Dir En Grey

PHALARIS

The gods of J-metal are back and are taking the throne once more. After arguably their first real stumble, the terribly mixed Insulated World, Phalaris actually hearkens back to pre-Uroboros Diru. After they went so heavy on the experimentation with the band's untouchable triumvirate of Uroboros, Dum Spiro Spero, and Arche it's actually kind of refreshing to hear the boys going back to basics a bit and making genuinely bone crushing but still catchy songs in the sound that has defined them and ... read more

This album is a good attempt at making alternative metal mixed with prog, but the sound production and the mixing failed it for me, as well as the vocal performance on some songs like 'Eddie'. The material itself is actually kind of fine, the instrumentals are even fire sometimes, but the sound pretty much ruined the whole listening experience. It's not that bad, it's more annoying that it isn't clean (and I can't hear instrumentals over vocals because of it). But all in all, this is a nice ... read more