I Shan't Forget: A Review of Remember the Name by Pay money To my Pain

For perhaps the first time ever, I ended up listening to a Japanese band and it wasn't because one of their songs was used in an anime I watched (instead it was because of a South Korean SC2 broadcast, but that's another story). Because I feel like I have more to say about this album than others I have listened to, I have decided to pull it out of the mini-review rampages and feature it in an independent review.

Artist: Pay money To my Pain (abbreviated PTP)

Album: Remember the Name

Genre: Japanese Alternative / Metal

5-Starred Songs: 9  (out of 14)

This Japanese hybrid of alternative and metal sounds is probably a prime example of why I wrote in my last post about the relevance of the 5-starred metric: although not every song on this album was perfect, overall I think it's one of my favorite albums I've listened to all year. To begin with the band overall, they're another kind of weird mixture of sounds: they can go from pure alternative-rock type sounds to screamy metal and everything in between, sometimes with a healthy dose of punk sounds. Also, despite they're Japanese origin, they give up on the "traditional" Japanese with random English thrown in that many of their contemporaries use and instead go for a pure English lyrics sound.

I actually like it quite a bit. I'll admit the singer's voice is a bit odd. He has a definite accent although I wouldn't have placed it at Japanese, and I can perfectly imagine the voice could turn some people off, but I personally love it a lot. It's a very distinctive style, and I think goes a long way to giving the band its own sound. With that said, I've never been bother by uncommon singing styles (I'm looking at you, Decemberists). In addition, in some places you can tell the lyricist is a non-native speaker, which gives us great lines like "Strolling up and down 18th street / Go to the liquor store to buy some beer" which is wonderfully non-rhythmic but I like it anyway (as a side note most of the lyrics flow together very well, you just occasionally get lines like that which surprise me). The singer's range is also surprisingly impressive, since it took will I watched a live video to realize he did both the clean and metal vocals, where many metal bands make use of two singers to achieve the same purpose.

In terms of the instrumentals they don't always display the same pure technical skill of some metal bands and tend to shy away from solos, but with that said they're very accomplished musicians and create excellent sounds. Many of the guitar/bass parts are pretty memorable, and the drumming is quite solid.

One of the more impressive things after listening to the album a second time straight through (on the drive back home after this break) is how well structured the album is. It bookends with some of the more straight alternative songs, and in between has an impressively paced rise into the straight metal songs before cooling down again. The songs themselves are also very well structured: I can only take so much metal screaming vocals, and everytime I was about to reach my tolerance PTP would lapse back into regular vocals, creating a perfect blend for me personally. Anyway, to examine the songs in more detail and in order:

This life: One of the pure alternative songs, this song is possibly my favorite on the album although others run close. At over 6 minutes it's also one of the longest, and just perfectly captures a feeling of longing and reminiscence mixed with a healthy dose of optimism, as exemplified by lines like "If you just let me in, when you're falling apart / Just call me anytime, I'll be there for you." From the opening rifts till the triumphant closing, the song is simply a blast.

Weight of my pride: With this song PTP amps it up a bit, introducing a slightly harder sound with much more intense instrumental and a very brief yelling section, but mostly just feels like a hard-rock/punk sound. It's another great blast of energy with slight lulls as the singer contemplates "The weight of my pride... / Do I really need it?" There's a great live video of the band performing this song.

Drive: After the brief foray into some harder sounds the band goes back to a pure-alt song with Drive. Opening with another strong riff and solid drum beats, the band takes us on a ride (pun intended) that rolls along, speeding up at times, but otherwise just a great joyride. Another great chorus is contained within: "From the first light of dawn / I feel much better / I carry too much / Time to let it go."

Relieve: Like Weight of my pride, another alternative song with light metal elements, although this one is a bit slower-paced yet not less intense. Not one of my favorites on the album, it's good but not great.

Deprogrammer: This song opens with a great electronic synth addition which plays perfectly into the theme of the song, and the electronic backbone remains throughout and makes the song stand out compared to the others, in a good way. The metal elements come out a bit more strongly with some occasionally screamy background vocals, but mostly it's a bit slower, more strongly pronounced cry for help. The song ends on a minute-long slow build up after a nice drop, as the song slowly builds back up leading into...

