sai

Gaze i love you too but imma punch you back
 
I'm not comparing this one to DIM at all. Where in my post did I say that? Just because I think this album is average that automatically means that I have this opinion because I compared it to DIM, and not for other reasons? I realized that if I do keep comparing everything to DIM I'm never going to be content (lol). People can actually dislike this album for other reasons than just "comparing it to DIM" and tbqh I'm starting to get a bit tired of the regular stan's argument of "OMG YOU CAN NEVER LOOK AT IT OBJECTIVELY BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS COMPARE EVERYTHING TO DIM". I see every album for what it is. Do you think I could ever enjoy BUCK-TICK's latest three albums if I constantly compared them to Kurutta Taiyou or DTD -style93-? Seriously, DTD shits all over both Yumemiru Uchuu and RAZZLE DAZZLE but I still think these songs are catchy and fun and well-executed. Is DTD better? Absolutely, no doubt it about it. Is RAZZLE DAZZLE therefore horrendous? No it's not. There are plenty of reasons why people dislike this album (as stated throughout the review thread) and you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that just because you like everything the GazettE does doesn't mean that everyone who dislikes it (or thinks it average, in my case) does that based on a very flimsy argument. You also have to realize people will ALWAYS compare, it's natural. Even if you don't like it, sorry (it may sound harsh) but you need to get over it. Also wow god forbid me that I mention DIM in a normal GazettE discussion because I actually really like that album (I didn't mention it in any GazettE thread for the last year so your argument fails on this part too).
 
The problem with the effort is that not EVERYONE seems to have tried because be REALLY REALLY honest here...if you have to look at the individual members' progress, isn't one of the 5 sticking out like a sore thumb (in a negative sense)? As multiple people have already has stated, Ruki is currently the weakest link of the band because the instrumentals on this album are GOOD and do lots of different things. Uruha, Aoi, Reita and Kai are the only ones who actually shine on this album but I feel like Ruki just drags the whole thing down with either stale vocals or boring choruses.
 
/anyway I'll quit now because this is off-topic and opinions differ blahblah so if you want to get back at me send me a PM though I doubt it's possible to change your mind on this

Gaze i love you too but imma punch you back
 
I'm not comparing this one to DIM at all. Where in my post did I say that? Just because I think this album is average that automatically means that I have this opinion because I compared it to DIM, and not for other reasons? I realized that if I do keep comparing everything to DIM I'm never going to be content (lol). People can actually dislike this album for other reasons than just "comparing it to DIM" and tbqh I'm starting to get a bit tired of the regular stan's argument of "OMG YOU CAN NEVER LOOK AT IT OBJECTIVELY BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS COMPARE EVERYTHING TO DIM". I see every album for what it is. Do you think I could ever enjoy BUCK-TICK's latest three albums if I constantly compared them to Kurutta Taiyou or DTD -style93-? Seriously, DTD shits all over both Yumemiru Uchuu and RAZZLE DAZZLE but I still think these songs are catchy and fun and well-executed. Is DTD better? Absolutely, no doubt it about it. Is RAZZLE DAZZLE therefore horrendous? No it's not. There are plenty of reasons why people dislike this album (as stated throughout the review thread) and you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that just because you like everything the GazettE does doesn't mean that everyone who dislikes it (or thinks it average, in my case) does that based on a very flimsy argument. You also have to realize people will ALWAYS compare, it's natural. Even if you don't like it, sorry (it may sound harsh) but you need to get over it. Also wow god forbid me that I mention DIM in a normal GazettE discussion because I actually really like that album (I didn't mention it in any GazettE thread for the last year so your argument fails on this part too).
 
The problem with the effort is that not EVERYONE seems to have tried because be REALLY REALLY honest here...if you have to look at the individual members' progress, isn't one of the 5 sticking out like a sore thumb (in a negative sense)? As multiple people have already has stated, Ruki is currently the weakest link of the band because the instrumentals on this album are GOOD and do lots of different things. Uruha, Aoi, Reita and Kai are the only ones who actually shine on this album but I feel like Ruki just drags the whole thing down with either stale vocals or boring choruses.
 
/anyway I'll quit now because this is off-topic and opinions differ blahblah so if you want to get back at me send me a PM though I doubt it's possible to change your mind on this

Sebbi,
 
First, with 12012 s/t claim and now THIS??
 
I really hope you'd give your comments some thought next time.

