Psycho Assemble Laboratory (猟奇アッセンブル研究所) project was formed in the middle of 2012. The main creative force behind it is two Japanese (bet you are not surprised :) ) musicians: shikka (失華) and 88IO. The guys claim there is a persistent enmity between them but I believe you shouldn’t take it seriously :) Although this may help to understand the album deeper :)
The album was released on 3rd VOCALOID Paradise event in Kyoto on March, 2nd. “Metsu Zai Shou Xen” (滅罪生善) could be translated as “Atonement for good life”. It is the first full-size album of the project. About a year ago a demo was released, “Gozou Mashimaro”. The current album contains all songs from the demo, some of them remastered.
There are 14 tracks total (if we'd count 3 ‘instrumental’ intros), and 48 minutes of music. But that would be kinda inaccurate statement, because the music on the album is _different_ , and it could be divided into three parts. Two larger ones – let’s say 18 minutes and 24 minutes :) – and a smaller chunk. First, let’s talk about the two main parts. As you may have puzzled out already, the division is the result of the difference in two producers’ music style.
88IO’s tracks open the album, so he comes first. The producer works in post-hardcore genre, specifically in electronic/synthcore. His sound is perfectly up-to-date. The music incorporates in a stylish way many of the key genre elements: angry bursts of bass drums, intense charges of electronics and pretty dense overall soundscape. The guitar riffs are eager, quick and technically advanced sometimes, but in a moment the guitars turn into evil beasts, pounding hard and heavy. Though compared with the scene’s ‘average’, the guitars are a bit on the lightweight side. That means the guitars aren’t ‘leading’ the music all the time, and the electronics gain the upper hand in certain moments.
In some periods the electronic sequences build a world of their own, reaching complexity and integrity that makes all the other parts a bit unnecessary. Of multiple synthetic instruments the piano line emerges sometimes, usually adding delicate and tender tones. The songs feature convincing and impressive atmosphere. Despite the intensity of the music, it isn’t aggressive or overwhelming, but rather energetic, bright, vibrant and passionate.
The pace of music changes often in the songs, making them really diverse and rich. As for the breakdowns, there isn’t a strict scheme for every song. Some are more lyrical, warm and quiet, electronic almost entirely. Other strike with culminating intensity, traditional for metalcore.
88IO tries to experiment, venturing into other, non-metal genres. An excellent implementation of this is the track #8, “Incarceration”. Here the producer merges his synthcore with trance, and the result is very impressive, seamless and potent flow of music. But for the most of the time the sound keeps more traditional course, with some unexpected steps here and there.
Both the drumwork and bass guitar are solid, but hardly there is something more to add. Yeah, bass drums shots sound tasty, and bass guitar provides a substantial support, but all of it is perceived as a pretty standard set. Given the powerful lines of electric guitars and synthetics, bass and drums cannot win any special attention.
Finally, the vocalist. 88IO uses IA in all his tracks. We know IA as somewhat softer, gentler type of singer. But in 88IO’s hands she makes rather different impression. She sounds steady, decisive, and even curt in some moments. Her vocals are notably forceful and energetic. Why, you need to be such to break through all this music mayhem…
Now the shikka’s part. He presents awesome, not, AWESOME industrial metal with some serious influence of alternative and, to a lesser degree, several other metal genres. The scope and diversity of his music is just excellent. And the diversity goes beyond specific styles; it’s more about the spirit of the music.
The word that describes the producer’s work best is ‘smart’. And this applies to _every_ part: percussion, guitars, vocals, electronics… Can’t say why, but for me shikka’s music has some stereoscopic depth. It’s strange. I can’t take it as something integer, instead I hear specific elements as independent, I feel how they’re interacting with each other, but the whole picture remains layered. I can physically sense the texture of the sound, the structure of the song. It has nothing in common with ‘the music falls apart’ or ‘things don’t fit together’ shit. No. Everything makes a perfect fusion. Maybe too perfect for me…
The guitar sound is delicious, ‘dirty’ in the best industrial sense of the word, powerful, often enforced with synthetics. The riffs tend to be simple, which is common for industrial, but they do their job well enough. Slow, heavy-weighted, thick, the guitars are like stomping together with drums. Rhythmic guitar booming is a distinctive component of shikka’s songs. The quicker, hardcore-ish patterns are present too, but they are used infrequently, as decorating elements.
