Before we get into today's topic, I wanna lay the groundwork and give an example of what we're going to be in for today.

In the last few years, I've grown increasingly fond of very experimental, very out there sorts of music. I started listening to more dark ambiance, more glitchcore, breakcore, things like that. There's just, something about the way these types of genres are structured because every artist out there tackles them very differently. Each take has a similar aesthetic to it, but a much different vibe depending on the artist.

I think what led me down this path was actually something much further back, now that I think about it. Back in high school, around 2015 I was starting to learn that music could be used as a source of inspiration to create works of my own, to be inspired to create things in the spirit of what I've listened to. Celldweller, an artist that I still listen to religiously, had released chapter 4 of his album, End of an Empire. With each chapter release, a few other artists contributed remixes of the tracks within that chapter. And within chapter 4, an artist by the name of Drumcorps had remixed the track "Precious One."

I remember being fascinated by it, by its sound design and the way it was structured. The original track, a hauntingly harmonious piece accompanied by organs and synths was twisted and distorted into a misshapen, glitchy amalgamation of what it used to be, stripping the original of the beauty it had and flipped it on its head into a track that could only convey fear, confusion and uncertainty.

Yet despite all of this, there was still something captivating about it. The amount of little details sprinkled throughout the song, the way the instruments twist and distort, the audio glitching and breaking like a broken CD, the vocals sharply scratching as they shift in pitch and tone, despite all of that, it still had a structure. It was glitchy and distorted, but it never got too glitchy and distorted, it never spiraled out of control.

I want you to keep all of this in mind as we get into today's topic, as the artist we're talking about today not only perfectly encapsulates that strange, captivating feeling within their music, but takes it to another level entirely, ramping it up to eleven and beyond.

Today, we're going to be talking about World's End Girlfriend.

In all my years of listening to music, I don't think I've ever found any artists as strange, as fascinating, or even as unpredictable as World's End Girlfriend. An artist where every work they make is so drastically different from the last, yet at the same time, there's still something so incredibly distinct that resonates within all of their works. A common theme, a common tone that persists throughout everything they make; chaos constructed within order, and order constructed within chaos.

Now, what do I mean by this?

To go back to our previous example of Drumcorps' remix of Precious One, I had mentioned that, despite it being a twisted, distorted remix of a song that was previously harmonious, that despite the glitchy nature of its sound design, it still had structure holding the song together. Order within Chaos.

But what about Chaos within Order?

Imagine a song, a music track, anything of the sort. It has a solid structure, you know what's going on, you have a grasp of what the music is, you think you know what to expect. But then, the music surprises you by going in a direction you didn't expect it to take. The music begins to break away from its graceful composure, even if only for a few moments. Then it goes back to what it once was before, you think that's over. But then it catches you off guard again, it escalates, more instruments pile themselves onto the music. You can still hear the melody and some of the instruments playing that melody, as if the music is losing itself but still hanging on.

And then, just as suddenly as the music had escalated, it goes back to normal, as if nothing had happened.

WEG's music can be described as a lot of things since it's hard to really explain or really define what sort of genre WEG's music is at times, as there are a few occasions where, in the middle of track, the genre will change and switch gears completely, or amp up the intensity and escalate into something more. Their music encapsulates both sides of the spectrum and that's what makes their music so fascinating to me.

In order to explain what I mean by this, we're going to be looking at their least popular album, Seven Idiots, and their most popular album, Hurtbreak Wonderland, together, comparing their similarities and dissecting the differences between the two albums and the drastic shifts in tone they have from one another.

Seven Idiots - Order within Chaos

Seven Idiots is, to put it lightly, a trip. It was the first WEG album I ever listened to after my friend introduced me to WEG in 2020, and after listening to his other stuff, Seven Idiots is easily the most different from the rest of WEG's work, but still easily the most chaotic in terms of structure, design and sound.

Even from the moment you start the album, it lets you know exactly what you're getting into.

