kuyashii

I feel like it has been quite a lot of time already to dig up the thread about Jigoku but I just listened to the song for the first time and while I loved the MV, the song is disjointed af. Haven't heard the b-sides yet

While I feel like the comparision might not be 100% adequate, I feel like it's similar to what Kyo's vocals in DeG became recently: it was mindblowing to hear him doing 4 or 5 different vocal styles and spanning 2,5-3 octaves in every song he was singing at first, but not only it became stale to hear, his voice started declining to a point where he couldn't really do as well as he used to and as a result of both factors, every new song was becoming increasingly underwhelming to hear. The unfair part is that you can hardly say there was a decline in Fuki's voice to begin with (just likely her voice maturing like it happens with every human being), while Kyo is another story altogether. BTW, I just noticed that the part that begins and finishes the teaser sound a lot like a part of "Art of Life" by X Japan. Not accusing it to be plagiarism, maybe it was a homage, I know that Hirano is a big X fan and they have a song called "Jealousy" that is highly influenced by X in style and arrangement (as well as being a nod to X's "Silent Jealousy"

Those guys are hard-working uh? Change of Generation wasn't that long ago and IIRC they actually released an acoustic album and some remake of their touhou stuff after that? I really liked the japanese-folky song with the japanese name, it is a very interesting change of pace from the rest of their stuff. They do the overly bombastic symphonic power metal thing very well, but it just becomes pretty stale after a while, so it's interesting to hear them mixing those sounds with a more modern metal sinfluence. Not sure about the previews since those are probably choruses (which are usually the more power metally parts of their songs) but I still hope they include some other influences in their music. I won't lie but as much as Fuki is pretty much perfect vocally wise, once you heard one recent song by her, you've listened to them all. Haven't heard any recent vocal performance by her that truly stood out. Everything has the same big ass vibrato-laden notes in the same range and tbh her voice has been sounding a tad lower nowadays and her vibrato sometimes sounds a bit uncontrolled (as evidenced by the last track). I don't blame her for getting older, and you need to acknowledge she still performs ato an absurdly high stake degree, but the impact of hearing her vocal performances nowadays is considerably lower compared to something like Light Bringer's Resistance from 2010, for instance. I don't like the song much, but the track at 2:02 is interesting to hear from a vocal standpoint, her "j-poppy" voice is pretty cool for a change. Her low register and her operatic head voice could really be explored more IMO (oddly she used those voices much more during the pre-2010 Light Bringer albums when she still hadn't found her voice yet). Cool to hear Hirano's growls improving so much lately too.

Pretty subpar composition. Nothing wrong with the vocals or instrumentation but the composition is a mess.

Yeah I was expecting much worse. Well, the song has a lot going on and it's as such pretty hard to absorb in a few listens, but it's kinda cool. Of course if it wasn't by the heavy elements I wouldn't even give a listen to the band, and as such seeing them ditching the heavy elements is a bit underwhelming, but I always thought they were very good at writing poppy, memorable stuff (actually the first time I heard Chedoara it was exactly the softer parts that stood out the most to me) so I don't think everything is lost. I agree the song is a bit derivative (isn't all VK though) and I feel like they've really betting all slots in this mathy clean guitar kind of sound that has been absolutely blowing up lately (see Ichika Nito and all that) so it doesn't have that strong of a first impact as something like "Vanitas" or "Shigarami" (or even "Aharewata" for that matter, as much as I hate that song), but is definitely a grower. The production is good but I wish I could pick Sho's vocal harmonies on the chorus better. Haven't heard the itunes samples and I don't think I can either tbh so don't have anything to say about anything else. 2 SEs are absolutely unnecessary though

Sounds pretty good! Will keep on eye on them. I agree that Nero's vocals still have some room for improvement, specially when it comes to phrasing and english pronunciation.

IIRC he lost his voice

The composition is really hard to absorb in a single listen, but I'm kinda liking it. Positively surprised at the Dexcore dude's vocals! I feel like his cleans are rather subpar but his screams are really good. Absolutely gorgeous cover art indeed

That's a pretty good track! Kinda sounds like a modern take on Withering to Death era DeG with some of the "extreme" flourishes

The song gets a bit better after some listens, but I still feel like it's a tad longer than it needs to. I haven't seen the lyrics, but judging from what people are saying, it's kinda odd how the major key (?) music clashes against the subject matter of the song and the imagery displayed on the music video

