Dudemanguy

It's fucking over. I have loved Gargoyle for years (own all of their albums, their EPs, most of their various re-recordings, that massive 10 DVD boxset, etc.) and seeing this news earlier this morning has ruined my day. Toshi was there from the very beginning in 1987 and Katsuji joined a year later. Kentaro came into the picture a little later (1994) and replaced She-ja (along with Yotaro who later left in 2001). These aren't just random saps leaving. It's the lifeblood of the band. Even if Kiba decides it's solo project time (keep in mind he's like 52, it would be a logical time to call it quits) but with Gargoyle's name, it wouldn't be the same band. It's basically the end.
 
Quite a shame really. It's like a piece of history is ending to me. Gargoyle was one of Japan's earlier thrash metal bands and easily one of the most creative ones. Hell, they're one of the most weird/creative thrash metal bands period. I never would have guessed their last album in 2016 would end up being their last one. 31 quality years is not a bad run. RIP one of my all time favorite bands.

Just some notes from reading the page to the best of my ability, Toshi pretty much started it. Of course these things are never concrete, but Toshi talks about how he was reaching his limit in the past few years with the band's activities. He had an important meeting with Kiba and the other members, but in the end, Toshi and Kiba simply could not come to any agreement. So Toshi decided to focus on another life and leave the band. Katsuji himself doesn't say it, but Toshi's comment says that his withdrawal also caused Katsuji and Kentaro to leave. Kentaro seems like the last person here, he mentions having to make a decision between continuing with just Kiba or also leaving with the other two and in the end he choose the later.
 
Kiba does specifically say that he will continue on. How? I have no idea. He even mentions he thought a lot about formally breaking up the band and not wanting to sully their name, but in the end he decided to press forward.

It's fucking over. I have loved Gargoyle for years (own all of their albums, their EPs, most of their various re-recordings, that massive 10 DVD boxset, etc.) and seeing this news earlier this morning has ruined my day. Toshi was there from the very beginning in 1987 and Katsuji joined a year later. Kentaro came into the picture a little later (1994) and replaced She-ja (along with Yotaro who later left in 2001). These aren't just random saps leaving. It's the lifeblood of the band. Even if Kiba decides it's solo project time (keep in mind he's like 52, it would be a logical time to call it quits) but with Gargoyle's name, it wouldn't be the same band. It's basically the end.
 
Quite a shame really. It's like a piece of history is ending to me. Gargoyle was one of Japan's earlier thrash metal bands and easily one of the most creative ones. Hell, they're one of the most weird/creative thrash metal bands period. I never would have guessed their last album in 2016 would end up being their last one. 31 quality years is not a bad run. RIP one of my all time favorite bands.

It's fucking over. I have loved Gargoyle for years (own all of their albums, their EPs, most of their various re-recordings, that massive 10 DVD boxset, etc.) and seeing this news earlier this morning has ruined my day. Toshi was there from the very beginning in 1987 and Katsuji joined a year later. Kentaro came into the picture a little later (1994) and replaced She-ja (along with Yotaro who later left in 2001). These aren't just random saps leaving. It's the lifeblood of the band. Even if Kiba decides it's solo project time (keep in mind he's like 52, it would be a logical time to call it quits) but with Gargoyle's name, it wouldn't be the same band. It's basically the end.
 
Quite a shame really. It's like a piece of history is ending to me. Gargoyle was one of Japan's earlier thrash metal bands and easily one of the most creative ones. Hell, they're one of the most weird/creative thrash metal bands period. I never would have guessed their last album in 2016 would end up being their last one. 31 quality years is not a bad run. RIP one of my all time favorite bands.

No one's posted White Veil from his youtube channel yet? I'll do the honors then.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZXa4hombas

My memory could be off, but I think the melodies you're referring to really have their origin from songs off of Holy Grail. It's not like 1-1, but I think it's pretty similar. I've noticed both Hizaki and Kamijo like to take stuff from that album.