13 monsters: The song that caused me to listen to the album in the first place opens with a long scream after the excellent build-up at the end of Deprogrammer. PTP finally goes into full-metal mode, and doesn't disappoint in the slightest. Great angry lyrics interspersed with thoughtful, almost regretful clean lyrics with excellent instrumentals backing it up. "In order to see the light / sometimes I have to risk the dark / I know, but I can't" and as the song ends we hear a demonic cackle: PTP knows exactly how possessing this song can be.

Atheist: The follow-up to 13 monsters is an equally strong song in its the same vein: strong, quick instrumentals with occasional pauses for very strong, emotional lyrics. Again it features a surprisingly hopeful and optimistic backbone to a genre that is often very angry and angsty, as the singers yells to the world "This is my life / Don't decide / I'll make my choice / Some day / I'll reach the sky / Now I know I won't fall again." Another excellent song.

Wallow in self pity: The metal and intensity of the album reaches its climax with this song, which opens with a strong, steadily paced instrumentals as the singer screams out a string of accusations that lasts just to the point where I almost am ready for it to end.. and as stated before, it ends and is replaced with some mournful yet very beautiful clean lyrics that act as a perfect counterpoint to the earlier anger. The song overall hits just the perfect level of anger and angst that I'm willing to endure and is a great song assuming I'm in the right mood for it; in terms of the album, the build-up is perfect and does not seem out of place compared to the earlier songs. It also features a fantastic drop in the middle of the song that puts dubstep to shame.

Greed: Although the previous song is what I'd call the climax, Greed shows the band still has a bit more to work though. In some ways it's a bit more intense in that it doesn't really have clean vocals, but its builds up the beginning before slowing down, and then speeding up again against the backdrop of slowly more frantic singing. It's a huge burst of energy as PTP lets go of all the emotions, as it were.

Hourglass: Having taken us on a 4 song streak of metal, it's the perfect time to calm down. Unfortunately, Hourglass is a little too calm, in my opinion, and is by far the weakest song on the album. It wanders kind of aimlessly, is almost too calm in comparison to what came before, and is just entirely unmemorable. I think it's removal would strengthen an already great album, as it's the one song I'd actually consider even close to "bad."

Gift: I wish this had followed Greed, as said before, as its calm guitar and more relaxed singing harkens back to the beginning song and works as a great follow-up to the frantic mania of the preceding songs (ignoring Hourglass). It still has some energy that comes out in the chorus, but drops all the metal elements. It's just a nice, pretty song with a good level of intensity.

Pictures: Opening with another catchy guitar rift and strong lyrics, Pictures is a great second-to-last song that mixes the alternative-rock style of the earlier with the more emotional pleas of the middle. "When you get trapped in your life / When you are up against the wall / What would you give to be / Just like how we were before." It's another great, powerful song and a great closing to the album. Official music video to the song.

Dilemma: Dilemma is what Hourglass should have been, a slower, more laidback song that is probably the closest PTP comes to a love song. It's pretty, and a great slow ending to the album, but it probably could be tightened up and improved in some ways because it's not one of my favorites. It's still good, but as I said for Relieve, not great. I wish it had come between Gift and Pictures. 

As I said before, this is easily in the top 3 albums I've listened to the in the past couple months, scattered amongst the 50 odd other albums. It's a great, powerful piece of work that appeals to both my alternative and metal side, and blending the two in a way I would have not imagined would have worked. That the band is capable of producing excellent pieces in both genres as well as combining this is very impressive to me. 

Overall this had made me much more curious about the Japanese scene. Besides PTP, The Pillows managed to impress me as a pure alternative band, and Maximum the Hormone as a weird amalgamation of several genres. I feel like, based off my limited evidence, that the Japanese music scene is very different from its Western counterpoint, and I have been highly impressed by the stuff that's not J-pop that I've come across (not that I dislike J-pop by any means :-P). It's a field I hope to explore more in the future, starting immediately with Pay money To my Pain's previous two studio albums (Remember the Name was released earlier this year). I am supremely glad to have tried them out, and encourage all of you to do the same.

-HTMC