Concerning Unsraw

(In which Break lets loose quite a bit of rambling - it is what she does best)


I can't claim to be one of those fans who has loved UnsraW through and through. I fell for them the instant I heard -9- at the end of 2006, and then I fell even harder when I heard Spiral Circle at the beginning of 2007, but then it tapered off. They released Calling the following March which I didn't like, and later that year they released the Abel and Kein mini-albums which to this day I'm still not a fan of. But over and over I would come back to Spiral Circle and just listen to it on a loop. Yuuki's voice is far (far far) from perfect, the guitarists are good but not exactly inspiring, I will admit that as far as skill goes the points have to go to drummer Shou because that man is seriously underrated behind that drumkit.





Of course then Yuuki became sick and the band went on their year-long hiatus, and still I couldn't stand their mini-albums, still I looped Spiral Circle. And somehow, in this year-long silence, their power seemed to grow without me realising it. When they announced their comeback it was like Christmas come early to me, the excitement was unbelievable. I don't know how or when they began to meant that much, as far as I was concerned they were just an interesting band who released a brilliant album and then couldn't quite sustain it, but with their announcement it felt like I had regained something big, something I never thought I'd have back, something I never realised I had lost. Undeterred by the immediate loss of their bassist they ploughed on with a new single release and it was an UnsraW I never imagined, an UnsraW who weren't picking up from where they left off but who had grown and transformed in their year off, not just in sound either. Gone were the masks, gone were the skin-flashing costumes (for a while at least), and the vocalist Yuuki had gone from being gangly and probably too thin to a ridiculously intimidating powerhouse of a man. Their lyrics had changed. Their production had changed. And they had turned into a band that demanded the attention and respect that they might just be due.

They announced their first EU tour and despite it not coming to our fair British isles I insisted on going. My gig-buddy was hesitant and to this day I still don't know why I was so persistant, but just months later we were treading back through fresh Munich snow trying to find words to express how that might just have been the best live show ever.

They lost a guitarist and quickly replaced him, finally getting a new official bassist too, and went on to release another mini-album which was just as brilliant as the single. Within the same year they announced ANOTHER EU tour which we of course attended, which left us saying "We thought that Munich was probably the best show ever, but this was without a DOUBT the best live we've ever seen". They released three more singles, and then of course What Happened Happened, Yuuki suddenly left for his own reasons and the band disbanded after their last live. This is no place to discuss that. We carried on. The members played session lives, became support members, we relistened to old songs (Spiral Circle, Spiral Circle) and found new gems, and the world turned round and round. Spurred on by the lessons learned in watching them your humble blogger here uprooted and moved herself across the planet almost entirely alone.

March 14th, after travelling a circuit around Hiroshima, Osaka and Kyoto we returned to our beloved Tokyo, put up coincidentally in Room 509, and read the news that UnsraW would be returning for one last live, with five members, with Yuuki onstage again. The rest, I guess, is history.

Most of everyone reassured me that it wouldn't sell out, not quickly at least, but just for the fun of it I set myself the challenge of getting a ticket the very minute they were released. Lucky I did, because they were sold out by the time I left the store. And quite taken aback themselves I think, the band announced a second live (or a prequel I suppose?) the day before the last live, and in the name of fairness I decided not to get a ticket - if I didn't, someone who missed out on the original tickets would get a chance. But it turns out that I am only human, and my resolve held strong until I had a particularly bad day just a couple of days before the second launch (a bad day that called upon the need for coffee jelly with vanilla icecream, AND iced cocoa in one sitting) (... it was bad). Cue the calling in of favours, cue the brilliant Bloody Fashionista rolling out of bed early on her day off and mailing me that she had got us both tickets

I don't know where time has gone between now and then. I spent a long time conflicted about the last lives altogether actually, after the remaining four members had given their all to an amazing last live last year and then being called back to do it again with their vocalist. But I realise that that doesn't matter. All conflict put aside it is now just a few days until I see the conclusion of the best and most inspiring live band I've ever seen, and ... well. UnsraW are my last fandom. I guess we'll see what I have to say afterwards.

- Break

With apologies

So you remember how I said I was going to be back this year with more things to ramble about? Looks like that one fell through, huh? I suppose I got a little busy

moving to the other side of the planet.

