Buikikaesu

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Maximum the Hormone's Bu Ikikaesu sounds like an attempt to adapt the music of Slipknot to the strict confines of the Japanese pop music business. The problem is, while abandoning Slipknot's reckless energy and power, the band didn't look for replacement in the hooks department, and therefore was left with nothing but speed to sell the songs. For this reason, most of the disc sounds as if the musicians were in a hurry to throw as many notes and riffs at the listener as they can, hoping it all will combine into good songs. Sometimes it even works -- Policeman Benz is stupidly catchy, Bikini Sports Ponchin simply catchy, and Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura Purin Purin Boron Nururu Rero Rero deserves praise for the name alone -- but these fail more often than not, and it doesn't help that after a while the Slipknot influence deteriorates into bland, quasi-commercial heavy rock. There's actually a lot going on Bu Ikikaesu, right up to gang choruses of modern pop-punk (Kyoukatsu), but whatever good ideas there are, they are buried behind the rush, the noise, and the cumbersome song arrangements. As cheap as the pun on the band's name is, Maximum the Hormone really ought to cut down on the hormones and try to vary the adrenaline/testosterone rush with more effective songwriting. ~ Alexey Eremenko, All Music Guide