Dir en grey - Clever Sleazoid

[prophetofshadow]

Dir en grey - Clever Sleazoid


01. Clever Sleazoid - Starts off with some heavy guitaring followed by some incoherent screaming. The song doesn't seem to venture from this pattern very much. There is a smidgen of clean vocal work, but the vast majority of it is just Kyo screaming his lungs out and not doing a very good job of it. I don't mind screaming vocals, if they're done right...but they're not on this track. Musically, the song does nothing for me at all. Just typical nu-metal crap with little to no variation. To top it all off, the track isn't even 3 minutes long... Although I'll say that it's mercifully done (anymore of this would've sent it to the recycle bin before it was over) I just can't see putting out a song this short as a single. This should've been a filler track for an album or a b-side for a longer single.


And speaking of b-sides, there are only three live tracks (C, GARBAGE, and Dead Tree) following Clever Sleazoid... I'm not going to review them individually because if you've heard them and liked them before, chances are you'll probably dig the live versions too. Personally, I didn't care for any of them as Deg's current sound just does nothing for me at all.


Overall, unless you're an absolute Dir en grey die-hard, I'd seriously suggest downloading this before you buy it. I can't see shelling out the cash for under three minutes of new music and live versions of three previously released tracks. This is probably one of the most minimalistic releases I've seen in quite some time. I've never been a huge Dir en grey fan, and this isn't helping to sway my opinion of them or their music.

[Kazuo]

Clever Sleazoid is hardly nu-metal. o__O The song contains no rap-esque beats and that's a very prominent and important factor in nu-metal. I thought the music was pretty well done with some interesting chord progression as well as nice little bends. The drums are quite awesome too.

The live tracks, no Diru fan I know of has liked them at all. The vocals are all terrible and it really kills the songs.

[prophetofshadow]

There may not be any rap elements in CS, but trash bands like Slipknot, Mudvayne, System of a Down, etc. fall into the nu-metal category. While some of them use turntables in their songs, the majority of it is obnoxious noise, just like I found Clever Sleazoid to be. And, Dir en grey has used rap elements in their music in the past, so I'd say nu-metal fits them quite nicely.

And if not nu-metal, I'd move to say that it's also similar to most of the modern metal that comes out here (which is by-in-large garbage) in both it's musical style and lyrical content. It's not a style I prefer and it's been done to the death. Clever Sleazoid doesn't do anything that hasn't been heard numerous times before.

The song just didn't work for me. I sent it to a friend of mine who normally listens to quite a bit of black metal, death metal, and grindcore, and he couldn't bear to listen to it for 60 seconds before he deleted it.

[Kazuo]

prophetofshadow said:

There may not be any rap elements in CS, but trash bands like Slipknot, Mudvayne, System of a Down, etc. fall into the nu-metal category. While some of them use turntables in their songs, the majority of it is obnoxious noise, just like I found Clever Sleazoid to be. And, Dir en grey has used rap elements in their music in the past, so I'd say nu-metal fits them quite nicely.

And if not nu-metal, I'd move to say that it's also similar to most of the modern metal that comes out here (which is by-in-large garbage) in both it's musical style and lyrical content. It's not a style I prefer and it's been done to the death. Clever Sleazoid doesn't do anything that hasn't been heard numerous times before.

The song just didn't work for me. I sent it to a friend of mine who normally listens to quite a bit of black metal, death metal, and grindcore, and he couldn't bear to listen to it for 60 seconds before he deleted it.

Understandable. I've been classing them with those "core" bands. Basically a form of hardcore metal.. or.. something. I don't even know. Labels bother me because no one can ever agree. XD

[prophetofshadow]

Hmmm, yeah, I hear ya. There are so many different labels and sub-genre's out there these days that I just can't keep up anymore...