Well it hasn't completely fallen through. The rambling hasn't happened yet, but there are certainly things that could be rambled about. I have a backlog of releases and lives that I want to get posting about before I forget them (you remember the time Ryoga couldn't get his hand through your hair? You remember Tatsuro crashing Sena's girugamesh cover?) but first I have to let the rest of the month catch up with me. Roll on July and this Break shall be back! (and for ONCE you have my word on that!)

So until Month the Seventh, folks!

- Break

Happy new year!

The title says it all! I hope to keep on top of this better in 2012, be sure to keep on top of reviews and pushy opinions and everything else you don't need to read but I feel the need to write :D

So to you all I wish a peaceful and happy new year, and I'll see you on the other side!

- Break

2011 in review: lives

2011 has delivered lessons when it comes to lives, lessons that shall definitely be retained for future reference. None have been poor enough to go to the bottom of the list, but one has been good enough to reach the top 5. Or ok, maybe 10. It was definitely good though.

D, way back in May, were almost certainly my gigging highlight of the year. I've already gone on about them in a report back here but they absolutely deserve a mention here. They were the first lesson learned about lives this year - STAY OPEN-MINDED. I didn't have any interest in this band at all, cast them aside as standard visual kei, until I saw them live. Brilliant show, flawless vocals, very fun. I'd like to see them again.

Also previously mentioned here, girugamesh's live in London back March (known as Marchgamesh for its epicness this year). Lesson number 2: lives aren't what you see, but who you see it with. Was I overwhelmed by the show? Not as much as I'd like to be. Was I entirely surrounded by some of my nearest and dearest, hand in hand, in either side, always within reach? Yes. And so sentimental as it may be, that show features in the top of the year. And finally:

Dir en grey in Camden back in August, riding the tail-end of the London riots. I was accompanied by my sister and had the pleasure of spending the show with some very missed friends, and as ever the band put on a very good show. However it really was lesson number three in this one though, and that is that Dir en grey are not made to be watched from a balcony. My biggest live regret this year is that I opted to stay a safe distance away, third balcony up, rather than enjoy the pit - although this afforded a great view, and good sound, it just wasn't right.

Honourable mentions go to Yellow fried chickenz, more for lolz than anything else, and to Versailles ... actually for the lolz too.

2011 in review: music

How tremendously underwhelming was this year for music might I ask? Personally I've had a complete year of musical regression, re-living my school years with flashbacks to Linkin Park (when they were good), Avenged Sevenfold (when they were new) and Metallica (when they got themselves a goddamn orchestra!). This has mostly been nostalgic and hilarious, and the only way to get around the fact that there really has been very little to appreciate in the way of new music lately.

Of course 2011 finally brought us the eagerly anticipated Dum Spiro Spero from Dir en grey, which was quite good at dividing the crowds to say the least.

Ten points right off the bat for being the only album to feature a track that actually scared me, within barely a minute - indeed after the first track played through I turned the record off and didn't return to it for the hour that followed. I still don't know whether or not I like the whole album but I think it is nigh on perfect, in the sense that it accomplishes everything the band said they wanted it to accomplish. Months down the line I am still listening to it to try and figure out a real opinion but too many tracks are still being skipped in disdain and impatience. And other than Dir en grey we had:

the GazettE's latest offering of TOXIC. Once more the word "underwhelming" comes to mind. The album featured some particularly outstanding tracks but nothing as show-stopping as previous albums have seen. It should go without saying that the GazettE really do create things in their own world and with their own sound, and TOXIC still keeps that going, but ... "average" isn't a word I want to be using for them.

Honourable mentions must go to Sel'm's dusty doll single (reviewed here) and Sadie's COLD BLOOD album (featured here), for possibly being the music highlights of my year. Honourable mentions do NOT go to girugamesh's GO (undoubtably the biggest let-down of 2011) and lynch.'s I BELIEVE IN ME, which I still can't make myself go back to.

Finally honourable mentions go out to one of the most important bands to me, UnsraW, who broke up back in March, and to Sel'm whose outstanding vocalist and guitarist left in the same week. Swings and roundabouts, huh?

