reminiscing2004

| Another solid effort but it doesn't stand out as much as it could.
 
With the head of a human, a bird's torso, a long, flowing tail, and a voice said to surpass all the gods and angels in Nirvana, the fantastical creature known as the Kalavinka is the inspiration behind 陰陽座's fourteenth album, 迦陵頻伽 (Karyobinga). 陰陽座's known for taking heavy amounts of inspiration from Japanese folklore and incorporating it into their music - even though they sound more like Iron Maiden than anything else - so this is a positively peculiar route to follow after their recent focus on Japanese deities and folklore. The Japanese interpretation of the Kalavinka is portrayed faithfully on the album cover; vocalist Kuroneko's upper torso is dressed as a winged Bodhisattva and her lower half is birdlike. It's both a gorgeous sight and a lofty proposition.
 
I'm torn on 迦陵頻伽. On one hand, the feel and flow of the album are all too familiar. I peg it as some hybrid of 金剛九尾 (Kongokyuubi) and snippets of their last two albums because of the pacing and atmosphere. 金剛九尾 ranks among my least favorite of their albums, but to its credit, 迦陵頻伽 is much more polished and straightforward, as if MATATABI had a destination in mind when composing. On the other hand, there is lots of carry over from 風神界逅 (Fuujinkaikou) and 雷神創世 (Raijinsousei), which I regard as near perfect. It's not as ambitious as their last effort, and at times it feels like they're marking boxes off a checklist, but this consistency is why they've never released a bad album. An opportunity to incorporate some Indian and East Asian influences into more songs was missed and would have greatly opened up their sound, but I can look past that. If it didn't appeal to you before, this will not change your mind.
 
Where this album impresses me is how the mystic, haunting atmosphere of their earlier eras returns. It's no longer as dark or ominous, but still present and mysterious. Opener "迦陵頻伽" really catches what I'm trying to describe here, and it's got one of the catchiest choruses in their repertoire. Centerpiece "人魚の檻" is a masterful emotional manipulator that's hogged my repeat button for the last few weeks. Those in need of a fix of heavy metal should check out "廿弐匹目は毒蝮" or lead single "愛する者よ、死に候え", and "轆轤首" is the token track where they buck all expectations and try something new. It's tone reminds me of "無風忍法帖" and it's one of my favorites of the album. The canned strings of "轆轤首" were a curious choice, and "御前の瞳に羞いの砂" sounds suspiciously familiar, but I'll admit these are minor quibbles.
 
陰陽座 is in the midst of a second renaissance after the release of 2012's 鬼子母神 (Kishibojin), breaking a streak of tepid albums with a concept so beautifully realized that it still sounds fresh today. 迦陵頻伽 stabilizes this upward trend, and while it's not the best thing ever it's pretty good.
 
 
Support the band!
CDJapan

Now that's a loaded question! Haha!

I'll start by admitting I haven't listened to all of their albums. I don't even have all of their albums, though I am tracking them down slowly but surely. The earliest ones can be the trickiest to get my hands on. Unlike many other bands, I got into them with their 2006 compilation album. I didn't really know what was "new" and what was "old" when I was listening, and the first track I ever heard was "Manji" because I recognized the symbol so I decided to start there. My favorite album by them has to be 2007's "Maoutaiten", although I think that this album surpasses that just slightly. I hear a lot of praise for Garyotensei but that album doesn't do too much for me I think a lot of the hype has to do with the anime tie-in and the 20 minute 3-part epic near the end that they never tried before. With rose-tinted glasses I can confidently say they do the epic saga better in later albums. Some of their albums around the turn of 00's weren't that great either but even at their worst Onmyo is 70%.
 

I am honestly SHOCKED that kouki from d=out is participating in this.

This motherfucker just doesn't know when to slow down! xD
 
At first glance I thought his new company was called "L'OREAL" lol

That one is awesome. Have you seen this one, tho?
 
 

During their 20+ years of existence, Envy have released full albums, EPs and countless splits.
 
Albums:
Breathing And Dying In This Place (1996)
From Here To Eternity (1998)
All The Footprints You've Ever Left And The Fear Expecting Ahead (2001)
A Dead Sinking Story (2003)
Insomniac Doze (2006)
Recitation (2010)
Atheist's Cornea (2015)
 
EPs:
Angel's Curse Whispered In The Edge Of Despair (1999)
The Eyes Of Final Proof 7" EP (2000)
Burning Out The Memories 10" EP (2000)
The Eyes Of Single Eared Prophet EP (2000)
Abyssal (2007)
 
Splits:
Endeavor / Envy Split (1997)
Envy / Sixpence Split (1997)
Envy / This Machine Kills Split (2000)
Yaphet Kotto / This Machine Kills / Envy Split (2002)
Thursday / Envy Split (2008)
Envy / Jesu Split (2008)
 
What are your favorites and why?

