Do it LIVE with DariusBurst! DBAC Live in O-East (Review)

DARIUSBURST ANOTHER CHRONICLE Live in O-EAST -revolt- must have been amazing to actually see live. But, for those of us who couldn’t attend the show featuring the music of this extremely talented team, the event was recorded and published as an album via Enterbrain.

I wanted to write about this album for awhile now, and because baiyon’s contribution from WONDER WORLD is used in the show, I have my excuse. So, after the jump, my review of DBAC Live in O-East!

One name you need to know for this album is “Remi.” A member of Revo’s “Sound Horizon,” Remi is an accomplished vocalist, and she has the ability to steal the show (in a good way) throughout the album. There are plenty of other great performers as well, including 3 keyboard players, and Hideaki Kuroda (a Procyon Studio session guitarist) for good measure!

The first two tracks are arrangements from DariusBurst. The opening track, “Good-bye my earth,” starts with Remi belting out the beautiful, space-travel-esque high-octave melodies, and the backing band dropping some sweet prog-rock goodness. After those first few rounds through the main theme, Remi stops singing, and a variety of instrumentalists get a chance to solo. Among them, my favorite is the first, which is a nice rhodes keyboard (or is it wurlitzer? I need to keep track of these things in my head…). After the solos, Remi reprises her role of straddling the fence that separates Star Trek from Persona (Poem of Everybody’s Souls). After that, we get “The world of spirit,” which doesn’t have the big solo sections the previous track had, but it does a great job balancing Remi’s vocals with the piano and keyboard parts. This is a great, fast-tempo track that I could leave on loop for an hour.

Then, on track 3, we get the “DBAC MIX,” DJ’d and arranged by COSIO (Hirokazu Koshio). This 10 minute medley starts off with baiyon’s fantastic track “A Soothing Sensation” (off the second disc of DARIUSBURST REMIX WONDER WORLD). After that, it hits three more DariusBurst tracks and then goes out on a track from DariusBurst Another Chronicle, “Abyssal Dependence.”

Now, if track 3 was nuts, you’d better be ready for track 4. It’s another medley, but this time it’s a “Darius Classics” medley. The track breakdown looks like this:

1. COIN (Darius)
2. CHAOS (Darius)
3. Say Papa (Darius II)
4. Visionnerz + Self (Darius Gaiden)
5. G Zero + Adam (G-Darius)
6. Fake (Darius Gaiden)
7. A Flashing Dual Hawk (Darius Twin)
8. Boss7 (Darius Twin)

Yeah, that’s a lot of old-school Darius. Most of that is composed by Hisayoshi “OGR” Ogura, the leader of Zuntata. For fans of the classics, this is a solid medley. It may not have any Remi for vocal decorations, but I think this track is better without her. Koshio-san’s arrangement really sells the continuity of the older games.

After two mega-medleys, the concert is broken into a three-movement suite entitled “Suite Photoconductivity,” with all the music coming from the album’s namesake, DariusBurst Another Chronicle. Remi knocks these songs out of the park. The three tracks, in order, are “Iron Fossil,” “Bolt and Sword,” and “Tyrant.” The first two tracks are of a tempo similar to “The world of spirit,” and they sound awesome. This is just straight up perfect prog-rock, and without the drowned-out organ that we’ve come to expect from other prog-rockers (*cough* Sakuraba *ahem*).

The last track of the suite is a much slower track, and much longer too (the others were 3-4 minutes, this last one is 6 minutes). That’s a nice, relaxed tempo for a “Tyrant.”

Now, like any live show worth its salt, we get not one, but two encore pieces. First up, it’s “Hello 31337” from DariusBurst, arranged by Koshio-san (the same person who arranged the classics medley on track 4). As far as boss battle music goes, it’s important when you go live that you only let the beat and intensity fall away for dramatic effect, and that particular effect must be used sparsely. For this show, they just kept the beat going, and when those synth choir effects (via one of the keyboardists) jumps in, always hitting alongside one of the drummer’s cymbals or snare hits, it sounds totally fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, if you weren’t ready to rock hard before, you certainly are now.

And then, for the super-duper final track, the second encore is a tacked-on addition to the Photoconductivity Suite! WHAAAAT?! How is that possible? Who does that? Well, it’s a short one, only two minutes long, “Guidance” from DBAC. It’s just Remi singing with piano accompaniment. It’s a slow, beautiful ballad, and yet it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It gives me shivers.

Those who bought the Limited Edition (EBCD-0008) can see the whole concert instead of just listening to it, because a second disc (DVD) is included. The regular edition, EBCD-0009, is CD-only. If you want this album, it requires placing a special order with Enterbrain. If you love Zuntata and are ready to help usher them into a new era of gaming and game music, buying this album might be your single most important action to that end.