I've been expecting this for a while now actually. If you've looked at the lineups for Jupiter's previous lives (the ones after Zin left of course), Kuze was always a guest vocalist (along with some other guys). He abruptly left Concerto Moon a few months ago, so I was thinking it was very likely for Kuze to join Hizaki & co. in Jupiter. I quite enjoyed the new song and will be looking forward to this release. Kuze's vocals fit right in. My biggest question is whether or not Jupiter will completely drop the melodeath/extreme metal elements. It wouldn't be too hard for Hizaki to get someone like the guy from Gyze to do some guest growls or something.

Bleh, it looks like it'll be limited to some in-store events and some other sponsorship event for now. Fortunately, the descriptions says that there's a possibility it'll be added to other stores.

The Ash re-recording exceeded my expectations, so I'm pretty happy with that. It's Utafumi that will end up being useless. 空谷の跫音 with Sugizo doing random violin screeches was pretty lame honestly.

The second disc of Arche had a couple of excellent songs (And Zero and Tefu Tefu) that made it worth it for me. The rest of the crappy remixes I skip of course.

Forum traffic will now increase by 500%.

Forum traffic will now increase by 500%.

Yeah, the different releases/types should be a crime. Just print make a super-duper deluxe edition with everything and I'll buy that one damnit. That being said, the samples sounded great to me. "Metempsychosis" and "蠱惑" in particular sound awesome.

I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on this than most. I rarely ever download any music, and I buy the vast majority of my music via CDs (with some occasional digital purchases on Bandcamp). When I first started getting really into music in general, I did pirate a few things but even in those early days I mostly stayed straight. In high school I started collecting CDs, and I still do to this day. I can honestly say that piracy had very little to do with my taste in visual kei, Japanese music, or just music  in general. For me, it was just grabbing a few albums here and there based off of a clip I heard on youtube (could be an official one or not). Over time I got very good at judging albums based off of a song or a trailer and I rarely get any misses. Hell sometimes I buy stuff blind just based off of the members in it.
 
There are a handful of exceptions like when a band I like releases something that's just flat out impossible to get because it's live only, out of print for insane prices, or something like that. In those cases, I might grab a rip because I'm not going to just drop $100+ on a CD to some scalper on Yahoo Auctions (although I've done this before). In my case, I do have a pretty strong desire for a physical CD + booklet,  so I'm extra appreciative of Japanese bands generally taking the time and effort to make sure their CD releases are really nice (a lot of western bands are hackjobs in comparison).
 
Now, I understand that not everyone is necessarily in a position to drop hundreds of dollars on this stuff. My position is pretty fortunate since I have basically zero hobbies that cost money besides music and my expenses are very low. I won't pretend to be on a moral high ground either since I've got terabytes of anime rips on my hard drive right now. Hell talking to some other people around the world, the US actually has it pretty easy since we don't have to deal with ludicrous VATs/duty on imports which most of Europe seems to have. Those taxes drive the cost way up and make it even more unfeasible for some people.
 
However, I think that if you are able to afford it, you should support the bands you really like. It could be buying CDs, merch or whatever you want. If you truly value what an artist puts out, then I think you should support them if you can. These days there are plenty of online retailers (Amazon, HMV, CDJapan, etc.) that are pretty easy to use and you can get decent deals (by Japan's standards anyway) if you know what you're doing. Hell, sometimes I end up paying more money going after western CDs simply because I usually can't buy those all from one seller and have to split shipping across a bunch of different people (that adds up).
 
If a band's release is in print and easily available, I will absolutely buy it if I want it. I won't even "download a copy in advance" while I wait for the CD to arrive (I know someone who does this sometimes). Even if something is out of print and not exactly easy to find, 99% of the time I won't download it either. I'll generally put that album on the backburner and wait for a good time to lurk Yahoo Auctions or something.
 
