Nowhere Girl

Love or hate any member of the band, they all contribute in some way to the beast that is Dir en grey. None of them are replaceable. I think at some point or another, they've all had weak moments, but when they make music together, there's no denying that magic happens. It's unfortunate that the atmosphere they can conjure in the studio is hard for them to replicate live (especially DSS). That's one of the reasons I want them to strip back a bit and make an album that is *just* them, raw and ready with less of the deep, layered production they've had on the last few releases.

It's a marketing thing. The frontman always gets more attention than anyone else in any band. People naturally latch onto the humanity that's intrinsic to vocals. As a result, the whole idea of a vocalist is highly marketable and is generally pushed to the forefront of photoshoots, PVs, etc to make more money. The same is true (albeit far more extreme) with BABYMETAL and other idol groups where the entire focus is on vocalists who barely write any of the music, while the actual artists receive almost no credit whatsoever.

That video says it's 'unavailable'.

I'm not vain enough to think you were talking about me directly, but if you were, please forgive my ignorance.

The only info I can get is on discogs. Does anyone have high quality rips of this stuff?

I guess everyone has their own weird quirks and interests...

Does anyone know why he's weirdly obsessed with those plush monkey things? It's bizarre going through his instagram and just seeing them everywhere.

I feel the same way. Another thing is that sukekiyo's musicians all (?) seem to be multi-instrumentalists, so they're talented enough to actually pull off their songs without resorting to playing a tape in the background. And yeah, I have huge respect for them, but there's no way I'll be dropping the almost £100 (cost + jacked up price + shipping + inevitable customs charge) to import that single. I'd consider it if it was an album with 3 or 4 discs worth of content, but this is too much for far too little.

Despair is basically impossible to find anything about. After numerous searches, I found their Beautiful Japanese Sight single on Youtube, which is kind of amazing! Did they really only have one album?

Can anyone recommend any Japanese Industrial bands? Industrial Rock, Industrial Metal, Industrial Electronic, I don't care. The grimier the better. I'm only aware of two bands in this genre: Baal Blam Honey

I usually instabuy all music that's Dir en grey/Kyo related but the price of this thing (and ARCHE at Budokan) is just ridiculous. This is like Gackt-level expensive. Does it come with a Kyo body pillow or something?

Hemimetabolism and Uuyu no Sora are both songs that need to be experienced live to understand. If you haven't checked out the Persuasio Blu-ray, I highly recommend it. Edit: Apologies. Hemimetabolism isn't on the Blu-ray! But it has a similar feel to Uuyu no Sora.

Strongly disagree, but maybe that's just me? I think it's really pretty, acting like a counterpoint to the similarly poppy zephyr on the back half of the album. In an LP that's so engaged with discord and dissonance, it's nice to have a few melodic songs here and there.

I don't think it's bad at all. It's definitely a nice break from the gloom that DEG spiralled into in the DSS era. There's a mix of darkness, beauty, complexity, and strangely, playfulness. We haven't had fun songs like Cause of Fickleness and Chain Repulsion for quite a while.

MARROW actually turned me off the band for a few months the first time I heard it. I wasn't a big metal fan back then, and its raw, unrelenting aggression confused and shocked me. I had to give it another couple of shots before the album clicked with me.

Shit, you're right. I've been a fan since MACABRE and totally forgot that this was a recurring thing. Fail.

I feel like they're already half-way there at least. There have been various smatterings of it recently (adding the break of Reiketsu Nariseba to that list) as well as the LOS AWKIS Folklore mix of VANITAS. They probably won't drop their rock band setup any time soon, especially as they've been favouring a much heavier sound. I can definitely see it happening more, just restricted to b-sides and remixes. Personally, I wouldn't mind if they went and did something similar to MARROW; simpler songs recorded while on tour. The raw emotion in that album is something that imo was diluted in the heavily processed studio recordings of ARCHE and DUM SPIRO SPERO. Doesn't necessarily have to be extremely aggressive to be good. I guess we'll see in July how their sound has progressed. As a side-note, I hope their next album is due for a Holiday 2016 release and not over a year after this single. I'm still confused that they stuck Hageshisa on DSS even though that single came out almost two years prior.

Just noticed that the Limited Edition 1st Press ARCHE Blu Ray is available to pre-order everywhere. I'd quite like to get a copy, but it's so expensive! Has anyone found it for a decent price? I can't see it for under £75 (about $110 US) shipped.