Ed Note: This is a followup of sorts to the previous Not Secured, Loose Ends article featuring BrightDark. Please read that one as well.

Not Secured, Loose Ends is an alternative jpop/idol group from Japan focusing on more metalcore and melodic aspects of music. “DarkBright” is the followup to their previous album, “BrightDark,” containing a number of old songs rerecorded.

The album begins strong with a few of their best songs. “White and black and lie” (白と黒と嘘) is a great opener to this album. This is a song that doesn’t quit. It’s fast, heavy and extremely melodic. Vocally, this is one of the strongest songs on the album, with a wide range of vocal patterns. The song culminates in a very fast “solo” section that ends in probably the group’s heaviest breakdown, with Mei Yui Mei doing the majority of the harsh vocals on this track.

The next couple of tracks maintain the album’s strength, with “Ways to Die” showing the group’s more metalcore side. Some of the Not Secured, Loose Ends songs could be taken out of the Jpop context and just listened to as a standard metalcore song and it would be right at home. The first couple of tracks off “DarkBright” really exemplify this. “the End of…” is another shining example of a song that could easily be taken out of the context it is in. “the End of…” is a fast-paced electronica-esque song with some heavy sections of harsher vocals, emanating powerful aspects of the song.

Follow those songs is a personal favorite, “Karmaloop.” However, this version of the song is different compared to the original. The vocals feel off. The music sounds slightly more distorted and the drums appear to be louder than the rest of the track. The mixing appears to be off as well. This fantastic song is unfortunately lacking in this version. It is unfortunate that the new version of this song can’t live up to the shear intensity of the original featuring vocals of Futamaruya Shidare. This version, is just okay in comparison.

The album continues with some staples, such as “JUDAS” and “Psycho-Hi.” The middle part of this album falls flat for a bit. Not because the songs aren’t performed well, but because they are boring. It is at this point you start to wish for new songs. While the rerecording of the old songs is nice, it just feels like a lazy way to release an album. It was needed in a way, as the new members vocals are so much different than the old ones, however, they are just performing tired out songs. It would have been better to release a new album with a few new songs, and then end it with some of their strongest songs rerecorded. To do almost every old song spread across two albums is a lazy way to do things.

Not Secured, Loose Ends hasn’t had a new song since they released “ssixth” released in July of last year. While “ssixth” was a decent song, it really shows that maybe this group isn’t doing much to advance themselves and are instead living off the past. They have a massive discography, so it makes sense to release a bunch of their old songs performed by the new members, however, it would also make sense to have new songs. It’s a shame because their sister group “ぜんぶ君のせいだ” (Zenbu Kimi no Sei da) releases new songs every month it seems. However, they are way more popular so it makes sense.

“DarkBright” ends with a selection of songs that fit the ending experience of this album. The final song on the album “鏡想唱二鳴り” (Kyosokafutanari) is a different version of the song that ended on “BrightDark.” It is not the same song with different music, it is it’s own song, that is clearly inspired by the other song. Elements of each song are incorporated into each song. The best way for this to make sense is to just listen to each song. The strongest part on this song is Mei Yui Mei’s vocals. Sections of this song are incredibly emotional, and if she gave the same sort of effort that she does on this song to other songs, this album would be much better overall.

Overall “DarkBirght” is just an okay album. It does a serviceable job of rerecording the older songs. But it just doesn’t feel needed. If there wasn’t a plan on improving some of the older songs, or approaching them in a different way, some of the lackluster songs feel pointless to rerecord. “DarkBright” does what it sets out to do adequately, but fails to really do anything but achieve that.