2011 in review: movies

in 2010 I accomplished the task of seeing at least one new movie a month in the cinema, but this year I've barely made it to any! What a tragedy.

My film of the year I think should probably go to X-Men: First Class, for excessively brilliant onscreen chemistry between the delectable Mister McAvoy and King of the Shark People Mister Fassbender (Charlie X and Erik, respectively).

Add to their perfect performances a brilliant training montage (I hear every film needs one) and definitely the best ending to a film of the series yet (which of you didn't experience that brief heart-stop when What Happened Happened?) it has probably been the film I have talked most about this year. That is apart from this one:

Sucker Punch. Sorry public opinion, I thought this film was just damn brilliant. The cinematics are wonderful, the dialogue and scripting is brilliant, and the overall story is great. I had the misfortune of watching it with someone who got confused enough to begin wearing his popcorn as a hat, but after a rewatch I enjoyed it just as much the first time. I love how there's virtually not a speck of blood int he whole thing, just inspired streams of steam and light. Steampunk nazi zombies - does it get better? But how did I wrap up my cinematic year?

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. I was dragged almost against my will to see the first one and actually loved it, and against all odds I found the second to be just as great as the first. I don't know who to favour out of Charles and Erik or Holmes and Watson, but it was another shining example of great cinematics and fantastic dialogue. It's a complete toss-up for favourite film of the year, but it has to be between these three.

Honourable mentions go to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt2 for wrapping up one of my favourite stories in a truly explosive and moving manner, 127 Hours for totally blindsiding me with humour and the sound of sliced tendons, and Insidious for providing one of the scariest moments of cinema I have ever personally witnessed (RED-FACED DEMON WHUT?).

Review: [REC]2 (2009)

[REC]2
02/10/2009
Director/s: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza


So I may be late to the party but I finally got a chance to sit down in a dark room for a DVD date with 2009's spooky sequel [REC]2, and it has to be said, I'm massively underwhelmed.



The film follows on directly from 2007's original [REC] - as in, 15 minutes after the events of - and I think it's a pretty great idea to have the two so closely linked time-wise. It's great fun being able to follow the new team through scenes we saw in the last film and watch as they stumble upon things we witnessed happen only shortly before they got there (only they don't have to worry about "That's where the body was last time we saw it ...") Watching fear grow in our new protagonists is interesting, and it is a lot easier this time 'round to fall into their shoes, to feel a part of their group and follow their panic and terror. On a couple of occassions in the film I was forced to draw a quick breath and think "God guys, what can we from here??". By "a couple" of occassions though, I mean a couple.

[REC] was scary. I didn't jump once in [REC]2. Action isn't at all sudden and is entirely predictable, as are most of the points in this film that are repeated over and over. The iconic rabid zombie shot where the Newly Infected hovers slowly at a distance and then suddenly lunges, all bloody teeth and red eyes? Totally effective the first time 'round. After four identical attacks you just wonder how their teeth decayed so fast or how long it would take to wash the blood out of their clothes. Similarly when a character edges cautiously into a corridor you can almost read the directions out loud - empty corridor ahead / turn around, empty corridor behind / turn once more / OMGSCARYZOMBIE. And the undercurrent beneath the whole film: WE ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE AND NOW IT'S GONE - no wait, here's ANOTHER chance! - but now it's gone - but here's another one again!

On more pleasant notes the effects are quite pleasing throughout; a good handful of grisly headshots, some gratuitous blood splatter, more creepy and perfectly executed sound-effects than you could shake an antidote-filled syringe at. The CGI is almost seamless, only one or two lingering shots threatening to ruin the party. The camera work however is where the film really comes into its own, and there are some truly brilliant shots throughout (the shadow play in particular is something to be appreciated).

That's just not enough to fully sway it though. Audio-visual effects are one thing but they don't stand out enough against questionable acting and increasingly silly plot lines (honestly, the end of the film goes from questionable to silly to MORE silly to "please roll the credits now). It was a gutsy venture however, and I'll be keen nonetheless to keep an eye on the series - directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza are directing the series prequel and sequel seperately to complete the project in 2012.

Glad I saw it, but won't be rewatching.

★★☆☆☆