Malice Mizer – Part II

1998

2001

Merveilles (1998)

An incredibly diverse listen, approaching pop perfection. This is the album where they hit the big time, moving to a major record label, reaching number 2 in the charts. They released five (!) singles from this album, all with high budget videos and convoluted plots. All of the singles are brilliant – the beautiful ballad ‘Au Revoir’, with its reverse music box intro and moving violin solo (this was the first song of theirs I came across, and the video is  probably my sentimental favourite); ‘Bel Air’, the culmination of their twin lead guitar obsession, its mesmerising interlocking parts are permanently imprinted into my fingers after learning this for a high school performance; Közi’s ‘Illuminati’ and ‘Gekka no Yasoukyoku’, two creepy carnivalesque dancey numbers perfect for his ‘jester’ persona; and finally ‘Le Ciel’, the only song written by Gackt, is quite nice, it reminds me of a song commissioned for an anime. Other highlights include the Yu~ki written ‘Syunikiss’, an epic ‘sea shanty’, and a reworking of ‘Eege Gekai ni Sasagu’ (I go back and forth on whether it’s better than the original). However, as this is such a diverse album, the band do bite off more than can chew, which results in several misfires – the video game industrial mess of ‘S-Conscious’, and ‘Je te Veux”s sickly sweet Eurodance. But really, this doesn’t matter too much since the band manages to hit so many highs here. It appeared that Malice Mizer were at the peak of their powers, the height of their popularity…

Bara no Seidou (2000)

Tragedy struck for the band as Gackt decided to leave (possibly a dispute over creative control, egos, the usual) and then Kami died from a brain haemorrhage. This sent the band into mourning; the colourful historical outfits were swapped for more traditional Victorian gothic clothes, the guitars and synths (for the most part) exchanged for authentic Baroque instrumentation. Klaha is now the vocalist, but he only features on five songs here, as he hadn’t been announced as an official member yet. This is definitely their most unified sounding album, as the instrumentation is kept fairly consistent and certain chord progressions appear time and again (mostly the vi-ii-V-I-IV-ii-V-III/i-iv-VII-III-VI-iv-VII-V one). The album begins in quite a prog-rock manner, with track one, an instrumental overture introducing the melodic theme of the album, followed by an 8 minute epic. At the moment it’s all pipe organs, strings and faux operatic vocals (plus a brief teasing glimpse of the old dual guitar sound). The rest of the tracks follow a similar sort of sound with minor variations – an industrial beat and choir in track 3, harpsichord in tracks 4, 5, 9, 10, a bit of wall-of-sound metal guitar in tracks 6 and 8. The standouts would have to be track 4, a lovely pop song with a key change in the chorus, track 10, a moving instrumental tribute to Kami, and track 9, possibly the definitive Malice Mizer song. This song really is amazing, finally reintroducing the twin guitar sound of years gone by and melding it with the current pipe organ/harpsichord sound, adding in ‘scary’ storm sounds, a dramatic pause before the chorus and a wonderful modulation. As stated before, this is their most unified album statement, rather than just a collection of songs. It does get quite monotonous when you’re not in the mood for it, and I for one really miss the guitars, but this album is still a fitting finale for their career.

Extras

The four albums themselves don’t quite tell the whole story – there is world of demo tapes, bootlegs, non-album singles, concerts and videos that are essential to this band’s story. Here’s a brief guide:

Demo Tapes: Sans Logique is their first release, it is all instrumental and has terrible sound quality; Sadness/Speed of Desperate has two excellent songs, the first an ethereal ballad, the second a sort of speed metal piece.

Bootlegs: Tetsu’s Last Live is the definitive document of their early years, featuring almost all the songs from 1992-1994. A 1993 one, Higeki no Bansan, is also pretty good. Gackt’s First Live is pretty interesting in that it has Gackt attempting some Tetsu songs (they really don’t suit his voice). The Gardenia Tour has one of their last shows, the best bit is when Klaha’s voice breaks in the climax of ‘Shiroi’.

Non-album Singles: the early Gackt ones from 1996 are quite nice, and probably should have been on Voyage. Their three final releases were also in this format – Beast of Blood (uninteresting plodding metal, but with an excellent chorus), Gardenia (one of their best pop songs) and Garnet (likewise).

Concerts: There is a video for Tetsu’s Last Live, though it’s mostly just a straightforward gig. Merveilles L’Espace, their best visual spectacle at the height of the popularity in 1998. Bara no etc. more of the same but much darker.

Videos: Almost all their singles had fancy, elaborate videos to go along with them, the best being ‘Au Revoir’, ‘Beast of Blood’, ‘Gekka no Yasoukyoku’, and ‘Shiroi…’