I suppose I also will differ from most people on streaming. I personally can't stand the idea of streaming in any shape or form. Even if there was the magical perfect streaming service that had every artist I wanted, I still wouldn't use it. Streaming isn't truly ownership to me because you don't have any real control over the files. You just get whatever the host serves you. Just on principle I dislike it. This also extends somewhat to digital purchases. I will not purchase any digital downloads unless they offer lossless (so Bandcamp basically). Not because I'm dumb enough to think FLAC sounds better (it doesn't against decent lossy encodes). But I don't like not having the freedom to use the codecs and/or transcodes I want (since lossy downloads basically lock you into that format). And yes, I have actually re-encoded my portable library before (switched to Opus from Ogg Vorbis a while ago). I don't feel I have the real deal if I don't have a 1-1 copy of what's on the CD.
 
As for Japan's music industry, they're in the unique position where their music industry (for now) is still dominated by physical sales. This is rapidly shifting though. They never really got into downloads over there, but they're rapidly getting on the streaming bandwagon. Is this a good or bad thing for the quality of music? I'm tempted to think it will mostly end up being a bad thing overall if music gets driven by a more streaming-like market instead of a core base of dedicated fans. But maybe I'll be wrong. Japan has magically avoided a ton of trends that the West has gone through, so it's hard to predict what will happen.

Jay finally officially left Light Bringer as well after all these years. Well it wasn't like Light Bringer was going to magically come back any time soon.

I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on this than most. I rarely ever download any music, and I buy the vast majority of my music via CDs (with some occasional digital purchases on Bandcamp). When I first started getting really into music in general, I did pirate a few things but even in those early days I mostly stayed straight. In high school I started collecting CDs, and I still do to this day. I can honestly say that piracy had very little to do with my taste in visual kei, Japanese music, or just music  in general. For me, it was just grabbing a few albums here and there based off of a clip I heard on youtube (could be an official one or not). Over time I got very good at judging albums based off of a song or a trailer and I rarely get any misses. Hell sometimes I buy stuff blind just based off of the members in it.
 
There are a handful of exceptions like when a band I like releases something that's just flat out impossible to get because it's live only, out of print for insane prices, or something like that. In those cases, I might grab a rip because I'm not going to just drop $100+ on a CD to some scalper on Yahoo Auctions (although I've done this before). In my case, I do have a pretty strong desire for a physical CD + booklet,  so I'm extra appreciative of Japanese bands generally taking the time and effort to make sure their CD releases are really nice (a lot of western bands are hackjobs in comparison).
 
Now, I understand that not everyone is necessarily in a position to drop hundreds of dollars on this stuff. My position is pretty fortunate since I have basically zero hobbies that cost money besides music and my expenses are very low. I won't pretend to be on a moral high ground either since I've got terabytes of anime rips on my hard drive right now. Hell talking to some other people around the world, the US actually has it pretty easy since we don't have to deal with ludicrous VATs/duty on imports which most of Europe seems to have. Those taxes drive the cost way up and make it even more unfeasible for some people.
 
However, I think that if you are able to afford it, you should support the bands you really like. It could be buying CDs, merch or whatever you want. If you truly value what an artist puts out, then I think you should support them if you can. These days there are plenty of online retailers (Amazon, HMV, CDJapan, etc.) that are pretty easy to use and you can get decent deals (by Japan's standards anyway) if you know what you're doing. Hell, sometimes I end up paying more money going after western CDs simply because I usually can't buy those all from one seller and have to split shipping across a bunch of different people (that adds up).
 
If a band's release is in print and easily available, I will absolutely buy it if I want it. I won't even "download a copy in advance" while I wait for the CD to arrive (I know someone who does this sometimes). Even if something is out of print and not exactly easy to find, 99% of the time I won't download it either. I'll generally put that album on the backburner and wait for a good time to lurk Yahoo Auctions or something.
 
