Tanishi

That may have to do with the fact that Nazare does instore events and Dimlim doesn't. But then again, what do I know about VK.
 
btw, for those who mentioned buying 10 copies; that's what bangya do. No novelty there either.

I mostly agree with this. But the exception is bp records; sliding down the volume switches on everything to not release shitty loudness war garbage would immediately make their records sound better.

In one part they say that the idea for kidoairaku started when they decided to do the O-west live. They decided on the name to keep it simple and so they didn't need to think about it. So they're not chedoara b-sides (idk if we already knew this but I didn't)

That demo tape is pure gold... They fuckin butchered サ・ン・ダ・ル on "mousse", the demo version is far superior. I've always loved Ryota's vocals and his part in that song is especially sweet 💕

It's maybe about the budokan drama, they were supposed to play there for this live but were not allowed to so they played at makuhari messe instead 

Three things in life are inevitable as a visual kei fan: death, taxes, and your favorite band ending activities. If you are a fan of llll-Ligro- , then you experienced all three at the same time when they announced their second disbandment. I wasn't super into the band at the time of both of their disbandments, although they were on my radar and not on my shit list, so I can sympathize with fans who had to deal with heart break twice. Fans of yesteryear went through a similar phase with UnsraW's vocalist Yuuki, and depending on who you talk to he still hasn't gotten back to his prime ten years later. The similarities are so striking it's hard to resist the comparison. But this review isn't about UnsraW, it's about llll-Ligro- and their unreleased second album 弔 (Tomurai). The three tracks that managed to survive stand as a reminder for what could have been, and what should have been.

Before its cancellation, 弔 was announced for a 2018-05-30 release. Artwork and booklets were probably designed and pressed, but no scans other than the front exist. A track list was released but we don't know how many of the nine unreleased songs were finished. The album was delayed multiple times due to Hinata and Kazari's habit of postponing releases for the sake of quality, but Hinata's refusal to finish recording his parts due to acute chorditis implies that at least some of these songs were unfinished. As is, it will be impossible to give a full review of it, but there are several tracks we can reflect on. Those tracks are comeback single "INVICTA", live distributed single "basket case", and other promotional single "INVISIBLE INDIVIDUAL". "深閑ガラス" (Shinkan Glass) is a track played at their last live but no recording of it exists.
 
 


弔 (Tomurai)
1. Blame me (SE)
2. INVISIBLE INDIVIDUAL
3. basket case
4. Shinkan Glass (深閑ガラス)
5. Kuroneko wa Kaku Katariki (黒猫は斯く語りき)
6. Ratai Are Hateta Hyou (裸体荒れ果てた標)
7. DIRGE OF INFECTION
8. HIRAETH
9. INVICTA
10. Mist
11. DEEP SIX
12. Seija no Koushin (聖者の行進)
13. Kanransha wa Adabana to (観覧車は徒花と)
14. Isho (遺書)
 
 
Despite all the material released as a part of llll-Ligro- 's first phase, "INVICTA" isn't the ball scorching metalcore banger I was expecting. The unassuming opening does a lot to disarm the listener, and on the first listen I thought this was going to be a ballad, but before long the song ratchets up the complexity and the aggression. The band dips their toes into the progressive metal waters with this one, as everything from synthesized piano keys to acoustic guitars and a generous amount of toms and cymbal crashes makes an appearance. Hinata's vocals are one of the most striking elements of the track, featuring his signature skill of deftly switching between harsh growls and pig squeals. Sometimes the transitions are so fast I'm not sure if it's all natural or studio magic, but having to perform that live is absolutely killer. It's a seven minute trip far more realized than most of their contemporaries. If every band has their magnum opus, "INVICTA" could be theirs. This must have been a product of their time as 時限式:uadjet (jigenshiki:uadjet).
 

