Dazzle Vision - Origin of Dazzle (3 November 2005)
The screamo-rock of Dazzle Vision came to the attention of many, particularly in the United States, around 2010 when they released the album To the Next and performed at Sakura-con. But their debut goes back to 2003, cemented in 2005 with the appropriately titled Origin of Dazzle. Dazzle Vision’s music has undergone variations over the years, especially because they did not maintain a consistent line-up for their first seven years, but one constant is vocalist Maiko’s ability to transition seamlessly between a soft, melodic voice and powerfully deep and demonic scream; when describing Maiko’s range I like to compare her to Kyo of Dir en grey. Origin of Dazzle does not contain as much variety as later albums like Crystal Children and Kirari, but it remains one of my favorites and deserves a listen by anyone who is a fan of the whole ‘hard-rock/metal with a female screamo vocalist’ genre.
Note: Origin of Dazzle was re-released in 2008, but I don’t own that edition, and honestly I don’t know what the differences are. The second press contains no changes to the track-list as far as I know. If anyone owns the re-release edition I would greatly appreciate knowing what the differences are, so please leave a comment if you happen to know and thank you in advanced to anyone who does so.