I suppose I also will differ from most people on streaming. I personally can't stand the idea of streaming in any shape or form. Even if there was the magical perfect streaming service that had every artist I wanted, I still wouldn't use it. Streaming isn't truly ownership to me because you don't have any real control over the files. You just get whatever the host serves you. Just on principle I dislike it. This also extends somewhat to digital purchases. I will not purchase any digital downloads unless they offer lossless (so Bandcamp basically). Not because I'm dumb enough to think FLAC sounds better (it doesn't against decent lossy encodes). But I don't like not having the freedom to use the codecs and/or transcodes I want (since lossy downloads basically lock you into that format). And yes, I have actually re-encoded my portable library before (switched to Opus from Ogg Vorbis a while ago). I don't feel I have the real deal if I don't have a 1-1 copy of what's on the CD.
 
As for Japan's music industry, they're in the unique position where their music industry (for now) is still dominated by physical sales. This is rapidly shifting though. They never really got into downloads over there, but they're rapidly getting on the streaming bandwagon. Is this a good or bad thing for the quality of music? I'm tempted to think it will mostly end up being a bad thing overall if music gets driven by a more streaming-like market instead of a core base of dedicated fans. But maybe I'll be wrong. Japan has magically avoided a ton of trends that the West has gone through, so it's hard to predict what will happen.

I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on this than most. I rarely ever download any music, and I buy the vast majority of my music via CDs (with some occasional digital purchases on Bandcamp). When I first started getting really into music in general, I did pirate a few things but even in those early days I mostly stayed straight. In high school I started collecting CDs, and I still do to this day. I can honestly say that piracy had very little to do with my taste in visual kei, Japanese music, or just music  in general. For me, it was just grabbing a few albums here and there based off of a clip I heard on youtube (could be an official one or not). Over time I got very good at judging albums based off of a song or a trailer and I rarely get any misses. Hell sometimes I buy stuff blind just based off of the members in it.
 
There are a handful of exceptions like when a band I like releases something that's just flat out impossible to get because it's live only, out of print for insane prices, or something like that. In those cases, I might grab a rip because I'm not going to just drop $100+ on a CD to some scalper on Yahoo Auctions (although I've done this before). In my case, I do have a pretty strong desire for a physical CD + booklet,  so I'm extra appreciative of Japanese bands generally taking the time and effort to make sure their CD releases are really nice (a lot of western bands are hackjobs in comparison).
 
Now, I understand that not everyone is necessarily in a position to drop hundreds of dollars on this stuff. My position is pretty fortunate since I have basically zero hobbies that cost money besides music and my expenses are very low. I won't pretend to be on a moral high ground either since I've got terabytes of anime rips on my hard drive right now. Hell talking to some other people around the world, the US actually has it pretty easy since we don't have to deal with ludicrous VATs/duty on imports which most of Europe seems to have. Those taxes drive the cost way up and make it even more unfeasible for some people.
 
However, I think that if you are able to afford it, you should support the bands you really like. It could be buying CDs, merch or whatever you want. If you truly value what an artist puts out, then I think you should support them if you can. These days there are plenty of online retailers (Amazon, HMV, CDJapan, etc.) that are pretty easy to use and you can get decent deals (by Japan's standards anyway) if you know what you're doing. Hell, sometimes I end up paying more money going after western CDs simply because I usually can't buy those all from one seller and have to split shipping across a bunch of different people (that adds up).
 
If a band's release is in print and easily available, I will absolutely buy it if I want it. I won't even "download a copy in advance" while I wait for the CD to arrive (I know someone who does this sometimes). Even if something is out of print and not exactly easy to find, 99% of the time I won't download it either. I'll generally put that album on the backburner and wait for a good time to lurk Yahoo Auctions or something.
 
I suppose I also will differ from most people on streaming. I personally can't stand the idea of streaming in any shape or form. Even if there was the magical perfect streaming service that had every artist I wanted, I still wouldn't use it. Streaming isn't truly ownership to me because you don't have any real control over the files. You just get whatever the host serves you. Just on principle I dislike it. This also extends somewhat to digital purchases. I will not purchase any digital downloads unless they offer lossless (so Bandcamp basically). Not because I'm dumb enough to think FLAC sounds better (it doesn't against decent lossy encodes). But I don't like not having the freedom to use the codecs and/or transcodes I want (since lossy downloads basically lock you into that format). And yes, I have actually re-encoded my portable library before (switched to Opus from Ogg Vorbis a while ago). I don't feel I have the real deal if I don't have a 1-1 copy of what's on the CD.
 