The Divine Comedy Reverse

The album immediately opens with a chaotic cacophany of noises, strung along by guitar strums, strings, and other such noises that all clash with each other, play out of sync with each other for no rhyme or reason, and it all culminates into this big, grandiose symphony of strings and synths, followed by the song reaching its intensity with glitched, distorted audio before it signs off.

The track itself is only a minute long, but it gets across everything you need to know about what this album is going to be. I'm not going to get into every song on either of these albums because I'd be here all day, but I do at least wanna emphasize and talk about the tracks that stick out to me and feel the most important to explain and convey what makes WEG's music so fascinating.

Throughout the album, or any of WEG's other music for that matter, you'll notice that there aren't any vocals. It's all purely instrumental. There's vocal samples sprinkled in here and there, but they're used more for additional instrumentation rather than providing actually singable vocals. It puts even more emphasis on the sound of the music and allows the listener to get even more immersed and enthralled within it.

Which you'll very much notice that instrumentation is all over the place, often on a song by song basis. Some songs will have a lot of emphasis on strings and guitar, some songs will primarily consist of bass, synths and saxophone. Seven Idiots consistently changes how it presents itself in sound design and structure, but the one constant is the distortions and glitches that make themselves known in every song on the album.

It's almost as if the album is trying to break free of the structure that keeps itself composed, trying as hard as it can to free itself and consume the order trapping it in its current state. From The Divine Comedy Reverse to Teen Age Ziggy, we get a huge emphasis on guitars and strings. Upbeat tracks with high energy, but still have bits of distortion escaping within them. The end of Les enfants du paradis sounds like the music is being sucked into a vacuum chamber, echoing and bouncing around the empty walls of the room violently before fizzling out. Teen Age Ziggy has a lot of repeating segments, playing over and over again.

And then there's the track that comes after Teen Age Ziggy.

Decalogue Minus 8

While the first three songs have started up with an upbeat tempo with plenty of guitar riffs, Decalogue Minus 8 starts out with bass in a sort of, groovy manner so to speak, followed up with high pitched, distorted guitars, synths, and vocal sampling, turning into what I can only really describe as a distressed, disconcerting symphony, one that ramps up further and further as the song goes on, reaching a breaking point, eventually fizzling out in a mass of saxophones and brass.

These sorts of strong instrumentation shifts and diversions keep becoming more prominent as the album goes on, the first instance of the chaos slowly starting to overpower the order it's contained within. Ulysses Gazer immediately opens up with guitars and distortions that persist throughout the entire song, even as strings are plucked and violins play out in the background.

By the time Helter Skelter Cha-Cha-Cha comes around (yes these are seriously the names of the songs, all of WEG's songs have a similar naming convention) the distortions are getting even more violent and harsh, loud bursts of noise and synths clashing all throughout the track, indecipherable vocal sampling, reversed, repeated and distorted playing over and over ad nauseum through the track.

And then, Galaxy Kid 666... Is a surprisingly normal track with very little in the way of glitches and distortions. They're very minimal, and whenever they're present, it sounds like they're symphonizing with the song, as if they've achieved momentary harmony.
But that doesn't last.

What comes next are the most imposing, daunting tracks on the album.

Bohemian Purgatory, Pt. 1

Bohemian Purgatory is a 21 minute long track spanning across three parts and is, in my opinion, the highlight of the album. I can't even begin to describe the sheer scope of this track and what it conveys. If the whole album is at odds with itself, then this is where Order and Chaos clash together. Like it's the album's last stand in music form.

Part one starts out hauntingly with dark ambiance, followed by a deep organ, plucked strings in seemingly no harmony or order. But then around the two and a half minute mark, the track starts to pick up. Strings and saxophones accompany each other as the music keeps swelling and becoming more cinematic and climactic.

And then it swirls and spirals down into distortion, the audio bitcrushing and becoming indiscernible noise, leading way to part 2.

