I've seen Distray's last.fm page numerous times, but I didn't get the chance to listen to them till now. From their pictures, which are poorly blown up scans since there aren't many pictures of them on the net, they look like typical Matina / Key Party gawfy VK.  The song title "tear of mind" kind of gives off that impression as well. I guess that description is pretty accurate. This song contains similar musical hallmarks that bands like Madeth Gray'll use: loud and aggressive chorus, light and frail guitar during the verses, and strong blast beats for most of the fillers. Vocal-wise, Distray's singer probably isn't someone you'd like if you didn't already really like kote-kei to begin with. He's in tune for the most part, but his high notes tend to drift into nothingness from lack of upper register training. He's the same vocalist as LAYBIAL, another Matina band, and I liked him a little better there. "Tear of mind" was pretty cool, although I'm getting the feeling that this isn't their best song. 

 Lagna was a Matina band that I started trying out a few days ago due to their image. They're one of the handful of bands who used a naziploitation theme, and that peaked my interest in trying out their music. Overall, they are more or less melodic rock cannon fodder for Matina: nothing overly special, but not horrible crap either. This song is one of their better ones: it uses some nice guitar melodies as well as typical kote-kei staples for rhythm guitar and bass. The chorus of "Illusion" is okay--not enough variety in the notes chosen in my opinion (if that even makes sense? I am trying to say that he used the same note for most of phrasing in the melody and it would have been a little more interesting if he strayed from the range of 4 notes used a bit). Same as Distray: if you didn't love kote-kei before listening to this, you probably won't love it now either. But if you do like this kind of stuff, then more for you to love. Another similarity is that their vocalist also went on to another Matina band named Garden (not the same one as Kisaki, however). 

Next up is DAS:VASSER. They're a pretty popular Matina band among many western kote-kei lovers for their dark, punk / post-punk music. I believe they were also fairly popular when they were active as well, until the end of their career. Kyouhei, their vocalist, is actually able to speak English very well and he is still active in the scene today in the band Number Mouse. From his Twitter, he often updates on his career and happenings and even keeps a blog in English. I've heard from friends who are big fans of this band that his blog posts towards the end of DAS:VASSER were pretty depressing, pointing out many difficulties of being in a visual-kei band. He's also started his own history collection that can be found on the WE LOVE UCP's Live Journal's owner's journal, documenting their costume history and their struggle to make in the business. Also, they revived at the end of 2011, and plan on resuming activities for about a year or so.

"Attempt suicide" is a very aggressive song, as the name would imply. It's fast tempoed with growled vocals from time to time, along with a gothic rock influenced melody similar to ones Madeth Gray'll would have written. The first time I listened to DAS:VASSER I didn't like them. They were on that UCP omnibus that I was talking about, released in 2007 or so to redistribute some Matina bands' material, and the song chosen there was kind of boring. I enjoy "attempt suicide" much more since it's growly and angry, just like me.

  Awkward, hard-core death rock band with most of their scrobblings coming from 1 account. I bet you know how this is going to go. Alright, so they're pretty gawfy like Mercurio and other death rock acts that Brazil is absolutely infatuated with. If you don't like this kind of music then you'll hate 地獄絵 . I enjoy this kind of music sparingly, so it was alright to listen to since it's more or less the only song on the CD of this style.

Alright, so I've never heard of Lumi\ere before, and I wasn't expecting much of them either. Jesus Christ, these guys were perfect. Out of no where comes this absolutely GORGEOUS song whose length (7 minutes, pretty long for a VK song that isn't a ballad) is no where near enough. Seriously blew me out of the water with how unexpectedly good the song "Glass" is. What should you expect from this song?Fantastic, gothic rock, guitar work that is rather complicated for bands of this nature, soft, ethereal, and high pitched male vocals, and everything good about frilly 90's VK all in one spot. Hallmarks aside, this band does bring a lot of rather progressive elements (in comparison to contemporary examples) to the table, such as several melodic themes in the guitar throughout the song so it's not the same frail arpeggio over and over again, evoking transitions, and feelings of guilt and self lamenting that this band did not release more than this song a demo or two. Honestly, this omnibus is worth physically buying just for this song alone. "Glass" is another rare VK gem, along with the La Feerie song I already wrote about.

