[XISMZERO]

Not too sure why this album isn't much liked other than the general lack of care for VF music across the VGM world. It definitely appeals to more jazz-rock, blues and progressive side of the arrange spectrum and the most desirable sounding Virtua Fighter arrange, including a disappointing effort by the B-univ unit who took a decidedly more fusion-styled alt. to SST Band (likely thanks to Mitsuyoshi and Namiki dabbling with plenty of jazz here and there).

Maybe it wasn't groundbreaking but has the charm of those "Image" albums and arranges that drastically changed the original music to fit an occasional quirky lyrical zeal found here.

Anyway, I find Namiki's guitar work here to be some of his best free styling bluesy guitar he's recorded -- especially on "Stand Tall" and "Wounds By Design" that has Mitsuyoshi and Namiki soloing supreme with some superb added drum and vocal by David Leytze.

Oddly, there's no mention that the second half of the CD is all instrumental and likely cut short to fit what they could on the disc. The opener is just useless here without the (admittedly) insipid vocal that should've been handled by Letyze (sorry Mitsuyoshi!).

Should also be noted this like the other B-univ releases suffers from inconsistent mastering issues: some tracks have too much bass, low volume.

Been a favorite of mine for years, mainly for those cool vocal and instrument breaks!