kuyashii

^ Yeah I was thinking the same. In case it happens, it will be the first time they do that since "Ain't Afraid to Die", right? Lol that was by far their most arbitrary "Promotional Edit" yet. I'm not really sold on it but hell, that's less than 30% of the song so how I'm supposed to really have an idea of how the song is going to be like Sounds kind of tired though, I suppose it's going to be something more low-key compared to their previous epics.

I'm glad the songs will be remastered! They have some of the worst sounding mixes on VK tbh

First listen opinions: "Baku" is kinda odd. It has the potential to be something absolutely sick but feels kinda unfinished and rushed, but I really like the emphasis on atmosphere. "Sense of Distrust" does the "heavy verses poppy chorus" thing pretty well I must say. I honestly consider that formula to be one of the worst things going on within the br00tal kei scene but the melody is very engaging, props to them for being able to get it right! Not anything to say on the SE track really. It's nice as far as SEs go, and while its addition already reeks of "we don't have anything else to put on the single", its placement as the last track feels really weird and it doesn't add absolutely anything to the single. I kinda liked it more than Ideal tbh

Last two tracks are awesome! I'm kinda feeling Sho's cleans are a bit worse than they were on the album (he seems to be struggling to sing the pitches he had more ease doing in the album songs, there are some off-pitch moments here and there and his wobbly vibrato sounds a tad grating at times) are but his harsh vocals are better than ever! Loving the random electronic noises on "Raku", they really add to the song (take note Issei!)

I don't really mind them following a formula they used already if the content employed is good enough, so I don't have any problems if this song is similar in form with Diabolos or Vinushka (I love DeG at their proggiest, those two and the Macabre remake are definitely some of my favorite songs by the band). I don't think it's possible to reinvent the wheel everytime, and can't really think of many other possibilities in terms of song structure for 10 minute songs (unless they picked a normal 4 minute song and crammed a six minute instrumental in the middle or maybe opted for the track to be a single crescendo like a post-rock/metal song). I agree Zetsuentai was a bit lacking and not only the soft and the heavy parts felt very by-the-numbers, the transitions between those parts were pretty weak.

OMG Kaoru's moustache Damn, Kyo's solo pic is going to give me nightmares

No you aren't lol I'm pretty sure it's not how you're supposed to pronounce it in japanese, but if read as "doh-coo" it sounds like "do cu" which means roughly "from the asshole" in portuguese. Count Dooku from Star Wars was renamed "Dookan" in the brazilian dub to avoid that unfortunate implication. The song itself is pretty cool, I like the vocalist's cleans (his voice kinda reminds me of the singer of Bad Religion). Music video is rather lolworthy though EDIT: I think most of you might have gotten the reference already, but for those who didn't, I'm pretty sure the music video is a reference to the Armin Meiwes case, considering the whole "dark web" thingy the band is going for

I partly agree with what Euronymus said. Not many bands are able to release more than one great album, specially back-to-back, so when a band releases something that doesn't lives up the expectations created by the stuff they already released, it's always going to lead to disappointment. I know that comes to tastes after all, but let me give you an example: both Uroboros and DSS raised the stakes so high for me I was very concerned about the quality of the music (and also Kyo vocals, since 2014 wasn't being a good year to him) of Arche before it came out (we should also remember it was, back then, the longest time period between the release of two albums). I was a bit bummed when the album came out, but the problem is that I was comparing it to the previous albums. I still see a lot of problems with Arche (still think "Uroko" should open it, a couple of songs could go to the trash cough "Chain Repulsion" cough, some of the production choices annoy me, "Midwife" is the inbred kid of "Dreambox"' and "Akatsuki"'s poor cousins) but after some years I learned to value it better (the ballady stuff is definitely some of the best things they ever done). The part I disagree is that TIW still sucks, even if you take out of the band's catalogue

Listening back to a few things, I think it's definitely the production. His harsh vocals sound much better on the Devil's Proof album. Did they work with someone else for the production? Still don't know wtf is going on with the clean vocals in "Ruten". I mean, I know what they are supposed to be, just the execution is so narmy I can't even

