Review Summary: Insanely good Japanese melodic death metal
For those who are unfamiliar, Imperial Circus Dead Decadence are a seven-piece symphonic melodic death metal band from Fukuoka, Japan that gained quite a bit of fame back in 2011 with the release of their second full-length album which expertly combined melodic death metal along with a variety of other genres including power, black, and symphonic metal. Due to this, the album became somewhat of a modern classic in the Japanese extreme metal scene. Aside from a short EP released in 2014, ICDD haven’t been up to too much and, as a result, many people were eagerly awaiting a follow up to their second full length. Luckily for us, ICDD ended up releasing
Fushoku rusanchiman, fushi yoku no sarugakuza. on December 31st, 2016. This ended up being an EP with a very similar style to the band's acclaimed sophomore album and also shows the band progressing their sound even further into theatrical anime themed melodic death metal that they have already mastered.
While the EP technically has five tracks, the last two are just symphonic variants of two of the tracks present on the album and, as a result, I will not be mentioning them again in the review. They are just a cool bonus at the end of the EP and nothing more. As a result, this EP is really only 17 minutes long, but, make no mistake, this release is a clear example of quality over quantity.
As the first track begins, the trademark ICDD sound can be heard as an exceptional melodic tremolo picked riff plays alongside epic sounding synths before the song flies into rapid fire blast beats. It is at this point that vocalist Rib:y(uhki) lets out an excellent shriek followed by spoken word narration and an absolutely superb melodic death metal riff similar to something At the Gates would play. As the song continues, Rib:y(uhki) alternates rapidly between death growls, high pitched shrieks, and clean singing similar to that of a power metal band as the guitarists alternate between superb melodic death and black metal riffs in the background. While all this is occurring, the riffs are backed up by melodic symphonic keyboards. This seven minute album opener perfectly sets the tone for the two tracks to follow and shows that ICDD are still a force to be reckoned with in the Japanese metal scene.
As one could guess by that description, ICDD have exceptional musicianship across the board. As I mentioned in the beginning, the band is currently made up of seven members. Rib:y(uhki) handles most of the vocals including the choirs and narration, along with the bass and some of the guitars on the album. His vocals, in my opinion, are some of the best in the extreme metal genre. He has a tendency to alternate between high pitched shrieks and devastating low growls that complement the rest of the music perfectly. His clean singing is also absolutely stellar, sounding like a cross between a power metal vocalist and a vocalist in an energetic anime opening song. While I have no idea what he is saying, his narration also adds a lot of character to the music and builds its theatrical atmosphere. The other vocals on the album are handled by Kimi from the Japanese metalcore band Bridear who, obviously, handles all of the female cleans on the album. A new member by the name of Hellnear is said to have performed some of the vocals on the album, but no other information is given. Kimi’s vocals, like with the past two ICDD releases are superb and also give off a similar power metal/anime vibe akin to Rib:y(uhki)’s vocals, adding character to the music. If I was to guess about Hellnear, I would say he is likely responsible for the pig squeal type vocals that briefly show up a few times on the album to add to the rapidly alternating vocals of Rib:y(uhki). For fans of these kinds of vocals they sound great and add to the fun, but for people that think they are annoying, don’t worry, they are not used very much at all.
As far as instrumentation goes, there are actually four guitarists credited on this release, but based on the fact that only two can be heard at one time and that Hull is also the keyboardist while Rib:y(uhki) is the vocalist, it is obviously an album written for two guitarists. These two guitarists are Kim and 飯塚æ‚*人, who is a new member. All of the guitar work on the album is absolutely stellar and incorporates a variety of different metal subgenres. Most of the riffs walk the line between melodic death metal and melodic black metal like I mentioned before, but there are also several riffs that incorporate traditional death metal and even a little bit of metalcore/deathcore at a few points. While there is a bass on the album, it is buried so deep in the dense theatrical sound that it is not worth talking about. Lastly, there is the drumming which is all you would want in an extreme metal album. The drumming is handled by yet another new member, 修平, who excellently performs blast beats and double bass the entire album.
It may seem a bit absurd to go on and on about an EP with three songs, but the music on this release is just that good. This is a release for just about any metal fan due to the wide array of genres incorporated into this bands sound. I would highly recommend this EP along with the band’s second full length to any metal fans into melodic death, power, or symphonic metal.