Bohemian Purgatory, Pt. 2

Part 2 is just a straight up final boss theme, one that weaves an epic tale all the way beginning to end over the course of its ten minute runtime. Starting out with a repeating piano melody, sprinkled with occasional chimes and vocal sampling, until eventually, the strings kick in and the music starts to pick up.

This is when the album feels like its achieved a perfect synchronicity between Order and Chaos. The instruments are still all over the place, but they're all in place performing their roles correctly, not a beat out of place, not a note sour, everything is in line, everything feels as it should be. Strings and saxophones accompany each other, occasionally broken up by bridges of synths and guitars.

And then the song just ups the stakes even further around the six minute mark, broken by an interlude of harsh guitars and sampled sounds, like meat being squished or perhaps paint being smeared or splashed against a wall, as if the final boss has just revealed its true form.

The strings and guitars swell up, bolstering a grand finale as the song just keeps getting more and more climactic, the saxophones slowly becoming discordant as the song finally reaches a boiling point, and then, it's all over. The music wraps up its performance as notes are held, distortion slowly taking over the soundscape as the last remaining harmonies fade into silence, left with a single organ note for the final ten seconds.

But it's not over.

Part 3 is when Order is consumed by Chaos, and any semblance of structural integrity is gone.

Bohemian Purgatory, Pt. 3 (VOLUME WARNING)

With any semblance of Order completely and utterly destroyed, Part 3's structure is all but nonexistent, any semblance of melody or harmony consumed by a cacophany of distorted noises, the only semblance of music left, a reprise of the strings played in Ulysses Gazer, the distortion and glitchy-ness becomes loud and violent, almost angrily so, playing a consecutive sequence of nonsensical, unrhythmic guitar strums, the life fizzling out and fading with a sequence of distorted, out of order voice samples before finally, silence.

A tragic end to the structure that once held the album together, sorrowful in the way the track's tone is conveyed, a perfect conclusion to a 21 minute long epic.

Bohemian Purgatory is easily the best track on the album and still holds its spot as probably my favorite WEG track in general. The way that the track just slowly escalates over the first two parts, becoming more grandiose, the way the distortion of guitars, strings and synths come together during the last four minutes of Part 2 is so goddamn beautiful.

So... Where does the album go from here?

Hell.

The next track contains audio that some may find disturbing and/or distressing, listener's discretion is advised.

The Offering Inferno (VOLUME WARNING AROUND 4:00)

With no semblance of structure left, the track following Bohemian Purgatory, Der Spiegel im Spiegel im Spiegel, is a random assortment of sounds and instruments playing in a silent void. No music, no structure, no foundation, just noises and sounds trying desperately to be music while a single piano note plays over and over in the background.

This transitions into the penultimate track of the album, The Offering Inferno.

There is no more recognizeable music to be found here. The world is ending, all hell is breaking loose, everything is fucked. The track, if you could even call it that at this point, is a violent amalgamation of loud, distorted noises run through all sorts of filters and, every sound trying to fight to be heard over each other.

Anguished, horrified screams cry out as the Chaos grows more violent, the incessant noise overpowering everyone around it as destruction is wrecked in the havoc of Chaos. It keeps getting more and more intense, reaching a boiling point as the last of the world is whisked away, fizzling out into a nothing.

The world goes out not with a bang, but a pitiful poof.

Unfinished Finale Shed

As you're left there wondering what the actual fuck you've just listened to, the album closes off with this slow, somber piano piece.

It's the calmest the album has been.

There's nothing left.

No more Chaos, no more Order, nothing.

It's all gone.

Maybe it could've been better. Maybe it could've been prevented. Couldn't it?

...

