DISTRESS AND COMA, the GazettE’s most recent single has fallen into my hands today.

I’ve been excited for this release since it’s announcement as I found LEECH very appealing to me.

Anyway,

DISTRESS AND COMA

DISTRESS AND COMA is the main song from the single and will most likely be featured on the upcoming album ‘DIM’.
The song features an intro that brings in the heaviness very effectively. After a few seconds of techno beat, Uruha, Aoi, Reita, Kai and then Ruki come in together in unison to create a mix similar to a bowl of ice cream, cookie dough, fudge brownies and caramel. (Yes, I just gave you cravings right? Listen to the single and save the calorie intake. ~)
Anyway, after the intro, in the verse a clean guitar can be mainly heard behind Ruki’s vocals, it creates a very ear friendly sound that soon ends up as the pre-chorus in which includes a gradual rise to the chorus which is just beautiful. Ruki’s strong vocals and a large amount of volume from the instruments pretty much blows you away. The song also has a very much necessary guitar solo that is just reaching good but not spectacular, I was hoping for something more. It seems rushed and very bland. The techno beat returns only to be followed by another chorus. Overall, it’s well constructed and pretty epic.
It’s a great song, I can’t really pick out anything too bad. It’s solid throughout and is most definitely the best song on the single.
8/10

HEADACHE MAN

This song certainly doesn’t wait to throw you into the mosh pit consisting of Reita, a sumo wrestler and a very angry ninja turtle. Seriously. After a pretty freaky intro, a consistent “Beatdown” verse grabs you by the face and puts you through a brick wall. The heavy guitars and traditional pitch harmonics just makes me want to headbang. Kai batters his drums but still seems to be scared of a double bass pedal, even if I guess it doesn’t seem necessary at all. The drums I feel could have been so much more though. The chorus is a really nice change to something pretty beautiful, as short as it is. Ruki certainly doesn’t hold back.
“A Kyo scream? What?” Yeah, after the chorus, Ruki totally does a Kyo scream. It’s true. Anyway, out of nowhere, there’s a pretty ‘fun’ section to the song that soon returns to a heavy verse. The song is structure-sound. This song, loud and on repeat will actually give you a headache. *Hints to title* That was terrible, sorry.
Anyway, the song. Well, I like it, it’s something that’s going to get the fans going at a concert and it also has guitar features from ‘GO TO HELL’. And what’s even better, is the sudden end and change to ‘Without A Trace’.
7.5/10

Without A Trace :

AN ACOUSTIC SONG, YES. I’m extremely happy. If I was wearing underwear, it’d be wet. (Yes, I write my reviews naked for inspiration. That’s a lie though.)
Anyway. Ruki and the acoustic guitars go so well, seriously. It’s a beautiful intro, but it makes me feel sad. After a while, there seems to be some Spanish guitar and a pretty strange setting forms in my head. After the beauty of the intro and verse, the song escalates to this crazy chorus where the band pull out their distortion again (It’s actually very Kagrra, like as well.). I honestly don’t think there’s anything better than a bit of heaviness after some acoustic guitars play together. Ruki’s vocals are beautiful for the length of this song. There’s another solo, yet again, I’m not impressed, it seems rushed and the potential is kinda wasted just like in ‘DISTRESS AND COMA’. Still, it gets the job done.
Without A Trace is a great song, it’s beautiful yet sorrowful from what I can hear. (Haven’t had a chance to check out the lyrics which actually…haven’t even been translated yet. So unless I can speak Japanese, which I can’t, I’ll just have to guess that Ruki’s sad. :’(
8/10

Overall, DISTRESS AND COMA is a good single. I do feel though that it could have been much more. However, I’m seriously looking forward to their album and until it is released, LEECH and DISTRESS AND COMA will provide good enough listening material. If people disagree with my opinion on it, I will not argue at all.<3

Nihility