Day 7: Macabre by DIR EN GREY // 10!!

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Macabre by DIR EN GREY
genre: heavy metal, progressive metal
Whenever a piece seems to transcend its medium, I can't help but describing it as an "experience" rather than music. This is one of those times. For a first listen, you really should devote a majority of your attention to this song. Experience it. 

This piece is just filled to the brim with all sorts of unusual instruments. The guitars range from bluesy rock, to your classic heavy metal. The midsection brings in dissonant organs, pianos, and other avant garde sound effects. Within 16 minutes, DIR EN GREY delivers a soul-crushing, all-consuming journey that I can only imagine would be unbelievable to see in person. 

One of my favorite characteristics of this song is the vocals. Color me biased, but I want to praise this song more than you probably think it deserves. Reason being, it closely borrows my favorite elements of power metal. Emphasis on elements.* Power metal is one of my favorite subgenres, and it's mainly due to its symphonic, empowering sound (apart from talking about dragons and dwarfs and whatnot). Drawing from this innate passion for melodramatic vocals, I found an odd obsession with this song. 

DIR EN GREY embraces the unconventional and artistic by peppering in bloodcurdling screams with delicate, clean, sorrowful vocals. The guitar and drums don't necessarily evoke technical skill, but I guess that is a result of contributing more towards the symphonic sound (akin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor). I should've mentioned this earlier, but they're also Japanese. I don't understand a single thing they're saying, but it's certainly not a prerequisite for getting something out of this song! 

I'm so excited to play this on repeat until I get sick of it. Cheers! (Also, if you didn't notice, I'm adding a Youtube video at the bottom instead of just a link now. Enjoy!)

Rating: 10/10

*Power metal is usually characterized by blinding speeds and empowering, uplifting vocals (e.g. Rhapsody of Fire and Dragonforce). 


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