Incogneeto

This minus the edgyness.
No matter how much you downtune your guitar, your riffs don't get any more interesting.
Why even try what you can't pull off.

Ikuinen Kaamos should be what you're looking for. Maybe not exactly Morningrise, but they sure sounds like older (aka pre-prog rock) Opeth. It's not rare to see people talka bout them as an Opeth-clone/rip off. Very similar.
Edge of Sanity could be another one. Thinking mainly about Crimson and Cryptic. Not very similar, but could be worth trying. Crimson is a most brilliant album.
And Katatonia's "Brave Murder Day" could be something up your alley . Great album, but not very similar. But could easily be a bit what you're after anyway.
 
This was hard.

This minus the edgyness.
No matter how much you downtune your guitar, your riffs don't get any more interesting.
Why even try what you can't pull off.

This minus the edgyness.
No matter how much you downtune your guitar, your riffs don't get any more interesting.
Why even try what you can't pull off.

This is a photoshopped PEN. 

VK/J-rock fans really have this hard on with slapping the "Dir en grey copy" card on any band that decides to change their style and go heavy.

Wagakki Band always feels like someone is jamming a jackhammer into my ears with pieces of random traditional instruments glued on, while irritating Jpop is playing in the background in an abandoned interrogation chamber.
;(

Artist: Boris Album: Asia 1. terracotta warrior 2. ant hill 3. talkative lord versus silent master
Rating: | Holy fuck.
 
Before I begin, I need to warn you. Asia is not a single. Asia is a raw, ugly, discordant album as massive as the continent it's named after.

It may be three tracks, but the length of each is enough to make your jaw hit the floor. On top of that, Boris didn't craft Asia with easy listening in mind. So after the initial shock wears off, I am glad to inform you that this is one of Boris' most beastly concoctions, a nice throwback to the days when Boris were firmly a drone doom band. It shows that even twenty years later, the band can still contend for the heavyweight belt for "heaviest band in history". And they did it with only three people! Asia is one of three new albums in a series dubbed 'New Noise Literacy'. The count starts at 003, so I'm not quite sure where 001 and 002 are. Perhaps the answer is buried somewhere within all the noise of Asia, since Boris expects you to derive some form of fulfillment from the album. And for as suprisingly difficult as it is to describe, enjoying the album is quite easy.

When I say Asia is heavy, I don't mean aggressive melodies and harsh vocals. I'm talking about music so heavy you feel time hover around you in anticipation. Drone doom is the kind of music that lumbers forward, contorting the mood through feedback, noise, and clever use of tritones. Asia doesn't care about how much patience you have; if it takes ten minutes to set the mood it will take ten minutes. Enjoying Asia is an exercise for the listener in appreciating the journey and flexing your imagination. With the freedom to impress your own thoughts and meanings on the music, one can only imagine the band's state of mind when these tracks were birthed.

For as smothering and merciless as it is, Asia is anything but depressing. It succeeds at conveying all types of emotion, some of them disturbing but some are cathartic and others even beautiful. For example, the slow burn of terracotta warrior opens up into a majestic wall of warm sound that collapses upon itself and leaves everything as it began. It literally feels like a soldier rose from the dust to combat the darkness once more. The second track ant hill is much harder and toys with noise borrowed heavily from countless Merzbow jam sessions. I can almost imagine a large colony of ants crawling to and fro, moving their antennas in time with the noise. There's three distinct sections to this song, all of which use sound to color very different soundscapes. Despite being the shortest track, I find that it's the least accessible. talkative lord versus silent master sounds like silence had an argument with noise and lost, combining ideas and motifs explored into the first track to bring everything to a close.

There are plenty of drone albums that tax even my attention span, but Asia would not be one of them. For long, instrumental drone doom, this about as diverse as it comes. There are only two things I can't find answers for: where is 001 and 002 of this series, and why Boris decided to call this album Asia? But, then again, Asia's sister albums are titled warpath and urban dance, so maybe it's best to not read into such things. I had high hopes that Asia would resemble their collaboration with Sunn 0))), Altar , but that is not the case. Instead of crafting a spiritual successor to their last drone doom album - as I consider Praparat to be drone with a healthy serving of the unclassifiable - Boris have once again mixed a bit of the old with a bit of the new. If I had to pick something most similar to it, it would be The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked. Asia is not for everyone but if you are a fan of drone, doom, ambient, or Boris, Asia might be for you.


