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…’

Malice Mizer – Part I

1994

1996

1992-2001

There are many different sides to Malice Mizer – their elaborate outfits and stageshows, their dual guitar attack, their ‘eras’ (defined by who was singing), the band that gave birth to Gackt, crossdressing non-speaking leader Mana. Over their four albums (plus non-album singles) they showed a lot of variety and versatility; however underneath it all, they did rely on something of a formula to remain fairly consistent throughout their career. Listening to and watching them can be quite an experience, they are a band that invites obsession and devotion from its fanbase.

The lineup changed a few times over the years: Mana (guitar, synth, main songwriter), Közi (guitar, synth, occasional songwriter), Yu~ki (bass), Kami (drums, died 1999 and not replaced); the three vocalists Tetsu, Gackt and Klaha all had their own style and brought something to the band.

Memoire (1994)
Their first album is their most traditionally gothic release, with it flanged guitars (which wouldn’t be out of place with the likes of The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, The Cure) and generally dark themes. Tetsu is quite a distinctive singer, relying on a forceful emotive voice with lots of vibrato; it isn’t hard to see why fans of the ultra-smooth Gackt or faux-operatic Klaha don’t like him (but again, old-school gothic fans shouldn’t have a problem, as he sounds quite a bit like Robert Smith). For me, this is their most consistent album, but at 28 minutes definitely could have been longer. ‘Kioku to Sora’ probably sums up the album best: minor key, baroque allusions, an unpredictable structure and Tetsu wailing over the top (I enjoy his wailing however). ‘Seraph’, the only song written by Közi, is the best showcase for Tetsu’s vocals, with some lovely harmonies over a very saccharinely sweet synth backing (plus a wonderful key change). Also impressive is the bouncy ‘Miwaku no Rooma’, featuring a distinctive synth-violin part, and the beautiful ballad ‘Eege Gekai ni Sasagu’. The final track, ‘Baroque’, used to unquestionably be my favourite; now I can see all its flaws quite clearly (though this doesn’t stop me from loving it). It features some brilliant Bach-quoting on dual guitars, a great two part chorus (the stop-start bit and the falsetto bit) and a rousing finale (“Oh my sweet corpse!”), but for some reason, has a Für Elise guitar solo – 1. No one needs to hear Für Elise again. 2. The song is called ‘Baroque’, but includes a Für Elise quote? It’s from the Classical/Romantic period! Overall, I enjoy this album immensely, but a better summary of the early years would have to be the Tetsu’s Last Live bootleg, documenting Tetsu’s final show with the band (he left over artistic differences). They play nearly every song from the band’s early years (showing that there was surely enough material for another album, but alas, it was not to be) though the sound quality isn’t too great.

Voyage~Sans Retour~ (1996)
This one is completely different to Memoire; the only ‘links’ with the past seem to be ‘Shi no Butou’ and ‘Tsuioku no Kakera’, the former a very catchy dual guitar song and the latter more of the same (though it does sound like something of a prototype for ‘Bel Air’ on the next album). Part of the change is down to new vocalist Gackt – he sounds much more ‘professional’ and trained than Tetsu, he has a very smooth tone and an impressive range (though he is not always to my taste). Probably the biggest letdown with this album is not the lack of guitars, but what they decide to do within this new format. Synths are used throughout to imitate strings and orchestras on, for the most part, fairly unexciting ballads and pop songs that lack energy. When they do decide to up the excitement, on NPS NGS, it ends up in an almost embarrassing industrial dance track that really doesn’t suit the band. This probably does sound overly harsh, but their are some bright points: the aforementioned guitar songs, ‘Madrigal’ with its quite cute and fey sound. But really, they would do the baroque-classical-goth-pop-band thing much better on Merveilles.