OLDCODEX are back with another electric single. “Walk”, scheduled to hit the stores on 13/11/2013 is featured as the ending theme for basketball-themed anime “Kuroko no basuke”. We got hand on an early copy of the single and we can say that this a pretty high voltage single with all things a good punk-rock fan loves.
Info regarding the single:
Single: "WALK" Label: Lantis Genre: J-rock/ Punk-rock Release date: 13/11/13
Tracklist:
01 WALK 02 Tag On The Strain 03 Stargazer
Track by track analysis:
1 – Walk
We start off the single with an upbeat song with ranging guitars, speedy drums and an amphed chorus, “Walk”, the already well known song for the fans since it is the ending theme for Kuroko’s Basketball anime since October, is a song full of energy and a natural punk rock theme. The chorus just begs us to join in and scream our lungs out. The instrumental piece is addictive and an interesting change of pace in comparison with the singles the band has released so far this year. With “Walk” we can say that OLDCODEX are back to their high speed punk rock from their early releases. A good song overall. 4/5
[youtube=http://youtu.be/GFxbUb0rnN4]
2 – Tag on the strain
“Tag on the strain” is a much slower paced song compared to the title track. But we still have heavy riffs, strong, right on the spot drums and an outstanding bassline that give this song, together with Ta_2’s vocal work, a good feel to it. Tatsuhisa Suzuki’s (Ta_2) vocals are flawless hitting the higher and lower notes without too much effort. 4.5/5
3 – Stargazer
And to finish this single here is yet another fast paced song with heavy riffs, technical drum playing and a bassline to die for starting from the second verse of the song. Vocal wise we can say that Ta_2 is perfecting his work sounding incredibly fresh. His deep, raw vocals give this song the aggressiveness it needed. 4/5
Final rating: 4/5
Clearly a punk-rock single with fast paced guitar riffs and drum playing sometimes going from the normal fast-paced punk-rock kind of playing to the high speed double bass playing more resembling the heavy metal or hardcore kind of playing. The basslines are all pretty good which is a thing that has improved from the last single releases. Vocal wise Tatsuhisa Suzuki hits the spot on this one. He sounds incredibly good with his raw and deep vocals fitting each song like a glove. All the songs fit incredibly well as a whole since there are little to no differences in the genres for each song.
To simply put it: we’re talking about a single that doesn’t have much differences between songs without having a song outshining others. Some people might say that this is a plain release since there’s not a song that stands out from the others and that the band doesn’t add a single new thing to their repertoire with this release but we have to see it from this point of view: this band was originally a punk-rock one focused on high speed playing, aggressive vocals and sometimes here and there a good slow song and this single doesn’t stray from the band’s inspirations and the genre where they fit better so let’s leave the topic of it being or not plain for others to discuss.
Here we have to say that the single is a good one, in our opinion a bit weaker than some of their releases in the past but nonetheless a pretty entertaining single.
“WALK” is available on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.
