Pretsy

Late post, but I dig that Wakusei record too - is sorta reminiscent to older Shiina Ringo material (might call it "Muzai Moratorium-lite", if you will), which I don't mind at all!

Short list is short:
 
Japanese:
Capsule - CAPS LOCK
DIR EN GREY - THE UNRAVELING
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Nanda Collection
SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS - CIRCLES
Towa Tei - Lucky
Perfume - Level3
 
Non-Japanese:
Sleigh Bells - Bitter Rivals
A$AP ROCKY - LONG.LIVE.A$AP
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels
 
There are too many runner-ups/"close but not cigar" releases tbqh.

(Un)fortunately enough, their pop-centered era is much more interesting than their early vk days.
 
Not really convincing previews but as we all know, A9 will defo bring some surprises along the way

It's not like I am very nostalgia-biased anyway.
 
I am okay with your situation, I just felt like I had to express my disliking towards Kiyoharu's late predictability in terms of songwriting (well come to think of it, Aron and Misery are oddly similar). When it comes to "paying attention to their roots", they have played their post-Fake Star songs basically all the time ever since their reunion...Oh yes, I do acknowledge the fact that Kiyoharu DOES NOT want to play vk-era  songs again (except for "Autism", but it's sort of an oddball in RoS).
 
Hoping for a good "Grande Finale", if that's going to be their "last album". The content should live up to their whole history as a band and their "many faces" (instead of "hey check this out, we have swag and we are punk as fuck!"-attitude) imho.
 
To add to my "Feminism" comment - by that I am trying to say that their earlier albums had VARYING SONGWRITING (see: Fake Star and Feminism for instance). Consider that to be my "personal keyword" in terms of listening tendencies.

Would say that Tekken 1-5 (+ TTT) soundtracks in the first place (but mostly Tekken 2 tho):




 
also, various nostalgia busters: 






(Stewart Copeland in general is a pure genius )
 

asd

Is it only me or does Tzk have a bong mask in some scenes?
 
If that's so, then prepare yourselves for the worst pun ever...
 
...
 
Tzk be "Mejiblazing" it.

DECADANCE
 
Because of Tzk's bong mask
 
period.
 

Is it only me or does Tzk have a bong mask in some scenes?
 
If that's so, then prepare yourselves for the worst pun ever...
 
...
 
Tzk be "Mejiblazing" it.

I haven't seen this thread for once, weird
 

 
So, this is Kiyoharu's "2nd" (consider Kuroyume to be the 1st and his solo to be the 3rd) project
He doesn't need any further introductions (well, almost everyone in MH has heard of him in one way or another) but
SADS is where he lumps all his glam rock-ish/punky/metal stuff, briefly put.
 
About my part I'd say that I haven't listened to them for awhile but BABYLON and THE ROSE GOD GAVE ME are still my jam even to this day, although other common listener favorites SAD BLOOD ROCK'N' ROLL and THE 7 DEADLY SINS are fine too.
 
Won't have much to say about them for now though.
 
 
 
 
Except that Kiyoharu is such a troll for forgetting SADS' tribute album completely - it's the end of autumn already, where is it?

It's more of "plz pay more attention to these Harajuku's superfashion icons, and praise Takeru #swag"-type of promotion (which reminds me, beginning made me cringe a bit with "#UWAKIMONO" text - I mean really, hashtagging?)
 
I can really see his GD influences too (no shit, one of the biggest K-pop stans in vk scene) - especially some scenes are very reminiscent to "CROOKED" MV.
 
Other than that, I am completely opposite about Bonsai's statement and say: I prefer SuG to this - Takeru is not really himself in this song tbqh.

http://direngreytranslation.tumblr.com/post/48925473994/shinyas-interview-in-ongaku-to-hito-may-2013
 
I suppose he meant this year's OnH interview - where Shinya sounded really, say, unmotivated.

That's the case with almost all genres, I would say. For every good band in each given genre, there are 10 mediocre bands that only have 2 or 3 good songs, and 20 more bands that are just plain bad.
 
 
Also, and this may be a bit of an unpopular opinion, I think that originality is overrated. There isn't really that much in music that hasn't been done before. You can mix things up, change a bit here and there, but in essence there is very little stuff that is truly original (and much of that is just plain weird in their attempts to create something new).
 
But I don't think music always has to be original. There is a good amount of bands I enjoy that are completely unoriginal - but they just do it damn well. And sometimes that's just enough.

