狂おしく咲いた凄惨な骸は奏で、愛おしく裂いた少女は聖餐の詞を謳う

Time to review the album that got me into metal as a whole, so I might be biased and give this a higher score than it should since I have a soft spot for this album.

ICDD has been known for being a really weird band that fuses a bunch of genres into something that is truly theirs, and this is no different, although this release might be their most accessible one since they established their essential style of melodic death/black metal that sounds awfully similar to Bal-Sagoth in presentation and songwriting conventions, which is a good thing since they both took the overdone and boring melodic extreme metal genres and gave it a new lease on life, but for ICDD it made them took a more simplified songwriting approach since their debut featured more inaccessible songwriting.

Even with the simplified songwriting, there are still some really interesting ideas that were utilized in different ways, like the siamese twin songs from track 1+2 that was used in their first full length but less seamless/jarring than it is here. But the rest of the songs are not really unique with a few exceptions. And the band also adopted a more metalcore/deathcore adjacent sound here and at some parts it sounded cringe but mercifully those sections were very short. Even then, whenever there was a deathcore breakdown they did their best to make them sound good and unique by adding wailing vocals or guitar solos.

Fans of their first album might notice that the guitars sound more dominant and have way more creativity behind it, which is a welcome change since it is a gripe of mine despite the better songwriting that was present in their first album. The production also improved which is HUGE because the symphonics, instruments and vocals are now more audible and balanced, and sound less intrusive compared to their first album (ironically the bass would get buried when it was audible on their poorly produced first album)

And to the vocals, I've praised Rib before for his vocal prowess and the vocal work here did not show anything new, just things that are present on the 1st and 3rd ICDD albums so I would not go into them, read my other reviews for more info. The female vocals on the other hand, Kylie (the female vocalist for their first album) did not participate in many clean vocal sections, she primarily narrates the songs, so the female clean vocals fall onto a guest member: KIMI from Bridear. This is an improvement over the female vocal performance compared to their first full length because Kylie frequently sung off key and it was very distracting, while having an actual power metal vocalist allows ICDD to write more parts to accomodate her wider vocal range, but they seemed to chose not to capitalize on that since there are significantly less female vocal sections in this album compared to their other albums, which is a bummer.

A very good album overall, it just suffers from literal middle child syndrome where its succesor and predeccesor surpasses it in multiple parts where it made the middle one look mediocre. I'd still take this album over those Gothenburg copycats, at least this one is genuinely fun to listen to did not bore me to death. In my opinion, the direction this album took to make it a more melodeath version of Cradle of Filth is what made it stood out from the other 2 albums, with the first being very unique and has no equivalent, while the third sounds like Fleshgod Apocalypse if they weren't shit.

Pros: Excellent songwriting (for melodeath standards), more guitar solos, better production, more accessible sound
Cons: A step back from their first album songwriting wise, prog keyboards are gone, adopted a more modern/Gothenburg-esque melodeath sound, complete with metalcore/deathcore elements

Best tracks: 1+2, 6, 10, 11
Worst track: 3 (it has a really momentum halting deathcore breakdown that is very distracting but only lasts a few seconds, still a good song)

FFO: Vermillion-D Alice Syndrome, Kokuyasou, Septicflesh, Cradle of Filth, Bal-Sagoth, melodeath/meloblack in general

Yep, this is definitely Japanese. From the band's nonsensical English language name to the anime chick that doesn't in any way imply that the album contains extreme symphonic metal that graces the cover, to the way the music bounces off the walls with a madcap, ADHD-addled energy like Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird, this is the sort of album that nobody but the Japanese seems capable of making. That being said, this release, the title of which is far too long to write down in full, is a heady rush of metal goodness with plenty of sanity-defying stuff like odd narration and cartoonish choirs juxtaposed against more serious harsh vocals and bright, energetic keyboards that rise up and dominate for a moment without warning. This album's willingness to jump from one idea to the next so abruptly might be tiring for listeners not used to this sort of thing, but most of said ideas are good ones and the way they mix together to form a melange of melodeath and symphonic and power metal (with hints of black metal and deathcore) imbued with a baroque atmosphere and a Danny Elfman-esque whimsicality, makes this a fun and bizarre adventure.

Had Tim Burton been born and raised in Japan and gone on to pursue a career in music, he could reasonably be expected to make something like this. There’s a grandiosity to this entire album and a dark gothic character rendered cheerful with pervading sensibilities of energetic surrealism. ICDD has a proclivity toward taking the uglier aspects of metal, like harsh vocals and fast, abrasive passages that scared your younger sister when her bedroom was across the hall from yours, and fuses them with a more traditional beauty. Every deathcore breakdown (which are mercifully few in number and brief in duration) and every burst of blastbeat-laden melodeath either has some warm, and often complex, neoclassical orchestration backing it up or is followed by something lighter and less threatening, like clean, sometimes operatic vocals or a calmer moment that includes a bit of narration.