Gaze i love you too but imma punch you back
 
I'm not comparing this one to DIM at all. Where in my post did I say that? Just because I think this album is average that automatically means that I have this opinion because I compared it to DIM, and not for other reasons? I realized that if I do keep comparing everything to DIM I'm never going to be content (lol). People can actually dislike this album for other reasons than just "comparing it to DIM" and tbqh I'm starting to get a bit tired of the regular stan's argument of "OMG YOU CAN NEVER LOOK AT IT OBJECTIVELY BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS COMPARE EVERYTHING TO DIM". I see every album for what it is. Do you think I could ever enjoy BUCK-TICK's latest three albums if I constantly compared them to Kurutta Taiyou or DTD -style93-? Seriously, DTD shits all over both Yumemiru Uchuu and RAZZLE DAZZLE but I still think these songs are catchy and fun and well-executed. Is DTD better? Absolutely, no doubt it about it. Is RAZZLE DAZZLE therefore horrendous? No it's not. There are plenty of reasons why people dislike this album (as stated throughout the review thread) and you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that just because you like everything the GazettE does doesn't mean that everyone who dislikes it (or thinks it average, in my case) does that based on a very flimsy argument. You also have to realize people will ALWAYS compare, it's natural. Even if you don't like it, sorry (it may sound harsh) but you need to get over it. Also wow god forbid me that I mention DIM in a normal GazettE discussion because I actually really like that album (I didn't mention it in any GazettE thread for the last year so your argument fails on this part too).
 
The problem with the effort is that not EVERYONE seems to have tried because be REALLY REALLY honest here...if you have to look at the individual members' progress, isn't one of the 5 sticking out like a sore thumb (in a negative sense)? As multiple people have already has stated, Ruki is currently the weakest link of the band because the instrumentals on this album are GOOD and do lots of different things. Uruha, Aoi, Reita and Kai are the only ones who actually shine on this album but I feel like Ruki just drags the whole thing down with either stale vocals or boring choruses.
 
/anyway I'll quit now because this is off-topic and opinions differ blahblah so if you want to get back at me send me a PM though I doubt it's possible to change your mind on this

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything. 

A few thoughts after listening to this album:
 
Unlike in earlier albums, intro and outro seem to flow very well to their neighboring tracks (just as it was said before).
 
But I felt in certain moments that they were just trying to improve DIVISION's weak spots (consider INSIDE BEAST to be their revision on DUHDUHDUHRANGEMENT) - and ending up as something forgettable.
After the first listen, I felt like I'd go with the second round - why? My view on that matter:
 
As sai said; there are many, many good ideas happening in most songs, but that's where stumbling block comes: choruses are boring, BORING, BORING!!! Uruha deserves big props for at least trying to do something "outstanding" instrumentally (I remember LAST HEAVEN having some bluesy solos, kinda neat), Reita should've had a consistent role instead of FADELESS-like "hey, don't forget me!"-parts, Aoi still has a lot to improve (just because you are a "rhythm guitarist", it doesn't mean you just have to chug along) and Kai did much better work here than in Division (being consistent, why not).
 
What about Ruki? His range,  sense of melody and hook ideas in general are pretty much the current, weakest link of Gazette. Get him a professional ghost writer to write melodies that won't make you zone out, Sony pls.
 
In other words, there is no chemistry in between Ruki's throwaway choruses and members' "decent" ideas.
 
Also: by "Back to early years"-vibe I don't necessarily mean "you have to rehash riffage/melodies", Gazette (Kuroku, Loss, THE STUPID TINY SONG)
 
Listing the only decent songs in my book, by numerical order:
 
1. INSIDE BEAST
2. DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER
3. FADELESS
4. MALFORMED BOX and CODA
5. IN BLOSSOM (has its moments)
 
 
Call it 6/10
and a protip for Gazette: 1) Hiatus 2) Let Ruki do some co-op work with professionals 3) Comeback 4) Hopefully Ruki will know how to "convince" that way.
 
PS. guys, just ditch TDD - CODA is a perfect outro for 13STAIRS[-]1, trust me!

The thing is that we're not afraid of change. The thing is that we won't go around randomly adding sub-forums while we have no idea whether there is demand for it or not. If you want a K-pop section, sure, but we can't just randomly make sections because YOU want to have a section for K-pop. If we notice there is an actual demand on the forum for a K-pop section, we'll take this into consideration to see if we want to make separate groups for K-pop discussions or not.
 
