Azrael-II - D.O.S. (Deadly Operating System)

This was a release that was recommended to me by a friend, and one - because of that instance - that I decided to take a little more of a look into. Although this release has an artist who goes by the name of Azrael-II on the record label LapFox Trax, it's all run by one person named Ren Queenston. That being said, each release underneath LapFox is done by Ren himself, underneath several different names and so on and so forth, but each name has a certain style to it. Or, at least that's what I read.

Anyway, Ren is the type of person that doesn't appreciate gender based pronouns, and prefers to be referred to by neutral pronouns, such as them/they/their, or the Spivak pronouns (look them up; they're kind of odd). They have claimed to have written thousands of songs just because they need something to play with or toy with at any given moment, but, alas, we'll just be focusing on this EP.

D.O.S. (Deadly Operating System) is a six track EP written and produced by Ren himself, and begins off with Intro. I suppose it's at this point I should say that any of you who despise anime should really just back off this EP, as the intro comes with the help of Lara Woodhull, a prominent voice actress within that field. There isn't much to be found within the intro aside from Japanese dialogue and some ambient music that slowly transforms into an electronic overture. And that lasting bit of electronic music leads into the next track, Powerhaus 2014.

This track is the first where we're delivered into a devastating sonic assault of hardcore/gabber, or at least a subgenre thereof, which pounces us fast into a beat right after a placed sample from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. Queue in a fantastic enlightening synth break, another slamming bit, and another mix of choral samplings, light synths and electronics, and a pretty damned good song broke out from it.

Lyssa fell continues on with the ADD styled workings of this artist, breaking out another fast paced rhythm that's cut short by another soft break with ambient rings to it, and jabbing electronic chords. It was back to heavy bass for a minute or so, until another break occured. Lighter synths coupled with very a very fast electronic line, broken in by more hard bass that glitched in and out before finally slamming in hard for quite some time made the song fun. Another ambient section approached near the end with a slight electronic ring to it, but the final forty or so seconds provided a satisfying hard kick.

Octabrain was the next song on the list and featured RQ, which is a name for one of Ren's other projects. So, in all other words, it was Ren featuring Ren on his own song. You can expect what was brought out by the other songs; hard slamming bass, electronic lines and numbers playing right over it, followed by light breaks, only this time they utilized organs and drums. A fancy number, but one where I saw repeated efforts.

MiKU MUST DIE featured some interesting high pitched vocals, though they were a tad bit annoying to actually listen to. A bit of trance elements were found within this song right behind the main bassline, and once more it went through the works, constantly changing up.

Lyssa Fell VIP was the last track on the EP, and was just a reworked version of the original. I didn't really understand why it was present, as it didn't do much to really differentiate itself from the canon version, but it was nothing to really complain about.

And, coming off of this experience I do have a few things to say about the EP. The overall style is pretty cute; anime inspired tracks and art made for a sweet little trait all in all, even if it did come off a bit childish here and there. I did enjoy the hard music that this person can create; it's neat and rings a nice bell when played right. However, what I did not enjoy was the constant breaks that occurred during the songs. They were wonderful instrumental pieces, but when I'm listening to this awesome and crazy hard bass drive and getting right on into the beat, and then it just completely cuts out to something soft not just once, but multiple times, I kind of lose interest in the song. And that structure held true for each of the five songs (aside from the intro), which didn't pleasure me all too much. But, Ren is a talented musician, no doubt about it. Give it a shot.

But, I will also say to stay away from this release if you're not into anime once more. Because it certainly has that aura surrounding it. I also am pretty sure that this guy relates to furries, as he has another project titled Furries in a Blender, and a lot of his artwork features animals with human characteristics. And, though I listened to this one EP and gave my thoughts on it, I'll probably stay away from future releases from Ren. Because this is just not something I want to be affiliated with. At all. Nov 14 2014