geist

Allergie was a decent song until about the 1:35 mark when harsh clipping was inexplicably inserted into the track. Really? You're going to write something somewhat passable as a metal song (core knock-off nonetheless) and then you take away from the song with that nonsense? The rest of the album? Well, what do you expect? It's bland pop metal with the band stealing ideas from the GazettE (does XERO sound familiar?). If you want decent pop metal, just listen to the GazettE and throw this album into the trash. 2/10

fucking hell....

I suggest you listen to more Sadie then because the imitation is clear if you know what you’re listening for. Take Sadie’s “Rosario”, for example. Not only do you have Mao poorly imitating Kyo’s style, but even the set up to the chorus — and the harmony between singing and harsh vocals in the chorus — is a direct imitation of Different Sense. Different songs and keys? Sure; but the way that chorus is set up and the chorus itself is self-evidently copying Dir en grey. I’m speaking about musical form here, not about the specific notes being played. The songs are not similar in terms of notes played; but in terms of the songs structure, there are specific things going on which show themselves to be imitation. To top it all off, you even have Mao wearing gear reminiscent of Kyo’s obscure outfit in the PV. The imitation is evident. I remember when Rosario came out everyone here lost their shit over how it sounded like a weak Dir en grey knock off. Furthermore, what you described as Sadie’s “j-pop driven sound” legitimately describes every single VK band INCLUDING Dir en grey. That’s not a quality I’d ever consider unique to any band, let alone Dir en grey. So yes, you can draw a comparison between the two in that regard; but that’s not Sadie ripping off Dir en grey, that’s just a VK convention.

Don’t you worry my little babushka, I’ve got plenty of cash to spend 😘

That's the entire crux of my argument. Let's stop pretending that band's didn't see what Dir en grey were doing in the mid-to-late-2000's and didn't rush to emulate their style. Some bands switched to 7 string guitars (lynch), some bands were direct copies (Sadie, 12012), some bands copied the vocal styles of Kyo (Nega, Rentrer en soi). The fact is, bands made sudden stylistic shifts when Dir en grey started getting (minimal) international recognition and it's obvious. You were around (I assume), I was around -- we all saw it in real time.

Bullshit. Nega is basic and bland compared to Dir en grey, sure; but their vocalist sure loved copying Kyo when he started incorporating a low-rent version of his high screams. Like I said, not nearly as unoriginal as Mao or Wataru; but derivative nonetheless.

This band sucks so much dick. "Nega" is your typical mediocre mid-2000's VK band that thought aping Dir en grey was a good idea. They're second-rate. I put them a step below Sadie and 12012 in terms of unoriginal cringe; but it's close.

Are you kidding me? This is my dream question. I would hang out with Papa Kaoru and we'd spend the first part of the day talking about music, his guitar rig, etc. And then we'd spend the second half of the day drinking beer and writing guitar riffs together. It may even end with a kiss goodnight if he plays his cards right 😉

Way better than the original. Buck-Tick Sucks-Dick. They’re one of those bands who I want to like, but then I get super bored and put on D’erlanger.

National Media Boys is a trip. Whatever these guys are taking, I want some.

Whenever I think of lynch, I think of "stale pop-metal". I always listen to these guys expecting some good, heavy-hitting, music, and all I get is music that's one degree of separation from Babymetal -- pop with a commercialized "metal sound" layered over the top for affect. Fingers crossed they step it up.

Hey, this is a big development! Kyo used to complain about touring abroad in interviews; but now he says he loves it! What a sweetheart 😍

lmao, yeah, that sounds about right. I remember at one of the Apocalyptica co-headline shows where some friends and I were standing in the middle, and I said to one "When Red Soil rips, I want you to push me and I'll do the rest". Sure enough, the song picks up, I get a solid push in the back, and I begin trucking through these small Asian girls (sorry) with my arms outstretched to part the seas. After that, the pit was awesome the rest of the night. Even a few girls were getting into the mix and having fun. Oddly enough, they were Apocalyptica fans who had never listened to Dir en grey before so it was a cool experience. There's only been one show where we tried to get a pit going and security shut it down. The security guard came up to me and said "Man, I love what you guys are doing; but this isn't the kind of show for this", so instead we spent the rest of the show getting drunk at the bar with the vocalist of the opening band.

Gaika... has not aged well. I'm starting to realize that the band's earlier journey into the more "extreme" aspects of metal sound weak in comparison to their newer material. Much of it sounds like cheap imitation, no doubt as a result of the band trying to find a new "sound" while tackling styles wholly new to them.

