kuyashii

So yeah, the album will be between 40 and 50 minutes long Maybe they knew about that portion of a song leaking sometime ago and they want to punish everyone by not releasing any samples? Maybe they liked DIMLIM's lazyness of only releasing samples after the album was out already?

I want to believe the reason it's taking so long for the album to come out is because they had to plant the trees to get the wood they made their instruments of

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? 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.

The worst thing about this whole album fiasco is that we already heard pretty much 90% of the songs. IIRC the only tracks we haven't heard yet are "Rock Star" or whatever it was its name and "Kiss the Sky" aka "OooOOOOoooooooOOOOohh" (at least not on its entirety).

I think there was a bit of outrage when it was announced that that Attack on Titan song wouldn't feature Toshi on it (it was refered as being by"X Japan ft. Hyde" at first and then he changed it to "Yoshiki ft. Hyde)

This is going to be a postumous release.

Did the song lenghts get posted anywhere? I remember they appearing on Tower Records' site before the release of Arche (or was it The Unraveling?) already

Well that was a tad underwhelming. I know the song is shortened for promotional reasons, but it really feels like it's not "flowing" well. It's like a ballad version of "Revelation of Mankind". The individual parts are cool, but they don't lead too well into each other and everything just happens too fast for my sake. My fears with the production turned out to be real, the mix is pretty muddy (but I like how Shinya's drum triggering doesn't sound that obnoxious though and there isn't all the wacky reverb they drenched Arche in) I must say Kyo's vocals are really really good considering he has been sounding like crap for the last years. For people who are going into their concerts, do they show the entire MV or just the edit? And I don't think this version or the one that will come with the album are censored in any way because it's listed as "Promotion Ver." or something and not "Restricted Ver." which is how they label their censored material. They've done stuff far more disturbing/disgusting on clips that didn't had any censoring tbh (the carnivore insects of "Hageshisa", anyone?) I'm disappointed there were no guts flying every direction after the bride exploded though :(

His vocals improved A LOT on TBS compared to Nega though.

The softer songs from MoaB are definitely the best moments from the album. I hope the MoaB comparision don't included the mixing of the album as well.

I hope he's better at that than he is at singing.

There it goes my hopes for it. I hope the ballads are good at least.

I want a jumpscare teaser where there's just a screen with some japanese text and then out of nowhere some really heavy stuff and Kyo screeching at the top of his lungs (think of the "Reiketsu Nariseba" ending) starts playing with the album cover flashing on the screen (come on, it's pretty freaky, it could work well)

DIO -distraught overlord- had some pretty cool stuff

Holy hell I won't complain about DeG's Shinya's drumming sounding so triggered anymore Also, what's up with the last track? I'm okay with trying to be diverse, but does it fit the album at all? It's like they went "After getting your face melted with some sick breakdowns you might try now a pop song?

Some of their best stuff wasn't included on the "main" albums though. . I don't promise it though, I'm not sure it still exists but I think I still might have a list of the songs I liked written down somewhere, since i'm into the heavier stuff I think it can be useful to you.

I wouldn't call any of their releases "heavy" per se because pretty much all of what they did has both the heavy and poppy stuff together? I can't remember any of their albums (they only released 2 full-lenghts if you don't want to count the compilations) or EPs collectively standing out as "heavy". If I were you I'd be checking song by song chronologically until I found something I'd like.

As much as he doesn't have like 30% of the range he used to have back on his prime, I still hold Kyo (DeG/Sukekiyo) in very high regard because his vocal performances on Uroboros completely changed the way I perceived vocals back when I first heard it. Since I'm a sucker for weird voices and versatile vocalists that's the stuff I look up the most from japanese artists but very few succeed at doing that succesfully like Kyo, though I have to mention Hinata (llll-Ligro), Wataru (ex-12012) and Sho (Dimlim) for being able of both pulling out the ridiculous noises and some extremely demanding clean singing parts as well. I like Toshi (X Japan), Sono (Matenrou Opera), Hiro (Nocturnal Bloodlust) a lot too. Yoshiatsu (Dadaroma) is an incredible vocalist as well but I can't stand most of his music. And this one called Mirai (ex-Secilia Luna) who isn't the most technical singer out there but I kinda liked his voice too. Dunno if he did anything else after the band broke up.

That was pretty cool! I like the chord progression and the vocal melody is pretty creative. Curiously, this too reminds me more of Sukekiyo than DeG, this brings me to mind that song that closed Adoratio ("Hakudaku"?). I agree with the visuals not matching the music at all though.

