One word: Wow.
When the video to this song got leaked-out before it's release and I watched it, I was less than impressed. However, after pre-ordering this single and finally getting it in the mail, I was blown away by the song.
Let's start with the box art. It seems to just be a ball of human limbs joined together in some sort of Silent Hill-esque form. However, upon thinking about it, I came-up with this conclusion: When snakes breed, they join in this sort of snae-orgy-ball. Maybe that could be what's being depicted on this box, except with people. A weird theory, I know . . .
The actual song RYOJOKU NO AME took a while for me to get into it, but after that, I fell in love with it. I think it's one of Dir en grey's best songs to date, and everytime I listen to it, I notice something that I hadn't before. The stars of the song are definitely Kyo (who's vocals are as great as ever) and Toshiya (whose bass-playing is the center of the song).\
Now then, onto the live tracks. The best one has to be THE FINAL, with Mr. NEWSMAN coming-in at a close second. Kyo's vocals on the two tracks are strong and great, and towards the end of THE FINAL, he gets very into it. However, the song 悲劇は目蓋を下ろした優しき鬱 (HIGEKI WA MABUTA WO OROSHITA YASASHIKI UTSU) is the most lacking of the four tracks. Kyo's vocals are barely audible and it's weird that they would choose the slowest song from Withering to death. for one of the live tracks; it just doesn't seem to fit with the other three songs.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5

---

Back to Vulgarity: A Tribute to Dir en grey

Back to Whiskers Reviews Dir en grey