Jiraku

There's a funny thing about blues music to me. Most blues artist keep the same chord progression in their songs, although most people add their own flair to the 4 part classic blues progression. Dickey F, not only adds his own flair to it, but adds bits of other genres of it. There's a bit of hard rock, jazz, and swing to it. Something that I don't get to see enough of. From the playful upbeat of Crazy Train, to the mellowness of Black and White Stripes, to the warm riffs of Snake Skin Blues. This is a great set of melodies to chill out to.

Besides i am this, Of The I was the other band I've discovered when I first started going to this website that stuck with me through the years. They're actually quite good, and a full review of their music is something I always wanted to do ever since I wrote a mini-review of their sampler for this album 2 years ago. Back then I stated that this band is just getting better and better. After the 2 year absence and comeback to jamendo with their debut album for free I can say that that's still an understatement.

The first thing to realize is that if you haven't downloaded anything from them yet, just download this album, all of their songs from Demo-noid EP and the 3 piece sampler of this album is on this album, but remastered and in official "album version"...

... so in other words it's a remastered version of all of their songs put into one place.

But wait there's more!

There are 3 new tracks on this album (Instars, Ascend, and Modern Equivalent) Each of them having the same progressive style as the songs that precede them.

On a final note, this album is a crown achievement of a band that might or might not become as big as bands like Porcupine Tree who share very similar stylings, but they deserve every bit of the fame they get. If you're a Progressive rock fan, Check them out. If you're a regular rock fan, Check them out, Hell if you're just looking for something different, Check them out!

I said in my review of the sampler that they're going to be big someday. This album perfectly shows how they could be if more people knew about them.

Alright. Now most of the time when I review Metal or Hardcore on Jamendo, it's not a very positive review or if it is, it's because I keep the majority of people in mind. However when discovering this album today, I started to see something very different about this album. (Other than the fact that it's "acoustic metal") It was good to me. Actually, it was great to me.

Even though it uses acoustic instruments, I feel the same power and heaviness as I would if it was done with electric instruments, and that's a hard feat to accomplish on it's own. if you think about it, the set up of this band is fairly simple. They don't rely on electric instruments, pedals, and insane craziness for their tricks. Just powerful melodies from the ones in Amity We Should Give to the ones the break downs found in Sour song and Haiku.

Now with this said, I do have a few very small downsides about this album, I feel like some of these songs don't need the singer or the singer's lyrics, and because of that, it hurts the song... but only slightly, but then for other songs, the lyrics are dead on, and perfect with the song. Also (This doesn't have to do with me)

This album is definitely not for everybody. It is a style that if you're not open to certain things as an acoustic guitar lover or a metal head, might leave you scratching your head, but if you're open to try something new this is a good place to start, and a must have in your collection if you're an acoustic metal lover. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to listen to this album for another hour or so to get pumped up for the day...

I love japan. This single just makes it better. Usually when I listen to japanese music I listen to rock or visual kei. This is different in a good way and better than I could expect. I'm looking forward to more music from these guys in the future.

The first thing I could say when I listened to this album was how easily and shamelessly abstract this album is. Most of the time, that would be a bad thing. However CIRC did it in a way that I, or other people could not. For example, my music might be abstract, but it still seems like it should be there without question. However, the true musical genius can take sounds and blend them together in such a way, that it's almost too abstract to hold a steady beat, and yet in seems the best that way. So is it like a musical Reese's cup or like a new strange candy? I would choose the latter, and I think it's a taste sensation. I top my hat off to you CIRC.