Seven Idiots is what I consider to be a perfect album.
Every song has a completely different vibe than the last, it manages to stay entertaining from beginning to end, uses a plethora of instruments in a creative variety of ways, it's just
Aaaaaahhh
I know I've been trying to be professional throughout all this but I can't stress enough how happy I am to be talking about this album
I love it so damn much and it'll always be the first thing I recommend to people if I'm suggesting WEG to them.

But we're not done talking about WEG yet.
We're only halfway finished.

Hurtbreak Wonderland - Chaos within Order

Hurtbreak Wonderland was released three years prior to Seven Idiots. When you look at these two albums together and notice how much of a stark contrast there is between the two of them, it's wild to think that Seven Idiots came out after Hurtbreak, or that Hurtbreak came out before Seven Idiots.

Hurtbreak Wonderland, is a very, very different album from Seven Idiots, conveying a very different tone and aesthetic. Seven Idiots is a chaotic album from beginning to end. While its Chaos is held together by Order, Hurtbreak Wonderland is... Well, how about I just show you?

The difference in tone is immediately noticeable with Hurtbreak's own introduction track.

Wandering 流浪

Rather than the chaotic, discordant cacophony of sound we get with Seven Idiots, Hurtbreak Wonderland opens up with an incredibly serene, calming piece. Strings are played in perfect harmony, the sounds of doors opening and closing can be heard, like arriving to work during an early morning commune, waking up and getting ready to start the day.

Chimes can be heard in the background faintly. Or maybe they're the sounds of a railroad crossing? But either way, this opening is so quiet, so calm and gentle in comparison to The Divine Comedy Reverse. It's welcoming, greeting you with open arms.

There's a melody that plays around the end of the track, and we're going to be hearing that melody repeated a lot throughout the album. The calming strings fade out, the song ending and perfectly transitioning into the next track.

Birthday Resistance 誕生日抵抗日

Once again, we open up with a very calming, harmonious duet of saxophones and strings, the music swelling up gently as plucked strings join in, mixed with occsional vocal sampling. It carries right off after the opening track, still as calm, as welcoming as ever.

Throughout the album, you'll notice that the instrumenting, while it does switch up on occasion, stays incredibly consistent throughout all of the tracks. Whereas Seven Idiots kept switching up how it delivered itself, Hurtbreak Wonderland keeps to a very relaxing, very soothing blend of strings, violins, saxophones and pianos.

Other instruments are very seldom used, and while there's a little bit of synths sprinkled here and there throughout the album, one track of which is where they're featured most prominently that we'll get into a little later, you know what this album is going to be like for the rest of the experience.

At least, that's what you'd think.

Suddenly, around the three minute mark of the track, a drum & bass sampling is laid overtop the symphonies of the strings and saxophones, played drastically faster than the song's tempo is currently set to. But it doesn't throw off the rhythm at all. In fact, it still manages so symphonize with the rest of the song perfectly, as if it belongs there.

To refer to my explanation earlier, the song starts off normal, the album starts off normal, but then suddenly it throws you for a loop with instruments you wouldn't have expected to hear. But they don't sound out of place. They fit right in. And this is where the theme of Hurtbreak Wonderland lies.

Seven Idiots was constantly fighting for control of itself. Chaos and Order were constantly trying to fight for dominance, thus the chaotic, discordant, yet symphonized and harmonized outcome of the album. It was Chaos being held together by Order, trying to keep itself together, only to fail tragically in the end, resulting in The Offering Inferno consuming everything.

Hurtbreak Wonderland is the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Not only is Order the one in control, but it's relationship with Chaos is much more symbiotic. They sound in sync with each other, they understand each other. It sets the precedent for the rest of the album. Calming stretches of peace and Order occasionally broken up by incredibly active and energetic bouts of Chaos that blend in seamlessly with each other.

As the energy fades out and the song calms down, that familiar melody plays once again, we hear someone in the background, accompanied by the sounds of animals, perhaps in a forest. Gardening, maybe, judging from the sounds being heard.

And then we transition right into our next track.

