Review by Jamarr Stokes

Dir en Grey have been one of my favorite bands since I discovered them back in 2004. They have released some of my favorite songs of all time, and they show no signs of stopping. Today’s review will be of their 3^rd EP, The Unraveling. Here we have 1 entirely new song, 7 rerecorded ones, and two unplugged versions. Here we go:

The Unraveling: This EP starts with the new song, about 30 seconds in, Kyo’s haunting vocals start and they lead you on a journey through the whole song. Though, and this goes for most of the EP, things feel a little over-produced. There are some nice screams around the 1:49 mark. There’s a slight breakdown around 3 minutes in and a prog rock solo that they seem to be fond of as of late. There’s good things here, but a bit mundane, especially coming from these guys.

Karma: Before I get started on the rerecords, I have to state a couple things. First, I was really scared of how they would redo some of these songs, especially given their track record of making amazing songs and ruining them (i.e. Obscure, Agitated Screams of Maggots) and also since they are redoing my favorite song by them (The Final). Some of the redos eased the pain, others didn’t. Secondly, as it pertains to this song, I had to actually go back and re-listen to the original, which was one of the first songs they released, in order to see what changes they may or may not have made. But, I digress. With this version of the song, they almost entirely throw out the original, only catching the original riff here and there. They did some cool things with the solo around the 2 minute mark. Its not horrible, but forgettable.

Kasumi: The original is one of my favorite songs ever. So this redo had big shoes to fill. Fortunately for them, it fills it quite well. Everything in this song feels right, even moreso than the original. There are a lot more haunting features here; it puts you into the song. The adlibs and vocal additions give the song a lot more depth. Though the big finale at the end doesn’t feel as epic as it did in the original.

Karasu: Another one of my favorites, this song (the original) had a really groovy guitar part along with a killer bass part as well.  They replace both of these with a slightly-less cool, but similar sounding guitar part that overlays the entire song. This song takes the foundation given by the original, and builds upon it, as it should be. Well done redo, but I don’t think the new mood instrumentally matches the lyrics and overall feel like the original.

Bottom of Death Valley: The original started off with a really cool bass part, this version uses it, but only loosely. They also completely change how the chorus is laid out, and it doesn’t work out as well as it could. There’s a nice prog rock solo around 3 minutes in. This song works though.

Unknown. Despair. Lost.: This song tries to fool you with an acoustic guitar opening, but gets heavy quickly. It keeps the original riff, but changes the key its in, which is alright, but I don’t think it works for this song. Nothing about Kyo’s vocals stand out in this song, which is really unfortunate, because if you’re familiar with this band, you know he has arguably one of the best voices in the scene.

The Final: The original of this song is my favorite song by this band. If you have a chance, go back and listen to it. With this song, they made it heavier, but I believe it still retains the original feel of the song. Nothing here fails to fill the huge shoes of the original, as I now actually prefer this version against the original. The best song on the EP, for both its faithfulness and it as its own song.

The next three songs were on the bonus disk, so if you pick this up, you know what you’re missing if you just grabbed the CD.

Macabre: This is a 16 minute song. It starts out fine, the original instumentals are all here, along with Kyo’s vocals making everything feel like a great reboot of the song. Also, turn your treble up here folks, I had trouble hearing Kyo sometimes over the instruments. When I could hear him, though, he showed his abilities during the chorus, giving some impeccable cleans. There’s a breakdown around 5 minutes, followed by a really good solo leading back into more great cleans by Kyo. Around 10:30, they experiment a little with the song, and it works to an extent. As a remake, I think this works a lot better than the others.

The last two songs are just unplugged versions of both The Final and The Unraveling, and from what’s there, there’s really nothing that jumps out or makes them special or different, beside the fact that they’re just unplugged versions of the songs. I liked them both, but felt they were almost unnecessary, and the space used by those songs could’ve been used for new material instead. All in all, this release shows the slightly less heavy direction their next album may take.

Overall, I give this EP 3.5/5 stars. Be sure to check out their Facebook and be on the lookout for a music video for The Unraveling!

Score: 3.5/5

Dir En Grey: Official