CD Review :: Acid Black Cherry - BLACK LIST
CD Only Cover :
CD + DVD Type A Cover :
CD + DVD Type B Cover :
Tracklist :
1) sins
2) Shoujo no Inori (Girl's Prayer)
3) SPELL MAGIC
4) scar
5) Aishitenai (I Don't Love You)
6) Bit Stupid
7) Rakuen (Paradise)
8) Black Cherry
9) Murder Licence
10) Fuyu no Maboroshi (Winter's Illusion)
11) DRAGON CARNIVAL
12) Prologue End
BLACK LIST is Acid Black Cherry's debut album . It was released 2 years ago on 20th Feb & its peak position on the Oricon weekly album chart was #2 .
Acid Black Cherry's 1st 4 solo singles are included in BLACK LIST & it's the name of Hayashi Yasunori's solo project & he's affectionately/respectively known as yasu in the jrock industry .
Prior to this , yasu serves as the vocalist of the Jrock band Janne Da Arc .
3 years ago on January 26th , it was announced that Janne Da Arc would be taking a break and the members would be pursuing solo careers . It wasn't until June that year in that an announcement appeared on the official site of Janne Da Arc about the start of Acid Black Cherry which's yasu's solo project .
In fact , some of the guitar pieces for Acid Black Cherry's material are played by AKIHIDE who's the current guitarist of BREAKERZ . AKIHIDE in fact serves as a support guitarist for yasu's solo project & you can catch a glimpse or 2 of AKIHIDE in Acid Black Cherry's music videos except in yasu's 3rd single Aishitenai (I Don't Love You) , but obviously not as evident/visible as compared to BREAKERZ's .
Pretty much most of Acid Black Cherry's material is solely written & composed by yasu which's impressive .
sins is the 1st track to kick off BLACK LIST & it's the 2nd longest track , clocking in at 6:05 mins .
This song sets the bar on what you roughly might expect from Acid Black Cherry , dark & somewhat moody rock music & it's quite spellbinding in a way or 2 .
I thought I might be intimidated by sins due to the title & also the somewhat long duration of the song but surprisingly I wasn't & I warmed up the opening of BLACK LIST quite nicely .
Shoujo no Inori (Girl's Prayer) is the 2nd album track & unlike sins which's more organ driven , Shoujo no Inori's more guitars & drums driven . It's a lot more fast paced than sins & it flows quite nicely to the next song in BLACK LIST .
SPELL MAGIC is Acid Black Cherry's debut single & it sounds like a cousin of Shoujo no Inori in that both are aggressive & mean rock no.s . You can hear yasu's voice being distorted on here probably on purpose too .
scar is track #4 & I actually like this song . I don't know if you can consider this as a ballad but I suppose you can as it's a lot more slow paced & somewhat mellower as compared to Shoujo no Inori & SPELL MAGIC .
Also I was quite captivated with regards to the melody for scar as there's a certain charming quality that scar posesses which I like .
Aishitenai is Acid Black Cherry's 3rd single & the guitar piece for the song was played by AKIHIDE & the same thing goes for yasu's 4th single Fuyu no Maboroshi (Winter's Illusion) which I will review shortly .
In the case of Aishitenai , it's an emotional driven ballad which's more or less almost on the same music vein as scar since both are not rock thumping no.s & are quite subtle in a way or 2 .
I actually like Aishitenai on 1st listen way before I listened to scar so this's good & yasu sounded vulnerable in here too .
Bit Stupid is BLACK LIST's 4th album track & despite the somewhat odd funny title , it's 1 of the songs that takes on a more pop route which's a refreshing change as most of the material you can find in BLACK LIST can be quite dark for you to stomach .
Rakuen (Paradise) is 1 really fast paced & rock thumping song . It's almost in the same vein as other album tracks that I reviewed before so I leave it as it's since it's pretty much a standard rock offering you can find in BLACK LIST .
Black Cherry is Acid Black Cherry's 2nd single & this's 1 song that I really like on 1 listen .
I'm not sure why but I find that Black Cherry sounded like BREAKERZ's SECRET GIRL to a certain extent . Maybe because of the somewhat Jazz influences/vibes that Black Cherry gives out before it lashed out in full Rock mode after yasu belts out the 1st part of Black Cherry .
Not that it's a bad thing since I adore both songs & it helps that BREAKERZ really respects Acid Black Cherry's body of work so there .
Murder Licence is track #9 & oh boy oh , I had strong deja vu vibes of DAIGO☆STARDUST's 5th single SCAPEGOAT on 1st listen as the guitar riffs being given off by Murder Licence is really strong/prominent .
This song is probably 1 of the songs in BLACK LIST that's more hard rock driven & unlike other album tracks , there's something about Murder Licence that I like . Maybe because of the subtle Gospel influences you can hear in the background of the song .
Fuyu no Maboroshi is Acid Black Cherry's 4th single & the final single you can find in BLACK LIST & like what I said before , aside from Aishitenai , BREAKERZ's AKIHIDE is credited as the one who played the guitar piece for Fuyu no Maboroshi .
As the title suggests , you can hear quite a fair amount of winter influences going on in Fuyu no Maboroshi . It's not as emotional driven as Aishitenai with it being a power rock song but this's still really worth listening/checking out .
DRAGON CARNIVAL is track #11 & you somewhat or another can sense that this's a no nonsense rock song . It's not as depressing/dark as some of the songs in BLACK LIST . It's basically a good song to jam alongside with .
Prologue End is the final track in BLACK LIST & it's also the longest track , clocking at 6:13 mins .
The 1st thing that greets you when you take Prologue End a listen is beautiful piano melodies in the introduction . The song slowly takes on a life of its own where it branches out to something which the music style's almost simliar to the 1st song in BLACK LIST , sins .
Except for Prologue End's case , it's pretty much simple & heartfelt & you can feel just how much emotions that yasu gives off at the final league of BLACK LIST .
BLACK LIST is pretty much a solid Acid Black Cherry album . I was a bit skeptical in trying out yasu's solo material & also I had no exposure as to how his band Janne Da Arc sounds like .
But after listening on what yasu has to offer for his solo project , I might consider to try out Janne Da Arc's material in the future & since he pretty much writes & composes everything in Acid Black Cherry , you have to give props to him .
Guess this shows at the end of the day , you shouldn't let someone's image get in the way in trying out an artiste's material . I had that with regards to DAIGO☆STARDUST but after I broke down that barrier with DAIGO's past solo career alter ego , I discovered this simple lesson & it's now evident & proof it also applies to Acid Black Cherry too .
yasu's 2nd solo album Q.E.D. will be reviewed in due time .
