Review: Screw- Duality Album

Tracklist:

1. Dual Assault

2. 刹那の刻 (Setsuna no koku)

3. DUALITY

4. Cursed Hurricane

5. ファム・ファタール (femme fatale)

6. false dawn

7. Lower World

8. ANCIENT RAIN

9. INFERIORITY COMPLEX

10. M.R.T

11. Jail breaker

12. rosary

13.as cold as marble

Since Duality is a whole album, I'm going to shorten up my review a bit and just give a general overview or else this review would go on forever :P

I'm going to be honest and say right up front that this album seems uncharacteristically drab for Screw. I'm used to hearing more power in their music so, in that aspect I'm left slightly dimayed. And I feel like the majority of these songs don't have enough individuality to stand on their own or to really make the album itself stand out as a whole. Not to say that there are no good songs on Duality, if I were to say that I would be lying.

So, first off Dual Assault is your basic intro song, it is not bad but I wouldn't really say there is anything particularly great or special about it. With that said I'm going to move right into Setsuna no Koku, which I really like, it has great rythm and catch and in fact I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is a better song than the title track, Duality. Which by the way is a decent song but I must admit I was disappointed when I watched the PV of this. The drum and bass lines are pretty in your face without being overpowering and I enjoy the chorus but this song really needs more energy......in the vocals perhaps? Cursed Hurricane (which was previously released on the Cursed Hurricane single) is reminiscent of Duality and the only distinguishing factor for me is the guitar line. Other than that I don't hear anything that really sets it apart. Femme Fatale on the other hand is an exceptional song! I'm intrigued right away because I haven't heard a lot of electronic sounding music from Screw, and this has an almost dance-able beat. Femme Fatale is the only song so far that I can really hear Screw's spunk? heart?

Next is False Dawn which draws me in with a great intro but again is oddly similar to Cursed Hurricane and the like. It seems that Screw may be be stuck in this mode. Since I really have nothing else to say about this one I'm just going to move right on to the fantastically beautiful Lower World. This song is on the slower side and a bit down tempo but wow! is it pretty. The piano, instrumentals and vocals are all so smooth and the guitar solo fits in perfectly. And this moves into another good song Ancient Rain (which was also previously released on the Ancient Rain single), while I do like this song, I feel this is terrible song placement. Obviously if you put two songs that are so similar right next to each people are going to compare them. And there really is not enough variation between the two songs that would enable them to be placed so closely together. Tossing that aside for the moment I do enjoy Ancient Rain. It is well put together, and flows nicely, again the guitar solo here is superb (YAY! for Kazuki, as always your playing is amazing).

Moving into Inferiority Complex, the intro somehow reminds me of Sadie's Ice Romancer, am I the only one who thinks so? And this is a decent song, I like the falsetto Byou goes into, as always I like to hear bands switch it up every once in a while, also I like the slower part of this song (about 2:52 in).

Wow! M.R.T. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say about you. Ummm......I almost really dislike this.

I should say I'm on the verge of disliking this while also on verge of really, really liking it. I haven't quite made a decision yet, but I think I'm leaning towards like. Ha. This song has me confused, perhaps that is a good thing. The next song however, Jail Breaker is I'm sure a good song if it were listened to by itself but again this is awful song placement. This is basically a continuation of M.R.T, the two are practically one in the same, minus a few unique pieces here and there on the part of M.R.T. 

Because I see that coupling similar songs seems to a trend for this album I decided to listen to the last two songs, Rosary and As Cold as Marble, together. And I'm correct the trend has continued, however I feel that this time around there is enough difference in the two that they can carry their own even placed together. I really enjoy both of these songs, pretty while still staying upbeat and As Cold as Marble even has more of a hard rock guitar/bass line while Rosary is softer. Again, I applaud  Kazuki for the excellent guitar solos, if I'm leaving out Manabu I don't mean to, I guess I'm being a bit presumptuous in giving Kazuki all the credit, but am I wrong in saying the solos normally go to the lead guitarist? Either way the guitar playing is fantastic.

The album was not a complete disappointment and I'm glad to see that the drab undistinguishable songs are off set by some great ones. So, overall I give Duality a B.