### Yakuza: Transmutations

#### 23/11/07 || theProphet

I have a really hard time enjoying (I had to look that word up to see how it’s spelled, seriously it looks fucked up on paper…or screen) this type of music. It’s really hard to categorize though, cause Yakuza don’t sound too similar to any other band to use as references (not sure of this, since I haven’t heard that many bands of this kind to be honest, fuck you). Fuck it! According to Wikipedia, Yakuza is a “progressive heavy metal/hardcore” band, so these are the premises on which this review will be b(i)ased upon (Seriously, that was probably the pun of my life…). I don’t know if this opening paragraph makes any sense, apart from the first sentence…what the fuck, I don’t know shit about this kind of music… I liked an Isis album (what? they don’t sound alike? you get my point), that’s it…

Anyways, back to me not liking this in general. Fanboys of this genre-of-a-thousand-genres tend to say something along the lines of “Man you just don’t get it, it’s soundscapes, they create soundscapes…”. So? What the fuck is a soundscape anyways? Is it like a landscape made of sound, as the name suggests? In that case, the same rules apply for soundscapes as for real landscapes, namely that THEY CAN BE BORING AS FUCK! Listening to some of these bands is like watching an endless field of wheat or whatever, i.e. not very enjoyable at all.

Right, some of you probably expect me to tear this album a new one, and believe me – I would like to, but this album really isn’t that bad. Just dull. I will do a quick summary. I don’t have the power nor will to delve into this too seriously…

Starting score: 5 (decent production, good performance…standard shit…) Saxophone: -1 (but why?) The song “Steal the Fire”: +2 (great shit) Soundscapes: -2 (Booooooooring) Parts that are kinda cool if you manage to pay attention: +1 (less than the boring parts, seriously) Playing time: -0,5 (around 1 hour, but it feels like a fucking fortnight) Eerie noises: +1 (nothing funny here…)

Right, so that gives us a total of 5.5 very professional reviewers out of 10. GD says: “5 – not completely shit and we dig some of it.”.

Sounds about right to me…

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Prosthetic
- Website: Yakuza MySpace
- Band
- Bruce Lamont: vocals, saxophone
- Matt McLelland: guitars
- Jacksson: bass
- James Staffel: drums, percussion

- Tracklist
- 01. Meat Curtains
- 02. Egocide
- 03. Congestive Art-Failure
- 04. Praying for Asteroids
- 05. Raus
- 06. Steal the Fire
- 07. The Blinding
- 08. Existence Into Oblivion
- 09. Perception Management
- 10. Black Market Liver
- 11. Zombies