Nexus

Honestly, I genuinely forgot about this single. Usually, I don't look into nor review singles because, yeah, the material's on another EP or album. That isn't the case with Nexus. So yeah, this is Saika's first outing, and damn. Not even a year, and Kiki left. Ryo's also gone. Standard stuff that I've said in my other reviews. I'm gonna have to go track-by-track here, since there are only three tracks.

The title track is okay, I guess. Nothing sticks out at me aside from Saika's growls, which sound great here, and the somewhat understated synths (At least by modern BSC standards). Sure, Saika's mid screams don't even sound as good as they do on subsequent releases, but they don't ruin the track. In fact, it's everything else aside from the two elements I mentioned that kinda just bore me to sleep. Sure, the guitar solo sounds good, but that's about it.

"Insignia" is the best track here, but that doesn't say much. With that being said, it's good. The guitarwork is a bit better overall here, but the track just sounds like a neutered Idolator B-side. Saika, again, has some fantastic growls, and the synths are really nice here.

Alright, then we have "Meteor-light". I'll be taking back my compliments about the synths. Sure, they're still understated, but they completely clash with every other element. Absolutely baffling. Saika is the only thing positive I can highlight about this track, but the effects on his clean vocals ruin them here. Why did they feel the need to do that? Excellent question. I dunno, his clean singing is fine on the other two tracks. On the bright side, his growls and mids are probably at their best here.

There isn't really much to say. In my review of The Legend, I criticized Saika's vocals and the synths the most, yet here they're the only redeeming factors. Nothing else interests me. Sure, it isn't overly bad, but it's just boring, which is absolutely worse to me. Even then, The Legend has better guitarwork at the price of the synths, Ryo and Sadew for the price of Saika, a couple tracks of good drums for a whole bunch of tracks with shit kits. Sure, that sounds even, but at least The Legend has a good number of tracks, whereas Nexus only has three. Still, I'm not complaining. I'll gladly take an inconsistent experience of good and bad over boring and dull shit. So fuck it, I'm glad that Nexus isn't even an EP. It makes for a great introduction to Saika, but that's it. Thankfully, Tri Odyssey is so much better than Nexus, and despite only having one more track (Which is strange because it has "Tri" in the name of the damn thing), it's an EP. I'm more frustrated than anything that I just can't get *anything* out of this. I listened to each track once, and I doubt I'll ever do so again. I'd like to apologize for my review of The Legend. I was way too harsh on that album compared to Nexus.

Tracks To Recommend: The first two, I guess
Tracks To Avoid: Listen to "Meteor-light" once and never again.

After a long period of silence during which I was questioning if the band was even active anymore, Blood Stain Child arose from the presumed ashes of the most recent lineup flux with Nexus, yet another "single" that is closer to an EP in content, and just like Last Stardust the purpose of this is to introduce the new members to the audience, and prove that they are capable of carrying Sophia's torch. One look at the lineup and I began to grow uneasy, since Kiki has been ousted in favor of a male vocalist (Saika). I found Kiki's mouse-like voice agreeable and fitting for the band's post-εpsilon style, but the idea of a male vocalist handling cleans after the disaster of Mozaíq really had me questioning the entire prospect from the outset.

Thankfully Saika is far more capable than Sadew was, but it still undermines Blood Stain Child's current approach. They need a very distinctive female vocalist; a male simply can't pull it off without sounding uncomfortably nasally and weird. Aki is also absent, although this is hardy a surprise given his wishy-washy demeanor lately. It still sounds like he is contributing the synth lines, but his presence is seriously dialed back save for bits of "Insignia." When I listen to tunes like this I hear a lot of Idolator in the approach, with riffs that have a bit more substance than the last couple of albums, and the overall keyboard sound is similar, with those loud, verbose FM synths dominating the background while the guitars crank out a few chunky rhythms and In Flames-esque hooks. I believe that fans of the band's earlier sound like Mystic Your Heart will even find something to enjoy here when the band truly slides into their comfort zone.