Support the band! Purchase Asia (New Noise Literacy 005) here straight from their label, Inoxia!
Purchase warpath (New Noise Literacy 004) here straight from their label, Inoxia!
Purchase urban dance (New Noise Literacy 003) here straight from their label, Inoxia!

Good doom/drone groups.
Doesn't have to be japanese necessarily.
 
Completely no experience in that field except that I listen to Church of Misery and Boris.

Graveward revived the SIGH love in me; going through their older albums again and again.

i'm so happy to see that there was no hate at all between October 2012 and April 2015... the visuel key community is really one of the most open-minded, non-judgmental and loving ones

I agree.There's a certain ladder of elitism in jrock/vk, which kinda goes like this:
Ontop are the Dir en grey fanboys. They go like this:
"We're so cool, we listen to japanese music, and the music is so heavy, and Kyo has so expressive lyrics, and we moved beyond vk, YAY! You all suck."
Then come the "heavy indies vk fans". Incidentally, they also look down on DeG fans, although half the bands they listen to are carbon-copies of them. They go like this:
"OMG, Diru are such sell-outs, they are so american now, they suck, we're cool because we listen to indies music, and the music is so heavy, and they look so cool, YAY! You all suck."
Then come the kote-kei fans (which I happen to like myself, but nevertheless....). They go like:
"OMG, all new vk sucks, only old vk is good, today everything sounds the same, but ten years ago they were SO original, we're cool because we listen to old music, we already listened to Diru when they were still visual, YAY! You all suck."
(In addition to that there's also the species of "angura fanboy", which is basically a mixture of all 3, except with make-up looking like raccoons, and music that basically thrives on sounding as shitty as possible.)
BUT, at least they all agree on something: bashing oshare. I guess everybody need something to look down upon. XD

Was hoping they would have announced an album, but I guess they can't do that until they have 7 post-VID singles, lol.
Still looking forward to this, given how excited I am for サドマゾ.

Obviously they'll sound like two chics.

Because you like Church of Misery:
 
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today
Saint Vitus - Hallow's Victim
EyeHateGod - Dopesick
 
Because you like Boris (it'll obviously depend a lot on which Boris album you like, but some albums that you should enjoy):
 
Melvins - Stoner Witch
Melvins - Houdini
Earth - Pentastar: In the Style of Demons
Earth - HEX; or Printing in the Infernal Method
Sunn O))) - Black One
And pretty much all the albums mentioned above
 
 
And some pesonal favourites not yet mentioned but which I consider a must of doom metal:
 
Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens
Reverend Bizarre - II: Crush the Insects
Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans
Pagan Altar - Volume 1Katatonia - Dance of December Souls
Warning - Watching From A Distance
Pentagram - Pentagram
Pentagram - Day of Reckoning
The Wizar'd - Ancient Tome of Arcane Knowledge
Blood Ceremony - Living with the Ancients
Totem - Totem
Witchfinder General - Death Penalty
Witchcraft - Witchcraft
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Fallen - A Tragedy's Bitter End
Funeral - Tragedies
Draconian - Where Lovers Mourn
Tristania - Widow's Weeds
Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer
Winter - Into Darkness
Thorr's Hammer - Dommedagsnatt
Coffins - Buried Death
Hooded Menace - Fulfill the Curse
Theatre of Tragedy - Theatre of Tragedy
 
I probably went a bit overboard, but I do consider all albums mentioned in this post classics, either proper classics or mothern classics within lots of different subgenres of doom (traditional, drone, funeral, death/room, epic, psychedelic, doom rock, gothic and more.). So check it out and get an overview over what you like, which'll make it easier to recommend something for your taste in the future. But these albums will get you a decent overview of the genre as a whole, so I'd recommend you checking it out with time even though it'll take some time to get through the whole list.

