REVIEW: Dir en grey – Dum Spiro Spero

If there is one album you should have been watching and waiting for this year, it should have been this one. 14 years of refinement has left the 5-piece metal heads full of inspiration and musical prowess. They have, once more, delivered a top-quality piece of work in their 8th studio album “Dum Spiro Spero” which is a latin phrase meaning “While I breathe, I hope”.

Track list
1. Kyoukotsu no nari (狂骨の鳴り)
2. The Blossoming Beelzebub
3. Different Sense
4. Amon
5. “Yokusou ni Dreambox” aruiwa seijuku no rinen to tsumetai ame (「欲巣にDREAMBOX」あるいは成熟の理念と冷たい雨)
6. Juuyoku (獣慾)
7. Shitataru mourou (滴る朦朧)
8. Lotus
9. Diabolos
10. Akatsuki (暁)
11. Decayed crow
12. Hageshisa to, kono mune no naka de karamitsuita shakunetsu no yami (激しさと、この胸の中で絡み付いた灼熱の闇)
13. Vanitas
14. Ruten no you (流転の塔)

More experimental and darker than their previous works, Dum Spiro Spero is complete with death growls as their recent works all include as well as Kyo’s well-known and well-loved vocals. The album, in fact, includes more singing than their previous work on Uroboros and has many other sounds we have not heard before from Kyo.

The instrumentals are nothing short of perfection with many brilliant guitar pieces being brought into each song as well as powerful bass and drums. Musically, each song is very different but masterfully created and you can hear the emotion poured into the whole album very easily.

The music is deeply abstract and experimental, as Dir en grey are known for, and each song may have quick tempo changes or complete mood changes if needed. This leads to create some truly emotive and powerful songs and display their meanings even more accurately through the music.

The album starts off with a harrowing intro track and progresses slowly through the second song into death growls. It is very easy to notice quickly how singing has been used a lot more within the album. It begins it’s closure with the very beautiful track “Vanitas” before finally edging out after just over an hour of music.

This is definitely an album which demands your attention while you are listening and never encounters a dull moment. Pushing you further into the world of madness since their last releases, Dir en grey have definitely refined their sound and created what they have wanted to for a long time. The sounds are an amalgamation of all their works to date and a compilation created from 14 years of hard work.

The tracks “Different Sense”, “Lotus” and “Hageshisa to, kono mune no naka de karamitsuta shakunetsu no yami” are all re-mastered versions of the single releases so sound slightly different to their single versions and are not just copied directly.

This album has been released as a standalone CD, a special digipak and a deluxe edition featuring the album on 2 vinyl LPs, the digipak version which features bonus tracks and a DVD. It is available to purchase on The Omega Order and CDJapan.

-Akumu

Sources: Band Image, Album Artwork

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