From a metal standpoint, Nexus remains quite wanting, and certainly won't satiate those looking for that here. Conversely, it also lacks the cheesy grandeur of εpsilon or even Last Stardust. 'Insignia" is probably the best of the three tunes here, and exudes a true throwback demeanor that makes me at least someone invested in Blood Stain Child's next move. Of course, I said the same thing two and a half years ago and nothing came of the last smattering of material they released. However now with Ryo out of the band, the band's creative unit is essentially crippled. I have heard that Ryo was extremely difficult to work with, so maybe this is for the best in the end. I could do without the Crossfaith-esque bass drops on the title track, but the other two songs are much more promising in my opinion. There is something here, but whether or not it has a chance to germinate remains to be seen.

I had been waiting to hear new material from Blood Stain Child for quite a while, and it seems my prayers to the metal gods were answered when I checked this site and saw that they were releasing a single. So, once release date came, I bought the album on iTunes for $2.99 (Which is a pretty good price considering 2/3 songs were pretty solid) and decided to give it a listen. Nexus was most likely released to showcase the new lineup's caliber (with guitarist Ryu being the only remaining original member), and I gotta say, they captured the BSC essence pretty damn well (though that's likely because Ryu had a say in the composition of the album).

The album opens with "Nexus", the title track that sounds like something reminiscent of Mozaiq, which happens to be my all time favourite BSC album. It had that signature BSC flavour that I know and love, the familiar and pleasing-to-the-ear Gothenburg riffs that Ryu loves to utilize, the ethereal clean vocals, the atmospheric keyboards, etc. Near the middle of the song there was a minor dubstep-ish part accompanied by chugs that would probably be displeasing to some, though I didn't really mind the experimentation they had going on. Saika's aforementioned ethereal cleans at the beginning and chorus had an almost melancholy feel to them (though I had thought it was a woman singing them at first because of his rather soft-sounding voice), giving the song quite a bit of atmosphere. The drums are pretty standard melodeath drumming, being mostly blast beats, the common tat-tat-tat-tat you hear on Gothenburg style melodeath during verses, cymbals going "tss-tss-tss", as well as a few interesting fills here and there. The bass is barely audible and you would need either good speakers or headphones to hear it so I'm not going to say much else. I'll have to admit, I wasn't particularly fond of the song at first, but that might of been because I had first heard it watching the music video on Youtube and focusing too much on the cheesy 80s power metal-esque visuals than the music itself, but it grew on me and I already liked the song by the time the album was released.

Then we have "Insignia", which sounds like something you'd hear on εpsilon, with Saika's clean vocals even sounding very similar to Sophia's, start-stop chugging, fill-in-the-blanks keyboards, typical drumming that you would hear on εpsilon, and some guitar leads here and there. The song sounds much like something that would be used as an opening theme for an anime (and I wouldn't be surprised if it actually does end up becoming one considering two songs off of their Last Stardust EP were used as opening and closing themes for a visual novel game apparently).

And finally, we have the bad apple of the bunch, "Meteor-Light". This song does not really sound like BSC at all, because the electronic elements were very all over the place and clashing with the guitars, almost like they're trying to compete in taking the lead role of the song, compared to the previous two songs on the album (and BSC songs in general) which have have the electronic elements either supporting the other instruments, or taking the lead while the other instruments act as backup, both flawlessly blending, whereas in "Meteor-Light", both are trying to play the same role in the song at the same time, which resulted in the song sounding incoherent, and not flowing like it should have. Honestly, just avoid this track altogether if you're going to buy Nexus on iTunes and just buy the first two tracks on their own, because "Meteor-Light" isn't even worth having in your library being the sonic mess that it is.

Overall, the album is above average and the production is pretty clear as you can hear almost every instrument (though only those blessed with good speakers or headphones can hear the bass), and it's a pretty decent showcase of the new members' talents, however, I feel like it's missing something because Nexus wasn't necessarily bad, but it wasn't exactly mind-blowing either because I feel it lacks a certain something, though I'm not sure what. All in all, if you're a big fan of BSC like me, don't mind the somewhat averageness of the album and are willing to spend a couple bucks, then add this album to your library.