Pretsy

No one mentioned 'Secret Garden'? Sheesh. Latest atm favorites so far (no, nothing new here tbqh, zzz): Secret Garden (obv) Me Too, Flower! (main actor-wise totally superior to "Flower Boy Next Door") Myung Wol the Spy (tacky concept but main actress is just unf) I really feel saddened in terms of J-dramas, considering that I ditched most of them right after a few episodes (say, Shitsuren Chocolatier or much earlier "Itazura Na Kiss - Love in Tokyo" for eg. (I had high hopes for those two)) - any proper J-dorama recommendations WITHOUT ANY TIES to manga/anime genre pls?

I had no idea during its release days that it was *almost* completely in English ( the good ol' glory of Kyongrish!) Also lately: the chorus off sukekiyo's "vandal" ("listening to dead kennedys/I hand down a malicious verdict on you") was very incomprehensible for me during the first listen

Necroamisen lempeä (lue: julma) aika on koittanut:

that's a bit too rude to say, considering that Kubana has received enough admiration due to it being one of the "most interesting hot spots" festival-wise (and if you think of it, hanging out/playing around close to the Black Sea is such a bliss - and I highly doubt that 200,000 visitors (off the last year) would think otherwise!) *shrug* sorry!

and the single title will be "NIPPON"... I am not kidding. Look it up off various shopping sites...

Aww you got it here before me... S O B B I N G

As a long-time fan of DEG (and basically everything DEG-related - even during their "shittiest" times), I have to admit that yes - I have a bias towards them, especially due to involvement of certain, favorite vk members of mine (eg. Uta, Yuchi...and Kyo ofc). Thus when it comes to "overhype" from my perspective, I have to say that they are not necessarily THAT MUCH hyped - the hell, there are many folks in DEG fanbase, who don't really *feel* the musical concept of sukekiyo too (either "too avant-garde" or "very inconsistent and not metal enough" (DSS fanboys/girls)). So you might call it "60/40" thing for now - yes, there is more hype than opposition in this band's case, but not necessarily "overhype". I don't really care about them being "strict" with specific dress codes - I mean hey, I wasn't ON THE SPOT (and probably most of you, MH, weren't there either) - I have no rights to say whether it feels "unfitting" for the atmosphere or not. But if we were trying to have a say about "atmosphere", I think it *kinda* suits the theme of venue(s). DEG comparisons are totally unavoidable, as I mentioned in my IMMORTALIS review - to answer the "if Kyo's novelty as one of the members died off"-question, I would have to sum up my review: as I see, and hear it now - sukekiyo is pretty much Kyo's outlet for his ideas, that were swapped out of DEG's songwriting processes (assuming that Kaoru *still* takes the "grand" position in their songwriting, and thus minimizing the efforts of other members during composition phase, my theory btw). So yeah, all in all - if most of Kyo's future efforts happened to have less "would've been kinda okay in DEG repertoire" vibes, then we could go along with "novelty finally dying"-assumption. The subtitle "solo project" in many reviews, comments, statements etc. is solely based on his ongoing "DEG novelty" - so it's kinda natural for various "DEG stans" to ignore his "new" colleagues, and thus, assuming that it's all "him" basically. By spinning the record for days, or probably even weeks - and reading their interviews (I recommend their Barks interview - has many interesting points about their songwriting), I could actually HEAR how important are Uta and Takumi for the project - the hell, the first time I spinned the record, it was the instrumental performance that struck me first. Kyo of course tries to be "omniscient" with his wails, growls and even howls too (Nine melted fiction, still judging you), but that didn't distract me from quite "UN-deggy" performance in the background (if we were to measure it in percents, DEG would have like only 11-14% out of band's total effort, and that too due to Kyo's possible "unused ideas") I have a small tinge that Kyo might keep this project in a "hiatus" for a long time - now that we'll have "possibly" DEG on a roll again with their November release, and Yuchi has other session acts to attend. I don't want them to end up as being "second XA-VAT" lifespan-wise, so yeah - hoping for interesting efforts in the future - like any ordinary listener!

from the latest show (it seems?) (thanks to ramsay robs @ vimeo) http://vimeo.com/94003692 Vandal's live version (almost pro-shot) closeup for Kyo's "FILTH-y" look (also ps. there's a Taishogoto near Uta's mic stand - I suppose "guitar/violin" is not really far-fetched in Uta's instrumental role?)

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/MUCC---ENDER-ENDER/002bacc9eb8fbe9de93266eb75adfadb ENDER ENDER HQ full PV^ Grower, I suppose (despite some obvious FALILV worship) also: single covers regular: limited: Still haven't gotten over that new logo :/

^exactly this (for eg. Luna Sea) Back when LS announced their "old-school revival" @ Budokan with same-ish dresscode thing, no one of you complained about it... Oh well, just saying.

^and to add: (thanks to kyotakumrau again) and a piccu:

Very faithful to RAZZLE DAZZLE live version, it seems. Not bad!

VK? All-time favorites then: DIR EN GREY - Ain't Afraid to Die (or embryo, they are equally brilliant) L'Arc~en~ciel - Hitomi ni Utsuru Mono (since we are talking about vk = vk era, ps. good headphones for better experience!) MUCC - Kagayaku Sekai (counts as a ballad, I guess?) Buck-Tick - Dress Luna Sea - MOTHER 9Goats Black Out - Sink Laputa - Gackt - Kimi no Tame ni Dekiru Koto La'cryma Christi - Nemuri Gusuri Rentrer en soi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eGygOuQI9c'>TO INFINITY －繰り返される喪失に捧ぐ祈り－ Penicillin - Sincerely Yours the GazettE - Nakigahara Kuroyume - Nakigara wo I think that's it.