What just came to my mind (in fact, you might describe this as "an ode to self-criticism"):
 
Many music listeners base most of their critiques on "BAND/SONG X sounds like BAND/SONG Y - THAT'S WHY THEY ARE BAD!!!11!" - which is just plain dumb.
 
Oh yes, consider me a sinner in this case too - I have been way enthusiastic about "my essentials sounding like new essentials" and so on, BUT IN THE END:
 
It's execution (and consistency) what matters.
 
For instance, I could say that Gazette's Hyena is totally superior to Luna Sea's G. (the former takes a lot of traits off the latter, and thus it has caused some havoc among ripoff enthusiasts) due to the fact that latter
is not really that able to maintain listeners' interest for long (especially during chorus). Perhaps the execution wasn't that interesting? Eat your heart out, Luna Sea stans - the band itself is brilliant, I agree, but it doesn't mean that younger, influenced generation couldn't be better.
 
Also, Dir's Gauze album - no matter the fact that the whole album itself might be an "old school vk cover parade" (I can go on and on with "ripoffs" but who cares?), these "open covers" are much more "oomph-inducing" than their original, probably a bit lousier counterparts - because their execution and consistency was considered carefully and done well.
 
Let's cream the top with Sadie too - no matter how many years, releases and singles have passed by - there's always some enthusiastic Dir elitist bunch calling  to arms for them "sounding very DEG-ish" (at parts - yes, ONLY AT PARTS.). Well guess what, NO SHIT - they were heavily influenced by Dir, so of course their music might induce some odd "Dir nostalgia". The only problematic matter is that how messy and not carefully executed their releases were lately. From considered "build" in COLD BLOOD to sloppiness of BLACK DIAMONDS and MADRIGAL DE MARIA? The heck, Mao and co. - thus, they are faulty only on that matter.
 
And in examples below, there isn't really any "note-to-note" action  - so no reasons for suing the shit out of them!
 
I really hope that whole "ripoff ripoff ripoff!!!"-fad is just a phase, just like it was for me. I carefully rethought my actions on how I should see music from now on, and this kind of view freed me from "musical limits", which I am really happy about.

In case no one knows, Shinya's currently doing session stuff with Yasu x Hyde crew* (ironically enough AFTER the whole DEAD END tribute thing), and this time - it's halloween-themed (no shit!)
 
http://24.media.tumblr.com/b6a70048a18d5924cd214040f2aa5993/tumblr_mvjms4Gpyk1qjfdjdo1_500.jpg
 
http://24.media.tumblr.com/67ba8d635162adcb1a3e9c4665b89b33/tumblr_mvbog3X1OZ1r0t3x7o1_500.jpg
 
Kinda interesting to see him go full drag again (not like I am the one to talk about looks - I mean hey, Kaoru is the one who's opposed to whole visual thing the most)
 
*the last show was done in Hiro x Ju-Ken x Yasu x Leda x Shinya -lineup
 

What just came to my mind (in fact, you might describe this as "an ode to self-criticism"):
 
Many music listeners base most of their critiques on "BAND/SONG X sounds like BAND/SONG Y - THAT'S WHY THEY ARE BAD!!!11!" - which is just plain dumb.
 
Oh yes, consider me a sinner in this case too - I have been way enthusiastic about "my essentials sounding like new essentials" and so on, BUT IN THE END:
 
It's execution (and consistency) what matters.
 
For instance, I could say that Gazette's Hyena is totally superior to Luna Sea's G. (the former takes a lot of traits off the latter, and thus it has caused some havoc among ripoff enthusiasts) due to the fact that latter
is not really that able to maintain listeners' interest for long (especially during chorus). Perhaps the execution wasn't that interesting? Eat your heart out, Luna Sea stans - the band itself is brilliant, I agree, but it doesn't mean that younger, influenced generation couldn't be better.
 
Also, Dir's Gauze album - no matter the fact that the whole album itself might be an "old school vk cover parade" (I can go on and on with "ripoffs" but who cares?), these "open covers" are much more "oomph-inducing" than their original, probably a bit lousier counterparts - because their execution and consistency was considered carefully and done well.
 
