Seimeisen

Shit....good luck my friend.

This sounds a lot like PENICILLIN.
 
I think the problem with Lycaon is that they don't realize nobody cares about their non-heavy songs. I'm always let down whenever I get to hear something new by this band and it's not heavy, because that's what they do best and that's what they should keep doing.

I got 17; it's only a little lower than I expected... actually, nvm, it's very close to where I expected it.
I feel weird when I get attention, but at the same time, I spend 80% of the time talking about myself and the other 20% hoping someone will give me an opportunity to talk about myself... so yeah, kinda in the middle.

The artwork is so beautiful!!




It's four pictures that form one great tall tapestry.

The artwork is so beautiful!!




It's four pictures that form one great tall tapestry.

The preview was a little disappointing at first, but after a second/third listen, it's kinda grown on me.
Artwork:

The preview was a little disappointing at first, but after a second/third listen, it's kinda grown on me.
Artwork:

The artwork is so beautiful!!




It's four pictures that form one great tall tapestry.

The artwork is so beautiful!!




It's four pictures that form one great tall tapestry.

The piano part is taken from the intro track to the album GALLOWS. The rest is new.

Hey, hold on now. Calm yer tits, everyone. 
 
 
Okay now, I don't understand people with scat fetish or sweat fetish or even fucking foot fetish, or even a fetish for god damn my little ponies. But it's not my place to say what is an alright form of sexuality and what is fucked up. Generally, any fetish is fucked up, really. You shouldn't have any. But who of us doesn't? My opinion is that ANYTHING is fine as long as it's fiction.
 
Are you moralizing furry fetishist as well? Because god damn I'd find it sick to fuck a dog. Yet there's furry porn and I don't think it's wrong at all. I don't think it "sexualizes" animals. I don't think it increases the amount of zoophiles out there. If someone can suppress their sexual frustration towards little girls by reading lolicon, hell, let him keep it! I'd rather have creepy guys read fictional child porn than search for more "alive" material, like other people's kids on a beach photos, or worse, start acting upon their urges. That's what I imagine would happen in Japan if lolicon was banned. People wouldn't be just like "Oh well now I realize what I was doing wrong all along. I now lack a fetish for little girls. Praise Jesus." Do you see that happen? Really? Do you?
 
Yes, I think child molesters and confined paedophile should be fucking castrated, but unless they've done something to a child, or at least seriously considered doing something to a child, I've nothing against them and neither should you. Different people like different things and have different urges. A good person is determined by knowing which of them is okay to act upon. 

I think that's what the title is suppose to be too.
 

well the kanji 墓穴 has two possible romanizations and both are correct and mean the same thing (grave).. it's just that for this release the one arlequin's using is "haka-ana" instead of "boketsu" (you can hear this in the lyrics as well if you pay attention to what Aki sings) ^^

Artist: NEMETH Album: Creature Score: Generic sentence for a generic release.
Everyone can thank paradoxal for this review. While in the chat, she suggested I try this out if I were in the neighborhood for something new. The most apparent thing from this experiment is how different my music taste is from the average visual kei fan. So, if you don't find yourself always agreeing with how I feel about these types of bands remember that I'm in a different place musically than most MHites.

I'm not going to whitewash anything: brutal kei is not my thing. Never has been and never will be. This is overly aggressive visual kei with a twist: there are some ideas here and there. I'll mention a few in this review. In between "here" and "there" is a lot of nothing interesting and a vocalist attempting to recreate sounds outside of his vocal range. His clean vocals are a little flat but he can harmonize and will improve with some practice. On the flip side, he's going to destroy his vocal chords if his vocal fry technique doesn't improve. Harsh vocals are not good by virtue of wrangling out any sounds possible and visual kei bands need to stop doing this. It never sounds good and never sounds like how it should. There's training that he must go through to achieve the power and technique missing in his delivery. So I'll just make a blanket statement now that every single attempt at sounding brutal on this mini fails. Charles Lee Ray II and Ellie in particular sound like a mess featuring lots of badly juxtaposed elements.

So that leaves us with three songs worth talking about and those three songs don't suck as much. The compositional formula is nothing new: aggressive verses into lighter choruses. NEMETH doesn't do anything wrong with it. The riffs are nothing special. I caught one reminiscent of G (Luna Sea)/Unknown...despair...a lost (Diru)/S.I.N. (-OZ-), so use that as a benchmark of "riff variety". Beautiful Distortion features some ideas where they switch it up with an attempt at polyrythmic riffing (note: they didn't actually nail it). I'll give them points there for trying. But much too often, there's just slow breakdowns, bad harsh vocals, and nothing in between. There was not a single solo or progression outside verse-chorus-breakdown interchange. An upside to this mini being short is that none of these songs drag on. If they were any longer all the songs would suffer for it.

