Aural Vampire (Special) « Vitamin Drop

Vampire Ecstacy is the debut album from the B-Horror themed industrial techno (Possibly? I’m not totally sure on their genre) band, Aural Vampire. It was originally released on the 22nd of March, 2004/6 (I’m getting two different responses to the release date), as their debut material: It had no singles preceeding it. Sales information is unavailable.

Tracklisting
1. opening
2. Vampire Ecstacy
3. Freeeze!!
4. Terror Vixen
5. Hana no Sakigake
6. THE REPOMAN
7. Preservative Woman
8. Crimson Tyrant
9. S.O.B
10. Disco King
11. Banboro Koubo
12. Murealism
13. PNFPN

While opening is about three minutes long, it is an interlude that mainly suits to set the theme for the album: It consists of music that you’d usually hear in movies that have demonic elements and such, and RAVEMAN (Or I’m pretty sure it’s him) speaks in a low register voice that succeeds in really creeping you out. This is also the first of the songs to sample audio clips from old B-Horror movies. I don’t know them all, but I’ll try to point them out. I only know one for sure though.

Onto the first song. Vampire Ecstacy starts with an electronic sound before the synth opens, starting slowly with effects on the top, and slowly gaining in volume. It has that industrial sound from the second it opens, and as soon as EXO-CHIKA’s vocals come in, the song succeeds in getting a whole lot creepier: The ethereal, distant sound of her vocals suit the theme of the album very well, but when it hits the verses, it tones it down a bit. EXO’s vocals come in completely now, still digitized to come extent, and while she has a mechanical sound to her voice, it suits well, and you can tell she has talent. The choruses are short, and tend to exist mainly to give a change of pace to the song. At about 4 minutes in, the song breaks and a heavily digitized voice comes in: “Fear, hate, love, immorality: It is Vampire Ecstacy.” It has an eerie feeling to it overall, but it’s not the best song on the album.

Freeeze!! was the only song by Aural Vampire to get a PV made for it. It opens with the sound of what I assume is candles, with some slight voice overs that continue into the synth, before all effects stop, three small beats are heard, and the real song begins. It’s a lower toned song compared to Vampire Ecstacy, and EXO-CHIKA sounds a lot better in this song. It sounds a lot less creepy compared to the previous tracks, but knowing AV, it surely has a darker meaning to it. ( The site with the translations closed down, so I can’t confirm. Sorry. >< ) Throughout the song, you’ll hear the beat for the song being played on a piano, and it comes out being my favorite part of the song; Again, it’s not exactly creepy, but it’s better for those of you who don’t like creepy music.

Both EXO-CHIKA and RAVE MAN have a personal interlude in this album: Terror Vixen is EXO-CHIKA’s. It has a heavy marching band sound to it, with EXO changing her vocals to suit the sound better. It does feature some male vocals in it, which’re sung in a rather odd way… Reminds me of opera singers, really. It’s actually a good track, would’ve made a good full-length song.

Hana no Sakigake already sounds completely different to every other song on the album. It opens with a piano, that actually sounds sort of jazzy, or maybe has some blues influence. It’s quickly joined by some heavily industrial synth, WHILE STILL KEEPING THE PIANO. That was what shocked me, they don’t seem like they’d fit together, do they? EXO-CHIKA’s voice is all over the place in this song, but I think it might be to try and suit the song, as it actually fits it pretty well. I never really listened to this song before now, but it is actually a great track.

THE REPOMAN is the first song that features a sample from a horror movie I can actually pinpoint: That movie being The Repoman. I don’t remember WHERE I read it, and I only know the name of the movie, but this song features sound clips from it. It opens with a distorted voice saying REPOMAN, which you’ll hear throughout the song, which is followed by the synth, and soon after, the audio sample from the movie, which leads into the proper song. This is another of my favorite songs from the album, as while the verses are somewhat bland, it reverts to the chorus synth a few times before it actually reaches the chorus, which helps break the monotony of the track. EXO’s voice is good here, too, and for once you can’t possible hate an artist for singing mechanically: That’s basically her plan.

The next track is my favorite on the album, hands down. Preservative Woman opens with a skipping vocal distortion clip playing over twice; It comes back throughout the song too. It then leads into the synth, which this time features a highly asian sound. I can’t exactly pinpoint which country it reminds me of, but if you asked me to answer right this second, I’d hazard a guess at China. The verses follow the usual theme: Simple, quiet synth with EXO singing over it, before exploding into the chorus, which mixes the asian-themed synth, the vocal distortions and the usual synth beat. The second verse has some interesting distortions on EXO-CHIKA’s vocals, which helps set the song apart, if only slightly.

Crimson Tyrant is what I like to consider RAVEMAN’s interlude, despite being 5 minutes long. It begins with a simple synth beat and audio clips of screaming, with a man speaking over it. It then cuts out completely and cues the most demonic voice you’re going to hear on this album. It’s odd though: At about 1:08, the synth beat comes in and… I don’t know how to describe it, but what you get sounds somewhat hilarious. It’s a sort of thing like a rapper trying to get his audience excited or something, just spoken in the demonic voice. I actually rather enjoy the synth in this song, and it’s the only song with the vocals being provided by RAVEMAN (Or some man or other) instead of EXO-CHIKA. It lacks any real change in the music, or any vocals, but it’s somewhat catchy: I had no idea this song extended past the demonic voice until I decided to finally listen to it now.

