the studs - Fair Occasionally Dark

Fair Occasionally Dark is a special release by the studs which was available via mail order after purchasing Niji no Iro, Gaze and And Hate. With its exclusivity also comes the high expectation for a good release, but Fair Occasionally Dark doesn't exactly deliver what one might expect.

Weak End is a strange but oddly addictive rock track, once you can get past the fact that it's probably the most strained and raw sound we've heard from Daisuke since his Kagerou days. The song itself has an extremely agonized sound to it, beginning and ending with a long but fast paced instrumental that is abruptly interrupted by high pitched screams from Daisuke. The lyrics of the song are muffled almost to the point of incomprehension. With the lack of lyrics in the booklet, there's no hope to figure out what he is saying.

Yami Nochi Ame is an extremely slow paced song, comprising of just Daisuke's vocals and the guitar. Despite the acoustic feel of the entire song, the firm vocals and the consistency of the guitar produce an excellent track that saves the entire CD. Throughout the song Daisuke sings in a fairly low voice, only bringing it up a notch and belting out the lyrics during the chorus. Yami Nochi Ame is the best track on the CD by far, giving listeners an inkling of what aie has up his sleeve in terms of arrangement in later releases. However, this song sticks out like a sore thumb being placed in the middle of two songs that border on screamo. This definitely leaves listeners wondering, how in the world did this song fit in?

Acting as the accompanying track to Weak End is Shuumatsu with another long instrumental opening, complex guitar and a beat that can't be pinned down to just one style. Daisuke continues the same method of vocals as Weak End, but this time he backs off from the microphone just enough so that most of the words are coherent and can be appreciated...that is, until he gets towards the end, which goes into another round of screamed lyrics and pained howls.

When the And Hate album was released, Weak End was added as the opening track and was titled Intro, and Shuumatsu was the closing track titled as Outro. However, the big difference is that the vocals were removed in both, allowing the listener to completely appreciate what are truly amazingly composed songs that are much better without any lyrical distractions.

So the question becomes, what was the band really trying to achieve with Fair Occasionally Dark? Were these songs originally designed to have vocals, or was it a last minute decision that they were thrown in to given listeners three "new" tracks instead of just one? Was it just something they wanted to musically get out of their system?

The bottom line is, Yami Nochi Ame saved the release from being a total disappointment. It is absolutely worth obtaining, just for the 3:49 of gorgeous melody and comforting vocals, despite being sandwiched in between two songs that sound like they stepped out of a Slipknot album.