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kuyashii

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Posts posted by kuyashii

  5. Posted · Edited by kuyashii

    "Koufoku Ron" isn't that bad but it's kind of the underwhelming early Dimlim sound that doesn't really take me anywhere. The vocalists screams need a bit more of polishing but I really like his style (his high ass squealing sounds way cleaner than Sho's - kinda like Hinata from Ligro and the way he mixes inhales and exhales is pretty cool). The cleans were pretty bad though.

     

    "Adolfism" doesn't sound good at all and couldn't have a cringier songtitle. The final shriek was really cool though

     

    I still think the best thing that Issei ever did was leave Dimlim.  

    Gesu and hyuugaxxx reacted to this

  6. Posted

    Mirai's "nobody is going to like it" attitude is annoying as fuck. It's like a teen girl fishing for compliments when she posts photos on social media.

     

    The song is pretty good though! I like how the production isn't ass this time. Musically it's the most "traditional metal" they've done since Gallows Gallery?

  7. Posted

    Yeah I'd say that it was the worst album I've heard in 2018 so far. The musicianship is definitely good but composition-wise it's simply amateurish. Their stuff was never well-produced but the album sounds pretty bad, the guitars almost sound like VST sometimes and the drums couldn't sound more triggered (does anyone knows if Zyean records his drum parts on an electronic drum kit? That would make a lot of sense). Ricko isn't a perfect vocalist and his crappy english gave a charming charachter to his voice but I don't think he sounds good here. Also what was the deal with "Petrichor"? It simply doesn't fit the album.

     

    Also, good fucking god, can Ricko's lyrics be any more cringy? "ELIZA" lyrics make me feel ashamed of myself for listening to it. This dude should simply write in japanese, his english pretty much only consist of  "MOTHERFUCKER BITCH BLEGH"

  8. Posted

    Uroboros > Vulgar > DSS > Gauze > Arche > WtD > Marrow > Macabre > Either Kisou or TIW

    I already wore my protection and have a wooden club by my side if necessary.

     

    Not sure what I'd place on the bottom place but I dislike both deeply :P I'd have to listen to Kisou again in order to compare it to TIW but I haven't heard it in years and I'm not willing to rn.

    nullmoon reacted to this

  11. Posted

    Those remakes are more listenable than the album but I didn't really see much purpose on them. They sound roughly the same than their original counterparts  (my hypothesis: They were considered for inclusion on Vestige of Scratches but got ditched - maybe that would explain the different production than the album?). I know how controversial the "it's barely the same song" 2008-2013 remakes were but god I love those.

     

     I'm surprised "Kigan" got so much hate because it was the one I liked the most. (Lol at that lame attempt at a whistle shriek and Shinya will most likely flub that drum fill on the "Death Education" part :P I'm not really a fan of the original so I think this is a slight improvement?

     

    I don't really listen to any other version of "Wake/Riyuu"  than the one from Blitz 5 Days (and I only listen to that one when I want to feel really miserable). I like the production on Macabre so I think mix-wise this is the only track that got a downgrade on that regard. Overall it's just bland and emotionless (like what they did with the "Kasumi" or "The Final" remakes. Everything is there but the passion just isn't. The breakdown-y bit during the solo was kinda cute.

     

    I don't like the original "The Deeper Vileness" either so I think this is slightly better but it's nothing sort of groundbreaking. I suppose it will work better live?

     

    Good God, I hate that album cover, it's a jumpscare everytime I scroll a page

  12. Posted · Edited by kuyashii

    Spoiler

    Hmmm, this is definitely not my thing. The comparisions to Marrow of a Bone are 100% justified. I was kind of expecting a punk-ish album based on the descriptions and interviews and stuff and indeed this is a very angry, aggressive, ugly, unpleasant album. The first half succeeds perfectly at conveying a sense of urgency on it, but then the way the second half (sort of) diversifies the mood rends the shift in pace too stark and actually difficult to hear. 

     

    Well the production is kinda consistent with the compressed kind of stuff they've been doing since The Unraveling but has the ultra-saturated vocals from Marrow. I won't lie I liked the saturation on the vocals at first, as the in-your-face quality to them worked much better than Marrow's attempt at doing so, what I'd attribute to the comparetively better mixed instrumentation. But after a while, they made the music pretty hard-to-listen-to (there are times the rough vocals are actually singing, but the melodies disappear completely under all the distortion). Kyo doesn't really have the range he used to have but the messy sounding false chord screams he does works well with the dirty, aggressive thing going on with the music. 

     

    I'm sort of torn on the retouches of the previously-released songs. I like how the harsh vocals sound on "Ningen wo Kaburu" but this new mix makes the cleans sound more strained. As bad as the single mix sound and how underwhelming the song is, Kyo's clean vocals on the single were the most interesting thing on the song (come on, dude's like on his mid 40s and considering his past of vocal abuse it was a miracle he could sing as high as that.