This is my first review here, so please be kind XD I guess it also doesn’t hurt to confess at the outset that I’m writing from the perspective of an unabashedly passionate vistlip fan. So… fair warning for people looking for unbiased reviews.

I’ve been looping LAYOUT since its release and I think I’ve soaked in it enough to form a fairly stable opinion of it (around 30 repetitions). While I haven’t had the time to go around canvassing opinions from my friends, at this point I can say that I definitely like it more than CHRONUS, and maybe a little less than THEATER, which remains my favorite vistlip album (if only because that's their very first album, and it's special for the fact that there can always only be one "first" time). I still can't decide if I like ORDER MADE or LAYOUT more! But overall, LAYOUT is an extremely satisfying album. I apologize for not doing a track-by-track review; I’m terrible at that as I prefer to focus on the "emergent" qualities of the album instead of the nitty-gritty details. Maybe someone else will review the individual tracks below.

Structurally, the album’s track placement is impeccable. REM SLEEP, released previously as their promotional PV, wastes no time in pulling the listener immediately into the classic vistlip soundscape. For me this track operates as a prelude to the trio of songs constituting the nexus of the entire album (Idea - World is mine. - By the rain.) which consolidates the signature sound that will continue to reverberate through the rest of the album. Flanked by My second B-day. / Catastrophe on one side and ROACH / Good girl gone bed. on the other, the soft and seductive core of the album is shielded by these harder, more intense tracks (reminiscent of vistlip releases like GLOSTER) that textures the overall experience as one pulls away from the mellow central portion. Period and Jack (title tracks of their last 2 singles) have been deployed by the band as the album’s 2nd and 2nd last tracks, allowing the listener to begin and end the album on a comfortably familiar note without either track being unnecessarily obtrusive to the extent that they steal the show from the new songs. Finally, LAYOUT (the track) is the proverbial icing on the cake that provides a nice denouement and closure to the album.

It's a simple but elegant setup (I’m almost tempted to say 'layout' XD); because the mistake a lot of potentially good albums make is a lack of organization, as a result of which an album that boasts many interesting ideas ends up meandering nowhere in particular and fizzling out because you simply can't tell where it's leading you. With LAYOUT, the division of labor between the tracks is clear and everything fits perfectly into an integrated whole anchored by a strong conceptual scaffolding. It's nothing too complicated, but sometimes less is more. So while it isn't exactly a roller-coast ride of an album with its share of surprises and shocks, there's scarcely any place for the superfluous.

Tohya composed most of the songs in this album, except 4 songs which were written by Yuh. Track-wise, my favorite songs off the album are Idea, REM SLEEP, World is mine., By the rain. (roughly in descending order). I'm a sucker for pop-rock with a nice beat and groove, performative vocals, and evocative lyrics. Idea is sooo pretty I need to reserve special praise for it. An energetic song driven by its robust chorus (ohh I swear vistlip kills the vi-IV-I-V progression) and Tomo's hypnotic vocals sweeping effortlessly across the mid-high range, Idea belongs in the same category as vistlip songs like CHIMERA, inc., PERFECT CRIME, insofar as they all have the characteristic bittersweet sound which never fails to gives me goosebumps ._. I can't exactly describe it: these songs are upbeat, forward-looking, yet tinged ever so subtly by a shade of 重み [idk how to translate this word.. “heaviness”?] beneath the surface. Consequently the attentive listener gets a lingering sense of something more going on – an undertow, perhaps, that does just enough to keep the album from meekly collapsing into an unrestrained celebration of optimism.

(A digression: some time ago I saw someone asking a new band on Twitter whether their sound would be 明るい (“bright”) or 暗い (“dark”), and then I realize that’s such a painfully reductive way of conceptualizing a band’s sound, because any band worth their salt would surely have enough facets in their music to transcend that simple dichotomy.)

