CD Reviews

Interpol’s Antics

Amuses and Dismays

The first notes of the lead track
on Interpol’s new album Antics
would ostensibly suggest that the
band has gone in a new direction.
The jazz organ, which opens ‘Next
Exit,’ plays chords that would
sound more at home in a church

‘than on an Interpol record. Sure
enough, the band seems to be
determined to spread their musi-
cal wings with Antics, but, unfor-
tunately, the experimentation has
mixed results.

The aforementioned introduc-
tion to the album is quite a bit dif-
ferent from anything on the band’s
2002 release Turn on the Bright
Lights: for one thing, it uses a
major chord progression and the
lyrics sounds almost hopeful,
rather than the bleak sound-scapes
of the band’s last release.

The major progression contin-
ues on the second track, ‘Evil,’
with a bass line and melody that
recalls the Pixies rather than the
Interpol of 2002 and Paul Banks
sings about ’a sentimental journey
/ And the making of a good
friend,’ lines that would have
seemed quite out of place on Turn
on the Bright Lights. However,
Interpol returns to their old form
with the next few cuts, ‘Narc,’
‘Take You On a Cruise,’ and ‘Slow

_ Hands.’

"Narc’ features a funky drum
and bass beat that was probably
one of the sources of early listen-
ers’ comparisons to Franz
Ferdinand, while if there is a song
in the Interpol catalogue that has a
chance of breaking the band into
the mainstream it would have to
be ‘Take You On a Cruise.’

‘Slow Hands’ is the first single
on the album, and rightly so with
the possible exception of ‘Take You
on a Cruise,’ it is certainly the
strongest track on the disc. The
verses sound like older Interpol,
while the chorus picks up the
funky feel that seems to be the
characteristic sound of this release.
It seems to be the place where Turn
on the Bright Lights and Antics

meets. Unfortunately, at this point
the album seems to take a step
backward.

‘Not Even Jail’ puts Banks back
into a major key, where he simply
does not sound comfortable. The
song shows signs of redemption
toward the end, with a great guitar
solo and jam with the drums and
bass guitar, but the fade-out that
closes the track weakens the effect
and leaves the song with a feeling
of incompleteness.

Things get a bit better with
‘Public Pervert,’ with its surf-
inspired guitar (complete with the
sound a tube amp makes when
you bump into it), and punkier
chorus, which is coupled with
‘C’mere’ in a sort of ‘Interpol Does
the Hits of the 60’s’ portion of the
album. The latter seems to be
early 60’s rock with a naughty-
oughties cynicism about it; in the
end it comes across like ‘Here
Comes Your Man’ but slightly less
effective.

Ultimately, when I listen to
Antics I can’t help think of a com-
ment a friend made about Franz
Ferdinand: they sound best when
they sound like Interpol. Antics
succeeds when the band is doing
what they do best: creating bleak,
claustrophobic sound-scapes with
guitars, drums, and bass. The
occasional experimentation with
funky drum and bass lines rarely
works, with only a couple of
exceptions. Fortunately, the album
is worth listening to for ‘Slow
Hands’ and ‘Take You On a
Cruise,’ which are among the
band’s finest releases.

B+

>> David Drysdale

Carnal Forge
Disappoint with Aren’t
You Dead Yet?

When I think of Swedish Thrash
Metal I like to think of Arch
Enemy, and I probably always
will. Carnal Forge is all that one
would expect of another band that
hopes to by the fact that they
sound like Slayer.

Honestly, how many Slayer rip-
off bands can the music industry
possibly create? Let me think...
Dew Scented, God Forbid,
Stanpin’ Ground... Everyone in the
business world knows that it is
innovation and not imitation that
carries you to the top.

Aside from that, Aren’t You

Dead Yet? is not necessarily a bad
album, just unoriginal, conven-
tional and generally dull. But if
you are a hardcore fan of Slayer, I
would say just go out and buy
more Slayer.

Cc

>> Russell.

Battlefield Vietnam
>>Electronic Arts 2004

The second in Electronic Arts'
highly successful Battlefield
series, Battlefield Vietnam takes
you to the jungles of South-east
Asia where you will fight in
some of the most important bat-

tles of the Vietnam War.
Like the previous game
Battlefield 1942, Battlefield

Vietnam is a multiplayer-centric
team-based shooter with a rather
poor off-line single player mode.
As with 1942, Vietnam’s single
player is dragged down by the
low quality of the AI bots you
play against. On-line play
against other people is, as before,
where this title excels, although
the quality of human opponents
is highly variable.