I probably mentioned before I'm part of that The Range Place forum where people measure singer's vocal ranges and I like to create profiles for singers in my spare time. I've been creating a thread for Lime and I've been going through their discography and I must say, I'm really really impressed with both his vocal chops (judging from the few tracks I heard by them before, mostly the singles, I wouldn't expect him to have that much range and that he would sound consistently good through its entirety) but also how good the band's compositions are! I wasn't really that big of a fan of some of the b-sides from Human Error and Heisei, but their singles have been consistently good and I'm amazed at how the Steroid single managed to have a perfect "I like all the songs" score! I was a bit wary at the amount of praise I've seen towards them (because i'm a picky bastard who almost never likes anything) but I feel like they really deserve the attention they are getting because they are really really good at what they do, I love how they are bridging elements from both the "modern metal vk" and a more "classic" style and specially how Lime almost exclusively sings cleanly (which is a breath of fresh air amidst a sea of fairly bad screaming and growling that has been flooding the vk scene of late). I hope they all take care of themselves and keep releasing such great music. PS: I still want a "normal" mix of the Heisei single. "Stalker" is freaking fantastic!

Well, they could break the rule, but after Withering to Death, every first single they released after the album was fairly different to the album they released before it so I'd bet on something softer and slower-paced than most of the album stuff. Even though they sometimes reuse songs intended for previous albums on later ones, I don't think they ever released a leftover as the first post-album single.

Undecided is a bit of a strange case because it didn't really change anything composition-wise (I think they added a verse didn't they? Haven't heard that one in ages), like it was said above, it's "just" an acoustic version. I actually like the Glass Skin version more than the original. BotDV (and Karasu for that matter) are indeed softer songs but aren't that much the "anthemic" kind of compositions (Kasumi and The Final), the originals are more less conventional compositions that allowed for some twisting and turning that gave the songs an interesting character. I'm not really that big on neither version of BotDV either (but the Tabula Rasa ver. is pretty cool though, I like how Toshiya added the original bass line in the intro).

I wish that instead of the From Depression to... Tour, for their 20 years anniversary they remastered their whole catalogue (maybe not all of them, at least the pre-Uroboros stuff). BTW I think their remakes only "work" for heavier and faster songs. JMO everytime they tried remaking one of their more emotional mid-tempo songs ("The Final", "Kasumi", "Wake"), they ended up half-assing it and killing all the rawer emotion the originals had. I'd rather have them not touching "Conceived Sorrow", "The Pledge" or "Namamekashiki", those are some of my favorite songs by them because they hit me right in the feels and I wouldn't enjoy if they changed those (of course I could hear just the originals then, but they also "replace" the versions live and stop playing the old ones )

Sounding rather bad? The Undying cover is really good! I love the screams on it and for the first time I'm able to enjoy his clean voice lol. He's not a bad vocalist, I'd say he's better than Sho when he started out (sorry but I still can't really enjoy his vocals on the VARIOUS tracks at all ) but Sho simply took an absolutely monstrous improvement. I might be too hopeful but I still believe there's room for Mio to improve as a vocalist (or at least, he showed that he sounds much better in a lower range and he could stick to it until then.

This is the Ki Do Ai Raku (?) EP? Pretty cool how "in-between" this sounds between Chedoara and the Rijin single. It has the dark and proggy feel of the album but also the poppy and somewhat chill vibe of the single. I hope we oversea fans are able to hear this too! Vocals at 1:55 sound pretty goofy though lol

I don't really have an adjective to talk about this lol Either way he was definitely not smoking the right stuff because it wasn't really helping that much with his creativity tbh I'm I dunno what the band should do at this point. While the nature of the japanese stance towards drugs and Lin's arrest are debatable (not here though, because this would break a rule when it comes to political discussion) the timing of this whole thing happening was absolutely awful for the plans of the band. I don't know, we have the example of Lynch's Akinori and how both the bassist and the band were able to overcome a similar episode, but I'm not sure a band that was already dealing with some complicated issues like NCBL was could handle the situation. Part of me wants the remaining guys close the NCBL chapter and start a new band, but it would be really hard for them simply ditch the whole "legacy" they were building with time. Hope they still overcome this in any way it's possible.

