Moi dix Mois - DIXANADU
review by Miz

Moi dix Mois appears in the midst of extremely good and extremely bad VK albums, armed with his new Dix Dagger and a new army of Dix Warriors. He is in the middle at this moment. This album has put him there.

It starts with Dispell Bound, which starts with horror movie sounds, then the chanting of "D-I-X Dix!". It's actually not a bad song. It's pretty good. To be honest, it's the perfect beginning of a Mana album. It should have led in something that isn't the next song; Angelica. Angelica has a nice beginning. When the band finally kicks off the song, it's very powerful. Worth headbanging. Up until Seth sings, where everybody falls asleep and dreams about Malice Mizer until Seth wakes up and startles the rest of the band. For the rest of the song, everything fits together so perfectly. The clean guitar shimmers, the distorted guitar shreds nicely (A new thing for Mana). This song is one of few on the album-- a land untreaded by many. The vocal harmonies, the basslines, Mana in general, and the drumming are just wonderful.

Next is Metaphysical. The opening says "average Mana song", then it starts rippin'. But that's only temporary. It get really flat and ploddy from there. It does everything I expect. And that doesn't make me happy. The chorus is like.. pasted in. Like Mana wrote all the parts to the album seperately, and just pasted them together as he saw fit.

Exclude has the most awesome Mana-synth ever other than Neo-Pessimist. But the vocals are.. well, bland. This song would be cool if it didn't get really boring for the verses. The drumming is just.. really bland. And when Mana does his "I'm gonna hold a long note to start the verse" thing, it just makes me not interested in the song anymore. This song is boring. Really boring.

As for Last Temptation.. well, I must ask why he didn't redo a better song. Plus Seth says the "Voice of temptation whispers you far away" part really.. oddly.

Immortal Madness.. should not be on the album. But it is good for concerts.

Neo Pessimist has a great synth line in the beginning. But I disliked the FIRST Pessimist song. So.. this one comes pre-stamped with me not liking it.

Xanadu is a snoozefest. Nothing happens for most of the song. It's like that one horror movie where it's all talking for like an hour and a half.

A Lapis Nights Dream is filler. It's 30 seconds of Mana saying "I like classical music!". ..Except he doesn't talk so he has to have some undeveloped organ stuff.

Lamentful Miss is the best song on the album. The basslines are interesting, the vocal parts aren't typical of Mana, the rhythm isn't typical of Mana either, and the guitar riffs are well thought out.

Lilac of Damnation impressed me alot. The vocals are basically a rearranged version of Shadows Temple, but that's fine because I can hear the guitars.

And outros are pointless so I don't like Sacred Lake.

All in all, this album didn't impress me. Not very much. I can't really get into the songs. There's alot of detail, and a nice theme going on, but it's nothing that I've never heard before.