saishuu

Kanjou Effect, no question about it. OOR was a big favorite of mine from their early works until 2011 (Zankyou Reference). I had songs from them mark certain moments of my life and all those generic things. Part of their charm was that, while they never tried to not be a mainstream band, they always kept some sort of rawness and vulnerability that was somewhat endearing. But after 2011, they got super popular and turned to a more polished, less raw stadium-rock sound that just can't compare to the music they released during their prime. I don't blame them for doing it, but no matter how much I try, I can't get excited about their music as I used to. So yeah, that's my vote.

Well, since everyone seems to be telling their stories, I might as well add some more to mine. As far as mental illness/disabilty goes, I'm also another one who struggles with depression and anxiety. Since I started stuttering as a young kid, I wasn't able to develop many social skills as I'd rather stay at home quiet on my own than deal with people and the fear of being rejected and laughed at, even though things like those almost never happened to me (different from other people who stutter). It only got worse as I got fat and found out I was gay. I was never diagnosed or even went to see a specialist, but I'm fairly sure that qualifies as social anxiety. Until like a few months ago, I was literally scared of enrolling in pretty much any social activity and suffering from mild panic attacks was a common thing. I'd skip school constantly, almost never went out with friends; missed the whole "teenage" experience to say so. Thankfully, with tons of experience and responsibilities required in college, as well as a lot of self control and help from people close to me, I've been doing a lot better these days when it comes to all things related to social anxiety. Most importantly, as cliche as it may sound, I had to break most of my defense mechanisms in order to be in a relationship with a guy I felt was worth doing it for, which involved not being so much into my head all the time in regards to all of this, so I'd say that is definitely paying off in life as a whole. Depression, however, is a lot trickier. Anxiety itself plays a big role in it, but it's something bigger that always finds a way to crawl back somehow. Living in a mentally abusive household takes its toll, I guess.

lol I can't even be excited about this band because no one cares about them and there's like a 99% chance their releases will never pop up online. But nice to see they're active!

Oop, thought ryo was Atsushi Sakurai for a brief moment while I was scrolling down the page. lol Just listened to the samples and I think this one might be better than their debut, which I hope it is (wasn't a big fan of it). Tracks 1 and 4 (that guitar riff!) sound great.

Sounds weak, like most things he's been doing for the last 10 years.

I'm a stutterer, if that counts. Most of my family from my father's side has it, and I got unlucky in the hereditary process I guess. I started to develop it when I was 6, and it's been bothering and making my life a little bit more challenging since then. I'm 24 now and dealing with it hasn't got much easier.

lmao Dir en grey for me. All my favorite albums were released before they went the chugga-chugga route. After they "transitioned", I've only been able to enjoy ARCHE and some of TMOAB.

NOTW wasn't bad at all, just not as catchy I think. But yeah, whenever they use the duo vocals, it always reminds me of winnie as well.

I believe it exists and, from recent personal experience, think it's actually kinda awesome.

I was expecting to see Takayuki involved. Meh.

regarding the new Lana album, it's been growing on me quite a bit. I'm a bigger fan of the second half of the album ("The Blackest Day", "24", "Salvatore"), but there's some good songs right in the beginning too ("Honeymoon", "High by the Beach" and "God Knows I Tried", which is possibly my favorite along with TBD). I like her other two albums better, though. meanwhile, any Silversun Pickups fans here? their new album "Better Nature" leaked and it's incredibly good. 2012's "Neck of the Woods" was hard to get into as it was idk, dense as hell, but this one has a much lighter feel. I'm honestly enjoying every single song in my first listen and that's difficult to come across for me. here's one of the songs from it:

Sounds and looks insufferably bad. As much as I liked Kazoku and early THE KIDDIE, I'll pass on this one.

sample video sounds great and the drummer looks flawless, as usual.

hmm, the original, shorter eiak was one of my favorites from sho-ka's solo stuff, so this new one will take some time getting used to. I always wished it were longer though, so I'm glad they worked on it a bit more.

^ The same three songs caught my attention as well, Experiment sounds like something Karyu would write for D'Ray back in mid '00s.

JILS had so many releases that I'm always under the impression they lasted for decades. Kinda surprised to see Kain's already been on for longer, although that doesn't really mean that much because they never release anything.

hearing some nice D'espairsRay circa 2004-2005 vibes in the song starting at around 1:55. that and the last song sound cool.

yay Ryouichi~ samples sound cool. kinda reminds me of GLAMOROUS HONEY a bit.

if that song is any indication of what they're coming up with, I'm rather 'meh' toward this.

dude announces he'll leave the band, possibly causes their disbandmet AND still gets to release one last song? I don't get this band looking forward to the last live DVD though, should be painful enough to watch. ETA: 39 songs?! holy shit <3

No DSS (other than Hageshisa) and lots of ARCHE, VULGAR and Wtd., niiiice

gotta give them props for going on hiatus 10 years later the same way they started out, as a DEG copy band.

oh, cool! their last single, while not great, has been growing on me. I really hope this is good and has at least some of their older dark/shoegaze vibe.

^ I meant the entire old (tape) vs. new technology (digital single) thing that would take place if it indeed happened, not the temporal aspect involving the album release