Finally:

I'm just really excited that vistlip always strives to break new ground, but keeps enough of what makes them unmistakably vistlip. It’s a tough balance to be had. Among bands who've managed to last more than 5 years some try too hard to expand their sound where, at some point, fans can't help but pause and question if this is the band that they used to like; and then there are others who go on surreptitiously recycling their old materials until fans are bored and eventually put off. Thankfully, with vistlip this hasn’t happened, and I’m quietly confident neither of these scenarios will happen as the band soldiers on towards their 10th anniversary.

I didn't intend to give a rating, but if I have to it'll be around 8.5-9 out of 10. I’m sure my review could have been better, although if it actually manages to pique the interest of casual vistlip listeners or people who haven’t tried vistlip then I’ve succeeded in what I'd set out to do

Now let’s hear what others have to say about this! What do you like / not like about LAYOUT?

How are they even related.

"Mini" Album.
6 Tracks pretty standard, no complaints here.
Plus, even SE's are worth looking forward to when its Sukekiyo.

2 S.E.'s?! Album fucking DROPPED, 0/10, biggest flop of the year

Kaishun pls.
Best song deserves it.

2014 has yielded yet another year of wonderful music, and here's my usual self-indulgent run-down of the albums and EPs I enjoyed most.
My tone this year is a bit more personal and subjective than I tried to be in 2013, and my list isn't as long either.
Thanks for checking it out nonetheless.






CAT5's Favorite Japanese Releases of 2014






clepsydra by chouchou merged syrups.
 
Sample: 橙鳴る

    clepsydra took me by complete surprise after last year's thoroughly disappointing
debut "since". chouchou merged syrups. aren't just following cinema staff's
blueprint on how to play emo rooted indie-rock/pop anymore,
they're actually making it their own this time.


Passage of Time by Cloud nine(9)
 
Sample: Passage of Time

 lop abuse on somebody was, for me, one of the most promising young
post/math-rock bands out of Japan. But since they've disbanded their
guitarist has gone on to join Cloud nine(9), which has, again, become
 one of the most promising young Japanese post/math-rock bands.
Surely this is fate. Oh, and it's completely free over @ bandcamp


HEADACHE AND HEARTBURN by CONCERT
 
Sample: 曖昧さ回避

This release took me completely off guard and would have completely slipped 
 under my radar if not for a good friend of mine. CONCERT's sound seems to
draw heavily off of 70's soft-rock and psychedelia while employing quirky and
forward-thinking production. I imagine this is what a collaboration between 
lamp and cornelius might sound like.


BRIGHT TIME by EGO-WRAPPIN'
 
Sample: 太陽哀歌

 EGO-WRAPPIN's last full-length album Steal a Person's Heart was an underwhelming
effort, fraught with various musical style except the one they do best. So it's great
to hear them return to their jazzy roots on the BRIGHT TIME EP. But with only
4 tracks and the entire thing recorded in mono, it's such a tease.


JariBu by JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra
 
Sample: Wild Pansy

   I'm only aware of three different Afrobeat bands from Japan, and each year it
   seems like these bands take turns outdoing each other - 2012 was the year
  of KINGDOM☆AFROCKS, 2013 was REGGAELATION INDEPENDANCE,
  and so 2014 inevitably falls back to the JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra. They've locked
the grooves down this year and delivered their finest album yet.


homephone TE by macaroom
 
Sample: Kingdom

Another obscure recommendation from a friend that would have surely slipped my
radar. macaroom creates dreamy ambient-pop and homephone TE is an
intoxicatingly immersive album from start to finish. There are, however, 2 tracks 
sung entirely in Croatian that might raise an eyebrow at first.


5 - 1 + 1 = by mothercoat
 
Sample: trickster

mothercoat....consistently creative, and yet consistently underrated. They've
been around for over a decade and yet somehow their music seems to
get lost amongst international Japanese-indie fans - old and new. 5 - 1 + 1 =
is a reference to the changes in their band lineup, and each track is a
distinct reflection of those changes (track 1 - with old guitarist, track 2
without guitarist, track 3 with new guitarist). But three tracks simply 
isn't enough, so I can't wait to hear what else they've got in store.


my letter by my letter
 
Sample: ルーザー！

A friend of mine shared this band's demo with me back in 2011, and while
I remember diggin' it, I'd completely forgotten they existed by this year. I'm
glad they were finally able to get around to releasing an album, though.
Bands like シャムキャッツ and ミツメ released solid records this year, but
my letter takes the cake as my easy-going indie-rock album of the year. 
Lots of great guitar interplay and you can't beat the combo of male/female vocals.