There's a lot of variety in this album, with every song having something that sets it apart from the others. Track three (most of these tracks also have names too long to transliterate here) has the manic, jumpy energy of Red Bull-induced heart palpitations beneath the metalcore shrieking and a solid breakdown later on that feeds into an infectious groove. Song number four has a strong power metal slant with an addictive clean chorus and some out-of-control soloing. Track six is possibly the strangest number here, with a bunch of odd starts and stops scattered about, as well as a healthy amount of dissonant guitar and a chorus that seems ripped straight from a cartoon musical you’ve never seen. But for all the twists and turns this album takes, ICDD’s commitment to slathering on the neoclassical embellishments keeps it grounded and makes the songs sound like they’re all part of the same concept, despite their differences.

As for the actual performances, it’s kind of hard to keep track of them all. I'm not sure how many singers are actually on this album but there are at least half a dozen different vocal styles on display. There are two 'normal' clean vocalists, a man and a woman, both with middle-of-the-road tones that would probably fit in a pop or alternative rock context but don't sound at all out of place here. There seems to be two different growlers (one of whom has a much deeper and more sinister tone), one shrieker, occasional choirs, and two narrators, one of whom seems to be a woman with the voice of a baby. The only real issues concerning the human voices captured on this album are that there’s too much narration taking up space on the album and that the shrieked vocals aren’t especially pleasant. There’s a lot going on here, with the different vocal approaches almost seeming to battle each other for dominance. With the musical stylings behind the vocals switching from pure neoclassical to straightforward metal to ambience just as quickly, this is an album that keeps you guessing all the way through.

The music on this release is a bit dizzying in the way it goes way off in one direction before abruptly changing its mind and teleporting to completely different territory but that’s what makes it so much fun. With the nearly constant baroque flavor and melodic death metal backbeat providing a foundation for everything else, the album is paradoxically coherent and cluttered. As insane as this music often is, one never gets the sense that the band isn't in full control of what's going on. Like fellow weird-ass Japanese metal band Sigh, ICDD has an uncanny ability to take vastly different musical ideas and have them not only make sense, but also sound amazing, when shoved together.

This right here is Imperial Circus Dead Decadence's magnum opus, no doubt about that. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's at least worth a listen. Even if it doesn't quite match your taste, it'll leave a big impact on you.

The thing that stands out the most to me about this album is how experimental it is. There's a wide variety of metal styles incorporated, some more noticeable than others. These include power, gothic, melodic death, symphonic, black and a bit of metalcore. Along with that, there are also different vocal styles (clean, harsh, female and even spoken). There's this somewhat cheesy, over-the-top Touhou / anime-esque tone in general, and some people may get put off by that, which is totally understandable. But if you can look past that, you'll find that the songs here have a lot to offer. Catchy guitar riffs, hard-hitting drums, beautiful synth melodies, unique vocals and, of course, lots of variation.

If there's one major complaint I have, it's the fact that a lot of the songs drag out a bit too long. I also got the impression that some songs, especially track 6, while highly enjoyable, felt like they were all over the place, bordering on messy. This is especially apparent in regards to the guitars. Some people may also get annoyed by the amount of narration used, but I personally didn't mind it. In fact, I felt like it added another layer of epicness to the package as a whole.

So in conclusion, I've been a huge fan of this album ever since I heard it back in 2011 and it still holds up just as well today. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a really fun and exciting ride from start to finish - non-stop entertainment. It's hard to resist headbanging, let's just say that.

The main trouble with the album is that a large chunk of the songs are a bit too long, which can test on listening attention span. Diving into the intro its pretty good with symphonic sounds but seems to lack some atmosphere at end.

The album opens up well with a good sound and screamed vocals but falls short when there are some less 'heavy' notes and starts to seems drawn out with just a bit too many clean vocals but overall is a good start. There are a few good tracks with strong growled vocals and interesting music progressions.

The later half of the album is good but nothing too exciting with good mixes of clean vocals and growls and screams. At point the music is a little dull with uninspired drums but generally good bass and guitar. At one point on track ICDD either give Dir en Grey a tribute or happened to use the guitar intro to ZAN which is well done and makes for an intresting diversion from their usual style but still seems well placed in the album. Some of the songs have their own short intros which don't bring much to the song except for one or two tracks out of five that use the 'mini intro'.

Although possibly some of the intros might get tiresome after a while, they are varied enough that they don't become a negative impact on the album. The last few tracks are a little bit unmemorable except for track 9 with great heavy points and good thick vocals. There is a slight let down by an odd ending with some badly mixed clean and growled vocals although the music is good. An enjoyable album such as this deserves a good end and it falls short here without a big finale or creepy outro and would have made the whole experiance more enjoyable.

All in all a good heavy death metal type symphonic album!!