...the reverse side of beauty..//..Mantified

Other than the fact that I'm actually killing myself over a couple of assignments that are supposed to be easy (but which I also managed to make huge messes out of), I've been digging up the GazettE boys' old stuff. As in songs from Stacked Rubbish and before, especially from the NIL album. And despite those weird song titles, I have to admit that even at the time when the Disorder album came out back in 2003, they were already pretty damn good by then.

Of course, songs that we associate as classics, which I shall dub as GazClasses (hahaha), are songs like Filth in the Beauty (head bang!), Guren, Chizuru, Reila, Carry?, Maggots and of course Burial Applicant. Indeed, rock sounds are the main feature here, especially in the likes of Carry?, Discharge, Maggots, and Filth in the Beauty, but they've also experimented with other things like funky rock in Silly God Disco (that is such a fun song), hip hop/RnB styling in Agony, even the start of Filth in the Beauty has some RnB feel to it.

Looking back, especially during the Stacked Rubbish period though it's started way back into Disorder, song titles became a bit off-putting as they attempted to play with English titles to make it look supposedly edgier. Take Nausea and Shudder for instance, I thought it was going to be a crazy emo rock song that was going to sound something like Ruder. Instead, I was confronted with something similar to Carry? that suddenly became gentler during the guitar solos, and the entire song turned into some contrast when Ruki started singing "In deep, slow sky..." Indeed, the entire band is capable of assertive gentleness, which is apparent in most of the deep voice ballads in the more recent pieces like Distress and Coma (which is still my favourite), Calm Envy (this song is too beautiful to describe in mere words), Without a Trace, and Guren. Even in pieces where delinquency styling is used such as Miseinen, Zetsu and Anata No Tame No Koni Inochi (that is such an old song), their style is still weirdly recognizable. Of course, being a band with attitude, I really love Art Drawn by Vomit, even though the entire song features Ruki simply deep chanting "Hey Jesus" with female voices singing "thank you for your pain" and "suck my grudge and hate", as though I've walked into an underground gangster club. (Jesus sure has inspired a lot of singers.)

Got to love the GazettE for their ever changing style, both visually and audibly.