hopefully_benign

Everything he's done for the past couple decades has been pretty interminable to my ears, but it's hard not to love the fact that he's still doing his thing. GRANDMA!

everything about it screams rushjob, from the dodgy production right down to the cliche grieving polish mother cover art that about a dozen other bands used before them. but for me there's more charm in that sort of spontaneity than in the overwrought, plastic sterility of something like DSS. Not too sure about my least favorite. It's either DSS, or The Insulated World, which moves away from some of my problems with DSS but towards even more new problems. Can I just lump the entire Monster energy drink-pig squeal-core-Mike Patton-time signature wanking era together as my least favorite? I'll go with Gauze as a favorite. But I have days where I'd go with Macabre, and some trve kvlt days where I'd go with Missa (whether it counts or not). Not far below is Kisou (some of their best songwriting, despite being the audio equivalent of chewing on tinfoil) and Vulgar (nothing with the song Sajou No Uta deserves to get labeled as "that album where they listened to too much Korn").

wearing makeup and screaming is sort of a young man's game, sad but true. He found an avenue for potential artistic 'maturity' when he ditched the "I'M A SCHOOL SHOOTING ABORTION BUTTSEX SATAN haha j/k (OR AM I)" babby's-first-provocation thing and tried to recast himself as the heir apparent of Bowie and Bolan circa Mechanical Animals, but he's done nothing but regress since then.

It depends on the band. I've said it about DeG, but in that case it's a shorthand way for me to say "they're too influenced by modern metal now for my taste, and modern metal is mostly awful because it tends toward the gimmicky and overproduced." I'm not saying western influences are intrinsically bad, just those particular western influences. Rock wasn't invented in Japan, of course all vk is western influenced. But-despite the received wisdom that vk "isn't a sound"-it has certain musical signifiers running through its history that are unique to it. Like, you could erase a Madeth Gray'll song from everyone's collective memory, re-write it in English, and you could immediately tell just by listening to it that it doesn't sound like some American or British band wrote it. I guess maybe it could be mistaken for some unusually metallic-yet-poppy, ultra-theatrical goth rock, but even that's a stretch. From my experience, in music and media in general, what looks like the most stalwart gatekeeping usually has experience and some well thought out thought processes behind it. At the end of the day, it's bad form to attach motives to other people's taste. "Elitists" could just as easily label you as being a "raving poptimist," having no discernment, or yadda yadda.

Apparently Machine Head are still a thing, and they just released something that's up there with Illud Divinum Insanus in the metal cringe canon. choice lyrics: "I don't give a fuck about your stupid little scene Reaction videos and all your pussy little memes" "I'M FUCKED UP IN THE HEAAAAD!!!!"

I assume most people here know this, but the name Anti-Feminism has nothing to do with feminism. It was an ironic comment on "feminine" fashion in vk at the time. I guess feminism was one of those English loan words that kind of had a different meaning in Japan, kind of like how "bitch" means "slut" over there instead of "mean woman." Drawing the line at nazi imagery seems pretty extreme. That renders like half the 70s punk canon off limits. Would you seriously refuse to listen to Siouxsie and the Banshees or The Stooges or The Ramones because they played around with the imagery once or twice? Around the 80s, real fascist bands mostly moved on to more discrete symbols like celtic crosses and kolovrats--ironically a swastika is a pretty good indication that a band isn't seriously political in any way at this point. Basically a modern satanic pentagram circa the satanic panic. anyway, 'au†ism' were pretty ahead of their time, people definitely weren't obsessed with memeing that word back in the 90s like they are now.

I don't hate any of their eras, but I'll basically third that. Tetsu era is kind of barebones in a way that doesn't suit their concept, and doesn't have anything as close to a perfect song as Le Ciel. Klaha era is just too Castlevania/proto-mallgoth for my blood. As a general rule in music, I start noping out the second I hear harpsichord

"Do you like X Japan? They made Vanishing Vision and Blue Blood, so yes. "4) Do you think they are overrated? If so why?" No. The gray area they inhabit between metal and vk means they get seen as a non-entity in the Western metal community (despite their best stuff crushing any 80s material by, say, Judas Priest) and they get seen as crusty dinosaurs in the latter community. Everything else: don't care. A musician's personality, political opinions, latest feud, who they had dinner with last night, or whatever is none of my business and shouldn't take away from the fact they get to have a legacy. I mean fuck, you can't even have a meal with a China supporter without being a China supporter yourself? part of the reason I'm AGAINST communist gonverments is because I appreciate things like freedom of association.