Let's cream the top with Sadie too - no matter how many years, releases and singles have passed by - there's always some enthusiastic Dir elitist bunch calling  to arms for them "sounding very DEG-ish" (at parts - yes, ONLY AT PARTS.). Well guess what, NO SHIT - they were heavily influenced by Dir, so of course their music might induce some odd "Dir nostalgia". The only problematic matter is that how messy and not carefully executed their releases were lately. From considered "build" in COLD BLOOD to sloppiness of BLACK DIAMONDS and MADRIGAL DE MARIA? The heck, Mao and co. - thus, they are faulty only on that matter.
 
And in examples below, there isn't really any "note-to-note" action  - so no reasons for suing the shit out of them!
 
I really hope that whole "ripoff ripoff ripoff!!!"-fad is just a phase, just like it was for me. I carefully rethought my actions on how I should see music from now on, and this kind of view freed me from "musical limits", which I am really happy about.

for the sake of staying on-topic:
 
Covers look okay

Sebbi,
 
First, with 12012 s/t claim and now THIS??
 
I really hope you'd give your comments some thought next time.

Sebbi,
 
First, with 12012 s/t claim and now THIS??
 
I really hope you'd give your comments some thought next time.

A few thoughts after listening to this album:
 
Unlike in earlier albums, intro and outro seem to flow very well to their neighboring tracks (just as it was said before).
 
But I felt in certain moments that they were just trying to improve DIVISION's weak spots (consider INSIDE BEAST to be their revision on DUHDUHDUHRANGEMENT) - and ending up as something forgettable.
After the first listen, I felt like I'd go with the second round - why? My view on that matter:
 
As sai said; there are many, many good ideas happening in most songs, but that's where stumbling block comes: choruses are boring, BORING, BORING!!! Uruha deserves big props for at least trying to do something "outstanding" instrumentally (I remember LAST HEAVEN having some bluesy solos, kinda neat), Reita should've had a consistent role instead of FADELESS-like "hey, don't forget me!"-parts, Aoi still has a lot to improve (just because you are a "rhythm guitarist", it doesn't mean you just have to chug along) and Kai did much better work here than in Division (being consistent, why not).
 
What about Ruki? His range,  sense of melody and hook ideas in general are pretty much the current, weakest link of Gazette. Get him a professional ghost writer to write melodies that won't make you zone out, Sony pls.
 
In other words, there is no chemistry in between Ruki's throwaway choruses and members' "decent" ideas.
 
Also: by "Back to early years"-vibe I don't necessarily mean "you have to rehash riffage/melodies", Gazette (Kuroku, Loss, THE STUPID TINY SONG)
 
Listing the only decent songs in my book, by numerical order:
 
1. INSIDE BEAST
2. DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER
3. FADELESS
4. MALFORMED BOX and CODA
5. IN BLOSSOM (has its moments)
 
 
Call it 6/10
and a protip for Gazette: 1) Hiatus 2) Let Ruki do some co-op work with professionals 3) Comeback 4) Hopefully Ruki will know how to "convince" that way.
 
PS. guys, just ditch TDD - CODA is a perfect outro for 13STAIRS[-]1, trust me!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151955995248728&set=vb.119558368214561&type=2&theater
 
INSIDE BEAST full pv
 
Umm...yeah lol. That's all I can say.

^You don't need the vid to tell whether RTU is drop A# or not - you cannot mishear low A# chugging during verses and in climax. (once again, as I said, this song is a pure exception - not sure whether they will come back to this or not)

Topic title tho

^ I am afraid that it's the last effort of his to delve into post-punk/goth rock past.
 
Which reminds me (off-topic), his voice FITTED that song but it deserved more, say, "dedication" (did he forget how he sang vox back in 1994? I suppose his chain-smoking habits wrecked the shit up)
 
//annoyed

^I know what 'Guernica' is exactly (I asked just to assure whether my romanization was correct), thanks.
 
When it comes to Kiyoharu, you might know just with those titles what you are going to get:
 
'I HATE YOUR POPSTAR LIFE'  would be a full-on punk roller-coaster, while 'Guernica' would be either 1) a sappy ballad or 2) something along the lines of "Mizary" (Naming "new Misery" that way, just to avoid Kiyoharu's fatal title mistake).
And I crossed my fingers for possible "Nakigara wo"-influences...but hey, it was clear from Kiyoharu's intentions that he doesn't want to acknowledge "his vk/post-punk self/past" (unlike Shin and Hitoki who are clearly inspired about putting up "an old-school one-night revival" a la Luna Sea-way)