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Tracklisting
1) Freeeze!!
Freeeze!! is the second single from Aural Vampire, and their first major label single, and the first single in their new era. It was a digital release, and is a remake of a song from their 2004 album Vampire Ecstacy. It was released in 2009, though I’m not exactly sure when.
Honestly, by the time we get to Freeeze!! in Aural’s major releases, I’m starting to notice a few flaws. First of all, instead of the creepy atmospheric sounds we originally got, they’re being replaced by electronic sounds. Also, the audio samples are left out, and Freeeze!! is no exception: There’s no more “I can’t take much more of this noise”, and no more “You’ll take it because you’ve got no choice”. Just a few electronic sounds, and it goes straight into the song. A few of the backing sounds are still intact here, which was nice to hear, and those weird sounds after the first chorus are definitely intact, but EXO-CHIKA’s voice isn’t faring so well. I’ve noticed it a bit in the EP’s, but here is where I can definitely say so for sure: She is a HORRIBLE singer. She sounded okay with most of the EP songs, but in Freeeze!!, her voice is so high pitched and nasal that it isn’t funny. They should’ve left that muffling synth over her and let her keep talk-singing, because she sounded so awesome like that. This is just a let-down. I like this new version, but I’m starting to think nothing will top Vampire Ecstacy and its original track. I can only imagine how their album will turn out now.
Single Score
B-
Tracklisting
1) Border of the Dead
Aural Vampire III EP is the third and final EP in Aural Vampire’s “Extremely creatively titled” series of EP releases, with this EP in particular having “the longest and most interesting tracklisting out of ANY of them!” It also has “The most creative cover out of the trio! Believe it!” Sarcasm aside (Sorry about that), it was released on the 30th of December, 2008.
…Well… This is anti-climactic. We have one decent EP with an okay yet short tracklisting, which was preceeded by a brilliant EP with a decet tracklisting, and… Now we get one track. Hurrah. Border of the Dead is a strange track. It has a few drum beats before leading straight into EXO’s vocals and the drums, with a simple synth arrangement with a few higher points following after it. It’s pretty same-y at first, with those few high points changing it around a bit, and it honestly doesn’t really change much at ALL. The only real difference in the music here is that it stops for a few seconds halfway through, before slowly going back into what we had before. There are some nice extended notes here and there, but… I don’t know, this just seems really anti-climactic.
EP Score
D
…I don’t know, am I supposed to like it? I mean, the song isn’t TOO bad, it’s just… Not as good as most of the other songs they’ve released. That, and the EP only has one track. ONE TRACK! I mean, come on, with all those unreleased songs, they could’ve been lazy and just thrown them on there instead of leaving THIS for us. If it wasn’t in a series of similar EP’s, it wouldn’t be this bad, but… I don’t know. I’m just kind of peeved that they thought this was satisfactory after a series of decently fleshed out EP’s. The Freeeeze!!! single that comes after this faces a similar fate, but as a digital single, it’s a bit more understandable. Well, no use crying over spilt milk: At least they have an album coming up in Spring ‘09!
Tracklisting
1) Innsmouth
2) 69 Balloons
3) Economical Animal Superstar
Aural Vampire II EP (Wow, this is even more creative than the last!) is the second EP from Aural Vampire out of a series of three. It features the EXACT SAME COVER (Yes, that’s the official cover, it’s not just a filler picture I used) as the first EP, and also features two re-worked tracks, with the second track 69 Balloons being a new track. It was released on the 25th of November, 2008.
Innsmouth opens with a rather predictable move from Aural Vampire: A creepy distorted voice talking in a muffled voice, talking about something along the lines of “protecting *something* from the netherworlds beginning”… Or something like that. It has a loud, aggressive arrangement consisting of drum beats, a high siren-like synth and a slightly lower elongated synth line. There’s a few sections of extreme repetition in this song, consisting of one word said over and over again, between the normal vocal lines. The chorus kicks it all up a notch in volume and adds in a synthesized beep and a few ghasty clanks and bumps, with some light distortions going on EXO’s voice, making for a rather creepy yet interesting sound. It never lets up, but it’s rather infectious. It ends with the sound of waves, oddly enough, with a few related sounds being worked into the final, super distorted vocals that lead to this end. Another of Aural’s great tracks, and it’s one of the best examples of their use of audio samples from old horror movies. Or, I assume that’s what the opening is from.
