Nowhere Girl

Tbh, I would have preferred 2 discs of 'shot in one take' songs rather than this bloated 3-disc package of remasters and virtually pointless remakes. All they'd have to do is get all their live crap in a room and just play the songs through (perhaps over a few days so they stay fresh). That would be the best celebration of their material, as it would represent the culmination of the band living and breathing the songs over 20 years. They could even have set up a few cameras in the room and filmed the entire performance for an easy Blu-Ray/DVD that we'd actually enjoy. Check out Chain Repulsion (Shot In One Take) and imagine if they did something similar with stuff from VULGAR, Kisou, MACABRE, etc.
 
No idea what they were thinking with this album. Should've been called POS rather than VOS.

Yeah, that's a good idea. A few years ago, I worked in the postal service around Xmas to get a bit of extra money for the holidays. Big mistake. It was such a nightmare, I vowed to never sign up for it again. Now I buy my gifts in November to prevent damage.
 
This is the first DEG CD I've skipped in ages. Maybe since DECADE. Just doesn't seem worth my money when I have everything already bar those three remakes.

Yeah, I've always felt the alt vocals version of Fukai was kinda lacking. It's not awful, just very mediocre/forgettable.
Amusingly, I seem to remember that six Ugly's remakes were met with some disdain at the time, particularly children, the original of which had only been released two years prior.
Fuckin' tricky men = Fuck kids are now/Fuck it's an owl. It's easiest if you just ignore the lyrics altogether. I treat them as gibberish for the most part. But he's been throwing English into the songs since they began, so...
 
Reiketsu Nariseba is still an awesome song.

tfw they couldnt dig up klaha's embalmed corpse for this

Imai out there lookin like your racist aunt

Undecided, though.
Also Bottom of the death valley is way better in the re-recording, imo.

Too dark and sludgy for them. If it was just the backing band, maybe.
 
Something more fun like egnirys cimredopyh +) An Injection, INCREASE BLUE, or Cause of fickleness would be more up BABYMETAL's alley.

No, only juniors.
 
Can't wait to hear the Sakura Gakuin rendition of Reiketsu Nariseba umbrella.

Undecided, though.
Also Bottom of the death valley is way better in the re-recording, imo.

Undecided, though.
Also Bottom of the death valley is way better in the re-recording, imo.

Also perhaps because THE FINAL is on it. Probably one of their most popular songs alongside OBSCURE.
 
I voted for Kisou. It was between that and UROBOROS remastered. Really tough decision as I like almost everything they've put out aside from MISSA (and even that's good). Very surprised that DUM SPIRO SPERO is the top-rated album; that would be bottom of the pack for me. DEG albums for me are like different kinds of chocolate. Sometimes 100% cocoa is just a little too much.

Can someone explain why this is the popular opinion? I don't get it.
 
But then, I also like other songs that are universally jeered at like PINK KILLER and Beautiful Dirt.

I've hardly listed to Utafumi either. Maybe 5 or 6 times. When Hageshisa to... came out, I was hyped after UROBOROS and listened to it fairly often, and it lost its appeal with the two year wait for DUM SPIRO SPERO. Didn't help that the re-recording was mixed badly. That song is horrendously overplayed.
 
Tbh, I like Utafumi. It reminds me a little of the Withering/MARROW era. The only part which isn't as good for me is the break; Kyo's vocals sound tired and awkward for some reason.

It may be depressing but their output has reduced dramatically. Kisou, six Ugly, and VULGAR all released in less than two years of each other (not to mention all the singles for those LPs). Nowadays, they are really focussed on touring their material as much as possible and writing is almost non-existent. Maybe they want quality rather than quantity. It does mean that any new release is appreciated more. However, I'd really love to hear some more raw, experimental stuff from them.
 
Almost every band member has a solo project now, so there's plenty of other music to listen to by them, even if it doesn't quite scratch the DEG itch.

23000 yen for a couple of concerts is actually disgusting. I'm a big fan of Dir en grey, but NOPE.
 
I may have gotten a little moist seeing Akuro no Oka on Day 2, though. 

Well, this now exists...

The shows look cool. I'd love to have the entire [mode of x] series, but I'm not a member of the fan club and they're disgustingly expensive. £15-20 each would be okay. £70 per Blu-Ray is an outrage.
 
Really hoping the Best Of won't include one token exclusive song to force fans to buy it. However, if it's completely re-recorded material, that would be sex. If it's not a re-recording, it's kinda redundant, as DECADE already exists. Unless of course it's just stuff from UROBOROS, DSS, and ARCHE, with Unraveling and Utafumi chucked on the end for good measure.
 
Unfortunately, all this news means that it's doubtful that we'll get any new material this year. So it'll probably be two years between singles. It's just been a relentless string of pricey fan club-only live blu-rays. I get that this series of tours is celebrating each album, but it's getting kinda tedious at this point.
 
I remember when DSS came out and Hageshisa to... was just sort of plastered on the album. It felt so out of place because of the sheer length of time between releases. I imagine the same thing will happen with the next DEG album (at least, for me).

I heard one of the early songs and it was autotune hell. Got scared away as a result.  Is it all like this? 

I imagine you'll be right, although in my case, utafumi will probably feel like just another album track instead of a recycled single. I can only remember the chorus, since I watched the preview vid several times, but I've only listened to the full song once. It's about as memorable as IMMORTALIS. DEG singles just aren't that interesting to me by themselves.
 
I'm also hoping the best-of album is re-recordings. Kind of ridiculous to announce something like this an entire year and a half in advance. I kind of just assumed that they abandoned this project after the "Twitter project" thing from last September.
 

I don't get it, Kyo's far from my fave but - he writes lyrics and music, comes up with concepts for the live shows, hell the live shows are some of the best I've ever seen. And you're telling me we're hanging on some fucking theremin to determine his worth? 

I don't really care. It's only a two-day stint and it's not happening outside Japan. Cool for those who can go, distinctly meh for the rest of us.
 
Releasing a collaborative single at the same time would make so much sense from a marketing perspective, but perhaps the tour is too short-lived to be worth that much effort. The most I expect is yet another fanclub-exclusive Blu Ray.
 
I'm most excited about hearing those new songs. Utafumi has grown on me massively since I first heard it.

Despite my complaining, I still went and pre-ordered this. And now I have a hole in my wallet.
 
But... new sukekiyo!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It'd better be in a velvet-lined box with gold inlay.

Despite my complaining, I still went and pre-ordered this. And now I have a hole in my wallet.
 
But... new sukekiyo!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It'd better be in a velvet-lined box with gold inlay.

This is the movie or whatever that's using Seraph in the soundtrack. It's literally just clips from the film. 

Interesting. The DIRU IZ DED OMFG conversation has come up constantly since THE FINAL, and we've laughed it off as ridiculous. Now we're in a weird position where 3/5 of the band are doing other things, and the band themselves have been extensively touring most of their old material from past to present like some kind of last hurrah. These could be the final days. On the other hand, Dir en grey is WAY too big to just lie down. There's money there, whereas I doubt most people will care too much about these side-projects. Perhaps they're feeling creatively bankrupt as Dir en grey and need to move on. Or maybe these solo endeavours exist simply to fill in the down-time between DEG tours. 
 
Of course, we can speculate, but there's really no way of knowing.