Elephant by orcaorca
 
Sample: Clockwork Lovers

orcaorca is the instrumental outing of 2 members from the electronic
group ChouChou (no, not chouchou merged syrups. ha) Glitchy, electro-acoustic
bliss that weaves itself seamlessly in and out of ambient soundscapes 
and minimal-tehcno pulsation.


Koko by Satomimagae
 
Sample: Mikkai

I don't often hear music like this out of the modern J-folk world, so
Satomimagae was an instant love for me. Her music has an exceedingly
dense melancholic atmosphere and conjures up images of both
depression and desolation. Fantastic album recorded with the perfect 
amount of intimate rawness.


Rhapsody in beauty by THE NOVEMBERS
 
Sample: Blood Music.1985

Rhapsody in beauty is yet another testament to THE NOVEMBER's continued
growth and further accentuates their artistic proclivities. It's a dynamic album-
from abrasive shoegaze, dark grunge, to angelic acoustic numbers and more.
THE NOVEMBERS are clearly inspired and HAVE been for the past few
years. Even if it's taken them about 6 years, they've completely won me 
over as a fan and are now one of my all-time favorites.


CAO by アルカラ
 
Sample: 愚痴ばっかりのローレロレロ

arukara have been on fire since 2009, but this is by far my favorite album
from them yet. The band's sound, which combines all of the hookiness and
buoyancy of pop music with the multifaceted indie-rock ingenuity of an 
early 9mm parabellum bullet, has been refined to perfection.


IMAGINARY MONO-FICTION by ヒトリエ
 
Sample: 生きたがりの娘

I've long thought that some vocaloids had cool backing music, but being
that I can't stand vocaloids, it was always an unfortunate arrangement for me.
Thankfully, vocaloid producer wowaka took his colorful ideas and translated
them into an actual band. The results have been splendid thus far. For me, 
the jury is still out on their first full-length, but this mini definitely delivers.


ふつうのしあわせ by ふつうのしあわせ
 
Sample: キャプテンにはなれない

I saw this band described somewhere as bloodthirsty butchers meets
PANICSMILE and thought that was an apt description. Especially the
comparison to the latter. ふつうのしあわせ or "Ordinary Happy" play
wonderfully spastic, disharmonic post-punk with a trumpet thrown in 
for good measure, cuz why the hell not?


攻撃的国民的音楽 by 八十八ヶ所巡礼
 
Sample: -超感覚的宇宙-

 If you've been following my "best-Of" lists over the past few years, then
you've probably noticed that 88kasyo junrei's albums have made an appearance
every time. I'm biased as fuck and I can't help it. Their formula is like a
nonstop barrage of endorphins on my musical pleasure zones - heaps of
melody, quirky and eccentric songwriting, unhinged yet groovy
instrumentation, just the right amount of excessive noodling...so, yeah. There ya go.

(not) NUCLEAR LOVE (or affection) by 印象派
 
Sample: ライ! ライ! ライ!

There's nothing particularly outstanding about inshowha, but they make 
extremely well produced and catchy jpop. It also helps that their image/gimmick
neither overshadows nor detracts from their actual music, so the duo exudes
a kind of earnest charm. I was also pretty surprised at how well crafted this
mini album was. It flows perfectly from one track to the next and you can
tell actual thought was put into the songwriting. This isn't a release of 
sloppily glued together singles or filler tracks. Quality Jpop right here.

NO UNDERGROUND by 撃鉄
 
Sample: やっちゃおう

Gekitetsu's first full album expands on the sound they became known for on
their first 2 EPs - vivacious post-punk chock full of singy-shouty vocals,
discordant, angular guitar riffs, heady basslines, and nu-wave-y drumming.
These guys are always a blast to listen to and definitely worth a try if you're
into the coarser side of Japanese indie.