As for Japan's music industry, they're in the unique position where their music industry (for now) is still dominated by physical sales. This is rapidly shifting though. They never really got into downloads over there, but they're rapidly getting on the streaming bandwagon. Is this a good or bad thing for the quality of music? I'm tempted to think it will mostly end up being a bad thing overall if music gets driven by a more streaming-like market instead of a core base of dedicated fans. But maybe I'll be wrong. Japan has magically avoided a ton of trends that the West has gone through, so it's hard to predict what will happen.

I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on this than most. I rarely ever download any music, and I buy the vast majority of my music via CDs (with some occasional digital purchases on Bandcamp). When I first started getting really into music in general, I did pirate a few things but even in those early days I mostly stayed straight. In high school I started collecting CDs, and I still do to this day. I can honestly say that piracy had very little to do with my taste in visual kei, Japanese music, or just music  in general. For me, it was just grabbing a few albums here and there based off of a clip I heard on youtube (could be an official one or not). Over time I got very good at judging albums based off of a song or a trailer and I rarely get any misses. Hell sometimes I buy stuff blind just based off of the members in it.
 
There are a handful of exceptions like when a band I like releases something that's just flat out impossible to get because it's live only, out of print for insane prices, or something like that. In those cases, I might grab a rip because I'm not going to just drop $100+ on a CD to some scalper on Yahoo Auctions (although I've done this before). In my case, I do have a pretty strong desire for a physical CD + booklet,  so I'm extra appreciative of Japanese bands generally taking the time and effort to make sure their CD releases are really nice (a lot of western bands are hackjobs in comparison).
 
Now, I understand that not everyone is necessarily in a position to drop hundreds of dollars on this stuff. My position is pretty fortunate since I have basically zero hobbies that cost money besides music and my expenses are very low. I won't pretend to be on a moral high ground either since I've got terabytes of anime rips on my hard drive right now. Hell talking to some other people around the world, the US actually has it pretty easy since we don't have to deal with ludicrous VATs/duty on imports which most of Europe seems to have. Those taxes drive the cost way up and make it even more unfeasible for some people.
 
However, I think that if you are able to afford it, you should support the bands you really like. It could be buying CDs, merch or whatever you want. If you truly value what an artist puts out, then I think you should support them if you can. These days there are plenty of online retailers (Amazon, HMV, CDJapan, etc.) that are pretty easy to use and you can get decent deals (by Japan's standards anyway) if you know what you're doing. Hell, sometimes I end up paying more money going after western CDs simply because I usually can't buy those all from one seller and have to split shipping across a bunch of different people (that adds up).
 
If a band's release is in print and easily available, I will absolutely buy it if I want it. I won't even "download a copy in advance" while I wait for the CD to arrive (I know someone who does this sometimes). Even if something is out of print and not exactly easy to find, 99% of the time I won't download it either. I'll generally put that album on the backburner and wait for a good time to lurk Yahoo Auctions or something.
 
I suppose I also will differ from most people on streaming. I personally can't stand the idea of streaming in any shape or form. Even if there was the magical perfect streaming service that had every artist I wanted, I still wouldn't use it. Streaming isn't truly ownership to me because you don't have any real control over the files. You just get whatever the host serves you. Just on principle I dislike it. This also extends somewhat to digital purchases. I will not purchase any digital downloads unless they offer lossless (so Bandcamp basically). Not because I'm dumb enough to think FLAC sounds better (it doesn't against decent lossy encodes). But I don't like not having the freedom to use the codecs and/or transcodes I want (since lossy downloads basically lock you into that format). And yes, I have actually re-encoded my portable library before (switched to Opus from Ogg Vorbis a while ago). I don't feel I have the real deal if I don't have a 1-1 copy of what's on the CD.
 
