Eccentric Agent AND "&"
Nani Ue! Shion here again with my take on the Visual Kei act "AND". Again my opinions may not reflect those of the rest of Cure, or even you. I'm not here to please you, but to give you my honest opinion whether someone agrees or not. YOU KNOW AAAHHAAA!
My first introduction to AND was a photo I saw in Cure Magazine and here is the photo:
I thought to myself, anyone that shows the metal horns deserves a chance =)
AND sent me a few songs via mp3 which were Sensen Fukoku from their mini album Sensen Fukoku, fujindou, from their Single S Kyuu Ninmu, and Tokage from the single Tokage at first. When listening, they did not strike me as a bad band, nor a great band. However, I did hear and see potential, I mean come on the dude is showing the metal HORNS!
I played them on the streaming radio for quite some time, and they got above average ratings. Then I later received in my in box from AND was a track called "Jack the Ripper". I immediately thought of the metal song by SEIKIMA II "JACK THE RIPPER". In my mind, any song titled "Jack the Ripper" has to be Wicked Good STUFF!
As I played it, a huge smile grew across my face. I yelled out "F##K YEAH! about time!" This song hit hard and matched the vision that I have of AND in my mind. They have since released full album "Agent", single "Black Out" which ROCKS, the softer single "Hakubaika" which also contains an awesome song called "Shigure" on there, Single "Gang 5" which shows that AND is very versatile in the music they do, self titled album "&", and their latest single "Rengoku" which I highly recommend.
In some sense, AND reminds me of a hungry "the Gazette", much like how Gakido reminds me of an awesome Indies early "alice nine".
AND is one of those bands that music and visuals match perfectly, which makes them a 5 out of 5 star rating to me. As of date a Visual Kei band that throws the Metal Horns in the air have yet to let me down. LOUD KEI FTW!!!
Listen to AND right now on Cure On Demand Radio as well as my previous review of ALSDEAD (Dice & Joker).