My favorite album by them is Uroboros. Don't have anything else to say, it's just that good. It's a bit hard for me to choose their worst album since I really dislike both Kisou and TIW, but going by the circumstances each one of those were released, I think TIW stands out negatively more. Kisou is an album by a band that is still trying to find their sound and is expanding their sonic palette by trying new things, but while the ideas are good on paper, it often fails flat when it comes to executing them. Saying that, I think Kisou succeeds at what it tries: to be a weird, experimental and off-putting album, which the strange-sounding production definitely adds to the atmosphere of the record. The Insulated World, on the other hand, was released when the band already reached significant success and following, after a string of three records with very positive reception, and after the biggest interval between LP releases so it was a highly antecipated album. While Kisou at least has some originality, I feel like TIW is a rehash of ideas and formulas that already had some mixed reception at the time of their releases (see The Marrow of a Bone). The production is terrible and definitely doesn't add up to the album, the track order and pacing of the album is really problematic and the stand-out tracks are very by-the-numbers. Stuff from Kisou like "Jessica" or "Embryo" (and even though I don't like the studio version vocals, "24 Cyllinders" is an awesome composition) were legit stand-outs. I like "Ranunculus" a lot but I don't really think it has the power of their previous power ballads, and while the single tracks are fun to listen to, they are really underwhelming compared to the stuff that came before it. So yeah my complete list would be: Uroboros>Vulgar>DSS>Gauze>Arche>WtD>Marrow>Macabre>Kisou>TIW

Composition is pretty standard anime ED fare and I couldn't care less about it, but there are other things that bother me more in the song, namely the autotune and those really cheap VST strings.

It's kinda hard saying anything about the composition but I'm not really a fan of the vocalist tbh. If it had Sho from Dimlim on it instead, it would be perfect

Yeah of course the Tomurai debacle was very hard to swallow but to be honest I wouldn't be concerned yet. The "Vanitas" music video was posted on the 2nd of June, and Chedoara itself was out on the 8th of August, more than 2 months after it. We woulnd't see a "digest video" of the Chedoara songs until August 13, 5 days after the release of the album. I understand people have legitimate reasons to be feeling concerned but I don't think it's time to be freaking out yet. Have stuff to be continuously postponed without little explanation like Tomurai, then I'm going to be actually concerned. BTW, has any j-rock/vk band ever tried any crowdfunding campaign or subscription system or something like that? Maybe it could help them. I kinda doubt it considering the japanese music industry is so assbackwards lol

I'm loving this look tbh

Maybe they never really were fans of the whole visual thing and they just went for it expecting to appeal to its fanbase and eventually just grew tired of it (more or less a reverse Nocturnal Bloodlust, who started as a non-vk act and shifted into vk for the money)?

Technique is important when it comes to screams. Yeah, "expressing your feelings", I get it, but if you can't realy do it properly don't even try. Yeah, Vanitas is definitely their best moment IMO Can't really remember anything from it other than the intro, this song and "V-Rock is Dead" though

I see Shinya as a bit like Nick Mason of Pink Floyd when it comes to drumming (even their tom-tom and cymbal work is kinda similar!). Their styles are actually pretty neat and really add up to the songs when it comes to creating atmosphere, but they definitely aren't the most technical drummers and I'm pretty sure if Mason tried to play something by someone like Neil Peart or Bill Bruford, the results wouldn't be that stellar - which is what happens when Shinya tries to go outside his comfort zone. Maybe part of Shinya's love of Yoshiki includes a desire to get worse and worse with time lol

While I'm not trying to protect Shinya from any justified criticism (I agree the drumming on TWoM was pretty underwhelming) if people tend to bring Kyo's health issues when defending him from criticisms when it comes to his problems regarding vocals, I think we should also consider that Shinya has been struggling with some health problems afaik since 2011 (I remember during a live on the AQA tour he had to be rushed into a hospital and it was discovered he had stress fracture on the ribs and managed to play an entire gig through immense pain). I haven't really watched much live footage by them in a good while but I remember in stuff from 2011 you could see he was often making faces of pain while playing songs. While it's kinda understandable he toned down some of the craziest things within his drumming I agree his work has been kinda repetitive and monotone (even though I always loved his more "proggy" drumming with all the toms and cymbal rolls I agree on TWoM his drumming is rather bland and not really varied) and his stuff on the heavy parts has been kinda samey and overall pretty boring. This is one of the reasons I'd rather have them toning down all the more extreme metal influences: they haven't really been in the prime physical condition they used to be when they were at their craziest instrumental habilities so they need to acknowledge the way their physical limitations interfere with their musicianship - and while I think the band still has room to evolve, the arguably questionable quality of their recent attempts at doing heavier stuff - via TIW- kinda demonstrated this is not really the way they could achieve the best results, plus, there are some younger bands that have been absolutely killing on this whole br00tal kei scene. On TWoM itsel, I can't still express how much I love the tempo change around 8:40. That is probably my favorite moment of the song.