Lackluster production for an indie band shouldn't be a surprise. I do want to mention the prioritization on heaviness over power. Metalcore works best when there is power and energy behind the music to deliver that rush. That power is not present here. The guitars have more weight to them than they should and while the bassist manages to poke through here and there with some interesting lines the bass pedal and most of the drummer is muffled. His omnipresent cymbal riding, which borders on abusive, is his only claim to fame. He has some moments like at the beginning of Curse and Beautiful Distortion where he is actually audible, but balancing in the mix is required. Not having a budget is one thing. Not having any balance is another.

At the end of the day, if this is the best that heavy visual kei band have to offer for me count me out. Another dime a dozen band that doesn't sound too bad but won't be going anywhere. If you like music like I've described, this is another solid metalcore release for you. But I'm positive that even within this scene there are other bands that do this sound better.

Artist: ア​ルルカン Album: 墓穴 Score: Okay paradoxal, you win. Finally.
I could understand if someone glanced at Arlequin, sighed, and thought to themselves "yet more standard pretty boy metalcore". Snazzy looking bands with laughable musical ability are a dime a dozen in this scene, and they all sound the same - like recycled shit sprinkled with preservatives so you won't mind the stench or notice that you've already heard that riff five times this week. It's also understandable that due to the massive waves of shit that lap on the shore constantly that Arlequin flew under your radar. They certainly flew under mine. So, as I girded my loins for part two of really bland metalcore that people adore for reasons I do not understand, I was caught off guard. Imagine my face, then imagine how it would have looked when the first track was a righteous kick in the ass.

At one point I may have even thanked VK Jesus, but don't put me on record as having ever said that.

What sets Arlequin apart from the countless other bands that play this exact type of music are that they're good at it. Or, good enough to impress me. Arlequin is the one in a thousand band that can take electronics and metalcore and construct music that doesn't make me deaf. The last visual kei band capable of that feat was D.I.D., and they've left a void in the scene that Arlequin is both ready to and capable of filling. It's not the Holy Grail of visual kei but it's better than anything I've heard this scene fart out in a while. That in itself is revolutionary. It's also sad that decent has become good and good has become great in this small, inbred scene but this is not the time to bemoan the gradual manufacturing of this type of music. All the other basement-kei no1curr aggressive metalcore bands in Japan that spend more money on make-up and wigs than guitar lessons should pull up a chair and take some notes.

Boketsu is three tracks featuring decently good production, impressive riffs from guitarists intimate with their instruments, and a vocalist who can both growl and sing. The last part alone is what really puts this band on my radar. He can clean up on the technique and watch the inhales before he ruins his voice, but the lack of modulation and the remarkable consistency he displays on all three tracks is great. He reminds me of a Kyouki who is more in control of his voice but he definitely has his own style. He's also charismatic enough to make the aggressive verse - poppy chorus formula work to their favor. There's also enough power and energy in the breakdowns to put them a notch above obligatory, although I can do without them all the time. There's amazing bass presence on both the part of the bassist and the drummer and even the electronics are placed thoughtfully and not slathered all over the place like special sauce on Big Macs. This is solid but not amazing and it's clear where there's room for improvement. As these members make more music together, I expect them to become an even tighter unit.

Arlequin did not overplay their hand here. Halfway through the first track, I had to toss my hat up to them. For a bunch of nobodies, they wrote some solid tunes here. This is confirmation that at least SOMEONE over in the land of the rising sun is playing more than brainless metalcore. Even in 2014, there's room in visual kei for stodgy old heads like me. I look forward to seeing this band move up through the ranks and become semi-influential.

That is, if they don't pull the whole disbandment shuffle before then.

That's probably what their manager at PSC said when he or she saw their sales on their last trainwreck.

Artwork for blind message:

Here we go, more 紅い糸.
Anyway... FOCUS was absolutely amazing, possibly my favourite album of 2013, so I hope Triangle is just as awesome, if not, better!

Artwork for blind message:

Here we go, more 紅い糸.
Anyway... FOCUS was absolutely amazing, possibly my favourite album of 2013, so I hope Triangle is just as awesome, if not, better!

It's mostly his voice. There's also a shift from melodeath to melodic metalcore as well, but I don't mind that.

Start with Early Years of Sorrow. I'm not fond of the new stuff with West Village on Vocals. Dead Night Blind and Blind Night Sorrow are also both excellent melodeath albums. If you're looking for only metal, also skip Liquidarization, half of Genesis, and LED.

Nega to Poji is still my favorite pura album

I always thought the friend zone sounded like a cool place for kids to hang out and eat pizza, play arcade games and horse around in a ball pit.

The standard edition was illustrated by Ryosuke Aiba.