with sHimaU and Sub-69, but I think most people here know goreshit. Reactions to his music here are quite mixed - but I think he's alright. Not the worst, but most certainly not that great. I haven't listened to his lolicore works recently, though.

I'm going to talk about goreshit's contribution to the album first. Twintail Tsundere is a hard hitting speedcore track, with loli samples. Lolicore, essentially. Not very good, it's a little similar to Daddy Can Change. Thankfully, it's quite short. It's not unpleasant to listen to though, just very unimpressive. There's a couple of better speedcore tracks to listen to.
Toromi Hearts 2, however, is really good. It's very catchy for the most part, far more melodic than most of the tracks here. The last minute or so is a little unnecessary, but it's not that bad. I could listen to it, it's a good closer to the track. Exxxcaliborg is similar to Twintail Tsundere - another short hard-hitting track. Not too quite fond of that, but the sample used in Exxxcaliborg.error is funnier, so it's better. The last track is happy hardcore which is really uninteresting and bland.

sHimaU is most known for his brutality in tracks more than anything. His contribution to this album shows it. Take Me Grandpa is very noisy and honestly really enjoyable. The main problem are the loli samples though - I don't really see a reason why it should be there. There's really nothing more unfitting than what he used for this. Loli Curse is alright, but it gets a bit too noisy. The track honestly would've been much nicer if it was generally the first minute. Or at least, some subtle breaks instead of something so hard-hitting. The sound is generally good, but not what I hoped. Crash My Pinches is good, but nothing spectacular. Other tracks aren't really worth talking about.

Sub-69's contributions are generally uninteresting. There's too much emphasis on the lolicore sampling, but not enough on the actual harshness. It's not aggressive enough, I expected something much harder. Just having hard bass isn't quite enough, especially for something like breakcore or speedcore. The samples are okay though, HxTxF has samples of Happy Tree Friends which is a little funny.

Not very impressed, also a very replaceable album. Toromi Hearts 2 is really the only track that you should come back for. The rest are uninteresting overall. Most of these lolicore tracks have already been outdone by other artists. Namely Reizoko Cj, goreshit and odaxelagnia. There's usually too much emphasis on the sampling component, rather than the actual sound. These breakcore tracks are usually uninteresting and uninspired. There's usually one component in good breakcore that stands out. Xanopticon has ridiculous structures, Dev/Null has insane sounds, clonepa combines jazz and breakcore in a brilliant manner... I could go on. Nothing stands out here. Loli sampling can only go so far. If anything you'd probably get arrested for accusatory child molestation.

(Not saying that lolicore is for pedophiles, nor does it encourage pedophilia though. That's just stupid.)

Album Highlights: Toromi Hearts 2
Track Average Rating: 2.44/5
Overall Rating: 4/10