Rosner

Wait, is all this stuff new to you guys? Dir en grey has never had great production. Back in 2008 Kerrang wrote a review of Uroboros and stated that due to the mixing the album lacked "punch".
 
Complaining about loudness reminds me of baby boomers remembering the "good ol' days". This is an album you're supposed to play loud, and under such circumstances it sounds great. Also keep in mind depending on the speakers you're listening to the album with -- yes, even headphones -- you're bound to get a difference experience. At one point last night I listened to a part of the album through one of those bluetooth speakers and the sound quality, of course, was "bad". For some reason the speaker was focusing on Shinya's tom's more than anything. It was really weird; but going back and listening in other formats (nice Sony speakers, studio monitoring headphones, etc.) I think the album sounds "fine".
 
Then again, I generally don't subscribe to this audiophilia stuff because I tend to focus on the compositions more than anything else. and I often listen to really bad quality Aud recordings of bands, so there's that.

I love these songs, it's all I've ever wanted from them.
 
But man, do i feel that. Where's the breathing room?

Between the release of Arche and The Insulated World.
 
I don't think the CD version is going to be better. Remastered and expanded edition, when?

I should point out that I’m listening to a Tidal Hi-fi download, which means this is lossless quality. I’m not getting my hopes up for the CD sounding any better. I won’t know personally until I get it Monday. 
 
Changing album tags to THE BRICKWALLED WORLD

Seeing the spectrogram made me laugh, then weep.

Fingers crossed HARD that the CD rip sounds better.

Okay I’m listening with headphones now and good lord this album sounds awful. I’m going to punch Kaoru in his face. 

Credits:
1. Keibetsu to hajimari (Kaoru) 
2. Devote My Life (Toshiya) 
3. Ningen wo kaburu (Kaoru) 
4. Celebrate Empty Howls (Kaoru) 
5. Utafumi (Kaoru) 
6. Rubbish Heap (Die) 
7. Aka (Die) 
8. Values of Madness (Toshiya) 
9. Downfall (Kaoru) 
10. Followers (Kaoru) 
11. Keigaku no yoku (Kaoru) 
12. Zetsuentai (Kaoru) 
13. Ranunculus (Kaoru)

Aka sounds like Die's song alright. Kinda shocked, that Toshiya wrote Values of Madness.

That’s fine? I wasn’t trying to be an asshole or anything. Sorry if I sounded elitist or something. Personally I like that song because it reminds me of that style but fit into a DEG mold.

I finally got to listen to the whole thing tonight. As others pointed out, it's hard to judge a DeG album on it's first listen. I really didn't like DSS at all when it first came out, and it slowly grew on me, so I'll reserve any negative feelings on the album until I've heard it at least 3 or 4 times all the way through.
So far, I like about 8 out of the 13 songs, so that's a pretty solid score.
I think the most honest thing I can say after the first listen is that I hope they don't go 4 years between releases again. I think a big part of my opinion on the album is that we had a long wait to build up anticipation. I wonder how people's feelings would been if this kind of album just came out a year after Arche.

For me it sounds like DSS's aggressive darkness filtered through the style of Arche. 
 
I couldn't pick up much on my first two listens this afternoon, but it has begun to fully click tonight, especially after reading the lyric translations. 

The album actually pretty solid. This is not an album you can judge by the first listen. DEG not doing that kind of album for awhile now.

I just love the way Diru threads always dramatically escalade from "fuck these guys" to "OMG I love it."
 
truly the most hated and loved bands ever.

This was the song I was least looking forward to based on the samples but it actually turned out to be great. This song was definitely the biggest surprise for me. That and now heavy the first two songs were. And how beautiful Aka is.
 
Lol you would hate mathcore then (Converge, Botch, Vein, early Norma Jean, etc.) Personally I love it when it’s done well but it’s not for everyone.

I put my thoughs inside a spoiler box because it's A LOT of stuff. 
 
inb4 this is my "forum-suicide"

Did they forget to master the album? most of the songs sound really muddy have serve clipping and worse some vocal parts sound like they were just slapped into the mix with no effort to mix them properly at all.

I'm kinda used to diru albums having this heavy reverb and recording in a public toilet sound to them but I feel this is even worse.

I hope the cd sounds somewhat better -__-

Now the positive, most of the songs are great they have a pretty wide variety to them ( I love followers and 谿壑の欲  <3) 

I just wish at this point we could have Яyo Trackmaker master all Japanese metal as he seems to be the only person who has any grasp of audio engineering.

I'm not so sure about rearranging any tracks because the contrast feels deliberate. It's no surprise that the album starts with the heaviest tracks and ends with the softest.
 
Perhaps a tease? A hint as to their direction as a band going forward? idk.

Yeah the pacing is the biggest problem. Idk why they decided to throw all the heaviest songs on the first half.

Open with Ningen and follow it up with Values. I won’t bother messing with the track sequence too much until I’ve spent more time with the album 

I do like the A/B thing this album has going but the pacing is a big issue. I rarely leave Deg album tracklistings be so I'll probably be tweaking some things around for a while.

I don't mean to be the first one bitching about this.its just a very first impression...
I'm listening the album right now,and seriously guys,what happened to their guitar tone?I mean... it's sounds kinda muddy and buried. Compare with the re records of vestiges,and you may understand what I mean

I think rearranging the track order could do this album great justice to fix the flow and balance it out better. Got any suggestions? 

Kinda makes me wonder what they could have done if they had more time to write and produce. I'm really liking this album; but it's very rough around the edges.

2nd listen through. 
 
My favorites are:
- Keibetsu to Hajimari
- Rubbish Heap
- Aka
- Zetsuentai
 
Every song is amazing, in their own ways. Gotta digest it some more, but this is definitely my favorite Dir en grey album, ever.

Aka to me is like the third part in a trilogy. Lotus, Rinkaku and Aka. They all have a similar feel. Instrumentally heavy but beautiful.
 
So far I’m loving the album. My only complaints would be the really compressed production (I really prefer the production and mixing on the last two albums), the weird crackly clipping that appears on some of the harsh vocals, and the lack of more long songs/progressive song structures. But overall it’s great. The lyrics to Devote My Life are pretty concerning to me though after a lot of high profile cases of musicians/celebrities committing suicide or overdosing recently. I usually like depressing lyrics but not when they are this straightforward. Hopefully he’s just trying to be grimdark and edgy.