At a metal show, yes. You may not enjoy metal shows; but that's the kind of crowd you'll draw when you're an "extreme" metal band with breakdowns. And you can't blame the crowd for that. You should blame the band for that because this is the style of music they've chosen to create and perform. They've chosen to play drop-tuned 7 string guitars. They've chosen to have breakdowns in their songs. They've chosen the setlist as it's currently constructed. They've chosen to emphasize heavy songs over ballads -- which were damn near non-existent in this tour. They've made these choices knowing exactly what kind of crowd they would draw.

Vkei bands rarely come to the states because it is significantly more expensive, and a logistical nightmare, than anywhere else to tour and most of these bands couldn’t draw a crowd of 100 people, so it’s not worth it. Dir en grey, and the GazettE have smart management because they’re two of the only vkei bands that could reliably come to the states and do well. This is why both bands on their tours of the states hit specific markets because I imagine they’re aware that people will travel a long distance to see them and then spend over $200 on merchandise. I bought a hoodie, shirt, and a tote bag to carry my merch. And that was small time compared to what other fans were buying. as long as this frenzy exists: as long as Dir en grey can reliably sell out shows in big markets, like they have pretty much done on this tour, while also selling a shit load of merchandise, they will come back sooner rather than later. And they’re one of the only vkei bands that can pull it off. There are non-VK bands like Boris who have big followings in the States; but the frenzy to buy merch is almost nonexistent compared to Dir en grey shows.

The World of Mercy is such a great set closer.

Agreed. It's bare; but what they have looks so good. I've wanted a good hoodie for a while, and this is it.

Great set, and I'm really digging the tour hoodie this time through.

It’s a song where nothing happens for nearly 6 minutes. Those are my favorite!!

Most don't; but it's fun to pretend.

You’ve definitely heard worse, and you’ve definitely heard worse production by Dir en grey. The production is fine. I only have issues with small mixing/artistic choices that in the grand scheme of things don’t matter. It IS drastically different from arche, though, which feels too sterile to my ears. The guitars have poor mixing and the drums are just too far forward in the mix along with the vocals. The Inferno is a great example of this. Listening to the full mix in stereo, Kyo is practically drowning everyone else out and I hate that. But again, those are artistic choices that at the end of the day don’t matter too much. And ive said it since the beginning: The Insulated World is their strongest material to date. Hands down.

who the fuck is Seraph? I did this a page or two back and chances are my list has changed except for the top 2 or 3 albums: 1. Dum Spiro Spero 2. The Insulated World 3. Uroboros 4. The Marrow of a Bone 5. Macabre 6. Withering to Death 7. Gauze 8. Vulgar 9. Arche 10. Kisou

About time. These guys were terrible from the beginning and they only had one decent song, which of course Patrik didn't write. They went full retard and tried to jump on the VK bandwagon 10 years too late, they put all of their effort into laughable music videos (sorry, "PV'S"), and the only decent singer they ever had left because he couldn't stand this gay weeb shit. Bataar went the direction it did, I think, because Patrik wanted an avenue into rubbing shoulders with people that could get him closer to meeting Kaoru of Dir en grey. That's all this was. They took the VK look to make themselves more marketable to VK fans in Japan. They played a show (or two) in Japan and even did an entire set of Dir en grey covers during one performance. Everything about these guys was fraudulent. Their music, their style -- everything was fake. Patrik and I were chummy several years ago, and because of his obsession with Dir en grey they created the name "Bataar" to mirror the mystique surrounding "Dir en grey". He told me there was a "deeper meaning" to "Bataar" and that maybe one day we'd discover it. blah blah blah. All the nonsense Dir en grey spouts and he aped that too. He aped Kaoru's style, his guitars, his appearance live, his movements live -- this guy was a shameless Kaoru fanboy and all it did was make me cringe. After that first EP I stopped listening to these guys, and I SURE AS HELL wasn't going to listen to them with another Swedish weeb as a vocalist. Fucking christ.

This, tbh, and the thing about playing in an extreme metal style is: those things are kinda necessary. Doing the same lazy pseudo blast beat over and over again can get tiring, especially when it sounds barely distinguishable from VST drums you can program on a computer. It's flat, and on top of that his creative choices for these parts are always suspect. You have the fast section, and then it slows down exactly like you'd expect it to and Shinya just keeps pulling from the same ideas in a copy/paste format that just doesn't fit. Case in point: When it comes to professional musicians, unless they're garbage, I almost never butt-in and say "they should have done this and this differently" because I trust the creativity of those making the music; but Shinya is different. In the climax of the song there is a section that requires double kick to support the heightened momentum of the guitars. It's 9:15 - 9:50 where there's all this space for where the double kick SHOULD go; but it's not there because Shinya is not, like Saishu said, an extreme metal drummer and thus does not have the proper artistic instincts to flesh out the parts he needs to. Shinya's not terrible, but he's not a great metal drummer, and when someone like me -- who isn't a drummer -- can clearly see Shinya's missed opportunities for better drums, then you know there's a problem.