OLDCODEX – Fixed Engine (Review)

OLDCODEX COVER

OLDCODEX has returned with a Best of album which re-visits the band’s repertoire adding two new tracks, Milestone and Anthem, promising to add something new to the band’s catalog. Without any further ado, let’s get this review started.

More information regarding the album.

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Album: Fixed Engine
Label: Lantis
Release date: 08/06/16
Genre: Punk-rock

Tracklist
1
MILESTONE
2
[BLUE]
3
FLAG ON THE HILL
4
HARSH WIND
5
COLD HANDS
6 CATAL RHYTHM
7
THE MISFIT GO
8
RAGE ON
9
WALK
10
DRIED UP YOUTHFUL FAME
11
LANTANA
12
FEED A
13
ACHING HORNS
14
ANTHEM

Track by track analysis (new tracks only)

1- Milestone

With a peculiar intro, Milestone surprises the listener by its unusual instrumental characterized by a piano in loop with a fading effect and also some stock sounds on the background plus a relaxing synth pad. With these elements, the stage for Tatsuhisa‘s vocal performance is laid. This track has a slow to medium tempo, simple instrumental revolving on its main focus, the synths and the usual presence of the drums, bass – which is constantly on “solo mode”- and guitar. Although this track is unlike any other, when reaching the pre-chorus and the actual chorus we have the usual power to the instrumental with a little bit of screamo from Tatsuhisa, only to quickly return to a slow tempo instrumental with, once again, its main focus on the synths and the piano in loop from the intro. 4.5/5

14- Anthem

If OLDCODEX choose to kick off this album with a peculiar track such as Milestone, Anthem returns to the powerful, fast tempo instrumental, mainly focusing on the heavy guitars and the speedy/splashy drums. To the listener with more attention, it’ll be easy to spot the similarities between this track’s instrumental and the more punk-rock oriented stages of their career, at least if we take the drums’ performance into account however the same reveals to be true for the rest of the instrumental. To wrap up the track we have a solo primarily focused on the bassy drums and the guitar; an amazing performance if we might say so, although its performance seemed too fast. With AnthemOLDCODEX returns to the origins. 4.5/5

Final rating: 4.5 stars

The new tracks featured on Fixed Engine were an amazing and refreshing surprise from the band, not only do we have a more alternative track such as Milestone, in terms of elements used in the instrumental, but we also have a Anthem clearly taking us back to the earlier stages of OLDCODEX‘s career, a time when their main focus was a punk-rock oriented instrumental, unlike the present tendency to go more towards a pop-punk genre.

Although it is a shame that this album has solely two new tracks, since the rest have already been feature on previous releases, we can still say that they are worth listening to. Also another thing to remember is that this single’s collection is a good way to ascertain how much OLDCODEX have grown through the years, even with member changes the band still has been managing well, if we might say so, in order to bring new and exciting tracks each and every time proving their commitment to the fans. So with all this said, in the future we hope to listen to more and better tracks from an upgraded version of OLDCODEX.

「Fixed Engine」is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.

For media, PR, and business enquiries, please email me at: info@handthatfeedshq.com

Vanessa Silva
Vanessa Silvahttps://www.handthatfeedshq.com
The Hand That Feeds HQ founder, content creator, and music reviewer. Basically, the only person managing everything at The Hand That Feeds HQ. Stumbling upon Mamoru Miyano's "Orpheus" in 2011 was the start of this journey. If music is thought-provoking or deep, you may find her writing almost essays (not limited to, but it happens a lot with Soma Saito's music). She's the producer and host of the male seiyuu-centric podcast, SEIYUU LOUNGE (see Spotify link in this profile).

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