In my book, they shouldn't really bother with self-covers - do you guys remember the "LIAR" remake? Yeah, just how sloppy that was...

Not going with track-by-track reviews but with a brief comment instead: (I apologize for DEG comparisons beforehand) The biggest plus of this release is (what I actually count as "great" in my book, unlike most of people around here) sorta consistent variety - with influences from "Nord-folk"-ish (Elisabeth Addict?), oriental (Uyuu no Sora, Madara Ningen), mariachi (Madara Ningen) and even some 70s-80s worship (the prime example for this would be "scars like velvet"), you'd think that it ends up as one hell of a jumble-mumble. Gladly enough we have such names with surprising, technical talents like Mika (didn't care much for him in RES but here...wow), Yuchi (basically the backbone of Sukekiyo's rhythmical section) and Takumi + Uta (yes, no matter how unintentionally provocative this might sound - their ways of playing even surpass the way Die and Kaoru work along //DEG comparison 1) who shine in many songs - despite Kyo's obvious need in trying to be "omniscient" with his out-of-place noises like for eg: 1) random howl in "nine melted fiction" (ok?) 2) coughing and choking in Hemitabolism's "instrumental" part 3) NYANYANYA in "Madara Ningen" (it's 50/50 - it *makes* the song, and at the same time annihilates its seriousness) Despite the album having some obvious "bastard children" - like "Vandal" being the good instance of "mishmashing hard-ish 9GBO-ish songs together" in a way (grows in me quite fast tho), or "Kugui" and "Zephyr" being kinda obviously taken from Takumi's hat of unused RES ideas (they are kinda solid though!), it's still good to hear a "sum" of soundscapes from each member's background - in fact, might just go along and list some odd but neat surprises: 1) Kugui and Mama - it's been awhile - no, it's been like AGES since I've had a chance to hear Kyo do something..."poppish"? Won't surprise me if Yuchi and Takumi had their hand in this. 2) "Madara Ningen" in general - no, neither projects of theirs had a song like this. I suppose someone of them adores bands in the vein of Unexpect? (thanks Piisu) 3) "The Daemon's Cutlery"'s in-your-face value + random, "nostalgic" lyrics ("Give me your master...Mad Pain"-part sounding a lot like DEG's Aoi Tsuki for eg. // DEG comparison 2) 4) Vandal's "pause" - wow... 5) The way guitarwork and Kyopera go along in "scars like velvet" is just beautiful But there are also a few things to complain about: 1) Destrudo's position - why the 2nd though? Almost flow-ruining experience. 2) Hemimetabolism - I kinda liked the unexpected result BUT with coughing, choking, goddamn long intro part and quite awkward placement of *actual* singing it will lose its replaying value pretty fast 3) In All Weathers - "LOTUS"-syndrome here, guys - a.k.a "unnecessary hurrying in trying to encompass all the good in the beginning and leave it unfinished-ish" // DEG comparison 3 Other than that, it easily saves its place as one of the best J-albums of this year BOTH vk AND non-vk-wise - and possibly as a classic too. You can't go wrong when you see dozens of positively "oversurprised "comments in 2ch-side + Oricon charts. 8,5-9/10 (too lazy to count the final rating)

thanks to kyotakumrau@tumblr for today's setlist and report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7xOpol2g7w Aftermath collab with Kirito Kirito pretty much ruined everything edit: check out the remixes too, guys (from the same channel)! There are many good ones, ESPECIALLY TK's remix (and Jonathan Davis' remix isn't that bad really, despite some apparent out-of-place bass drops)

^ it's even one hell of a miracle that DEG's "kouhais" a la RES' Mika for instance can do better (actually, I never had any opinion about Mika back when he was in RES...he was just that unremarkable, methinks).

Mr. Liar on steroids pretty much... I am not going to judge anything until I hear it in album context.

= dubstep number (87% probability) W.H.Y.

asd

KZK 2 plssss

Kannivalism-1 pretty much :/ hope Yuchi's work in Sukekiyo won't make me miss Kannivalism

Well they are not really rumors, considering that complains from Autism-related organizations in Japan cited the song (AND ) to be "totally offensive and tasteless", and thus the song was banned from later pressings of "Romance of Scarlet" + various other releases (including PV releases, so you might consider the PV to be quite "rare") - you can notice it right away in say, their reunion pressings for example. Considering that AUTO-MOD was "the pioneer" of the title usage (and the band being very influential for vk oyajis etc.), the title is pretty much a scene-related play on "Dystopia" Other than that, drugs are also a pretty big topic in vk - considering that it goes quite well along with such disturbing themes as (Ikna mentioned) for eg. crimes (like for instance, vaguely referenced Junko Furuta case (Ruki didn't really have a proper take on this subject) in Gazette's "Taion")), murderers (even the most famous, American ones like Ed Gein get referenced in various vk songs quite often), mental illnesses, abortion, etc. The most popular vk example in terms of drugs? How about this? (before someone starts to bash me for using "way too mainstream" examples, you can already figure some "underground" examples by yourselves )

Lol Kyopera Sounds quite awesome though, hope Jonathan Davis won't butcher it with his remix...I am kinda scared.