"Happy New Year! 2015 is 20th anniversary year of Church of Misery. I will make new album with Dave Depraved from US DOOM LEGEND " BLOODFARMERS" and other support musicians in US.
I will go to US in this Spring for this recording and 5th album "And then there were none..." will put out on RISE ABOVE RECORDS in 2015."

I added the link to the page to the announcements so it's always easily accessible. If anyone wants to join the group, contact one of the moderators, @allisapp or @paradoxal  via PM and one of us should be able to add you.

This is also why they have a blue name, so congratulate them for coming up with an awesome suggestion.

Best of 2014
I tried to create a short, cohesive "best of" list this year. I failed.

Welcome once again to my fourth year-end list, where I talk way too much about a bunch of releases I've never mentioned before. I had the intention of keeping this list short and sweet this year, but 2014 was a great year for music. Every time I completed the list, I remembered two or three more albums that just had to be on here, and before I knew it I ended up wanting to share a lot more artists than I intended. I had to draw the line somewhere. Then, I had to find a way to keep your attention long enough for everything on this page to load.While this isn't the most exhaustive of lists, I tried to pick artists I thought people may be interested in alongside some more unusual things I liked. So now that we've reached the end of my not so subtle introduction, I think by now everything should have loaded. Read, enjoy, and leave me comments!

0号室の旅人 by 101A
Songs: forbidden sky and luminous (from '4')
The Joy of Motion by Animals as Leaders
Songs: Air Chrysalis and Ka$cade
Syro by Aphex Twin
Songs: minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix] and CIRCLONT14 (shrymoming mix)
Noise by Boris
Songs: Heavy Rain and Melody
DIStopping by Charisma.com
Songs: Iinazuke Blue and HATE
Clark by Clark
Songs: Winter Linn and The Grit In The Pearl
Butterfly Effect by Clockwork Indigo
Songs: Butterfly Effect and LUAM
Promulgation of the Fall by Dead Congregation
Songs: Immaculate Poison and Only Ashes Remain
Arche by Dir en grey
Songs: phenomenon and 禍夜想
Under the Influence 2 by Domo Genesis
Songs: Go Outside and X
Oi Magoi by Hail Spirit Noir
Songs: Oi Magoi and Hunters
The Path of Apotheosis by Inferi
Songs: The Ancients of Shattered Thrones and Marching Through the Flames of Tyranny
Shiori by jizue
Songs: shiori and 真黒
Symphony of the Vampire / Heart by Kamijo
Songs: Moulin Rouge and Heart
Abstruse Imbeciles Nailed on Slavery by Lost Ubikyst in Apeiron
Songs: Nothing to s(l)ave and blind cyclops
Elddop by Martyrdöd
Songs: En Jobbigt Jävel and Martyren
The Last Dawn / Rays of Darkness by Mono
Songs: Recoil, Ignite and Elysian Castles
Rhapsody in Beauty by THE NOVEMBERS
Songs: Romance and Meursault
風神界逅/雷神創世 by 陰陽座
Songs: 雲は龍に舞い、風は鳳に歌う and 青天の三日月
Dangerous Days by Perturbator
Songs: Hard Wired and Humans are Such Easy Prey
Run the Jewels 2 by Run the Jewels
Songs: Oh My Darling Don't Cry and Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)
逆輸入 ~港湾局~ / 日出処 by 椎名林檎
Songs: 主演の女 (from 逆輸入 ~港湾局~) and 走れゎナンバー (from 日出処)
Strangeulation by Tech N9ne
Songs: Great Night and Make Waves
Fantastic Magic by TK from 凛として時雨
Songs: unravel and Fantastic Magic
Digital Dream Sequence by Trioscapes
Songs: Digital Dream Sequence and Stab Wounds
ボカロ三昧 by 和楽器バンド
Songs: 天樂 and 千本桜

I like the fact how everyone took it as I'm whining since everyone expected someone like that to show up.
 
I merely expressed my surprise at how a pop album got the best award, after most of the kickass works in the list being rock or metal in a joking way.
 
 
 
The staff earned me enough faith with the ChristMHas thread as a whole for me to not do that, lol.