S.O.B opens with the sound of a sinister music box, with some haunting synth played over it. It’s an interesting song, as it lacks the thumping synth AV are known for, and instead goes for an ethereal, hauntingly creepy sound. It wouldn’t be AV like this though, and right on cue, 1:30 means we get more of the usual synth. The song still manages to sound different from every other song though, thanks to the aforementioned techniques they utilize in it. It’s a fairly short song, clocking in at only 2:35 long. The closing is downright creepy though: It has multiple audio clips of EXO talking, all distorted somewhat, and since I have no idea what she’s saying, it makes it 10 times worse.

Why, hello there. You’d expect a song called Disco King to be an upbeat, danceish tune, right? Well, of course Aural Vampire didn’t take that route with this song. It opens with an odd synth beat, which can only really be described as semi-aggressive. The song has a clapping beat to it, and might sound somewhat discotic at times: I like to think of it as a disco for demons. It’s the only way I can really describe it. While the tone may change and there may be bits of synth removed at times, it’s probably the most linear song when it comes to this, as it lacks a lot of changes in its sound. It’s not one of my favorites, but it’s interesting to listen to. You can tell Aural loves musical distortions, as this song’s full of them. As well as the usual vocal distortions.

Banboro Koubo opens with a distorted drum playing, before being followed by some more synth: It’s hard to describe it this time, but it really freaks me out for some reason. The verses’ sudden drop in tone also tends to convey an entirely different feeling along the same lines. I don’t really like this song, and I can never really tend to sit through it: Probably my least favorite track.

This next track has been extremely confusing to me for quite some time. Not the song itself; what’s been confusing me is the name. There’s an Aural Vampire song circulating the internet called Maria Rhythm, and as I don’t have the file to compare it with, I can’t tell whether Murealism is the same song or not. Anyway, moving on. This song is probably the most aggressive when it comes to its sound, as it has a rather piercing quality to it, despite the rather muffles sound of the instruments. I don’t like the fact that it takes about a minute to get to anything different though, so I never really sit through this song.

Oh good god. PNFPN wins for biggest surprise on an album. It opens to the sound of drums and an ethereal synth and piano combo, followed by music that sounds as if it was pulled straight from the 80’s. It has a bittersweet, melancholic (Wow, is that even a word?) feeling to it, yet it sounds positive as well. That’s what freaks me out about it: I remembed the translation hinting at some apocalyptic meaning behind the song, which fits: When the song reaches the 4:23, the song acts as if your CD’s screwing up and skips around, which leads into a return of the highly distorted voice of RAVEMAN. Despite the somewhat positive synth behind THIS speaking track, it still somewhat makes the song creepier. I love the synth for the majority of the song, but I can’t stand it when it starts to skip around: I scare exceedingly easily, so it’s no surprise.

Album Score
B-

Favorite Tracks
Preservative Woman, Hana no Sakigake

While this album regularly succeeds in creeping me out, I love it, no doubt. It just has some of the best songs I’ve ever heard, and I love how original it sounds compared to the usual music you’d hear. I mourn about this album for two reasons though:

1) It lacks their two best songs (Hot Blood Workout and Darkwave Surfer)

2) It marks is their first and only album since 2004-6. I recently heard word that they were signed by AVEX last year, so hopefully they make a comeback, as they’re still performing live and everything. What we have now, however, is pure gold in its own right.

NOTE: I’m considering bringing in a section where I review songs that haven’t appeared on a release, just so I can fawn over those fanboy songs that I can’t review yet. I chose this moment to announce it due to the aforementioned absence of Hot Blood Workout and Darkwave Surfer. So, look out for that~

ALSO, I’m still not sure what I’m doing with the reviews. Just a warning.

OOOOOOOTAAAAAY.

Sorry about the lack of reviews guys. My internet has been a total bitch to me lately, as I’ve run out of bandwidth. As such, I’m lucky to be able to post this warning. I won’t be able to review tonight because of said bandwidth, and tomorrow night I have a crapload of school work to catch up on after being sick for about a week (really bad chest/throat infection. ><), but come Thursday I promise to undergo a reviewing spree for you all~

Unless I have more work to catch up on. If THAT’S the case, expect the spree on Friday.

I’ll take this time to also announce my monthly special review…

Before I do, remember that this was a thing for artists I can’t actually feature on the website, or for special live/dvd releases from artists. So, yeah. Just so you all know. This months will be…

(Left: EXO-CHIKA – Vocalist
Right: RAVEMAN – Production)

Ah, Aural Vampire… Japanese Industrial Goth music at its best. This is the one genre I’d usually never think of getting into. However, for some reason, I absolutely fell in love with Aural Vampire. Despite their classing as a gothic industrial band, they have their share of breezy, upbeat songs that make them better for listeners like me. However, they obviously have industrial music too, which I don’t usually like. So it should make for an interesting review. Another interesting fact is the darker messages of their music compared to anyone else I feature. They get a lot of their ideas from those old B-horror movies, as well as apocalypse theories and ideas of demon invasions of earth. I consider them to be a concept band of sorts, because of this, which is also a rather interesting point.

The reason I don’t actually make this a proper feature is because they lack releases. They have their debut single, DEATH FOLDER, and their debut album, Vampire Ecstasy. Both were released in 2006, and the only other songs in their discography are some loose songs not shown on any release. Therefore, since DEATH FOLDER is impossible to find, I’ll be reviewing their album, Vampire Ecstasy. Look out for it as the end of the month draws closer.