Welcome fellow Mucker!  
I'm sure you'll find plenty of discussions to join here.

All this new bands  sound the same... 

last night on a whim i decided to study for a boating license. breezed through the material today, just took the test and now i have a boating license. lol sweet

It Follows had bomb-ass aesthetic and an interesting premise, but it was dragged down by the fucking painfully retarded characters. That whole final act was just so fucking dumb
 
Also, some of my recent viewings have been The Terminator, Gremlins, and Gremlins 2. They all deserve all the positive feedback they get. Very enjoyable, top-tier movies from their particular decade. Loads of fun, oozing character, I really enjoyed all three of them. 

This is the definitions I've always come to know from I was young, and it's the definition that me, and more or less everyone I have discuss music with over the last 15 years, also use:
 
And I know what a remix of a track is, but it's actually a word and an act with more than one meaning.

This is a very interesting point you make! One element to remasters which makes them tricky are the compromises baked into the original recording. For better or worse, it colors the listener's perception of an album. First impressions are very strong. Muddiness can become atmosphere and mistakes musical quirks. In a rush to polish old works musicians may not stop to think about how their interpretation might be different from mine or yours. There has to be enough of an improvement to warrant making a remaster in the first place, but no matter how much one tries to maintain accuracy the parts that change affect even the parts that don't. I can't think of many examples where a simple remaster fixed all the issues I had with an album. It's simply not doing enough in the dimensions it restricts itself in, and many times one bad change in a remaster negates all the good ones.
 
It's for that reason alone that my review ignores the second CD. It can be argued my rating is a little high, but since I viewed the second CD as a bonus it didn't impact the first CD for me. I can choose which one I want to listen to and having the option is nice. The remaster is more accurate to the original version of the album, but it feels sterile. The new version doesn't capture the rawness of the original, but it captures the essence of the album far better (which is what I suspect they are going for). This contrast shows just how much of an art production and mastering is. I suppose it's one of those things where no one should notice you did a thing at all if you do a really good job.
 

Sin as in, SIN ex. Vasalla, Syndrome and D?

anime is a sin

I'm definitely glad both versions exist. The original has an irreplaceable raw quality that they probably wouldn't have been able to recreate today, and they don't need to. I see re-recordings like this as part of a long Japanese tradition of retelling the same story from several different angles, and the story MUCC tell in 2017 is infinitely different than what they could tell in 2001. I recommend to anyone who wants to listen to this (and Shin Homura Uta) to consider this lens instead of a more nostalgic one (that's what the remastered album is for!). 

Tracklist:
 CD 1: Shin Tsuzetsu
—-. Momoku de Aruga Yue no Sogaikan (盲目であるが故の疎外感) Samidare (五月雨) Hai (廃) Itai Tegami (イタイ手紙) Chintsuuzai (鎮痛剤) Yoru (夜) Suna no Shiro (砂の城) Haitoku no Hito (背徳の人) Shofu (娼婦) Danzetsu (断絶) Ieji -2017 Hisyou- (家路 -2017 飛翔-) Kurutta Kajitsu w -2017 Haru- (狂った果実 w ～2017 春～) Kare ga Shinda hi (友達(カレ)が死んだ日)  
 
CD 2: Tsuzetsu 1st
—-. Itai Tegami (イタイ手紙) Shofu (娼婦) Chintsuuzai (鎮痛剤) Hai (廃) Suna no Shiro (砂の城) Yoru (夜) Haitoku no Hito (背徳の人) Momoku de Aruga Yue no Sogaikan (盲目であるが故の疎外感) Danzetsu (断絶)  
| Aged like fine wine.
 
Ever the black sheep of MUCC's discography, color me shocked when it was announced that 痛絶 (Tsuuzetsu) would be among the first two albums MUCC would re-record in full fifteen years later. This release, entitled 新痛絶 (Shin-Tsuuzetsu), includes two discs: the first disc including re-recordings of the entire album, the second disc including the out-of-print original first press of the album (and 友達が死んだ日 (Kare ga Shinda Hi), an extra track that didn't make it). The original 痛絶 (Tsuuzetsu) is not the coveted starter album for new fans: that honor belongs to their second album, 葬ラ謳 (Homura Uta). It's not an album anyone talks about with rose-tinted glasses, between huffs of nostalgia, it's not even an album people bring up when discussing their favorites! I chalk it up to the style. This style of angura-kei wasn't all the rage back in 2001 and its popularity has only been sinking since. In this age of bands courting old and new fans with new versions of old material, 新痛絶 comes across as the most honest and straightforward application of this tactic thus far. Fifteen years later, this album may finally make the impact that it originally should have. Plus, the new jacket for 新痛絶 (Shin-Tsuuzetsu) is dope. The one for 新葬ラ謳 (Shin Homura Uta) looks like Robot Chicken claymation, but I'll leave that alone.
 
