Dudemanguy

With Kyo, it's true that you don't really have the "wow" factor anymore since he's had the full bag of tricks out in full display for years now. However that doesn't mean I don't immensely enjoy his voice. I guess he might abuse the falsetto range a little more than necessary (I don't mind it though), but every aspect of what he does vocally I think is handled well. It's safe to say there's not another vocalist out there like him. Personally, I'm enjoying the two PV tracks the most (襞謳 and 艶) along with 耳ゾゾ and 黝いヒステリア.

I'd be stoked if this ends up leading to something new.

I still like the Merry one.

Yup, I'm just going to jump on the bandwagon here and concur with everyone that the new album is indeed fabulous.

Well it's just a bunch of collabs. Who cares. Although the Merry one is pretty cool. The live BD was pretty cool though, and indeed the album is great.

Directly from the source. I paid the premium tax.

My preordered copy is shipping right now, so it's safe to say this is officially out now.

These guys always deliver. Does anyone know who the support drummer is in the video? I do miss their old drummer; he was really good.

I am totally down with this. Damn it, give me an actual release date already!

I need to apologize. I finally managed to get the new album. And you know what? It's actually pretty damn awesome. It's definitely much better than the last one. It's shorter, more aggressive, and more to the point which is what I think their strength lies. 眠り姫 is definitely the worse song on here since it's the most plain one, but everything else is just so much better. The drummer has quite a few blast beats in here, there's some excellent riffs, there's awesome melodic reads, etc. This means that I need to pick up the upcoming single sometime soon.

Yup. I can't even be mad about the inflated price because this is most likely going to be my AOTY.

Do you guys like elf ears?

You didn't giggle at the narration at all? I couldn't stop laughing. The music might be good, but we'll have to wait and see.

Hmm, I'm actually not totally happy with this. Hopefully the rest of it will be better.

That was the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

Yeah it's 5000 yen to the US. It gives you the price if you go through the order on the website. The only thing with a shopping service is that you won't really save a lot unless you pick snail mail. I'm pretty spoiled by getting EMS all the time and don't feel like waiting too long for this, so I went ahead and placed my preorder. I spend too much money... Anyways, I'm definitely pretty excited for this one. I just got into sukekiyo (still wondering why it took me so long) and lately I've been pretty addicted to Vitium and Immortalis. I can't wait for more.

Here's a trailer for the bonus DVD with the limited edition. A live set + 3 PVs.

Ugh, this doesn't look good. Neither of those two songs really impress me too much. The second one is definitely better and has more good ideas, but it's still not that great. I'll still buy the album and give it a chance since this band has released some fantastic albums before, but I'm not nearly as optimistic.

Yeah this one might be some weird grey area legal thing. Looking up ESTA on the website, it says that being approved does not mean that you are automatically admissible to the US and you must also be approved through the Visa Waiver Program. No idea what the law says about foreigners performing for promotional purposes only (and not payment), but this one might have been a case that would have been overlooked in the previous administration. It's not so much of a policy change, but more of an enforcement issue which boils down to customs. Regardless, Loudness would have definitely needed an O or P visa since they were dong paid work.

True, but if it's just some minor paper issue that can be sorted out quickly. It's not unreasonable for them to get back on a plane soon and make it in time for some of the shows in the middle of the tour. It was supposed to go until the 29th.

I don't think Loudness has cancelled all of their US shows (it's on their website still at any rate). There's supposed to be one today and while I doubt that will actually happen; it's possible they might be able to come into the country to do some of the latter shows on their tour.

They've had to cancel US tours before; this isn't really a new thing. And for artists, I don't believe anything has changed in terms of immigration policies. Yeah, I'm more inclined to blame the band's manager or whomever is in charge than anything else. It's supposed to be your job to keep your papers and everything in order so the tour goes without a hitch. The articles say there was something wrong with the "exemption papers" so my first guess is that they might have expired. Yeah Gacharic Spin was just in Houston recently.

Too much engrish, but this sounds pretty good. I wasn't a fan of the production on Heart, so I'm glad this time around it sounds much more appropriate.

Yeah that conjecture all sounds reasonable to me. Kiyoharu has always struck me as rather full of himself.

Oh my, the drama. It's a bit disappointing that Hitoki and Kiyoharu are feuding, but hopefully something nice comes out of this sads reboot.