Look at us! We're all macho and gritty now that we're not wearing makeup and making music videos in gay-clubs
A friend of mine sent me this link earlier and reminded me of what I had said in my earlier blog post about Dir en Grey being the most overrated band of the decade and their song, 'Clever Sleazoid' being an intolerable piece of garbage.
I think the reaction she was perhaps looking for from me involved a spoon and a slice of humble pie with my name on it, given that it would appear that Dir en Grey's huge popularity within overseas fan-circles is not simply because they were in the right place at the right time, as I put it, but instead due to their high quality creative output and innovation of craft.
Unfortunately for she who prepared me the pie, I'm not hungry and certainly do not feel convinced to change my mind on this one.
To this writer Dir en Grey are an exceptionally mediocre band, that despite overcoming the clutches of their Visual Kei routes for the better, are nothing more than a two-a-penny post-hardcore band with formulaic song structures and occasionally a little more melody than their counterparts. Very little, if anything, separates their sound from many other western groups which have existed longer than them and received no where near as much exposure or success.
As for the song in question, "The Final", probably Dir en Grey's most tolerable single in latter years in my eyes, I can't help but think that such billing as the "best JRock song of the decade" is ever so slightly blasphemous in the name of Japanese rock itself. Sure, it's got a catchy chorus – great! It's got some crazy industrial sounding production inserts – neato! The guitarists have clearly bought POD effect units – wowza! But despite all of these truly smashing elements in "the final" analysis I find it to be quite dreary and bland in that never really amounts to anything musically and misses so many avenues which could have taken it to a higher level, avenues which were not crossed due to a restrictive and formulaic song structure or the short-sightedness of the composer(s).
Sorry Diru fans, it's nothing personal - I just don't see what's so special about the band, or indeed this song, at all.
K.
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