The success of this entire venture rests on this conservative approach. MUCC takes the adage "if it's not broke, don't fix it" to heart. They demonstrated this in 2006, they tackled "娼婦" (Shoufu) and "五月雨" (Samidare) for pre-極彩 (Gokusai) singles, and "断絶" (Danzetsu) in 2007 for the WORST OF MUCC compilation; they didn't sound out of place then and they don't sound out of place among the other seven tracks now. For all the changes they could have made, most of them are not alterations to the songs or their structure.  This is more important than I had initially realized. The international scene has felt burned by sub-par re-recordings in the past and this hesitation carries over to MUCC despite their good track record. One thing I desperately hate is for a re-recording to share little similarities with its original - for all of that tweak it some more and sell a new song! I want to have an air of familiarity around what I receive, and in this regard, 新痛絶  exceeds in spades. It's the same album, but it feels new without changing much (or anything) at all. A part of me wonders if this was planned long ago and they finally got some time to do it.
 
The quality difference is night and day. This can prove to be a problem for the handful of 痛絶-era fans used to hearing the album a certain way, and the second disc would be for that crowd. There's even a third disk live performances to sweeten the deal, but only for those who bought the pre-release edition. I find myself in the group that likes both versions, but prefers the clarity of the new version. There's no doubt in my mind that the budget-conscious choices of the original pressing has become a part of the atmosphere and experience, but hearing these songs with new details and increased clarity is more important to me. It's not going to cause a resurgence of angura-kei bands no matter how for it I am, but it does provide a window into what turn of the century visual-kei would sound like with modern recording techniques and that's worth the price of admission alone. I can confidently can state that I gain more than I lose in this exchange, and I would have no problem recommending the new version of the album to anyone interested.
 
 
 
Support the band and pre-order your copy today!
AmazonJP | CDJapan
 
✣新痛絶 (Shin-Tsuuzetsu) is not yet available for general purchase ✣

3 ムック limited editions, two V.A.'s, and a lone Ryohei
ty rarezhut!

Interesting discussion. First off, I think you might be exaggerating the change of his vocals, as you see it. Even looking it at the live clips you cited, let alone all of the other recordings from 2002 to this point, I don't think there was ever some drastic 'switch' where he got better. (I don't think he was ever 'bad' as many people believe.) You could maybe argue that about his screams, but I'm mainly addressing the clean singing voice.
 
Also, something really key to consider (especially with live performances) is the circumstances of the sound setup at the venue. As a vocalist, you are desperately depending on monitors, either on the floor in front of you on via in-ear headphones, to allow you to hear yourself. Standing on stage with the band, you often can't hear the sound of your own voice. This makes your performances at shows vary a lot based on how the venue can accommodate this. Most small venues will have sparse to nil monitoring options. Even in higher budget tours where you have monitoring equipment, you are presented with a new problem: bigger venues have even louder sound systems. Even among same size venues, the acoustics differs wildly, so the live sound team is facing a new set of challenges every show. And on top of that, the house guy doing the mix might put you too low on X night at X venue, and do the opposite at Y venue on Y night. My whole point is that for Ruki, or any vocalist in a loud band, each show will not be a level playing ground for their performance. It's very plausible that at one concert he could hear himself fantastic, while at the other he had insufficient monitoring or was in a crazy reflective room that drowned everything out.
 
Additionally, the idea that someone can improve very suddenly at a discipline is generally a fantasy, imo. Even if you are practicing something for 6 hours a day, progress is usually steady, but diminishes over time. For instance, imagine there are two people who practice singing for 6 hours a day. One of them only started singing yesterday and the other one has been professionally singing for 3 years. The newbie will make a considerable amount more overall improvement than the veteran in a month's time. This is what makes it so difficult to be in the highest echelon of skill in a certain field. If it takes 100 hours to become 'okay' at something, it might take 1000 to become good, and 10,000 to become very good.

Hey guys, I'm headed to Tokyo for a bit. I'm just wondering what are some of the best ways to track lives? I'm assuming scope around a band's blog or website, but is there a better way, such as websites that have giant lists of band activities? Especially interesting to see what GOSSIP, GRIEVA, and PIGLOW IN THE GLOOMY will be up to in the next month or two... thanks a ton!

I've been watching Akira Kurosawa movies lately (Kagemusha, 7 Samurai and Dreams) and holy shit they are captivating! Cinematography is a lost art form in modern age. Simple scene on a river, next to a bed of flowers and water mills looked more beautiful than anything fantasy block busters have churned out for past decades.

plot twist: he probably has an account on here

nothing is better than when you link your bass teacher a kuroyuri to kage song you want to learn and he's like "oh i know that band"... lol this whole time i assumed he was a strictly western metalhead?? damn this is good