In The Time Of Giants - Inheritance (2022)

Do giants experience time slower than humans, since they're bigger? I'd have never thought to think of that question if it wasn't for Benn Jordan's recent video about that subject (well, with animals, not giants, since, you know, giants don't exist) but after seeing that video, I couldn't help but think of it. Nothing to do with this album, but...

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01. Crawk
02. Apatelepathy
03. Isosceles
04. Mr. Freeze
05. Inheritance
06. Rend
07. Somber
08. Dibbins
09. Slow Parable
10. Return
11. Spacewind
12. Reach For The Heavens
13. Digitalism
14. Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover)

With a name like "In The Time of Giants", an artist could make two kinds of music and it wouldn't feel like a misnomer: epic doom metal or emo pop punk/metalcore. This is neither, but it is pretty epic and it does have some emo vibes pop up from time to time, and it has a lot of catchy and sparkly-sounding stuff, so... actually, somehow this feels like exactly the kind of music that you'd expect In The Time Of Giants to sound like.

This is a very solid album, in that it's consistent but has enough variation to keep it fresh and engaging. This stuff is dripping with nostalgia for bands that dominated MTV; I could easily visualise most of the songs on this album having music videos shot at parking lots with burning bins/cars/band members, dirty public toilets and other locations like that (although the fact that most songs are instrumental lessens the intensity of that visualisation).

The absolute standout track to me is Rend with its groovy heavy riffage and burning intensity, while Dibbins is a song that more or less cycles through every vibe present on this album.

The vocals make me think of a greasy alcoholic with messy hair and a scrawny goatee sitting on a porch in an off-white tank top with questionable stains who's seen it all, having flashbacks to whatever horrors he has witnessed. You might think that sounds like an insult, but I don't mean it like that; if anything, it really hammers home the feeling of this album as something reminiscent of harder times of the past. On the other hand, the electronic elements give it a modern touch, a hint of a future where we live in a technological utopia; it can't be a dystopia with all the hopeful melodies that permeate the album, can it? They do get melancholic, too, though...

Personally, I feel like a lot of the instrumental songs would be better and more memorable with vocals, because they tend to sound like they'd have space for vocals and to my ears that leaves them sounding somewhat incomplete. However, this is of course entirely subjective, and I'll admit I'm heavily biased in favour of music that has vocals, with only rare exceptions.

I'd say this album encapsulates a feeling of a late night where you're not sure what the future holds, feeling conflicted over fears and hopes. That vibe is wrapped up with the last song, a cover of a song I'd forgotten exists and never knew who it was originally by. This rendition of it, at least in the context of this album, somehow sounds to me like a last plea for confirmation that the future will be a utopia and not a cyberpunk dystopia.

Enjoyability: 7/10
Relistenability: 7/10
Memorability: 6/10
Coherence: 8/10
Flow: 9/10
Originality: 6/10
Epicness: 8/10
Nutshell: If prog metal/rock would be your favourite thing if only it didn't have so much proggery, this will be your favourite album.

DIR EN GREY - The Insulated World (2018)

In my mind, there has never been any question about the fact that this is the best band in the world, as well as one of the most versatile and unique. Maybe saying "every year Dir en grey release a new album is a good year" sounds cringy and fanboyish, but 2018 was a good year... and so was 2014... and 2011... and 2008... and... well, let's just say that every year is good due to nostalgia, but the point is that whenever Dir en grey release a new album, it makes a year significantly better.

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01. 軽蔑と始まり
02. Devote My Life
03. 人間を被る
04. Celebrate Empty Howls
05. 詩踏み
06. Rubbish Heap
07. 赫
08. Values of Madness
09. Followers
10. 谿壑の欲
11. 絶縁体
12. Ranunculus

The first time I listened to this album, I'll have to admit, I couldn't get past the fact that it's mixed and mastered to sound extremely muffled and "booming". However, on second listen, as I got past the initial reaction, it became clear that this may in fact be the best way this album could be mixed and mastered; the songs might not work as well otherwise. That said, I do think a less muffled version of this album would be interesting to hear...

As for the songs themselves, they're amazing. I'd go as far as saying that 詩踏み, 赫 and 谿壑の欲 are some of the best Dir en grey songs ever. Actually, Celebrate Empty Howls, Followers and 絶縁体 are great as well, and let's not forget Ranunculus even if I can't help but feel like it ends a little abruptly... you know what, there isn't a bad or even mediocre song on this album. It's an album filled to the brim with great songs.

While I personally prefer the single versions of 人間を被る and 詩踏み, I think they did the best thing they could by making them a little different (and rawer) on the album, because the single versions would sound out of place together with the rest of the songs.

Rubbish Heap contains the funniest thing ever to be found in any Dir en grey song: Kyo going "whee". Yes, yes, I know the lyrics say "fist" and not "whee", but let's be honest... nobody could ever hear anything other than "whee" in the first half of the song even if later on in the song he clearly yells "fist".

赫 is so beautiful and lush that it almost sounds like a song that was meant to be on Arche and accidentally ended up on this album, but it's really one of the highlights.

Speaking of beautiful, the choruses on this album are insanely beautiful. Of course, they've always had beautiful choruses in songs on every album, but here they stand out in stark contrast to how overall the songs are so heavy and muddy. And yes, the entirety of the closer Ranunculus is possibly the most beautiful moment on the album... it's like an anthem for finding the meaning of life. If only it was a little bit longer, with an epic finale... oh well.

Now, does this album do anything totally new either for the band or music in general? Well, not really, but it does combine metal subgenres in ways that are still relatively new and has experimental sounds; for example, did they use NoiizFilter in 谿壑の欲? Probably not, but as that kind of "squelches" are one of the first things that happen if you start experimenting with that plugin, I wonder... well, regardless of how the experimental electronic sounds on this album were made, they don't sound at all out of place and this album wouldn't be the same without them.

Enjoyability: 8/10
Relistenability: 10/10
Coherence: 8/10
Flow: 8/10
Originality: 7/10
Epicness: 9/10
Nutshell: If this is what insulation does to the world, more insulation please???