As for Japan's music industry, they're in the unique position where their music industry (for now) is still dominated by physical sales. This is rapidly shifting though. They never really got into downloads over there, but they're rapidly getting on the streaming bandwagon. Is this a good or bad thing for the quality of music? I'm tempted to think it will mostly end up being a bad thing overall if music gets driven by a more streaming-like market instead of a core base of dedicated fans. But maybe I'll be wrong. Japan has magically avoided a ton of trends that the West has gone through, so it's hard to predict what will happen.

Jay finally officially left Light Bringer as well after all these years. Well it wasn't like Light Bringer was going to magically come back any time soon.

I really love what Kurumi did for the second Mysterious Priestess album, but Fate Gear has yet to really win me over. Maybe this album can do the trick. There's a new MV out by the way.
 

I really love what Kurumi did for the second Mysterious Priestess album, but Fate Gear has yet to really win me over. Maybe this album can do the trick. There's a new MV out by the way.
 

Very creative and inspiring cover.

As far as Dir en grey albums go, they've had their ups and downs for me and I don't really dramatically prefer one of their eras over another. Kisou is easily my least favorite album from them and that's "old DEG." On the other hand, Gauze and Macabre are both up there with my favorites (along with DSS and Arche).  I guess their middle nu-metal period might be overall the weakest for me (The Marrow of the Bone is my second least favorite), but even then it's still pretty good considering I usually hate nu-metal.
 
As for Gauze specifically, it wasn't my absolute first J-rock album or anything (I was into Kuroyume first actually; got into DEG through learning who Kiyoharu inspired), but it was admittedly one of the earlier ones I've heard so I guess I might be biased here. It's true that the album doesn't break too much dramatic new ground or anything, but I think it's executed extremely well. When it comes to that 90s vk j-rock sound, there's very few albums I would put in the same class as Gauze. It's a great mixture of stupidly catchy melodies/choruses along with pretty nice and solid musicianship. And it's not like the album is a total ripoff or anything. Mazohyst and Zan are both pretty out there after all.

There's been a lot of negativity in this thread recently (not sure if troll or not). Just throwing my hat in the ring with some positive (but hopefully fair) mini-reviews. You do not have to agree with my opinion.
 
GAUZE: Slightly awkward in places. Much of this is generic for a VK band. Unlike almost anything later, this is basically a true Visual Kei album, with strong pop hooks, light, bouncy instrumentals, and some exceptions. Mazohyst is the first sign that the band want to go conceptual, epic, and darker than their peers. The Mode of... tracks do little more than just exist, possibly a throwback to La:Sadie's or perhaps Malice Mizer. I find Schwein no Isu and MASK very forgettable. ZAN is gigantic; the remake doesn't stand up to Kyo's insanity in the original version, yet it makes up for it by being br00tal (or something). Also, the video for Yokan is fucking hot.
Fav track: アクロの丘
 
MACABRE: This album is the seed of what is to come. It's almost a proto-UROBOROS in its concept, yet maintains the playful pop of GAUZE enough that it isn't totally bleak. You can tell that they wanted this album to be truly epic, but their immaturity as a band means that it doesn't quite hit that mark. It's still great, though. The only song I'd lose here is audrey (too predictable/tedious). 
Fav track: egnirys cimredopyh +) an injection
 
ain't afraid to die: Just this one song alone is better than many albums out there. Glorious.
 
Kisou: I guess some people love this and some loathe it. For me, it's the former. This is the first time we see DEG try something totally new. It's like Experimental Industrial Electronic Punk; really raw and in your face. The amount of sonic variety means that there should be something here for everyone. The interludes are cool, although I can see why maybe they're disliked. I'd say that this album is almost perfect, with only The Domestic Fucker Family being weirdly out of place. Oh, and PINK KILLER is amazing. 
Fav track: 鴉-karasu-
 
six Ugly: Strangely, there are two remakes here, with Children being only 2 years old at the time. However, everything here is good. Excellent, in fact. It'd be cool to see Hades back in the live show. 
Fav track: HADES
 