And I agree with Ito: don't just complain about the fact that there is no K-pop section. If you want a K-pop section, show us that there is demand for it! Start threads about K-Pop, talk about it with others! If we see that this actually is becoming bigger, we can do something about it! Participate in discussions. We deleted a lot of sub-forums in the past because it was just too messy and it took too much time cleaning them all up. We've been fine without them. Also, the tagging system works fine. As far as I know, you're currently the only one who is unhappy with it. If this were more people, you would probably have a point, but since there isn't (or at least people are not vocal about it), there are no plans in changing it.

all dem forbidden beavers

Was that a SuG pv.

The thing is that we're not afraid of change. The thing is that we won't go around randomly adding sub-forums while we have no idea whether there is demand for it or not. If you want a K-pop section, sure, but we can't just randomly make sections because YOU want to have a section for K-pop. If we notice there is an actual demand on the forum for a K-pop section, we'll take this into consideration to see if we want to make separate groups for K-pop discussions or not.
 
And I agree with Ito: don't just complain about the fact that there is no K-pop section. If you want a K-pop section, show us that there is demand for it! Start threads about K-Pop, talk about it with others! If we see that this actually is becoming bigger, we can do something about it! Participate in discussions. We deleted a lot of sub-forums in the past because it was just too messy and it took too much time cleaning them all up. We've been fine without them. Also, the tagging system works fine. As far as I know, you're currently the only one who is unhappy with it. If this were more people, you would probably have a point, but since there isn't (or at least people are not vocal about it), there are no plans in changing it.

Ruki: "This album will be a throwback to earlier eras. We've incorporated sounds and ideas from NIL and Stacked Rubbish into BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY".
 
My only response to that statement is this:
 

 
I think that at this point we've all learned that we should not trust Ruki when it comes to "what the album will sound like". Remember he said DIVISION disc 2 would sound like DIM? Yeah, I'm not going to say anything about disc 2 of DIVISION.
 
Alright, now to the actual review of this album. Let me start by saying that BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY is a huge step up from DIVISION in the sense that I can actually listen through the whole thing without wanting to throw my computer out of the window.
 
MALFORMED BOX is probably the best intro the GazettE has done since 2010. INFUSE INTO and XI really don't do much when it comes to electronics. MALFORMED BOX does. I love how it flows so smoothly into INSIDE BEAST, which in my opinion is the best promotional song GazettE has released since SHIVER. It's insane, it's all over the place, but it's still good. I do feel like they could've done more with it (just like most of the songs on this album) but hey, there's improvement. The electronics ARE basically the melody while Aoi and Uruha chug along and are therefore really well incorporated in comparison to DIVISION and TOXIC where the electronics were basically some random bleeps and bloops.
 
UNTIL IT BURNS OUT sounds like a lynch. song, for some reason. Both the title and intro sound like it in any case. I like pretty much everything up until the chorus. The aggressive parts just don't fit together with the mood of the chorus (the same problem I had with the song I feel like this one sounds like, namely ASHES from the EXODUS EP). Not really feeling it.
 
DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER is pretty nice, probably one of my favourites on the album (good job Aoi). Could've done without the poor English though. FADELESS I already reviewed in the thread for the single, so I'm not going to go too deep into it. It's probably the only song on here that actually has some NIL/SR influences though. REDO is the lighter upbeat track on the album. It's not outstanding, but it's a decent track that I don't mind listening to again. I felt like the main problem with most of these tracks so far is that they're just not COMPLETE. It's like they could've done a lot more with them if they had released this album a few months later. Then again, perhaps they were forced to release another full length this year, or maybe it has to do with this whole 3-album contract thing, I don't know.
 
LAST HEAVEN is...decent. It's a standard ballad which is in each case better than QUIET. I like how they just went for a standard ballad and not trying to do another Chizuru or DIM SCENE because they've tried and for some reason it didn't work time after time again. It missed the emotion and build-up for it to be successful. On that note, I sort of like LAST HEAVEN after another listen. Luckily Ruki doesn't go overboard with the English on this one.
 
LOSS is also quite good, though it probably would've been better with another vocalist. Ruki just sounds plain flat and there is hardly any emotion in the more driven section. The vocalwork throughout this entire album has been incredibly boring tbqh. THE STUPID TINY INSECT I just don't like. It's a basic GazettE song but it just isn't solid. It sounds like a rejected b-side from FADELESS, which just isn't good.
 
