The latest single from visual kei band gossip exhibits the beauty of the band's heavy music in its last two songs, though the title track may disappoint.
gossip's latest release is the single final call from August 2007. Unfortunately the group is now disbanded, and though it's been a while since we've heard new music from them, the latest single is worth taking a look at. The title track is hardly serviceable as an example of the band's ability, but the two B-sides prove the still young group was heading in a great direction.
Like a roller coaster of emotions, the title track is a little schizophrenic to say the least. With a temperamental pace and style, it's not an easy to number to simply listen to. It becomes even more difficult to get immersed in when the bridge arrives, announced by an incredible scream from Hiro on top of the preceding quiet, slow section. Joining his outburst is an anguished guitar that screams with just as much intensity and rides the inertia into a deranged, unpleasantly zany (though skillfully executed) solo. The highlight is the last chorus, where Hiro varies his melody line and concludes with another round of screaming. Overall, final call is an intense, emotionally exhausting piece, much more difficult to get through than the catchier tracks that succeed it.
public control CODE:155 is gossip on a full throttle rampage. The song is adorned with diabolical guitar riffs dispersed throughout and propelled by Masami's mercurial beats that become inhumanly rapid at times, conducting the reactions of a hypothetical audience in headbanging and air punching. Hiro's vocals in the chorus are desperate, as if he were on the run from something, echoing the sprinting feeling produced by the drums. The highlight is the bridge; rather than featuring a guitar solo, it offers an aria of strategically placed screams and growls. The series of bestial vocals forms a pattern that creates a depraved, hellish air and propagates a liberating, sinister revelry.
Where public control CODE:155 is loud and rowdy, the next track shows gossip's brand of beauty - still heavy and brisk, but highly elegant. Opening with mystical chimes and haunting notes, Cry if the Raver is a mix of heavy rock and something more natural and spiritual. A hard, mid-tempo song with ominous whispering and headbanging guitar riffs, it still manages a mystical, transcendental aura as a mysterious female voice floats throughout like a background chant. Hiro's singing style in the verse is similarly clouded with a mystical sensibility unlike what we've heard from him before. The quiet peacefulness of the verses - mostly just Takuya's bass under the vocals - provides a well placed contrast to the rest of the track. The melody and drums change in the final refrain, heightening the poignancy and emotional charge of the piece.
Ultimately, final call is an incredible single quite representative of the band. Even the least enjoyable song, its title track, leaves no doubt that the group's talent for music is exemplary. If you're wondering about the band or have yet to feel impressed with them so far, this single may turn you into a fan. Despite an excessively intense opening track, the next two redeem the release and show off gossip's best sides.
