So How Do We Feel about EMPiRE Right Now?

/ Homicidol Maniac

I’m asking this question because we’re coming up on the EMPiREiversary and folks in this community seem to fall on a simple continuum when it comes to WACK’s first explicit collaboration with Avex — people seem to be EMPiRE fans, or they’re fairly indifferent, or somewhere blithely in between. This is relevant because hey, there’s a new EP coming out in a few weeks, and the MV for the lead track is out in a few days, and just kind of let this wash over you:

That looks sleek as hell and sounds like it’s either going to be epic or another reductive “Orchestra” knock-off. Neither, for what it’s worth, would be bad in the absolute, but one is seriously better than the other, you know? I also thought that maybe we were looking at clips from at least two total MVs, actual results of course yet to be determined.

I’m one of those people on the EMPiRE middle ground. I genuinely like a decent amount of their music, and, where I might not be a big fan of that, I can still find opportunities to get into the MVs. However, EMPiRE, brought into the world as something of a Kentacore* delivery system to mass audiences with none of the sticky ew-those-used-to-be-chika-units-and-stuff that could have precluded their maximum growth potential, is at most something that I’m going to follow with a bemused professional interest, understanding that a significant proportion of what they put out isn’t really for me, and it doesn’t really have a home here, and that’s perfectly okay as long as anthropomorphic spank-addled walking asses pop up when needed.

This all to say that I just plain don’t have a great grip on the group, nor on how they’re regarded by gaijin wota who all have pretty disparate foci but came into idol fandom through a handful of reliable entryways. Pro or con? Is the experiment, such as it was, a success?

2 thoughts on “So How Do We Feel about EMPiRE Right Now?”

  1. You pretty much expressed my feelings about Necromidol. Some of their stuff I really like some not so much. I only have Deathless and 4.7L and Chunking Redline are my 5 stars. Of course I support them and think they have a unique style coming from a more goth genre. Perhaps that’s why there are a bit down on my list of faves is I’m less interested in goth than I use to be. I do consider them to be very important in the scene and always look forward to their new work.

    • Isn’t that kind of the thing, too? There are idols (who I’ll skip naming for expedience’s sake) who just don’t quite work for me, and some that I flat-out don’t see the appeal for, but I get that they’re important in their way and warrant being treated seriously.

Comments are closed.