Last year V covered DAMNED’s track and music video for “Thanatosis” already, and since she introduced the band in that review already I will skip it for this one. If you would like the primer on the band and it’s members (since no lineup changes have been made since that release), please allow me to refer you to her review: Thanatosis: Death Instinct in Musical form
“Thanatosis”, being released in April of 2024, was followed by not one, but three other singles since it’s release. “虚” (Utsuro) was released mere days after the previous single, and “毒愛” (Doku Ai) followed on September 11, followed closely by the topic of today’s review. “STAIN” was released on September 16, 2024. So again, mere days after it’s predecessor. Though unlike the two singles before it, “STAIN” does have a music video.
Since “STAIN”, much like “Thanatosis” by the way, is a ‘one song single’ we’ve decided to put this review in the MV review category once more. (And for those of you wondering: don’t worry, we’re going to be covering the next single “酔狂と交わる強迫的価値観” (Suikyou to Majiwaru Kyouhaku Teki Kachikan) in the near future as well. Since we can tell you too are really enjoying DAMNED’s music!)
Last bit before we get into this song: since MV reviews are usually not my format of choice, I will once again be mostly going by the style V made for V Reviews. Are you ready? Then let’s attack this “STAIN”!
Say goodbye to today, and the regrets you ran away from
The music video opens with some close up shots of the members in their dark ‘stage’, decorated with large see-through plastic wrapped around the area they’re performing the song in. Given by the pipes, doors and stacked chairs in the background we’re in some kind of storage area, which is dimly lit by white and some soft green lights, giving the plastic in the background a bit of an eerie vibe. (And mix very well with bassist 咲薇 (Sakura)’s hair color too, even though this probably wasn’t intentional.)
The music video itself doesn’t give us much in terms of what the lyrics are saying (we’ll go more into them in a moment, don’t worry), but they do add to the emotion 一音 (Hitone) is trying to convey. The feeling of loneliness can be felt with a décor like the one being used here, but the video isn’t required to understand the ‘story’ being told through the lyrics. It does however give the members faces, and drummer Masaya stands out a little more than the rest due to his full white costume mixed with his blonde hair, especially since he is the only member who isn’t dressed in black.
The guitars are being pushed to the center stage, near the end of the music video, giving us close ups of mainly Kou.’s hands while 酔花 (Suica) is highlighted next to him, also bringing out the makeup on his face just a little more. While visually fun to look at, that’s unfortunately all the music video is. It’s a fun addition, but it isn’t required to understand the story.
Like most of DAMNED’s songs, the lyrics are written by vocalist 一音 (Hitone), and the song is composed by guitarist Kou. – a combination that has proven to have some haunting results before. And “STAIN” is no exception to this haunting feeling. As I mentioned, the sound does add to the visuals of the music video, but the lyrics are a little more complicated. While sounding more upbeat in style, 一音 (Hitone)’s lyrics are more on the negative side of the wheel of emotions we humans have. Poetic yes, but a more sad version of them.
Our narrator speaks of “dying twice in love”, and “the flames of servility cannot be extinguished even by love”. ‘Servility’ is a word we don’t hear too often in the English language (at least, I sure don’t), but it means ‘willingness to serve’. So based on this we can already tell that the other party in this story wasn’t too pleased with the willingness of the narrator to serve them due to their love for them, and probably broke off the relationship for that reason. The narrator has fallen into a state of depression, “soaking on the cold floor and moaning”, “the selfishness that I should have gotten used to, all of it, I’m annoyed” confirming these emotions. However, despite their depressive state “I don’t have the confidence to hate”.
Throughout the song the narrator slowly comes to terms with their emotions, but doesn’t reach a clear conclusion. All of these elements could have been added into the music video in a more visual format without the need for an extra to play the role, but that’s just me being a very visually oriented person when it comes to storytelling – I see the story unfold in my mind when I hear or see these lyrics. As you can tell this can be quite the curse sometimes, haha!
(And we actually saw something similar happen with “Thanatosis”. There wasn’t a clear story in the lyrics, yet a music video was shot for this song. While visually stunning due to the snowy environment, it didn’t add anything to the lyrics.)
Conclusion
“STAIN” once again shows us a wonderful result of the combination of 一音 (Hitone)’s lyrics and Kou.’s compositions, adding yet another banger to DAMNED’s growing list of well, bangers. 一音 (Hitone)’s voice brings a haunting sound to the group that no other vocalist can produce, with his almost screeching screams and melodic clean vocals combined with the almost howling guitars at times and a steady, but deeper drum and bass sound you’ll be able to pick out DAMNED’s music from a crowd with ease. And we’ve seen you are enjoying their work too, which motivates us to cover their works more often!
Normally I’d say ‘I’m looking forward to what DAMNED will release next, but in reality we already know this. They have already released their 14th single “Datura” on October 1st of 2024, followed by the single “ArtrA-アルトラ-“ on December 4th, and the next music video and single “酔狂と交わる強迫的価値観” (Suikyou to Majiwaru Kyouhaku Teki Kachikan) have been released on March 5, 2025… Since I already hinted at this in the introduction, this will be the next single of DAMNED we’ll be covering, so please stay tuned for that!
“STAIN” as a single is available for streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and more, but you can also download it through the band’s Bandcamp page. Links are located below!
More about DAMNED
         |  (Hitone)   |  |  (Suica) |
 (Sakura) |  |
雪 (Yuki) is the owner and driving force behind Arlequin.
She originally started the project in 2009 as a photographer under the name of Arlequin Photography, but developed an interest in journalism and translation ever since. Because of these interests interviews and reviews were added to the project, until it eventually hit the limits as a "photographer" in 2021, and Arlequin Magazine was added to the mix.
雪 (Yuki) is a native Dutch speaker with a graphic design degree, which means she is also the main person behind Arlequin Creations.
After all these years, she's still the one responsible for the interviews and most of the live photography you see here at Arlequin, but the majority of reviews and behind-the-scenes work is also done by her.
The reviews she writes are from the viewing point of an overseas fan, and thus written in English before being translated to Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. In the English versions she also tries to explain the meaning behind certain kanji or song titles to the readers, but what you don't see here is that these explanations are omitted in the Japanese versions in order to appeal to these readers more.
She speaks Dutch and English on a native level, but also understands Japanese and German.