Surprisingly enough, 69 Balloons is another fast, high-energy song and it probably sounds the most demonic out of any of the EP tracks so far. It consists of ghastly echoes and clanks, over a quick gritty synth line with the eventual drums. EXO’s voice is VERY distorted here, so that it sort of mixes in with the gritty synths, before leading into a less-distorted section. I’m not really liking EXO’s vocals as much as I usually do here, as they sound kind of nasal and screechy at times. I’ll pass on this one.
Ending the EP is, oddly enough, the first track off of their 2005 post-Vampire Ecstacy single, Economical Animal Superstar. This is a much simpler song, starting out simply with drums, a single gritty synth line and a creepy, distorted voice that lasts, at most, a few seconds. EXO-CHIKA’s altered her singing this time, singing in short spans instead of whole lines at a time. There’s a bit more English in this song, too, but the most you’ll really hear is “Hey, Mr. Animal”, which ties into the title. The chorus is the same, as all that’s really changed is that EXO’s singing at a higher register, and there are some bongo drums added in. The second chorus, however, adds in a few ethereal synths and cymbal clangs, with a few unrelated melodic synths thrown in. EXO actually sounds rather childish and innocent in this song, which was strange to hear, but it kind of works with the echoing back-up vocals she provided for herself. It follows this method once more, before the song ends. I’d consider it the highlight of the EP, really, despite how simple it is.
EP Score
B
Favorite Song
Economical Animal Superstar
The second EP, while good in its own right, is rather inferior to the first, and falls a bit flat in comparison. Whether that’s because of the lower amount of tracks or having two songs that sound really similar (Innsmouth and 69 Balloons), I don’t know, but both Innsmouth and Economical Animal Superstar make it worth at least one listen through. It’s nice to see that they aren’t recycling material from Vampire Ecstacy and are instead using their previously unreleased tracks and reworking them to put on the EPs, but we’re still missing quite a few tracks, like Voodoo Vocoder and Yagi Parade, both of which I can’t find anywhere that I trust to download from, as well as a bunch of other songs they haven’t released yet. This is a much worse fate than it seems, since the third and final EP isn’t really an EP to begin with, as you’ll see when I get to that review. So, overall, it was good, but they did have a few more tracks they could’ve thrown on to fill it out a bit more.
Tracklisting
1) Shōnan Zoku -Cannibal Coast-
2) Darkwave Surfer
3) Transcrypt
4) Hot Blood Workout
5) V. Madonna Schizoid
Aural Vampire EP (How creative is THAT title?) is the first EP from Aural Vampire, and the first under their new major label. Many of the tracks on this EP are previously released tracks from Aural Vampire, with new arrangements and resung vocals. It was released on the 28th of October, 2008.
I’m pretty sure Shōnan Zoku -Cannibal Coast- is a previously released track, but I can’t be sure. Either way, this version opens with an aggressive lone synth line, followed by some drums and even more louder synths. EXO-CHIKA’s singing in a bit of a higher, possibly squeakier pitch here, but it suits the oddly rather light arrangement that the song has. I rather liked how all the different levels of synth and the drums came together, and EXO-CHIKA’s rather distinct vocals give the song a more interesting sound than it would’ve had with another vocalist. Like most Aural Vampire songs, it is rather repetitive, and never really lets up, but the industrial techno sound it has should make the chance of repetition obvious.
