Mix Speaker’s, Inc. – ANIMAL ZOMBIES

Track Listing

1. ANIMAL ZOMBIE ZOO
2. HAPPyyy!!LAND
3. Woody Nightmare
4. Mix Theater ~ANIMAL ver.~
5. [SOS] Toy’s Factory
6. Haru. Koishii Hito

1. ANIMAL ZOMBIE ZOO

Beginning Mix Speaker’s, Inc.’s 3rd mini-album, ANIMAL ZOMBIE ZOO starts off with the twinkly little melody that could sound from video games before this muffled brass section comes in and then switching to this strange and haunting circus-y melody.  It’s a little strange and there’s a whole lot more when vocals come in.   I’m not sure who exactly is singing but I think it’s between YUKI and MIKI, but it sure as hell weird.  Then it fades away into this rainstorm and leads right into…

2. HAPPyyy!!LAND

As the first main song of the mini, HAPPyyy!!LAND sounds pretty awesome from the group since it’s not really experimental and just straight up rock.  YUKI’s vocals are straightforward and sounds good and exciting.  It does remind of recent bands that have been stretching to get out of the V-kei sound and to be honest, this sounds really good from MS.I.  I think the only off the wall parts was those ~cha-cha-cha-~ parts near the end

3. Woody Nightmare

Woody Nightmare is bit more the usual V-kei sound I’m used to and that’s not a bad thing because I really like both YUKI and MIKI’s vocals in the sound since one’s a little bit higher than the other.  I’m liking the energy of the song for sure and later on, there’s a Halloween-ish feel to the song in the interlude of the song so that for me was a plus. Good song!

4. Mix Theater ~ANIMAL ver.~

Now the band’s story is like weird and convoluted, but I’m guessing this song is the continuation of said story.  It is the longest track which is a bit of a bummer when it’s basically just conversations under some creepy and yet naturistic background music.  Some of the characters are so odd sounding, like evil witches.  Kind of a passable track for me since I don’t fully understand what’s going on, but whatever.

5. [SOS] Toy’s Factory

The band to me is best known for their more strange stuff and with Toy’s Factory they got it right with this song because it doesn’t sound like the other songs they’ve done.  It’s still very much rock, but it sounds almsot like peppy music, especially with that chorus of theirs.  It’s not a bad song because I can get into it pretty quickly.

6. Haru. Koishii Hito

I was surprised that the last song off the mini-album started off like a slow song before it turned into well…a more mid-tempo rock track that kind of reminded me a whole lot of something school food punishment would’ve pulled out except with a guy’s vocal.  That being said, I actually liked this song the most off the mini.  I’m not sure why, but it’s pretty catchy and not overboard like some of their older stuff.

 

 

I really thought that ANIMAL ZOMBIES fixed some problems that kind of happened in their last few releases.  Not there isn’t any like some of the weirder tunes like that 5 minute convo-thon going on.  Still a pretty solid release from the group and I like where they’re going in their 3rd story.