Saishu

Looks more like this: https://goo.gl/images/q8xMa1

No, that last Shinsou sounds weird coming after Pink Killer. I think Pink Killer’s ending is just fine.

I just pulled all the instrumentals off of Kisou. Did the same for Gazette’s DIM. Gonna see how that goes.

/sarcasm

Yeah, it’s like I just forget it’s on the album, but when it comes on I can jam. There’s some great grooves in there.

I guess Downfall might be the only real filler track on here. Every time it comes on I’m like “oh yeah”.

Who’s gonna drop a proper review of this so I can stop watching YouTube dummies pretend they know what they’re talking about?

Considering how many of these songs contain lyrics where Kyo just straight up wants to die, what if “the insulated world” is a coffin? He does hint at a funeral in Keigaku no Yoku” after all.

Utafumi is the most pointless edit they’ve done, but cutting Rinkaku down to three and a half minutes was a travesty. The non-singles from Arche weren’t edited though.

Watch the next PV be Values of Madness

Random shit: the drums fills in Zetsuentai at around 1:00 and then again at 1:10 are some of my favorite that Shinya has ever done.

I have no real interest in how these dudes dress, just give me beats that slap, bro!

I did. Exactly. But I was specifically targeting Kasumi because it’s also a mostly boring 6/8 sea shanty.

Ranunculus is the outlier on this album. It sounds like something they had been holding on to – at least musically and not necessarily lyrically – as early as 2002-2003. I understand wanting to end the album on a lighter note positive note, but I feel like a more straightforward rock number like Un Deux would have been better to close things out? As it stands they kind of already did this with Inconvenient Ideal.

Opinions.

I feel comfortable in saying this is some of the band’s best work. Questionable production aside, the songwriting is tight and focused aside from the two weird flubs from Toshiya. To be fair, the main problem with Devote My Life is that fucking main siren riff being too damn loud, but I love that breakdown with Toshiya rumbling away. Other than that, this is the first DEG album in a long time that I can listen to from beginning to end without feeling drained halfway thru. There really isn’t any filler, and they sound super confident in these songs. They’re short in length, but not in content. Fuck it, dawg, I’m happy.

They considered Devote My Life for a single? Are they on fucking crack?!

I hope Sho gets sombrero kei to catch on.

I really wish the album sounded like the bonus tracks. Like, Jens Bogren’s mixes aren’t perfect, but I can pick out every single detail with no problem. I like how he went for a more natural sounding snare, but it does get a little lost in heavier parts.

What? When Toshiya shaved half his head?

Perfect example of how the sound of this album differs depending on how and what you’re using to listen to it is in Celebrate Empty Howls. On my earbuds, that tambourine/bell sound is hard to hear unless I lower the volume. In my car they’re prominent no matter where the volume is set. I think treble is the key here. Without it you end up getting a weird muddled mid-range mess.

Kyo hates himself. Wants to die. The translated lyrics use very plain language. Very little of it comes across as obscure poetry. He did an interview where he said he didn’t want to reveal the name of the song directed towards his parents, but one look at the lyrics makes it super obvious. He also said he struggles between wanting to either continue as a performer or just disappear entirely. If anything this album seems more personal. Maybe he’s been insulating himself and he’s finally letting everyone in?

It doesn’t fit. I mean the end of Zetsuentai rolls nicely into the beginning of Ranunculus, but the song itself is so tonally different from everything else. Which I guess was the intention, but for the previous 12 tracks to all basically be “I WANT TO FUCKING DIE” and then suddenly here’s this Luna Sea shanty with Kyo exclaiming “I AM ALIVE”.... it sticks out more than Vanitas did on DSS.

Looks like it debuted at #3 and now it’s down to #5?

So Dan Lancaster mixed The Insulated World, and looking thru his past works he’s also produced albums for One OK Rock, Blink-182, Crossfaith, Avril Lavigne, and Bring Me The Horizon. He also mixed the Ningen single, so I guess DEG wanted him to mix the entire album since he did such a GREAT JOB with Ningen.