For many parts the drumbeat is common and simple industrial mid-tempo, but this makes only a basement for some interesting developments in percussion. Some of these developments are more conventional, some are really ingenious, but all work perfectly in extending and enriching the whole character of the music.
The bassu sound is formidable, roaring, pitiless. Although most of the time it mirrors the guitars line, and doesn’t perform anything special, its work is always present and palpable.
The producer uses particularly broad range of electronic sequences in this album, from 8-bit to traditional Japanese instruments. And he manages with 8-bit and with flutes equally skillful. But his implementation of electronics is very different from 88IO’s expressive approach. Shikka creates intricate, complex patterns that intertwine with the other components of the music. This results in interesting elusive effects, a subtle play of different flows within the music.
Gumi does the main job on shikka’s part. Only in the track #7, “Shift”, she performs in an exquisite duet with Miku (Miku’s contribution in 5th track is insignificant). The arranging of vocals is excellent. Not only the singing is emotional, but it also has unique, fine features. It’s like there are many different Gumis :) – distant and melancholic Gumi, cheerful and bright Gumi, thoughtful and mysterious Gumi… Shikka creates truly amazing atmosphere, individual for every of his works, but always engaging.
The each producer’s first song on the album represents the essence of their styles. For 88IO it is the track #2, “Psychotherapy”. It’s an ultimate synthcore storm with tight music tissue. Vigorous and immersive, with drums making a tangle pattern but still keeping rhythm, bold yet lyrical – this is a fantastic piece. Shikka’s track “Seiki Ondo” (#5) is no less fantastic, but it has completely different mood. The complexity, expertise and originality make it an excellent example of, I dare to say :), avant-garde metal! Of course, as it always goes with avant-garde metal, the stuff is not for everyone :) But damn, it’s just so crazy – drumwork with a lot of toms, koto, shakuhachi, and last but not the least Gumi!
Speaking of Vocaloids' voices quality, both producers manage well enough. Still I like shikka’s work a bit more. Yeah, I know, Gumi is easier to tame, but Miku’s vocals from the producer deserve high praise as well. Also I’ve spotted the quality varies a bit among shikka’s songs, while 88IO’s part is rather even. Despite the music genres’ traditions, only clean, undistorted vocals are being used.
The album features three intros which I consider an overload. One, the first, is justified maybe, but the other two seem to be out of place. Of course, if you’re a fan of wretched industrial noises you might find them nifty but for me they don’t have any particular sense.
We’ve finally got to the third part I’ve been talking about in the beginning. Yeah, it’s different too – for instance live humans sing there. Fuck, how stupid this sounds: ‘live humans sing there’ :) Well, the more correct variant would be not ‘sing’ but ‘shout’… Which still sounds stupid :)
OK, there are two songs. “REAL is DeAd” is a nice piece of garage rock gradually turning into pretty decent metalcore :) The average is somewhere near screamo. Btw, the vocals of ‘live humans’ are pretty decent too :) The second song, “S-F-U”, is experimental as well, only in a different sense. Yeah, raw and ill-bred. Sounds more of thrash metal with some punk elements. The lyrics (let’s call *that* lyrics), the instrumental part and the whole song is rather a joke than some serious staff.
So my opinion? My opinion is non-original. You know, usually albums are finished with some *special* material, bla bla bla… And here we got some falling behind works that are not of much relevance to the main album theme. If this is a kind of a concept, then I don’t get this concept. Maybe because the concept isn't that stellar...
The overall sound quality of the album is nice. All instruments are recorded well and evenly. I found no obvious flaws in mixing and levels. The exceptions are two last tracks, but the quality could have been let down there intentionally.
Bottom line: an excellent album of diverse heavy Vocaloid music with strong electronics side.
Album crossfade demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXG9-TIu3xA
Digital download link: http://www.nimbitmusic.com/psychoassemblelaboratory (The price is $8 + option of donation)
Hard copy order: http://palstore.buyshop.jp/items/420075 (In case if you want to hold it in your hands :) or need lossless sound, because only MP3 is available for digital download)
Previous VMW entries on album’s songs:
Insanity (remastered)
Alicemagic (8.19 OTC Lost Mix)
Incarceration
This is the director of Psycho Assemble Laboratory. The name’s Yashiro. Yeah, you might’ve spotted him on PAL’s logo. As you can clearly see from the photo, the album production is very tiresome job. We wish Yashiro-sama all of luck in his future projects. Desu. :)
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