I'm gonna man up and admit one of the comments you're talking about was the one I made on Dimlim's "Aijou ni Tsuki" under the account of Isaac Pedroso (sorry if you want to harass me on social media because disagree, it's not my real name). If I end up sounding like an exaggerated DeG fanboy or an elitist that's definitely not my intention, but there's one thing that truly rubs me off is how people tend to assume that just because they like any artist, it makes said artists immune to any kind of criticism period. It really, really freaks me out to see the extent people go with fanboying those relatively unknown artists who clearly don't really have a grasp of technical stuff when it comes to playing/singing/whatever - and I'm not talking about Dimlim specifically. I never said Dimlim was bad nor anything, it's just funny to see how they were instantly crowned as supreme gods after posting their first song online. You're absolutely free to like them if you want, it's just ridiculous how people claim they are so great and original when pretty much everything they've done was done already - and FFS that's not bad! There isn't really a thing as originality nowadays when it comes to music so what makes artists stand out as musicians is what they make with what they have. I don't know if it's related to the whole "search for self-affirmation" thing but maybe people think some artists have too many fans already and they want to really stand-out and choose to fankid over-the-top-ly over some random rookie band? And I mean, you can probably see that my favorite band is DeG by the fact that they are the band I post the most about here but that doesn't mean I'm not critical of them/aware of their limitations. Kyo stands for everything you shouldn't do as a vocalist when it comes to preserving your voice, their recent output has been very questionable to say the least, and even if I really like the instrumentist bandmembers, they have a lot of limitations you shouldn't overlook and I don't really have any expectations of their upcoming album AT ALL. If there's a couple of things that I agree is that the passive-aggressive approach the Gazette fans take when it comes to facing criticism is annoying and bitchy af. I stopped replying to the thread the moment it became a victimization festival of Gazette fans that took up like 80% of the replies. I also agree that the ultra-edgy, "I'm the only one who's right" thing going on with DeG fans is equally cringy and that kind of attitude only makes people lose their respect for the band (even though I don't consider creating an impression of any artist by their fanbase a very wise idea). And it's not like DeG is immune to the whole overly-attached fankid thing either. Someone on YT just started calling me out because I said Ruki has a better vocal technique than Kyo's - even that Ruki has a considerably smaller range and doesn't do all the stuff Kyo does. So, this person sees that as an attack to their god and savior and then goes all "tumblr girl" argumenting that I'm contradicting myself because it would be impossible for him to have an wide range without any technique - which is something only a person who doesn't understand about singing would say. Curiously, a Gzt fan joined with the old passive-agressivity thing, complaining DeG fans are rude and "if you don't like then go away"because that discussion happened on a Gzt video. TL;DR: You can feel that people with that kind of attitude aren't very knowledgeable about music at all, are mostly young kids in search of affirmation and reproduce the good ole "who isn't with me is against me" thing that happens with most humans.

Awesome! Fuki is definitely one of the best female vocalists I ever heard and UM's music is fairly cool. I'm definitely antecipating this! Edit 1: The harsh vocals dude needs to work on them more though Edit 2: Man, the song with the funky bass and violin solo at 4:42-ish is so epic!

I agree 100% with the first part of what you said but then you accidentally said something that ended up proving your own argument: people don't compare Sho to Kyo because he sings "clear notes" (which don't really mean anything to be honest), the comparisions stem for the fact that Sho also alternates between different styles of vocals like Kyo does each particular style (low growls, high screams, the "little kid freaking out" squeals, clean vocals, etc.) Sho does is audibly influenced by Kyo. That's definitely not a rip-off like you said, It's just that some people tend to ignore how each artist is influenced by others due to exaggerated adoration and often hail their favorite artists as "the best" or "the most original at what they do" when it's simply not true. It doesn't mean that Kyo is The True OG when it comes to mixing different styles of vocals in a single song since people like Mike Patton, Jonathan Davis or Serj Tankian have been doing that much earlier than Kyo did - but when it comes to J-rock, I'm pretty sure Kyo is the one who popularized that.

Lime's singing is ridiculously good! He has a kind of voice that reminds me more of those Power Metal singers, like the Galneryus dude (Sho? It's been a while, I don't remember his name) than your stereotypical j-rock crooner, but it's fine to hear someone who isn't deepening his voice like hell and sounding really goofy as a result! The music is hella solid as well.

This is an interesting issue as well. I perceive a lot of denial among some fanbases when it comes to the acknowledging of influences from other bands and when it comes to technical limitations. You have copies of copies of copies being acclaimed "The only OGs of VK" and every mic-cupper inhaling dude becoming the best vocalist in the world. It's pretty freaky.

I think Dir en Grey's ventures to western audiences through mainstream festivals made them reach to a different kind of audience than j-rock bands are used to have, and while they still are firmly rooted in j-music they have this "crossover appeal" that makes them somewhat popular between metalheads, another subculture known for its elitism, stubbornness and overall toxicity. I think some DeG fans tend to speak ill of The Gazette and the like because they see Gazette's music as "technically inferior", the emphasis on the visuals as something negative (which is kinda funny considering how visual DeG has been being since 2013) and the overall j-rock fans as people who have a lesser knowledge on music and its technical/theorical side and that care more about appearances than sound (there's the really intense machismo going on within the metalhead culture as well that creates this pre-conceived idea that artists who bring an intense visual aspect to their presentation as people who can't really play their instruments and stuff). You can perceive that rift even between DeG fans themselves when someone complains about their change in style, say they miss the "old DeG" or simply state their preference towards their earlier, less metal-influenced stuff.