Search - Underneath :: Moon Flower

Solid, Impressive Work

Megan E. Thunem | Dallas, TX USA | 04/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Underneath is a Japanese rock band (formerly known as Transtic Nerve) and Moon Flower is their debut album which has so far only been released in the United States. The band promoted and performed the material on a recent Taste of Chaos tour alongside Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet for my Valentine, as well as fellow jrock artists D'espairsRay and MUCC.



The album is a sometimes heavy, but never explicitly rough rock effort with a handfull of unique and very appealing rock ballads thrown in. The most notable of these ballads would be 'Deep' and 'Womb Is Planet'. The perhaps angriest selection on the album is 'Fat Fatty F**kin' Pigs' whose title and lyrics isn't masking anything with subtlety. The remaining tracks are all consistently well-written and composed, a quality one would expect coming from this group of seasoned and talented musicians.



The Underneath has also made brilliant use of a combination of piano and string elements that truly threads the work together in pivotal places. Such elements provide the album with a melancholy yet hopeful undertone, a vibe traversing several emotional levels that makes it very listenable.



In my opinion, and especially at this VERY rare price for a complete Japanese rock album, Moon Flower is worth the buy and a decent introduction to jrock if you are new to the phenomenon just now truly breaking its way into the International music scene.



"