Next is one of my personal favorites from Aural Vampire, Darkwave Surfer. Unfortunately, they’ve changed it. Thankfully, it wasn’t a huge change. Unfortunately, EXO-CHIKA’s vocals aren’t as airy and echoing, which ruins the rather ethereal, nigh on creepy atmosphere they gave the original version. Arrangement wise, it has some more thumping beats thrown in (Well, they were always there, but they’re louder and more obvious here), but otherwise it’s the same dark track we all know and love. It’s nice to see it put onto a major release, but it was already released previously in its slightly superior manner on the DEATH FOLDER single, so it wouldn’t have mattered. Still great, though! The new slowdown section is pretty nice, too. Shows they did more than put a few new beats in.
Wow, what a fan am I… I’m not sure if this is remade, either, so I’ll drop the questioning from here on out unless I’m absolutely sure. Transcrypt opens with the crackling sound of a needle on a record, followed by drums and a bit of synth, then some rather odd guitar riffs. EXO-CHIKA’s vocals are a bit lighter here than in the previous two songs, and she’s hitting a few notes instead of using a rather monotonous register. Of course, she was hitting notes in Darkwave Surfer rather frequently in the chorus, but she’s changed her voice a bit for this song, and they work rather well with the once again not-so-dark-but-bordering-it atmosphere. This song DOES have a bit of a slow down period about two minutes in, where it’s just the drums while some new synth slowly builds up, but the song would’ve been great without it anyway.
HURRAH! Hot Blood Workout was my second favorite track from Aural back when I discovered it, and thankfully, it’s present here in its “original” format, unchanged from how I first heard it at least. By Aural’s standards, it’s a bit of an oddball song. It’s got some soft half-thumping beats, with a disjointed muffled hum of synth over it, with EXO-CHIKA singing in light, monotonous manner over it. Also, the beginning utilizes a bit of English. There’s the phrases like “Hot blood”, “working out” and “body heat” repeated quite a bit, as well as “say yes”, which… Is kind of kinky, really. The majority of the song (and some of the beginning) are in Japanese though. At about one minute in, she suddenly goes into a higher register on a slightly changed arrangement, and I rather like how this sounds. It leads into a bit of a call-and-response section between singing EXO-CHIKA and talking EXO, which was a nice touch. It still baffles me at how relaxed this song sounds, but the title gets you wondering as to what it’s really about. Weird.
The last song, V. Madonna Schizoid, has a kind of beeping light synth and drums with EXO-CHIKA singing in a rather fast manner at first, slowly adding more and more sounds yet again, but it takes a lot longer to get interesting this time. It starts getting even slower at about 1 minute in, and a lot more disjointed, and even after it speeds back up it slows down again. This is one of the cases of their repetition that I wasn’t a huge fan of, so it wasn’t a great way to close this EP.
EP Score
A-
Favorite Songs
1) Shōnan Zoku -Cannibal Coast-
2) Hot Blood Workout
Well, it was definitely a treat to hear that Aural Vampire was getting back into the music scene with some releases! This review is a bit overdue, but now that we have an album confirmed to be on the way, it makes listening to them both ten times more interesting and ten times harder at the same time. This was a great EP to begin with on a major label, and it also has the most songs, so it was definitely a pleasing release, even if it was only digital.
Meanwhile, I’m missing out on seeing them live tonight. D: Which is a huge bummer. Sorry for adding that here, but I’m SO UPSET. ;~;
Okay, well, they’re already on here. But I’m kicking it up another notch.
If anyone remembers, I have said that I would be featuring Aural Vampire in full eventually. Well, recently, they have been releasing EPs since they’ve signed onto Avex, and they’re planning to release an album later this year. As such, I will be reviewing the three EP’s they released, as well as their PV for Freeeze!! that they released in 2004. They did release it as a single this year, but if I can’t find the new version, I’ll settle for a PV review to make up for it.
So, yeah, Look out for it, because I’ll be reviewing the EPs (and possibly a few more singles and such) today and over the next few days. I’ll also transfer the old review of Vampire Ecstacy into their permanent review category, but I may re-review it as well.
No, I won’t, that was a bad idea. But I still might re-review it.
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