****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Japan has two genres that the rest of the world simply doesn't have: visual kei and tohou/arrange. I've only been listening to these genres for the last couple of years and, so far, I don't understand much about either. D falls into the former, which I know slightly more about. 7th Rose is the first visual kei album I ever owned.To someone unfamiliar with D, its sound is something akin to a combination of Gothenburg melodic metal and contemporary hard rock. The music is simultaneously more aggressive and prettier than the "melodic heavy metal" bands that Finland gives us a lot of (Altaria, Leverage, and Excalion come to mind). The music doesn't take as melodic of an approach as "melodic rock" bands take (ex. Seventh Key, Place Vendome, Survivor, Lana Lane, or perhaps Cloudscape). As is the trend with most Japanese bands across all sub-genres, the music is generally very high-pitched, especially the vocals. For this, think of the glorious, soaring moments of a Rhapsody, Skylark, or Pathfinder. Still though, you can't merge Altaria, Survivor, and Rhapsody and end up with D. It doesn't work that way.Visual kei is called what it is because of the costumes/images the band brings to the public. Seeing one of these bands is far more than just an auditory experience. Bands like X-Japan, Malice Mizer, Luna Sea, and Versailles are some of the more popular bands of the style. Note how different these bands sound from one another. Luna Sea is hardly removed from modern/hard rock, while Versailles is almost as symphonic/epic as Rhapsody. Add on top of that fact that so much of the information on these bands is in Japanese and I've had a hard time learning what it's all about.My favorite songs are the opener and the bonus track. The opener has that bombastic feel from the very first second (in the same vein as Blind Guardian's "Into the Storm" on Nightfall In Middle Earth) and drives forward with an aggressive guitar riff. After that, the song settles into a soothing chorus. Songs are generally all around the 3:50 length, but most of them have quite a bit to their name, many combining harsh and clean male vocals (some even chants). This layering makes the album rather exciting when listening start-to-finish. But Angra and Stratovarius fans beware - unlike on albums like Angels Cry and Destiny, D is not a band that will go from one end of the speed spectrum to the other with the passing of every song. When the guitars do slow down, the drums don't. On average, this album is mid- to uptempo without any double bass power metal moments or Sonata Arctica ballads.If there's one component that makes me come back to this album more than any other (component), it's the incorporation of all sorts of different sounds. For the title track alone, musicians are credited in the booklet as playing the tambourine, casiotone, Suzuki q-chord, and 12 string guitar. The croma harp appears in track 8, Day By Day, and track 7 features a "guest chorus," Nyasagi. Then there are songs like Tightrope which feature a traditional electric guitar solo that wouldn't sound out of place on a radio station. I love bands like Entwine, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, and Nightwish (all from Finland) for using so many different sounds. This is a big selling point to me. (I'm trying to get into folk/Heathen/pagan/Viking metal where all sorts of different instruments are used - I've been interested in this ever since seeing Unexpect live with their electric violin back in 2007.)The lyrics are about 75% Japanese, 25% English, but the English that is there is scattered line by line. It's not like there are 8 songs in Japanese and 2 songs in English. I don't understand this, but it's the way it is. The vocals, although I can't understand most of them, are harmonic and listenable as another instrument.I can't close a review on 7th Rose without complimenting the artwork. It's simply gorgeous. The cover, the tray, and especially the disc itself - it's all very inspiring and extremely atmospheric. I've never seen anything quite like it.D is one of the best. They're a great starting point in the same sense that you would recommend Gamma Ray to someone getting into power metal, Emperor to someone getting into black metal, and Pagan's Mind to someone getting into progressive metal. I can really recommend this one. It's like that dish that your friend always encourages you to order when you go out to eat together, but you're always too chicken to try it. You'll never know if you don't try. Try D. You might find something new.
