a little iceman with your tea?
i've decided to do this little review shit thing weekly, where i review new music i've listened to.
Album Name: GATE II
Artist: Iceman
Year: 1999
Number of tracks: 10
Genres: Rock, electronic, dance, pop, Jpop/Jrock
iceman was a pop/rock trio formed by daisuke asakura in, i believe, 1997. formed of himself (keyboards), kenichi ito (guitar), and michiro kuroda (vocals), iceman dominated the japanese charts until their break-up in 2001. before i start this review, i'd like to post a bit of bitching about iceman. daisuke asakura and kenichi ito did music for the anime series Gravitation, this shitty yaoi that almost all the little weeaboo fangirls love. therefore, the only way they've ever heard of DA, K-ito, or Iceman is because of songs like SHINING COLLECTION and sleepless beauty. they piss me off because a lot of them say they love bands like iceman or other da-related groups, but in reality only know them through these songs. they can die, plzkthx. /bitch
anyway, let's start. the opening track, RED Gate open, is your usual opening DA-fare - about a minute long, sounds kinda creepy, and fades into the album's second track, which is in this case, PERFECT FUTURE. perfect future has a kinda military/rave opening that delves into some of the usual iceman rock/dance track. it sounds a little bit like 8 Banme No Jutsu, from their previous album Digiryzm Mutation. after this is Expander Drive Machine, with Kenichi on vocals. it sounds a little American, and has an opening that sounds like a combination of something from Acid Android and the opening of BEAUTY SITE, another DM track. i giggled a little at this one, because when Kenichi sings "Expander," his shitty english makes it sounds like he's singing SPONGEBOB. x3 anyway, engrish-speaking japanese men aside, the next track is a nice little pop ballad, Wish Matrix, that has some groovy twang disco guitar and some nice synth work from DA. the next track, CAUTION!, reminds me, once again, of a track from DM, SweetJank SweetGap. it's faster, and more ravy, though, and also has a nice combination of fake vocals from DA and distorted vocals from Michiro. the piano work here reminds me of the music to a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Space Dreamer, the next track, oh my god. oh my god. this is, like, my favorite track on the whole album. it's got a great opening riff from kenichi, and then goes into this groovy 80s "everything's gonna be ok" kinda music. it also has the most hilarious engrish on the whole album: "I wanna love a gay, ooh yeah...do you wanna miss your mars, right?" goddamnit kenichi. the engrish is kinda cute, but english lessons plz. the next song, FATE WEATHER, is this crazy fuckwin power song with awesome kenichi guitar that almost sounds like 60s surfer music and a great chorus. it even includes a kenichi english speech that's kind of win right before the bridge. the eighth track on the album, GATE II~sensitive gate, is kinda neat, but a little generic as far as DA ballads go. it's kinda relaxing, sleepytime music, even though it could do without the distorted vocals. and then, of course, is the weeaboo crazy SHINING COLLECTION, which i really have nothing to say about because it was cool when i was 10. and finally, it ends with another DA instrumental, For the next gate from RED. it sounds slightly hiphop in the opening, but then fades into this eighties science fiction movie kinda music, which i've noticed is a bit repetitive for DA instrumentals.
overall, i give this album an 8.5. it has some forgettable music, such as PERFECT FUTURE, but it makes up for that with awesome tracks like Space Dreamer and FATE WEATHER. i consider this the height of Iceman's career, has the sleek new style of the gate series without the repetitiveness, as well as the old-school iceman sound of Power Scale and Digiryzm Mutation. if you anime fans really liked Shining Collection, i implore you to at least TRY to find this album. it's probably out of print, but if you look in the right places you could probably download it or something (sorry DA/Kenichi, but we really can't support you if your albums are out of print)
night everyone :3