Out of the remaining songs I only remember slightly liking IN BLOSSOM (after that 'urgh' obligatory heavy section it becomes a lot better actually) and 鴉 being a fun upbeat track with some neat bass (not rare since Reita composed this one). The rest is forgettable and were probably filler tracks to fill up the album. DAZZLING DARKNESS' intro was nice, but I didn't like the vocal work. To be quite honest, the last two full tracks could've been left out.
 
tl;dr
 
|| It is a step up from their previous two albums, but it's just decent. Nothing more. Like Zess said, there is not a single track that can be described as "the killer track" (like 13 STAIRS was on DIM) and the album doesn't have any specific high or lows, it just sits in between...and if average is a step up for a band, then that is not a good sign.

The thing is that we're not afraid of change. The thing is that we won't go around randomly adding sub-forums while we have no idea whether there is demand for it or not. If you want a K-pop section, sure, but we can't just randomly make sections because YOU want to have a section for K-pop. If we notice there is an actual demand on the forum for a K-pop section, we'll take this into consideration to see if we want to make separate groups for K-pop discussions or not.
 
And I agree with Ito: don't just complain about the fact that there is no K-pop section. If you want a K-pop section, show us that there is demand for it! Start threads about K-Pop, talk about it with others! If we see that this actually is becoming bigger, we can do something about it! Participate in discussions. We deleted a lot of sub-forums in the past because it was just too messy and it took too much time cleaning them all up. We've been fine without them. Also, the tagging system works fine. As far as I know, you're currently the only one who is unhappy with it. If this were more people, you would probably have a point, but since there isn't (or at least people are not vocal about it), there are no plans in changing it.

The audio quality of these samples is absolutely horrendous so I can't make a full judgement yet. They really haven't lost their electro-kick, lol. On another note, the electronics sound a lot better incorporated than they were on TOXIC/DIVISION. Then again, I'm not going to say anything about it until I hear the full thing.

If this post is tldr, then skip to the last paragraph.
 
 
Music has always been my outlet. Linkin Park and Papa Roach are two examples of artists that I could listen to and somehow manage my out-of-control emotions, but my heart was always with metal. A friend of mine introduced me to jrock, but I never paid it much attention because American artists were so much easier to access (besides, she sent me a picture and I wondered wtf was wrong with the vk band members XD). Slayer was always my last resort when it came to music because their music never failed to help me stabilize.

Slayer was almost an integral part of my life back then. Actually, I even met my daughter's father at a Slayer concert. He was also an avid fan, even covering several of their songs on guitar and using their titles as his screen names. We had quite a whirlwind start for our relationship, but in the end he was just using me the way I used music. We broke up on my birthday, but still went to see a Slayer concert together a few days later. Kinda funny how we both met and parted at a Slayer concert. ;; I was already unknowingly pregnant when we broke up (not that knowing would've changed anything).

Despite drama and stress from him and his friends, I had a very happy pregnancy. I never needed music to make me feel better because just putting my hand on my growing stomach was extremely soothing. Unfortunately, my pregnant sister and her family (then husband and her 2 sons) had been living with us. My sister and I never really had that great of a relationship and things only got worse this time. Her husband kept getting fired from the easiest of jobs (even ones where he was hired as a favor), was stealing from the household, wasting her hard-earned money, and went out of his way to NOT do any household chores. She couldn't get mad at him (she was in a custody battle with her ex over their sons and courts prefer stable marriages to single parents), so she'd take it out on me; mentally, emotionally, verbally, financially, and even physically. I could only endure it because of the little miracle growing inside of me.

My sister was further along than I was, so she had her kid before I did. That just made things worse because her husband didn't really want to be a father and never did anything to take care of his daughter. My sister expected my father and I to take care of all 3 of her kids for her, including feeding, bathing, entertaining/supervising, and tutoring them. Because my sister is the stereotypical blond bimbo, she'd often leave for work without expressing milk (and was adamantly against formula) so I ended up having to wet nurse my niece at various times over a span of 2 months (because the only other option was to let her starve ).

My sister's husband left her on December 26th, after receiving several hundred dollars in presents from her. About 2 weeks later I had my daughter. My sister's abuse only intensified after these events. She moved out in February, after telling her church that I had thrown my barely 1 month old daughter against the wall. Some elderly bitch at the church called me and tried to get me to confess my "sins" to her over the phone. I told her A. I have no sins to confess and B. she is legally required by law to report suspected child abuse otherwise she could be face charges as well. She eventually shut the fuck up and called the police like I told her to; an officer was at my front door no more than 10 minutes later. I still remember him to this day: in his late 30s, slightly husky, white in his beard, and not a single hint of maliciousness in his eyes. He commented that my daughter didn't even have scratches on her face, unlike his own kid. He found out it was my sister who started the false report and put a giant, comforting hand on my shoulder before leaving. No matter how much music I listened to, nothing could stop my from shaking in anger and betrayal.

