Old Album Of The Week (OAOTW) #1 : MALICE MIZER - merveilles (1998)

MALICE MIZER - merveilles

Hey everyone, my name is David and welcome to the first "Old Album Of The Week"! This is a thing I'll do every week, in which I'll give a review on an older album I've listened to recently. This week we're looking at MALICE MIZER's merveilles. MALICE MIZER is a band whose impact on the "visual kei" style of music and fashion cannot be understated. "Visual kei" or v-kei for short, is a subset of J-rockers from the early 80s to the early-mid 2000s who use extremely extravagant stage makeup and use stage sets to put on an insane show. MALICE MIZER helped keep v-kei alive in the 90s thanks to their amazing makeup and outfits, with lead guitarist Mana designing a lot of their looks.

Now lets talk about the album itself. This album is a 50 minute long symphonic metal powerhouse that I loved each and every second of. Each track is rich with a midi orchestra, amazing riffs from Mana and Közi, and killer vocals from GACKT. I also have to mention Yu~Ki on bass and Kami on drums, as they are one of the best rhythm sections I have ever heard from a symphonic metal band. They all come together to create these beautiful gothic soundscapes that make you feel like you're playing Castlevania sometimes (I'm looking at you ILLUMINATI). The band also gets industrial at some points in the record with the aforementioned ILLUMINATI and the absolutely insane track S-CONSCIOUS. Some stand out tracks to me are ILLUMINATI, au revoir, and Le ciel, with Le ciel being my favorite of the record.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this album and now I have a massive urge to check out the rest of MALICE MIZER's discography. Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)

---

Tracklist: 1. 〜De merveilles

2. Syunikiss〜二度目の哀悼〜

3. ヴェル・エール〜空白の瞬間の中で〜

4. Illuminati

5. Brise

6. エーゲ〜過ぎ去りし風と共に〜

7. Au revoir

8. Je te veux

9. S-Conscious

10. Le ciel

11. 月下の夜想曲

12. Bois de merveilles

Genres: Symphonic Metal, Gothic Rock

---