"INVISIBLE INDIVIDUAL" is a much more straightforward track, and would have been the first track on the album after "Blame me", which is an SE so I don't count it. There are a lot of cool ideas here. I think my ultimate favorite part is around 3 minutes, where Hinata's clean singing is laid over his screaming, creating a great dynamic tension to push the song into it's last section. The piano motif returns again, which makes me suspect that we would have gotten at least one piano ballad on the album. There's also some pretty dope bass slaps before the eagle scream halfway through where I expected a breakdown to appear, which is what cemented my opinion of this track as an above average metalcore dirge. 



The last track that was released was "basket case", a live distributed teaser that ended up becoming their last official release. This would have followed "INVISIBLE INDIVIDUAL" and does a good job providing contrast to the first track. This wasn't uploaded anywhere else, so I'll try to give a good description of how the track sounds. "basket case" opens up with a short, distorted riff into a chorus with clean vocals with a straightforward, 'four to the floor' drum beat. The main guitar riff of the song sounds mental and the song moves at a frantic yet restrained pace, alluding to the title. Most of the singing is clean and takes place with Hinata's higher register, but mid range barks, growls, and a pig squeal makes an appearance shortly after the second verse. There's a strong emphasis on twin guitar melody for this song. The chorus has a very stereotypical visual kei melodic progression, so much so that I feel like I can place at least the first few notes of "basket case" from another song, but I can't figure out which one it is yet.

"basket case" descends into thirty seconds of noise as the track winds down to an end, and I find myself feeling saddened that the album will never be released in its entirety, and that I'll never get to hear "深閑ガラス" (Shinkan Glass). llll-Ligro-  hold the crown for visual kei bands with one of the most promising yet unfulfilled musical development arcs of all time, and that's not a title I'm keen on reassigning any time soon. Based on what I've heard, 弔 would have been the album that made a fan out of me. I just know there's a copy of the unfinished masters sitting in a vault in Japan somewhere, and perhaps a second or third copy on a hard drive, but the odds that we'll ever get to see or hear any more of this album are slim to none. At this point, I'd even take a mini-album of whatever is fit enough to be released.

A lot of unknowns remain around the members and the state of the band. Can Hinata ever sing again? Is the relationship between Hinata and Kazari too strained to imagine a third reunion? Do they even want to try or will they both move on to new, separate projects? I am reluctant to stoke the fires of hope for the remaining llll-Ligro-  fans out there, because that's just cruel, but the scene has shown with both HIZUMI (D'espairsRay) and Yuuki (UnsraW) that there's always a chance for Hinata to return.

Honestly this bands pretty bad but for some reason I can't stop listening to them everyday because I have bad taste. If they had a better vocalist and dropped the shitty rave-kei songs they'd be one of the best vk bands around imo. I like the songwriting much more than early dimlim.

I saw Yoshiki at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.

He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”

I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen bags of potato chips in his hands without paying.

The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired from recording the new X-Japan album and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.

When she took one of the bags and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to preserve the spiciness,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a thing. After she scanned each bag of chips and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

It is really disappointing because it's just about the best song they've done imo

Funnily enough the messiness is what made me like it better, it makes it more engaging, at least to me than standard (even decently composed) deathcore.

Funnily enough the messiness is what made me like it better, it makes it more engaging, at least to me than standard (even decently composed) deathcore.

What's up with the poop hat? It makes the video feel so surreal given the context.
"So this is what a serious adult making a sincere apology looks like? I've learned something today."

What's up with the poop hat? It makes the video feel so surreal given the context.
"So this is what a serious adult making a sincere apology looks like? I've learned something today."

What's up with the poop hat? It makes the video feel so surreal given the context.
"So this is what a serious adult making a sincere apology looks like? I've learned something today."

It wasn't that bad. But there's no need to worry, Kazari will bring back the scrapped llll ligro songs for their first album and it will be aoty.

INFINITUM
 
 
 
kek

I've tried to get into this band so many times but to me they just feel like a worse version of DIAURA. I'm still going to check this out though because it shows some promise (like all they're stuff I guess though).

I haven't listened to k-pop in a while but I put on sorry sorry for nostalgia and was amazed at how dated it sounds. I could barely listen to it.
 