Not even my daughter's crying could jolt my soul. With just this information, some people would think it was "just" postpartum depression, but I had already met with my doctors to check for it (and met with them again after that incident) and I was given a clear bill of health (both times). I don't know how much later, but days later I just put my music on shuffle, hid under the desk, curled up into a ball, and cried while listening to the music. Linkin Park meant nothing. Pink meant nothing. Papa Roach meant nothing. Slayer meant nothing. Slayer was useless to my soul. Slayer, my last resort, did nothing. And then it happened, a song came on that helped wash away the hurt, pain, anger, and numbness. I'll be damned if I remember which song, but I'll never forget the band; it was Dir en grey.

Plenty of people who used to dig the GazettE or are just curious what this big band puts out now will try the album, thus a higher chance of negative reviews. I'll explain this in the next paragraph. If I think an album isn't good, I will write a negative review but there's a difference between a detailed review on what you didn't like and the "lol this sucks I lost all faith in them gazerock is dead"-review.
 
GazettE has done quite a lot of different things and for each theme that they did they have a specific group of fans. You have the group that prefers their first few singles/minis from when they just started, the NIL group, the STACKED RUBBISH group, then there's the DIM group (including myself) and the ones that like a little bit of everything. Each album is different in a sense and the least amount of variety in between albums of the GazettE were TOXIC and DIVISION. This is the risk if you change for every album. You'll keep all fans and most of them will be disappointed it doesn't sound like NIL/STACKED RUBBISH/DIM, etc.

Plenty of people who used to dig the GazettE or are just curious what this big band puts out now will try the album, thus a higher chance of negative reviews. I'll explain this in the next paragraph. If I think an album isn't good, I will write a negative review but there's a difference between a detailed review on what you didn't like and the "lol this sucks I lost all faith in them gazerock is dead"-review.
 
GazettE has done quite a lot of different things and for each theme that they did they have a specific group of fans. You have the group that prefers their first few singles/minis from when they just started, the NIL group, the STACKED RUBBISH group, then there's the DIM group (including myself) and the ones that like a little bit of everything. Each album is different in a sense and the least amount of variety in between albums of the GazettE were TOXIC and DIVISION. This is the risk if you change for every album. You'll keep all fans and most of them will be disappointed it doesn't sound like NIL/STACKED RUBBISH/DIM, etc.

Uhh, as long as there's music being shared you can be sure that transcodes will appear.
 
Clearly if you ask around you will find more people who hate transcodes than people who love them. I am admittedly rather OCD about transcodes myself, but still, I'm hesitant about the sub-forum idea.
 
Assuming we set up a forum to house transcodes, I can quite literally imagine having:
A) people who report x as transcode and ask for them to be moved to your 'sub-forum'
B ) people [probably mods] who manually do the moving
C) a group of people who start protesting that x isn't actually a transcode and asked for it to be moved back
D) another group of people who mediate between A and C
E) etc.
You get the idea...
 
The problem (as Champ213 rightly pointed out) is that there's no universal way to prove beyond all doubt that something is simply a bad rip or a transcode. From experience, micromanaging transcodes does nothing meaningful but invite drama (I'm reminded of petty squabbles that go on for 100+ posts on a particular tracker over whether a Super Junior single is a transcode...).
 
Ultimately, I feel that if you really care so much about whether something is a transcode, it's up to you to decide if x is a transcode and what to do if it is. Just don't fall into the trap of spending more time looking at spectra than actually listening to the music.

Plenty of people who used to dig the GazettE or are just curious what this big band puts out now will try the album, thus a higher chance of negative reviews. I'll explain this in the next paragraph. If I think an album isn't good, I will write a negative review but there's a difference between a detailed review on what you didn't like and the "lol this sucks I lost all faith in them gazerock is dead"-review.
 
GazettE has done quite a lot of different things and for each theme that they did they have a specific group of fans. You have the group that prefers their first few singles/minis from when they just started, the NIL group, the STACKED RUBBISH group, then there's the DIM group (including myself) and the ones that like a little bit of everything. Each album is different in a sense and the least amount of variety in between albums of the GazettE were TOXIC and DIVISION. This is the risk if you change for every album. You'll keep all fans and most of them will be disappointed it doesn't sound like NIL/STACKED RUBBISH/DIM, etc.

