黒密典

Looking back now, ‘Kuromitten’ turned out to be a bit of a turning point in Gargoyle’s career. It came off the back of a string of albums that – with the notable exception of ‘Kemonomichi’ – sounded as close to Gargoyle going through the motions as the band would ever be. None of those albums were less than enjoyable, but they lacked the urgency of the band’s best work. ‘Kuromitten’ shows Gargoyle renewing its focus and laying out the blueprint for a new carreer peak in the second decade of the twenty-first century, with a style slightly more streamlined, but no less unconventional.

From ‘Kuromitten’ onward, Gargoyle’s style would pretty much consistently be fifty percent rabid thrash metal, forty percent power metal and ten percent punk-ish rock. Funky tracks were a thing of the past at this point, but there would still always be enough stylistic detours to keep Gargoyle albums from being an exercise in pummeling your skull, even with Kiba’s lead vocals being all bark and bite more or less throughout the album’s playtime. The renewed focus means that ‘Kuromitten’ is easily the most consistent Gargoyle album since ‘Tsuki no Toge’ fifteen years prior, with scorching thrash riffs and triumphant power metal melodies galore.

One thing all of Gargoyle’s best albums have in common is an incredible opener and ‘Shi ni Itaru Kizu’ is one of their best to date. It reprises a handful of themes also present in ‘Gokuraku Full Throttle’ from the preceding ‘Yaiba’ album, but manages to completely overshadow that track with its blazing melodic themes and pulsating palm-muted riffing. Its chorus feels particularly cathartic as well. From then on, listeners are treated to intense violent thrashers like ‘Memento Mori’, ‘Enigma’ and the rhythmically particularly effective ‘Bucchigiri Crash!’, as well as tracks that focus on the somewhat more melodic side of the band.

Ultimately, that is what makes ‘Kuromitten’ such a joy to listen to all the way through. An album full of annihilating thrashers would get tiresome quickly, but Gargoyle knows how to break those up with rockier tracks like the borderline swinging hardrocker ‘Zero Blood’ or the downright fun ‘Magma Kid’. ‘Sora e to Tsuzuku Saka’ is one of the band’s better slower stompers, building from Eastern mysticism to a monumentally huge main riff, after which I love how the song opens up for the chorus and Kentaro’s incredible guitar solo. Hell, even ‘Garapon’, the upbeat rocker that closes the album, is great.

Sometimes, a band that kind of lost its way just needs an album to put them back on track. While Gargoyle did not seem to be getting too lost on the surface, in hindsight it became clear that ‘Kuromitten’ did just that for the quartet from Osaka. I truly believe this album needed to be made in order for Gargoyle to be able to churn out latter-day masterpieces ‘Geshiki’ and ‘Taburakashi’. That does not mean that ‘Kuromitten’ can only be appreciated for what it later achieved, however. Some of the album’s songs are among the band’s greatest work, with ‘Shi ni Itaru Kizu’ rightfully becoming a live staple. More people should hear this.

Recommended tracks: ‘Shi ni Itaru Kizu’, ‘Bucchigiri Crash!’, ‘Sora e to Tsuzuku Saka’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

Throughout my years of existing within this tiny and bizarre fandom of Gargoyle fanatics, one thing I've learned is that 2009's Kuromitten is generally seen as one of the weaker releases in their discography. And as the unofficial and self-proclaimed ambassador to most of the waking world in regards to this band, I make a spit on that notion. Kuromitten fucking rules. One of the big reasons I love it so much is going to sound like the dumbest thing in the world, but I'm one of the dumbest people in the world so bear with me throughout this next sentence. Each song sounds like a character theme from a fighting game.

Yeah really.

It's probably only going to make sense to idiots like me who have spent an inordinate amount of time playing Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, but it fits because this is yet another milestone of Moderngoyle. I've probably been sending mixed messages throughout this entire series as to what "Moderngoyle" actually is. Is it bad? Is it simple? Does it strip all of the cultural oddities of Furebumi and Tenron away without replacing it with anything worthwhile? Is it all just bare bones thrash metal? The answer to every question is both yes and no and maybe and inconclusive. Gargoyle's transformation throughout their career was extremely subtle, with each album telegraphing slow burning changes three albums prior to when they were fully realized, but I feel like Kuromitten is one of the few albums where the changes are somewhat abrupt. Those changes are that the fun funky songs are finally and forever gone (though I've been foreshadowing this for ages at this point) and that the power metal influence is jacked the fuck up this time around. It's always been there, I haven't forgotten that songs like "Shinpan no Hitomi" or "Kaze no Machi" existed, but the opening notes of "Shi Ni Itaru Kizu" just really hammer home how much more melodic they are going to be on this album. The whole thing kicks off with this gargantuan lead soaring over fast single note riffs straight out of any given Europower band's playbook. And yet at the same time, it's kind of the only song that really goes full out with it, almost everything else is the kind of brutally chunky thrash the band has been peddling since Kemonomichi. I think the main difference is that Kentaro really starts cranking up the melody in the lead lines and prominent melodies at this point. There are a lot of Iron Maiden styled harmonies flittering around at nearly any instrumental moment, and it rarely lets up.