Excel Saga has a vk spoof in one episode but I can't remember which one/can't find it. Maybe a late 90s piece of japanese media isn't that unexpected of a place to find vk. But still.

Macabre Gauze Missa Kisou Vulgar Uroborus Marrow of a Bone Withering to Death Arche TIW DSS good production/mastering really won't make that much of a difference for their new stuff. They need a better guitar tone! I revisited Vulgar (which I used to kinda poopoo because it was their take on nu-metal, but time heals all wounds etc) and the guitar absolutely rips compared to this flat, uber-scooped protoolsy tone they have now.

I dunno where to post this, but is it just me or does a lot of vk REALLY sound like early Birthday Party? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK7IlATxRcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c39AXnckmGQ I dunno for sure that there's any connection, but something's afoot

P | S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~K | Y C | C O | H H | E S | D L | | E A | | U L | | S I | | I C | V V | F I | O O | E L | M E | I N | R C | C~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ E and Vanishing Vision, which looks like the poster to some rad low budget 80s slasher movie

don't forget the occasional /mu/ thread with about 8 replies!

I wouldn't expect a random Japanese person to understand the nuances of outlaw country or new orleans sludge metal, so I don't think it's fair to chalk up confusion over vk as ignorance or malice. Those kinds of reactions are a normal and healthy part of disparate cultures intersecting.

DEG just isn't a drummer band, it's time to come to terms with it if you haven't. Even if you're into simple heavy-hitting drumming like I am (most of what passes for "good death metal drumming" after Pete Sandoval came along is soulless dick-measuring crap to my ears), the magic of that kind of approach is gone when you remember that what you're hearing is probably mostly just studio sampling edited into his actual performance. and yeah, I don't see this band ever releasing something that's well produced/well mastered ever again. that's something else to come to terms with.

Yes. They took some chocolate milk out of my fridge without asking and then they drank it right out of the bottle instead of pouring it in a glass. Then they didn't even say sorry.

for a second I really thought that art ho synthpop band reformed

dudes, Metallica aren't the band that made Ride the Lightning anymore, they're a mainstream rock institution now. there's a huge pressure for them to keep their finger on the pulse of what's going on in their general periphery of the music world. I'm not sure but it wouldn't surprise me at all. as for the single, uhh, it's clear they still have a knack for actual moody songwriting-there are still glimmers of it-but the "metal" parts remain boilerplate and drag everything down. par for the course for me.

It's like Japan's pop music except with everything unique, interesting and good sucked out of it! wow!

I guess Mg(squigglyL)a are filling that space Inquisition left when they got canceled. moderately edgy in a "Nietzsche was my favorite author when I was 15" sort of way without actually committing to any truly controversial/heretical modes of thinking (which lets them straddle the line between remaining underground and being "a big metal band"), admittedly talented, and they found their own "voice" in black metal without stepping over the boundaries of the genre into something else. but I'll be damned if anything I've heard of theirs really has that extra something that pushes GREAT bm into greatness. Poland used to be full of bands who had that "something," at least back in the 90s. Even Behemoth had it before the death metal stuff. It might not be that they're just targeting essjaydubbleyoos for the fun of it, they were a recent target of an unfair guilt-by-association nazi witchhunt. This new trend of hiding political diatribes in purple prose is cringeworthy though. Either be political or don't be, don't dress up the topical as high art.

Yes kyo, your voice can go very high in choruses.

I hear you. There's an argument to be made there was always an assembly line attitude in the medium, there was always an adherence to or at least consciousness of trends and conventions... It's not like "moe" was invented in the 2000s or 2010s (Project A-ko anyone?). But the conventions were just handled so much better back then. Titles like "Is it Wrong to Pick Up Slime Girls in a Forklift Simulator?" or whatever just tell me they're not even trying anymore.

Any 90s Tenchi stuff (for nostalgia) FLCL (for excellence in visual storytelling/general quality) Nadesico (well paced, coherent, full of well developed characters... it's none of these things. But it's one of the most 90s things I've ever seen and it has a lot of soul) Bubblegum Crisis (token 80s schlock pick) School Rumble (token 00s fluff pick) If movies count, any of the above could be replaced with Akira or Ninja Scroll depending on my mood, the time of day, etc.

Whoa, this band's still around? Re-recording all that old stuff with the new Shuuji was a pretty lame move imo. Can't stand that sort of George Lucas style revisionism.

Blue Blood. Weird production. I got over it.