100 Years of Choke 百年の窒息

Once again, Order and Chaos are in perfect harmony. Strings take precedent in this track, sprinkled in with a bit of percussion, occasionally glitched, but not sounding out of place.
The track starts out calm, quiet, the sounds of birds chirping and the sounds of the forest slowly getting louder as the music starts up.

Over the course of the track, the music slowly picks up, more instruments being added, but not too much, never excessive, maintaining a perfect mix of sounds playing when they need to play.

And then around the six minute mark, the music starts to pick up. Building up to something, something big. The occasional glitch and distortion can be heard, but once again, it compliments what's already being played, acting as though it's just another instrument.

Then around the nine minute mark, the song starts approaching its climax, becoming more adventurous, more daring, more cinematic. As if something important is coming. And something big it is.

We're met with another drum and bass sampling introducing itself into the mix, bringing forward the triumphant climax of the song. But something is... Off. The amount of distortion increases, the audio becomes compressed, a myriad of noises and audio samples seem to be thrown in without rhyme or reason, trying to harmonize with little success. The Chaos seems to be overpowering the Order a little bit.

The song begins to sound as if its distressed, heavily compressed percussion can be heard as horns and saxophones wail helplessly as they try to regain control. And for a brief moment, they do. The distortion fades away, giving back to Order and composition. The song tries to go for another finale, the music swelling up again, only for another burst of Chaos to overpower it before the song comes to a sudden, abrupt end.

So now we see a very clear and obvious structure in how the relationship between Order and Chaos is laid out here. Hurtbreak Wonderland is a very slow, very calm and composed album for the most part, and the songs tend to come alive towards the end with very energetic bursts of Chaos. A symbiotic relationship, though one that seems to be growing a little shaky as one tries to take control over the other.

Grass Ark 草の方舟

First the song starts out all :) then it goes all :( and then it's like :I.

But nah seriously seriously, this song is all over the place emotionally and tonally, making it one of the more interesting tracks on the album.

It starts out very cold sounding, chimes echoing in a haze of distortion and static. Keys join in, strings join in, and the music slowly starts to pick up. It a nice melody, very calming and relaxing, very soothing and peaceful. Reminds me of a rest area in a video game. The addition of brass just adds to the calming tone and hominess that the track seems to have.

But then the track suddenly and violently jerks in tone as the piano notes go sour and the rest of the instruments vanish. The other instruments slowly join back in, hesitantly, trying to pick the tone of the music back up and recover. Distorted, distressed wailing can be heard, all warped and incomprehensible, but then the music slowly starts to regain itself.

Like it's trying to mask and forget about what had just happened. Bits of distortion do occasionally creep in here and there but they aren't too jarring. The song fades out, chimes and melodies play as the song starts to fade out.
But then, at the very end of the song, a violent burst of disorted, warped audio crashes out as the rest of the song quickly cuts to silence, spiraling out of control until that too is suddenly stopped.

The sound of glass shattering can be heard, followed by a door hastily opening as the song ends.

Like lashing out with a violent, emotional outburst, suddenly realizing the weight and impact of your actions before quickly trying to get away from what you've done, to avoid the consequences you might face.

Again, I won't go into every single song, but there are still a good few to talk about. The next three songs are mostly absent of any sort of chaos or distortion. It may occasionally creep in here and there, but for the most part, Ghost of a Horse, Eleven Crows and Castle Ballad are all relatively calm, soothing songs with very little in the way of energy or Chaos.

But it makes an unexpected return in the third to last song.

Bless Yourself Bleed エレウシスの出血

This song wants to be very triumphant and final. To be very cinematic and grandiose. Starting off with a low, droning ambiance occasionally broken up by warped, reversed voice sampling, until eventually being accompanied by brass and saxophones.

The distortion seems to be back and it doesn't seem to be fighting with the rest of the song anymore like it seemed to have done with 100 Years of Choke and Grass Ark. The bursts of energy are coordinated and symphonize beautifull with the rest of the track, once again feeling like they truly belong and connect with each other rather than trying to overpower the other.