I'm kinda amused by the fact they chose to finish this album chapter with... a song that doesn't sound anything like it lol. Yeah their first post-album singles never really sounded like they could fit the previous albums very well so it doesn't really surprises me. I wonder if they're still going to pursue this "proggier" direction (I'm not really talking about song lenghts, but you know, more detailed arrangements, more adventurous song structures, that kind of thing) considering TIW was kinda punkish and they probably feel done with that thing for a while? I won't lie I had dreams of a full-on prog album by them before lol You know, 5-6 songs, all really long

First Listen Impressions: Can't really care about the live "Grief" take, since there are countless versions of that song already and this one isn't particularly a nice performance. The acoustic "Dozing Green" is one of the coolest things they've done in a good while! The arrangement is really good, I love the drumming and Kyo's more understated performance (I was afraid he would be singing the original in the same key of the original, resulting in a very strainful sound that clashed hard with the softer arrangement, like they did for the acoustic "Different Sense"). There's one particular note near the end which sounds really odd for me (it's on the key of the song but there's either a weird autotune glitch or the note was spliced on from a different take, resulting in a rather strange effect). "The World of Mercy". Yeah, the comparisions to their longer compositions are somewhat warranted but I don't really think it sounds that much similar to their other longer songs (tbh, other than that somewhat similar riff during the heavier parts, I never really heard much similarity between "Diabolos" and "Vinushka", I always think the comparisions are due to the similar lenghts and the "through peaks and valleys" approach, but the songs have totally different song structures when it comes to the order . It's going to need many many listens to have a better idea of what it is. You know, I think it kinda reminds me of the new Tool album. It definitely has the "classic" elements of the band when it comes to vocals and instrumentation, but it's nowhere as crazy as their previous stuff and there's a bit of a bigger emphasis on "atmosphere" overall than anything else. I won't lie I was expecting the heavier parts to be crazier and the "freakout" was pretty short. I can't really say I like it yet, but I say in advance it needs a lot of patience and multiple listens to really be able to say more about it Mixing is way better than anything from The Insulated World. Not particularly perfect but definitely less headache inducing than TIW (I felt like it kinda lacks depth, the drums still sound rather plastic, the guitar tone is pretty scooped and you can't hear the bass very well) inb4 Next album will come in 14 years and will have only 10+ songs and an interlude of Shinya playing a drum solo with his head.

Great! Really looking forward to this!

Why do I think I'm going to regret just eating EDiT: Lol my stomach is fine, but holy shit those masks are freaking me out. Considering the whole bullying theme of the MV, what can we interpret from masks? Pretending to be who you aren't? Those who inflict pain on the others aren't happy either, hence the big creepy smiles painted on the masks? Those sneaky bastards, I was honestly expecting the PV Edit to be a bit longer (like 4-5 minutes, like they did with Vinushka). So still we have heard only like 30% of the song. While the track didn't have that big of a "first listen impact", from repeated listens of those 3 minutes, it's definitely growing on me. It's pretty interesting how they implemented those electronic elements in a very atmospheric approach, I'm definitely getting Kisou vibes from that. Another edit: Loved the acoustic Dozing Green sample! I really like those kind of arrangements, I wish they did more of those.

Nice one! There's definitely a very distinct change in approach for Fuki's vocals which happened around 2010. On her earlier stuff, her vocal tone was very squeaky high and j-pop idolesque but from 2010 onwards she started putting on a much deeper and more dramatic "power metal" kind of tone - I'm not sure which album was released first between Light Bringer's Midnight Circus, Unlucky Morpheus' Byougin Kishou and Dragon Guardian's Shinjitsu no Sekihi but UM's BK album you can hear her already transitioning between the two approaches. She's still able to put a lighter, "j-pop" inspired voice after that so it's not that she lost that voice, only she decided to change her approach to fit the whole power metal thing her bands went for. Yeah, as people already mentioned, Kamijo and Ruki are very classic examples of drastic vocal changes. I'm not that familiar with Kamijo to be honest but Ruki has gone through a very interesting vocal evolution through the years: he started out with that "whiny" high-pitched approach which lasted until Disorder more or less, but he was already able to pull off some very aggressive screams and a gothic low crooning style. Between the NIL-DIM years he was kinda back and forth between a lighter, ringing tenor sound and a more robust "goth vk" kind of sound (he oddly sounds much lighter on stuff from DIM than on stuff from NIL, so that was definitely a stylistic choice). Then from Toxic onwards he started singing exclusively in that darker baritone tone (even though he's technically singing the same pitches as he was before, his tone got really heavier). Maybe he doesn't qualify but IX from IX-NINE went through a very interesting change as well since his days on EATHERLY as Mamoru. He started out more or less imitating both the "whiny slurry punk" and the "deep goth low" kind of voices in line with vk but as he went on IX-NINE he started singing in a much more "straight" way, a very clean and ringing head voice based tone. While his tone didn't change that significantly, I think Sho from DIMLIM went through a very drastic change when it comes to singing hability. He sounded fairly generic and awkward on stuff from Various but from Chedoara onwards he simply started singing some really difficult stuff (pls don't wreck your voice overdoing those inhales though)

Kinda getting a "Revenge of the Nerds but directed by Takashi Miike" vibe from the music video lol So we can expect it to be censored? Does anyone know when they premiere a music video on YT do they usually post the uncensored version or the "Restricted Version"? For the last two "censored" videos they did, "Revelation of Mankind" was posted in an uncensored version (albeit in an edited form), but "Ningen wo Kaburu" wasn't even posted on the band's YT channel IIRC they released it only on iTunes (in an uncensored version, although a censored one also exists). I think "TWoM" is most likely to be released in a "Promo Edit" version though.