VULGAR: OBSCURE is enormous. That's not to say that this is the only reason to listen to the album. When this first came out, I was a little disappointed, as every track sounded more or less the same (just guitars, barely any electronics unlike Kisou). It quickly grew on me, though. There's very little to dislike here (at a stretch, maybe Sajou no Uta is a tad forgettable). At this point, there's almost none of the old DEG sound left.
Fav track:  NEW AGE CULTURE
 
Withering to death.: I was so not excited when this was announced and I have no idea why. I dithered on the purchase until I heard a clip of 愛しさは腐敗につき, and then instabought it just for that song. Wow, this thing is great. Some people criticise the production (it sounds too clean?), although it seems fine to me. This is a return to a more playful aesthetic for the band that I still really wish they'd touch back on. Aside from the rather blah Jesus Christ R 'n R, this album is solid. dead tree to the end is basically perfect. Yes, even Beautiful Dirt. Yes, even GARBAGE. Love this thing.
Fav track: Spilled Milk
 
THE MARROW OF A BONE: Weird Engrishy titles, weird Engrishy lyrics, Kyo's voice steadily getting worse with each successive live, and the band just suddenly went very dark and angry. This album turned a lot of people away from the band. I listened once and almost threw away the CD. Didn't listen to the band for months. Then I gave it a second try, and it made sense. I spent an entire Summer listening to nothing but this while painting. It was truly something else. Yes, it's messy, ugly, and raw as fuck, but that was the point. It's grotesque and Kyo sounds like a cat in a blender. But alongside all this rage, we have moments of utter spellbinding beauty, too; songs that are some of the highlights of DEG's entire career up until this point. Just fantastic. My only complaint might be that some of it feels a little undercooked. A little repetitive, perhaps. But it feels honest and true in its message.
Fav track: 艶かしき安息、躊躇いに微笑み
 
UROBOROS: Hoo, boy. This one. This is the album that MACABRE wanted to be, but wasn't. It's also possibly the most complicated album in terms of song structure and writing techniques. This thing is an absolute beast; a monster. In my opinion, this may be the band's finest moment. Every track here has a reason to exist. It's marvellous. Possibly my favourite album next to Kisou.
The initial release was plagued by slightly dodgy mixing (didn't notice how bad it was at the time). Another big problem with the original version was the inclusion of the atrocious English versions of Glass Skin and DOZING GREEN. The remaster fixes these things, but also adds in the remake HYDRA 666 for absolutely no reason. It doesn't really fit and already had its place on the single. 
Fav track: VINUSHKA
 
DUM SPIRO SPERO: Thought UROBOROS was complex? Think again! Here, the band decided to cram as many ideas as they possibly could into each song, resulting in some completely bizarre Frankenstein's monster of an LP. This is the sort of album that you could probably hear something different in every time you listened. In the studio, it works very, very well, but live, the album falls short, with the band's meagre 5-piece unable to fully re-create the enormous sound they created with computer magic. This album is good, but it's also quite bleak, dreary, and at times a little tedious. It tries to push the UROBOROS idea too hard and goes a bit off the deep end, for better or for worse. This was also the time where the band's output became glacial. Hageshisa to... was released two years prior to this, and I was already bored of it when the album finally came out (and the mixing was terrible). Also, side note: the 'symphonic' versions are absolutely rubbish. They should have hired an orchestra or some actual performers to play with them (not necessarily on stage). Also, second side-note: this is the beginning of the polarising 'Kyopera'.
Fav track:  「欲巣にDREAMBOX」あるいは成熟の理念と冷たい雨
 
ARCHE: On the surface, this is a return to the band's old sound... sort of. It's like looking through a gloomy telescope at that old material and reminiscing on it. I'd say this is more mature, more measured. Less spontaneous. It's really very good. I have absolutely no complaints here.
Fav track: 濤声
 
TL;DR: I am a Dir en grey fan and I like the band's music. So there.

Very creative and inspiring cover.