     

    "Utafumi" seems to be completely re-recorded as opposed to "Ningen" which only got remastered? I sort of liked the original vocals because Kyo actually could hit the notes without sounding that strained. The mix on this one is... weird. The lower-tuned snare sounds kinda cool (I don't think Shinya's snare was ever tuned that low?) and I like how the bass is more prominent on this version but there are points where the guitars and the backing vocals drown the lead vocals completely. It kinda sounds like it was recorded on one-take or something.

     

    I agree with the main riff of "Rubbish Heap" sounding pretty Ninth-y. The clean vocalssound pretty rough, it sounds like Kyo's throat is full of phlegm. "Aka" reminds me of "Kaishun" more than "Rinkaku" actually and I get some Sukekiyo vibes but I can't particularly pick a song (the stop-and-start thingie was present on "Zephyr" maybe?). I liked this kind of layered sound more but the pacing is too fast to give it a breather feel. 

     

    "Values of Madness" is like a worse "Chain Repulsion". Kyo's rapping parts are goddawful. "Downfall" has that cool melodic part on the middle and "Follower" chorus melody is surprisingly well done but the songs don't really grabbed my attention.

     

    "Kaigaku no Yoku" and "Zetsuentai" both suffer of some pretty bad-sounding clean guitars IMO (they kinda sounds like Fruity Loops synth bells). The deep distorted bass omn "KnY"  is pretty cool and the erratic structure is interesting, would kinda work well on DSS (or Macabre, for that matter). I agree it ends too abruptly. My biggest hopes for the album were on "Zetsuentai". First,  I don't really think it justifies its lenght. The ambientish instrumental parts don't really build up into anything. The heavy bit on the middle is pretty underwhelming. The clean vocals are surprisingly good.

     

    "Ranunculus" is by far the best song of the album and even then it's kind of underwhelming. I still think it happens too fast. The chord progression on the chorus are the most pleasant thing going on the album though. It's like seeing the light between the clouds after a storm. I think the extended intro wasn't really necessary. The additional lines of heavy stuff on the end were pretty cool though.

     

    I don't know how I'd rank this on their discography but it's definitely on the bottom tier of their discography. The heavy stuff is very unidimensional, repetitive and overall plain uninteresting . The not-heavy stuff isn't much better, fails completely at creating the huge emotional atmospheres of their previous stuff and have a bit of a mechanical feel to them which is very disheartening considering that their softer compositions were some of my favorite stuff by them. Nothing instrumentally-wise really stands-out. If there's anything impressive is that Kyo can still belt to this day at his age and  after all stuff he went through.

     

    I know this was a LOT of stuff, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be judged as pretentious and stuff, but you know, it's been almost 4 years since Arche. They are my favorite band. You don't want your favorite band to release something you don't like. There's still a huge backcatalogue of stuff by them I like to keep me busy until 2022 and maybe after such a heavy, angry album they will want to make something more elaborate and atmospheric, so maybe I can still hope.

     

    TL;DR I didn't really like anything but maybe the softer stuff can grow on me? 

     

    I put my thoughs inside a spoiler box because it's A LOT of stuff. 

     

    inb4 this is my "forum-suicide"

    Rosner and nullmoon reacted to this

  14. Posted

    I know the last thing one should do when it comes to DeG (or Sukekiyo for that matter) is creating a impression of something just from the samples, but I'm not feeling this at all. Maybe keeping low expectations for it might surprise me when I go to the real thing since I recall not digging what I heard from Arche back when the 10 seconds samples were released. The one I liked the best from the samples was "Phenomenon" and then the track was one completely different thing altogether.

     

    Just let me get something off my chest, the rap-ish parts of Value of Madness are cringey af.

     

    Also, the drumbeat on "Devote My Life" could work well on a country song lol. 

  16. Posted

    Were the song-lenghts mentioned anywhere? I remember the ones from The Unraveling being listed on Tower Records site back then. The ones from Arche also were posted somewhere because I remember someone from the brazilian DeG FB group I used to be in posting the wikipedia link with all songs written with their lenghts already.

     

    I'm like 90% sure the album won't have any longer song but one can dream, right :P

  21. Posted

    I don't hate "Midwife" but there wasn't really any need to rehash the "Dreambox" freak-out (the beginning sounds like "Akatsuki" as well)

     

    The random deep-ass vocal harmony that appears for a single line and disappears again is badass though, it made my jaw drop the first time I heard it

  25. Posted

    Man, what really saddens me is that if this album come out someday, it will be definitely their last as X. It would take another 20 years gap (plus 10 years of just making it) for them to do another one. They're like what, on their mid 50s? Plus, everyone knows that everything points to a trainwreck. It couldn't be a worse final chapter for a band with such importance as X Japan.

     

    I don't think you can blame the non-Yoshiki members though for the direction things took though. Maybe for still being associated with him or maybe for refusing to call Yoshiki out? :P I think they are all doing well with their solo careers and other projects. Especially Toshi, the musicians he plays with are always really good and the setlists are on-point.

    Furik reacted to this
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