It's such a wonderful blend of organic instruments and electronic music, all meshed together seamlessly that harmonize together with no issues. And the synthesis seems even stronger, as the final three minutes are enraptured with a burst of energy. The distortion is there, but it's not jerking violently or anything of the sort. Chaos and Order, once again in this album, compliment each other perfectly.

The song ends with a symphony of saxophones and brass playing the song out, accompanied by a nice little piano piece, with the sound of a creaky wooden door repeatedly opening and closing in the background.

Now wasn't that wonderful? Wasn't that beautiful? Wasn't that just nice?

I can tell you now you're not prepared for what happens next. I'm being serious. Are you sure you're ready?

Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Dance for Borderline Miscanthus 境界線上のススキ

The door opening and closing from the end of Bless Yourself Bleed continues into the opening of Borderline and persists throughout the entire song. Accompanied by harrowing strings building up to something big, something imposing, something to be feared, something dangerous.

The distortion appears in full force, violent, high pitched guitar strumming playing with no rhythm, no rhyme, no reason. Loud and distressed, warping and distorting harshly as if the song itself is in pain, hurt, while that door just keeps slamming open and closed.

A discordant symphony of noises can be heard slowly getting louder and louder and louder. You can faintly hear a rhythm in there, maybe, but all the sounds blend in together. It's genuinely unsettling and horrifying, but it's not done. The audio cuts for a few seconds, then it comes back. It sounds as if it's trying to get a rhythm going, but it's too violent to hold itself together.

More audio sampling can be heard, glass breaking, laughter, screaming, its all played in quick succession, and each time the music cuts out, as if we're looking into something, though what we're looking into can't quite easily be deciphered. The Chaos dies out for just a few moments, the weary chiming of a grandfather clock can be heard as the dreariness and exhaustion of the song drones out.

Then it all comes back full force, the audio relentless, any sense of rhythm gone and it just keeps getting more and more violent, more distress, more discordant as more screams chime in with the noise, as if screaming for help, begging for it to stop.

And then it all goes silent once again.

Gone, just as quickly as it had arrived.

A person, distressed, crying, can faintly be heard in the background, though the audio seems to be reversed.

And just like The Offering Inferno, as you're left there still processing everything you'd just listened to, this album own somber finale begins to play.

River was Filled with Stories 水の線路

Strings and violins accompany you, comforting you after the horror and chaos that had occured just moments ago.

It may have been intense, and while it was short lived, it's over.

Everything is going to be fine.

...

Hurtbreak Wonderland feels like an audio representation of emotions boiling over and reaching a breaking point. Like a strained relationship where both sides slowly grow more hurt and distressed by each other's presence. The two sides occasionally lash out at each other, dishes are thrown and glass is broken all over the floors and tables.

It's not a controlling relationship like the music in Seven Idiots, the two are trying to symphonize and synchronize with each other, and for the most part, they do well. But there's still a lot of bumps and hurdles along the way, and all that can be done is try to work it through with each other and be there for each other.

...Man this has gone on for much, much longer than I thought it would, I should probably start wrapping things up, huh? ^^;

I'd love to keep going on and talking and talking about World's End Girlfriend and their music, there's so much to explore and so many wonderful, incredible songs to listen to. But I'll get to them another time. This won't be the only time I talk about WEG on here lmao.

If you've never heard of World's End Girlfriend before and this analysis got you interested in him, I highly encourage you to check out his other works after you've finished listening to Seven Idiots and Hurtbreak Wonderland. He's got an album coming out in September this year, so if you're a new fan, you've got a lot of music to look forward to.

Thank you all for reading this far and listening to me ramble on about one of my favorite music artists for far longer than I should (seriously I've been writing this post since yesterday im not even joking) and I hope you all have a wonderful day.

-Acti