Improved from the previous
title are the graphics and sound.
The maps feature lush foliage,
and the vehicles in the game
have radios. By default, US vehi-
cles have a nice selection of peri-
od music, and North Vietnamese
vehicles have well voiced propa-

Immortal Rain

Kaori Ozaki
>>Tokyopop 2004

This issue, we'll be looking at
Kaori Ozaki’s “Immortal Rain”.
It’s the story of Rain Jewlitt, the
624-year-old immortal who is
known by most as “the
Methusaleh”. Yes, folks, that is an
obscure Bible reference there for
you. Unfortunately for
Methusaleh, a. huge bounty has
been placed on his head, most
likely because humans want to
discover his secret of immortali-
ty. He has defeated every bounty
hunter that has ever come after
him, including an assassin know
as the Grim Reaper Zol.

Zol has died since _ his
encounter with Methusaleh, and

‘has been succeeded by his grand-

daughter, Machika. This spunky
fourteen-year-old feels that it is
her duty to avenge her grandfa-
ther’s failure to defeat
Methusaleh, so she goes after his
head, and is thus dragged into
his world of mysterious fallen
angels and comedic escapes from
would-be immortals.

If you have ever read the
Trigun manga, you will recog-
nize the sort of story being told
here. There is an extremely pow-
erful mystery guy that everyone
wants, and he just wants to be
left alone. This doesn’t detract
from the charm of this book,
however, since the story is a lot of
fun, and the art is really quite
good.

It is simple, yet beautiful,
uncluttered, and easy to follow.

Game Review

14
OCTOBER 13, 2004

Realistically bomb villages full of innocent people in EA’s Battlefield Vietnam.

ganda messages. You can also
play your own music. New
among vehicles in the game are
helicopters. The helicopters take
some time to get the hang of, but
once you have it down, you
become a flying bringer of fiery
doom!

The other vehicles in the game
use the same control scheme as

Manga Reviews

The fact that it is so clear makes
the action sequences easy to fol-
low, which is nice change of pace.
The author deplores her ability to
draw male characters, but there
really is nothing wrong with her
depictions (Rain is a cute guy, or
would be if he were real!). In all,
this is a fun shonen-style manga,
and definitely worth checking
out.

The Demon Ororon

Hakase Mizuki
>>Tokyopop 2004

The Demon Ororon is a four-
volume series by Hakase Mizuki
that depicts the relationship
between two beings never meant
to meet: the orphaned daughter
of the archangel Michael (now a
woman), and the King of Hell
himself.

The series sports a “teen” rat-
ing for violence and gore. The
female lead Chiaki seems perpet-
ually stranded between sadness
and pseudo-contentedness,
though she often puts up a
happy front. She harbours an
intuitive goodness within her
that can’t stand the thought of
pain or violence. I found her
appealing in the simplicity of
both her personality and her
visual design.

Ororon (the King of Hell) is a
complicated character who is
very capable of caring, but
seemed to grow to enjoy killing
as he realized he had to kill in
order to survive. He escaped the
constant power struggle in Hell
in order to stop being a target.

in 1942, and are just as easy to
use as before. The maps in the
game are many and varied, with
plenty of different ways to get
from one place to another,
though some of the maps lack
any means to direct the battles.
B+

>> Brad Prangnell

One Monday on a rainy street
corner, these two aimless beings
come together by chance, but
what keeps them together is a
search for peace that is touching
in its seeming impossibility.
Even in “the world between,”
agents of both Heaven above and
Hell below seem intent on
descending upon their fragile
happiness, simply because of the
circumstances of their births.

The Demon Ororon does con-
tain humour, but much of it is
dark. The art is very clean and
well-defined, with a style. charac-
terized by an overall androgyny
and long, thin figures that per-
sonify the sadness that seems
innate in most of the characters.

The series goes on to bring
forth the ghosts of Ororon’s past,
and ultimately sets out to answer
the question that loomed above
the characters from the very
beginning: Can Chiaki and
Ororon escape their birthrights,
reconcile their completely polar
personalities, and finally live in
peace as a family?

For those who like dark comics
but aren’t enthusiastic about the
Visual Kei/Japanese Gothic
Lolita-inspired “pretty goth”
comics that seem to be in profu-
sion nowadays, I encourage you
to turn to Ororon. The fourth and
final volume is set for English
release in October 2004, and the
series has a sequel still only avail-
able in Japanese called Mayonaka
no Teikoku (Empire of Midnight)
that may follow it to North
American shores in the near

future.
>> Michelle Milburn