Saishu

42 minutes is fine. CDs hold about 80 minutes of music, but that doesn’t mean they should. 

42 minutes is fine. CDs hold about 80 minutes of music, but that doesn’t mean they should. 

Sukekiyo has two of Satsuki’s former band mates. 

Ganges is a good song, imo. One of the few jazzy songs I'd listen here and there. But It made me take a closer look on their disco, and it made me see that NINTH is probably not gonna be for me.
 
Disorder to NIL to STACKED RUBBISH is the clear transition of a sucessful indie vk band to a mainstream angry-teenage pleaser sound. Then they drop DIM, which is a much more mature venture than everything they've done before, and still is their peak for a lot of people.
 
Then they release the shitstain that is TOXIC, FILLED with tracks for that teenager above that thought DIM was too heavy, gets barely listenable in one of the sides of DIVISION and keep up with the mediocrity in BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY. And out of nowhere they blow several people's minds with DOGMA.
 
There's a pattern there, it's like they keep going for a cycle of trying to appease the masses between conceptual works. The same way I think TOXIC is more conceptually closer to STACKED RUBBISH than it is to DIM, I believe NINTH will be more akin to BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY than DOGMA. which is SAD AS FUCK.
 

Is Pledge the one that sounds like Guren? They started to blend together after Dim. 
 
They’ll never top Hana Kotoba. 
 
 

Definitely! I've always gave that song way too many credit, as I'm sure european industrial metal has probably done several times before, but speaking of VK, I couldn't find a similar example anywhere (maaaaybe HEROINE'S 夏秋 share similarities in the way I explain below, but I could be wrong. great song, tho.)
 
I'd say it's an ABABC structure, but that's kinda simplified. you could stretch it to include pre-chorus, or even not count the chorus as a proper chorus at all, if you take in the idea that the song could be considered of a second intro of the album, or half intro/half song (the way it paves the way and mood to RAGE), if you know what I mean, I think it could be a lot more nuanced. but I'm getting carried away lol, sorry. I do love discussing stuff like this, would love to hear more thoughts!

Dogma, the song, is fucking brilliant in how it’s composed. It’s always moving forward and doesn’t follow the standard song structure. I think maybe one early riff gets repeated in a later section? I’d definitely take more songs like Dogma and Undying from these guys. 

If it was anything like those two songs I would like it. 

Know what would be cool? If they remastered (though re-recording might be better) Peep Show, M.E.R.R.Y, and Underworld. I call that Merry’s “tin can era”.

Know what would be cool? If they remastered (though re-recording might be better) Peep Show, M.E.R.R.Y, and Underworld. I call that Merry’s “tin can era”.

Good to see Tetsu finally free of his neck brace, haha.

They’ve never shied away from crediting who writes each song, though. 

They’ve never shied away from crediting who writes each song, though. 

Good, I needed someone other than Kaoru to make fun of for their fashion choices. 

Good, I needed someone other than Kaoru to make fun of for their fashion choices. 

Do they bust out their cover of Warsaw no Gensou when they play a show in Warsaw?

My go to for imports has always been CDJapan. 

I bet you Shinya and Mana are all about it. 

I think it was Kaoru that said Shinya is stubborn. Considering he hasn’t changed his look and keeps playing the same fills and patterns the last few years, Kaoru wasn’t fucking lying. 
 
Mika is the shit though. 

I don’t know. Recently came across a video of two women who look to be late 20s/early 30s and they were screaming their heads off at L’arc videos because of Hyde. Made little to no comments about the music itself, just shrieked like banshees whenever Hyde moved. 
 
I think its safe to say we all know this scene has plenty of people that are here just for the music, but there’s also a vast majority of people hung up on the visual aspect. Then there’s that subset of fans that are fairly new to the scene, so everything they hear is new to their ears and sounds fresh and exciting. They can listen to Mejibray or 2010-2013 Gazette and not think any of that shit is derivative or uninspired because it sounds “different”. Like, motherfucker, don’t sit here and praise Gazette and DEG for being heavy in songs like Rage or Reiketsu Nariseba when they both rip off Slipknot, then turn around and say Slipknot sucks. 
 
I have attempted to break this down in my own head several times, and I really just think it boils down to people fetishizing. When your drummer wears a bear suit or whatever, you’re going to attract a few obsessed crazies. 

I also recall an interview where one of them said they don’t really hang out or talk outside the context of the band. You don’t need to be best buds to make music if the creative chemistry is there. 

When Buchi quit I was upset, but then I heard Thirteenth Friday or whatever it was straight up shoegaze and I was excited. That was the last Plastic Tree song I liked. 

Why won't these dudes call it quits? They're seriously creatively spent --- have y'all HEARD doorAdore? Ryutarou just sounds done. The song writing is boring. Didn't we read recently that they were heading into their "last phase"?
 

It’s a cultural thing too. If a western band has internal issues, specifically an American one, the whole world knows about it. Japanese people are more about keeping things close to the chest. 

I forgot this is pretty much the only place where you can say 2011-2013 were the most lackluster years for Gazette without stans getting all weird and defensive. 
 
Fuck.