THE PREDATORS – Kiba wo misero (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)

October 21, 2008 by rabi 

“THE PREDATORS show their fangs with simple punk rock”

GROUP: THE PREDATORS
CD+DVD MINI ALBUM: 牙をみせろ (Kiba wo misero) [Limited Edition]
LABEL: DELICIOUS LABEL
CATALOG #:  NFCD-27902
DURATION: 20:41
JAPAN RELEASE DATE: October 15, 2008
US/CANADA RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2008 (via iTunes)

OFFICIAL WEBSITE | OFFICIAL MYSPACE

CD TRACK LIST

1. ROCK’N'ROLL LAY DOWN
2. C.R.S
3. LIVE DRIVE
4. SHOOT THE MOON
5. GUN LOCK
6. ISLAND
7. WILD TIGER

DVD TRACK LIST

1. LIVE DRIVE (Video Clip)
2. SHOOT THE MOON (Video Clip)
3. ROCK’N'ROLL LAY DOWN (Video Clip)

After 3 years since their debut mini album “Hunting!!!”, THE PREDATORS returned with another fresh and simple mini rock album “Kiba wo misero”.

The three members of the rock band are the veteran vocalist/guitarist Sawao Yamanaka of the pillows, the energetic bassist JIRO of GLAY, and the hard-hitting drummer Shinpei Nakayama of STRAIGHTENER.  While busy with their main bands, the three members managed to find time over the past year and produced seven tracks for this album.

Claiming to have a similar style as Nirvana in their first album, THE PREDATORS’ “Kiba wa misero” continues to be heavily influenced by the famous rock band, with the most obvious sound coming from “C.R.S”, and “ROCK’N'ROLL LAY DOWN”.  Perhaps in their second mini album they also added  an extra touch of the Ramones in it as well.  One can find the similarities in the song “SHOOT THE MOON”.

All of THE PREDATORS’ songs are based on very simple chord progressions, with various singable melodies built on top of it, and a very rhythmic drum beat underneath.  Their tunes are catchy, fun to sing along, fast tempo, making them my driving music of choice.

For this album, JIRO composed four of the seven songs, while Sawao Yamanaka composed the rest.  All lyrics were written by Yamanaka.  My personal favorites are “ISLAND”, a rather sorrowful medium rock song that is rather rare in the band’s young history, and “GUN LOCK”, which has a bit of a relaxing blues tune.

I especially like how the CD was imprinted with the three members in black and red, while the DVD disk has the colors reversed.

Speaking of the DVD, it comes with the music videos of three of the songs.  In “LIVE DRIVE”, the members were playing the music in a warehouse with a spinning camera, and it also featured various individuals eating lots of food wearing pig masks.  In “SHOOT THE MOON”, the members all dressed in wigs, sunglasses, and clothes very similar to the Ramones in “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”.  Last but not least, “ROCK’N'ROLL LAY DOWN” features a story in a video game world, with all the bands mentioned in this review making cameo appearances in the form of billboard signs.  It’s really fun and well-executed.

As a fan of this style of music, I have to say I enjoy the high energy of this album very much, while the slower songs were able to provide me a slightly different perspective of the band.  With the album also coming to the U.S. and Canadian iTunes store on October 28, 2008, if you enjoy Nirvana or the Ramones’ music, it’s definitely not a bad idea to spend a few dollars to download the songs by THE PREDATORS.

Buy this mini album:
CD Japan, Amazon.co.jp

Visit THE PREDATORS at their OFFICIAL WEBSITE and their OFFICIAL MYSPACE for more information.