X China

It's a fairly enjoyable mini. This is definitely not the best material they ever put out but it's cool to hear nonetheless. I agree that Lin's guitar playing isn't really that outstanding like Cazqui and Daichi's but he's competent at what he does. I definitely agree that the overall mood of the music feels lighter and save for "Thank You" and "Satanic Corner" there isn't much of all that heaviness of previous work. I swear I keep hearing a lot of Maximum the Hormone influence on some tracks, while they already put out some of those "quirkier" sounding songs before, I don't remember they going for something explicitly "weird" like those - but I kinda feel like some of these tracks are somewhat interchangeable to be honest. I'm gonna be the contrarian and say that the last track ("Shonenjidai"?) is pretty cool, more interesting than the three MtH-inspired tracks in my honest opinion (and is overall a better example of the "poppy song with heavy instrumentation" thing that many bands try and most of them fail). I'd honestly disagree with Wakarimashita and say they never sounded so "japanese" than now as I feel like the more explicit -core influences are kinda toned down on this release (save for "Thank You" and "Satanic Corner" again). It's definitely not their most focused effort and I admit I'm more into their heavier stuff (TY and SC were my favorite songs overall), but it's a good mini with enjoyable compositions and solid instrumental and vocal chops. I hope this doesn't mean a real change in sound and they're able to put out better music in the future because they are definitely a great band with lots of potential.

It's a pregnancy announcement.

I've never really "felt" Deviloof music before but decided to give the new album a listen and I must say it's not as bad as I was expecting! I must agree that some of the clean vocals aren't implemented as well as they could (last song, I'm looking at you) and overall most songs tend to sound samey so not many songs stand out in this context. Sorry if I'm being the contrarian but I'm not exactly a fan of Keisuke's vocals. Maybe it's the production that rendered them this way, but they sound fairly weak - I mean, he can produce sounds in a rather wide range of pitches (which is really cool and definitely my thing) but he's really lacking that "oomph" on his screams (and considering that the majority of the vocals on the album are harsh, that leads to some "overexposure"). I mean, i'm still not exactly a fan but they at least proved to not be just the "gimmick deathcorey band that the vk folk that don't listen to deathcore drool over" lol Despite some ideas feeling like they were just "thrown" on the songs without further elaborating, they're good at what they do and have a lot of room to improve.

What a bummer. Don't get me wrong for what I'll say, but I'm relieved Retsu and Sho are still on. Not that Ryuya and Taishi weren't important for the band but it will be easier for the band to replace them than the main composer and the vocalist. I hope they are able to overcome this and come back even stronger, just like they did before when Issei and Tsubasa left.

Oh come on, don't further fuel the stereotype They surely changed lol. The metal parts are pretty solid but I'm not feeling the melodic parts. I recall people complaining about Sadew's clean vocals back when Mozaiq was released and I don't think they really improved lol. Ryu (the guitarrist) is still in the band right? I really liked his clean vocals but I suppose he didn't do any vocals after Mozaiq as well? Wish he sang more. TBH I'm pretty sure they were the first japanese band I ever listened to, I definitely recall listening to their music as early as 2009? Haven't really followed them since the time Kiki was in the band.

Holy shit that autotune. Not that familiar with their music, were all these songs released already? And are those like DeG "Unplugged Ver." songs that consist of the same vocal track of the original over some random synth piano or organ? If then I'll pass.

Sounds nice! Of course those samples being short and from disconnected parts of the songs make it hard for us to guess how the full songs will be like, it's pretty neat. Sounds less technical than their previous stuff but it's still very well-executed and musical. Satanic Corner couldn't have a cringier title but actually sounds really neat! I heard a "motherfucking bastard" in the chorus so we might expect more diss-tracks towards? Maybe I'm tripping but I'm hearing quite a Maximum the Hormone influence on the vocals Has Hiro ever mentioned being a fan of MtH? I keep hearing Daisuke and MtRyo-kun on his vocals a lot lol

Not feeling what I'm hearing so far but there are some interesting parts thrown there (0:52 on the first one, the breakdown part on the second). Third songs of both types sound rather weird. Of course hearing those short samples don't really do justice to the songs so let's see where we'll be taken. Glad they ditched the surround sound as well (BTW I want a 2.0 release of Heisei ) I was somewhat indifferent to their refusal of putting out a full album - I could understand the justification of the "emotional strain" beyond writing and the fact of with a smaller number of songs to work on, you can put more effort into them and the chances of the material being subpar are smaller - but I don't know, sometimes I feel like the band is just releasing material more due to pressure than because they are confident with how the songs sound, resulting in a rather high rate of releases of somewhat questionable quality (cough Mejibray cough).