Listen: Dir En Grey Back From The Abyss on Arche
Because December is a blur of shopping, eating, and clock-watching, it’s natural for anyone to overlook low- and medium-profile new releases. So let’s confirm that everybody knows about the December 10 release of Dir En Grey’s ninth record, Arche (“Aru-kay”). DEG is a profoundly weird and dark band that’s spent three straight albums on successively distant and barren moons. But their podules have hurtled back into Earth’s orbit for Arche: Like their breakthrough albums Vulgar and Withering To Death (pre-super weirdness), their newest is comprehensible yet constructed of hardly recognizable materials. It runs through the reeds wearing corpsepaint, it staggers through Deftones-style murk, it splits its own organs like Naked City; its singer is like a horror movie’s wimpiest character who isn’t heeded until his torso explodes and black goo rockets out his mouth. It proposes a reality in which Filter’s Title Of Record is authored not by a drunk from Chicago but by five wispy extreme metal aliens whose appearance arouses baffling sexual feelings in fans of Babymetal. Crank it up!