And then you have stuff like this from 1998 which sounds really dated too but still sounds really nice (at least for me). I guess the theory of electronic music dating worse then other music is somewhat true, or at least true for stuff that's not masterfully produced.
 
And wow at that TRAX comeback. It was pretty bad but I really enjoyed it for some reason (just like oh my goddess. That was a great comeback too.). They really seem to like multi-year comebacks and musical shifts.
I feel like I should get back into k-pop but a lot of it feels a lot more Americanized now. I could just listen to american pop.
 

So this guy is pretty much the vocalist for half the Korean visual kei scene. Makes you realise how small it is

I hate BP Record's phobia of dynamic range.

Mei and Kazari coming back at the same time. Fantastic.

Another chapter has been written and filed away into the ever growing library of visual kei history, so we resume our customary annual review of all of the great albums that saw the light of day in 2018. Unlike previous years, we elected to wait until the middle of January so the stragglers of the year had their fair chance to weigh in. This list is also not in any specific order, although DIMLIM's CHEDOARA deserves a mention for getting the most votes internally and therefore kicks the list off with a bang. Even in our most challenging years, there's always something fresh and new around the corner waiting to be discovered. Like always, this isn't an exhaustive list and plenty of the hidden gems slip through the cracks, so if you have anything to add to the list tack it on at the end so the entire community can find something new to enjoy. 

Without further ado, here are some great J-Rock albums of 2018.

DIMLIM -- CHEDOARA

@The Reverend
@emmny
 
@helcchi

 
 
 
Sigh - Heir to Despair

@The Reverend
 
@helcchi


Dir en grey - The Insulated World

@emmny
 
 
emmurée - lightless

@The Reverend
 
 
キズ - 「傷痕」

 
@platy
 
 
 

Mass of the Fermenting Dregs - No New World

@The Reverend
 
@Zeus
 
 

陰陽座 (Onmyo-Za) - 覇道明王 (Hadou Myouou)

@Zeus
 
 

The GazettE - NINTH

 
@Zeus
 
 
 
 
 
グリモア - プシュコマキア

@platy
 
 

DADAROMA - dadaism#4


@helcchi
 
 
@platy
 
 


lynch. - XIII
 

 
@YuyoDrift


Thanks for reading!

I may be alone here, but EMBYO. It's just such a Sakurai song, it's truly cool how we can see the continuity of his lyrical themes from back then, and EMBYO is in some ways more powerful for being so direct too. Then ICONOCLASM is the classic, though I prefer the rerecording.

The album "TABOO" was released in 1989, exactly 30 years ago today (18th January)!  
 
One of the most excellent old-school J-rock albums imo with many great highlights such as ICONOCLASM, ANGELIC CONVERSATION or JUST ONE MORE KISS. My favorites are TOKYO and FEAST OF DEMORALIZATION tho (the latter being one of only two songs whose lyrics Toll wrote in B-T history!).
 
 
What are your faves from the album?

RESULTS!
Thanks to everyone who participated this year!
Judging from many of your recommendations, there definitely still exists some talent in the scene!
 
Without further delay, here are the RESULTS!
 
By recent request, I have added the runner-ups for each category!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
Best Overall Artist/Band
 
Best Album
 
Best Single/Maxi-Single/EP
 
Best Cover Art
 
Best Look
 
Best Newcomer
 
Best Veteran
 
Best PV
 
Saddest Disbandment
 
Most Overhyped Band
 
Most Overhyped Release
 
Most Underhyped Band
 
Most Anticipated Release 
 
Band that Changed their Sound for the Best
 
Band that Changed their Sound for the Worse
 
Band that you spent most of your money on in 2018
 
What the hell were they thinking!? Award
 
Best Revival/Returns 
 
An amazing display of results if I may say 😎. Definitely some close calls there, I'll tell ya.
Thanks again to the participants of the MH JRock Awards 2018 for your contributions. The staff and I here at MH hope to see you and more future voters here again at the end of the year!
Until then, enjoy 2019 😁!