ＺＡＣＲＯ, whose tag absolutely refuses to work on Last.fm , kind of sounds like MIRAGE to me. They have the same dark sound with a bit of a bright melodic influence here and there as well. The song "ICE" sounds a bit like Risk en Eve era MIRAGE, so I guess that makes it pretty good. Honestly, no strong feelings about them one way or another.

Remage were a dark, SYNDROME-esque Matina band. They had some cool promotional pictures, but their music never really did a whole lot of me. It's not bad, but I feel like I've heard this kind of dark and melancholic song 1000 times already. While they do a lot of things right, they do it in a very play-it-safe manner that doesn't make them remarkable in my opinion. Give "媚薬～シネマティックバージョン～" a spin and see what you think. If I recall correctly, the rest of their stuff kind of sounds like that song too, so you might really enjoy them if you like the omnibus track.

AZALEA were kind of crazy. Their vocalist was the late vocalist of SCHWEIN and he has repeatedly been in bands that are either very aggressive, or a strange fusion of punk genres. "Schizophrenia" is no different: dark and foreboding  with a growled chorus and strange gang vocals smattered throughout. The vocals aren't very streamable, so I wouldn't recommend them unless you're a seasoned kote fan. Definitely one of Hina's most raw bands.

I've never heard of VulgaRize before this omnibus, both the word nor the band. Their song "Escape for die" (what?) uses a lot of distortion on the vocals, like all too many visual-kei bands do, for the most part, and the true clean vocals are kind of okay. The song itself has a thrash metal feel to it, but that genre does not fit with the vocals at all. There is a pretty nice guitar solo in this song as well that's a good flaunt length, but isn't too long and boring and isn't too short and try-hard. Overall, they're a pretty nice find, but I get this feeling that they really didn't do much of anything in their career.

BUZZ DEVIL was an interesting choice to put on here. Their choice of song is called "ZOMBI ATTACK," and it is a hard-core horror-punk song with movie samples and everything. The guitars are kind of crusty and the vocals are growled in a kind of manly fashion, for once. To be honest, most people would probably think that they were white based on the vocals. I know nothing else about them.

I've heard of SHIVER, but I never got to listen to them. This song is a pretty basic dark and melodic visual-kei song with kind of iffy vocals. Apparently people like them a lot because their guitarist is now in Merry? I don't listen to Merry, so that has no affect on me. I liked this song a lot more the second time I listened to it, but on the first time through it seemed like more Matina cannon fodder to me. I'm sure they have better songs than "開放サレタ君ヘ."

 Love vellaDonna. Fantastic speed metal with very nice vocals--a very atypical Matina band. Although "CAUTION" is not my favorite song by them, it is a very good display of their talent. Fast guitar work, crazy bass lines, and hair metal everywhere, vellaDonna are great for all stale metal lovers everywhere. The band was also very fruitful and put out a decent amount of material too, so fear not the curse of 3 songs.

Look familiar? Madeth Gray'll were featured as the last band on this omnibus, releasing their "Le MISERABLE" track. This song starts off with a soft piano intro before turning to the true face of this song: dark, depressing, and kind of vengeful. "Le MISERABLE" isn't their most aggressive song: it has a nice balance of their melodic and emotional elements with their crazy, outbursts of emotions, ones. I really like the guitar riff used between bridges of the song as well as how airy the actual chorus of the song is in comparison to the yelling fest that just happened prior. I do not believe that this is the same version of the song featured on their History Album.

Wow, this took forever to write. Especially with a sinus headache. 

Useless ratings:

Variety: 8.5/10

Band Choice: 9.5/10

Song Choice: 9.5 /10

Bands to Look into Bonus: +.02

VK Gems Bonus: +.02

Average:  95.6%