I'm not even a GazettE fan but are we really going to blame GazettE for the fact that MEJIBRAY's previews are only 18 seconds long? What's next, we're going to blame GazettE because they release the full PV only after the release of the CD? There are plenty of bands who do this, so why blame "Gayzette" again (which I find a rather immature term to begin with).
 
apologies for the off-topic, but I'm starting to get a bit tired of this whole "let's blame GazettE for everything"-attitude.

Here a spot to talk about our zodiac signs, what they mean, how they apply to us. Personally I always think it's fun to find out some things about myself and others. Most things even make sense for me!
Discuss, hope there are some people here to talk about it

I know, the message wasn't directed at you for creating this topic, but for the ones that derailed it and were being extremely negative. On a personal note, I do indeed wonder why people waste time posting negative things in threads of artists they don't like instead of spending that energy on music they do like.

To say that I am frustrated by this thread is a bit of an understatement.
 
The attitude of some of the members make me feel like you paid something to get this service and ended up not getting exactly what you want. This this is something that exists and you enjoy purely because the love and money of other people. The negativity is stifling. I kind of get the impression that a lot of people think the "staff" is kind of a faceless corporation, that we are in our positions for the power and the glory or some shit. The people on the staff are here because they love this site and the community. They volunteered their time to try and make this a better place, no matter the amount. 
 
We are in agreement that the staff isn't as active that we all once were in our prime. But neither is the community. Pointing fingers will get us no where fast. Throwing people out and reshuffling is purposeless if it is done to just appease a few people. Lets say that the staff posts a lot more...does that give us the active community that we want? Maybe yes, maybe no. And it will not happen at the flip of a switch, it will be a slow burn. The success of this forum rests on everyone here, and absolutely none of you are obligated to do anything. If the love isn't there, then MH will die.
 
Will the staff be redoubling our efforts to try and make this community better? For sure. Will we try to mix things up by adding another mod or two from the community? Most likely. But I am not so sure that this is something that can be forced. We will do the best we can to get things flow...there are still people that love this place over 6 years since Jake and I first started it, and while things may be massively different from now then, I plan on continuing to keep this place running for as long as possible. The only thing I ask is that you treat the staff like the hard working people they are. Pretty much everyone on the staff here is an incredible person outside of the forum as well and life can get in the way of this fun little place.
 
 
Side notes:
If we were judging you all on how much you care by the amount you donate to the site to keep it running, we would have closed down already
 
 
It costs $60 a month to keep the servers running. Every dollar you give goes DIRECTLY in to paying the server (as you will have noticed when you use paypal and notice who you are paying - dreamhost).
 
 
I hate to break it to you, but that is the way the forum has ALWAYS been. a majority of the people that visit will never post and just take the downloads. Hell, I don't even know if this forum's community would even exist if it wasn't for the download section.
 
 

Ehh, in random order:
 
1. Boris
2. ESNO
3. lynch. (they count in my book. I mean they still play a lot with other VK bands but I'm not sure if that's because they're friends or if they actually still consider themselves VK)
4. M-Koda
5. nego
6. number0
7. ONE OK ROCK
8. アルカラ
9. トクマルシューゴ
10. 凛として時雨
 
トクマルシューゴ, M-Koda and ESNO are solo-artists though, if those count.

The main problem that we've had with hiring new people who seemed very enthusiastic and active at that time is that basically all of them dropped off the face of the planet after around 6 months. They stopped doing their work completely and hardly even logged on without giving us a notice that they were in fact busy. When it comes to staff members, the problem isn't that we've got too few, just the fact that a part of them doesn't have the time to be here (which I have my own opinion about but which I'm not going to state here for obvious reasons). Finding enthusiastic candidates for this role won't be hard, but all we can do is give them trial runs and hope they won't disappear after about a year or so.
 
We're willing to give it a try, but the attempts in the past (and especially the green mod-project) have not been very successful, so you might understand that there's a bit of scepticism from our part on this solution.
 
I agree about the whole "showing your face more"-thing. Posting a couple of times or opening new threads is not something that takes a lot of time, so everyone on the staff could do this.
 
However, there is only so much we can do. We can start threads and continue discussions, but when other members don't participate there's hardly anything we can do to encourage it apart from that. So basically it's an arm for a leg. We can promise to be more active on the board, the users agree to help the threads stay alive.

deadeyes-star. It's basically a huge database that kai and manda are working on. I don't know what I can tell and what is supposed to be a secret, so I'll let kai explain it (since I suck at explaining anyway).