So really, the newest definition of Moderngoyle is "Battle Gargoyle songs with a fuckload of melody", and if my pattern recognition is still up to snuff, I'm sure I'll change that definition a few albums later like I've been doing since the start of this series. It's simply really damn hard to pin down the band to any one subgenre or any hybrid thereof. The power metal influence is super strong in "Shi Ni Itaru Kizu", and it crops up again in "Zero Blood", "Enigma", and "Psychological Treatment", but then again "Zero Blood" has some amplified punk influence, much like the major key bombast of "Garapon", which is wholly different from the pummeling frenzy of "I am Joker", "Magma Kid", "Enigma" again, and "Bucchigiri Crash!", which itself is only ludicrously fast and crazy during the verses, otherwise starting on a supremely catchy midpaced riff, very much like "Memento Mori", which is to say nothing of the darkness found in "Psychological Treatment" and the trademark dirge of "Sora E To Tuduku Saka", which is nothing like the quite uplifting "Kaze no Shiro".

Do you get the picture? There is a whole lot of stuff going on here.

Now that I've sufficiently wasted your time with that colossal run on sentence, we can finally loop back to my initial claim of everlasting nerdiness, the fighting game comparison. What I mean is that, with all of these different ideas approached in different ways, they are all fast and heavy, they are all catchy and melodic, and most importantly, they are all succinct and to-the-point. That's not to say the songs are on average shorter than they ever were ("Sora E To Tuduku Saka" is one of their longest tracks to date), it's that they're all hyper focused and they all stick with you after one listen. Much like the soundtrack to Guilty Gear, it's a bunch of laser guided metal songs that show up, repeat a few ridiculously awesome ideas a few times, and then get out of the way in order for the next song to shine. They can be listened to in random bursts of a minute or so, or they can be run through in longform the way they were presumably intended. It's an album full of good ideas approached in wildly different ways, and it can be appreciated in wildly different ways as well. Admittedly this is probably all just a personal quirk of mine, but this album is unique in that way to me. Each and every song works as a great standalone soundtrack to punching colorful characters in the face, and that's all I really want out of music in the long run.

If there is a flaw that keeps me from listening to this album as often as some of the other classics, it's a rather unfair one. Kuromitten doesn't really have an obvious Best Song Ever like "Shouryakukeitachi Yo", "Satori", "Aoki Kobushi", etc. Now don't get me wrong, every song is great (barring "Kaze no Shiro" and "Garapon", which are a bit lighter and just inconsequential when compared to the other roaring anthems), but apart from maybe "Shi Ni Itaru Kizu" and "Enigma", there really aren't any tracks that define the band as an entity like those previous monsters. Their trademark oddball riffing is still all over the place, there still aren't any other bands that really sound like Gargoyle, but despite all the subtle variation, this is still one of the more easily forgettable albums to most people purely for the fact that it doesn't have an obvious future classic like "Ruten Yo no Nite" or something. It's an unfair criticism, and I get that, but it's the best explanation I can give for why it's somewhat buried for most people. If anything, it only goes to show how phenomenal their discography truly is.

There's really no great place to put this, but I've mentioned several times that it's really hard to pin down Gargoyle's influences, since their riffs are so off-kilter and unique. It's as if they exist in their own little universe where they exclusively influence themselves. However! It is well known that Kentaro is a gigantic Metallica fanboy, and it is quite noticeable here since the opening riff to "Enigma" is the bridge from "Creeping Death" pretty much note for note. You can't fool me, Kenny!

So yes, Kuromitten is a consistently killer album that stands as a Moderngoyle classic alongside Kemonomichi. "Sora E To Tuduku Saka" is probably the best "Ruten-like" song they've put out to date, surpassing the amazing "Fukaki Rurou To Hateru Kagerou" from the aforementioned album, sounding like a weary journey through the desert with those awesome dreamy twangs. "Enigma" and "Memento Mori" contain some of the best riffs yet in the Kentaro era. "Shi Ni Itaru Kizu" breaks newish-old ground by putting the power metal melodies in the forefront with such prominence for the first time since "Kaze no Machi" way back on Natural. Apart from a somewhat weak back end (which has been a problem since Wa), this is a kickass album that deserves more love than it gets.


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard

Gargoyle is such a unique thrash band. Formed since 1987, these guys are even a part of the Visual Kei scene, and it still wonders me why this band hasn’t been heard by the majority. Is it because of the Japanese lyrics? I don’t really know why. Fast forward to 2009, their 13th offering, “Kuromitten”, has been released for the world to hear. On with the review…

Musically speaking, this album isn’t pure thrash. Heck, they never even have made a pure thrash album anyway, having other influences like Japanese music. They also have matured in their compositions, but of course not in a manner that they’ll sell out, like other mainstream bands. It just shows that these guys are musically skilled. Imagine lasting this long without a bad release for a start. With their diverse musical prowess, their musicianship shines excellently. The guitars have those catchy riffs and sensible solos played with such passion. The drums pummel with inevitable fury, though like other thrash albums, it might not be far from basic. The vocals still sound fresh and new. I admire Kiba’s unique way of snarling. If there’s one thing I really like about this band is that they still sound like they have the very same enthusiasm they had ever since their first day, and yes, all the songs here are good.

One such song worth mentioning here is “Memento Mori”. The song’s pummeling intro and energetic riffs would even serve as a better intro than “Shi Ni Itaru Kizu”. “Bucchigiri Crash!” is one of the fastest songs present on the album, though it starts mid-tempo, and also one song that is fun to listen to. “Enigma” though a technical song, is a fun song to listen to. “Magma Kid” has such a cool riff for an intro with an acoustic guitar playing on the chorus, one thing I can’t tell if it is a good thing or a bad thing. Nevertheless, this is a very good song. Lastly, “Garapon” is one thrash song with a jolly atmosphere throughout, which is in fact, suitable to end the album.

This album simply rocks. Though their style of thrash is loosely based on the American style of thrash, Gargoyle has truly revolutionized what influenced them and made something new out of it. Truly an awesome album!


Originally made for http://mystifymyserie.blogspot.com