saishuu

Off the top of my head, I could list: 1) LUNA SEA - LOVE SONG LUNA SEA has always had some spectacular b-sides (even after reforming they still kept it up, mostly with "Lost World"). The title-track here is not really the standout imo, although it was one of the first songs I heard from them so it holds lots of nostalgia for me. The real reason for mentioning this single is because it also includes this gem and possibly the best b-side ever released by a Japanese band: 2) RENTRER EN SOI - 水夢見る蝶々 Everyone raves about Sphire-Croid and the Kein and Astre mini-albums, but they all seem to forget that RES released this single inbetween and it might as well be one of their best CDs. Third track "偽りの渦" is absolutely gorgeous and I could say that, considering their entire disco, it's easily top 3 material for me. I'll go around my library later to see if anything else comes to mind.

I've only listened to this once and I'm sure I need to give it some more spins, but I felt it was mediocre at best and I doubt my mind will change. The only song that grabbed my attention was Cry out and I think it was due to the fact that it sounds like a link to their older sound, which obviously pleases me. I don't know, their album prior to this one was already filled with stadium-rock blandness and only a few standouts here and there, and now this one follows the same path - just more upbeat. I really, really dislike how they're treating Taka's vocals with all those effects because he does not need it. His voice was the main thing that carried their music and now it's just stuck in an uninspired soundwall failing to stand out like before. The rawness of their music is gone too and that's so disappointing; it used to pack tons of emotion (geez, this freaking thing still makes me sob to this day) and now it's just... there. No excitement and no other feeling whatsoever.

I used to have "Rast" as my nickname everywhere up until a few years ago, but then I stopped using it online and decided to use something else for MH (back in Tainted World too). I just went on a simple thought process of "rast" -> "last" -> "saishuu", which means "last" in Japanese, and settled with it.

I'm honestly shocked they have 12 songs recorded. I only remember one single from a long time ago. lol

I use kanji and original writing for everything. Most of the time I can recognize songs by identifying certain kanjis (it helps if I'm able to read kanjis from the song title too), and I don't think I need romaji to recognize anything. If I really want to know how a song is called for whatever reason, I just use a kanji to romaji converter. Being able to read katakana and hiragana also helps out a lot since a big majority of Japanese use them. I used to name my files in romaji in order to recognize songs better in the past, but my library's grown considerably and I've also grown more and more lazy to keep doing it.

already sounds more interesting than anything flumpool ever did. I remember liking that first video of theirs, so I'll check this out for Kameda's sake.

I didn't even think we would get any new music until then. At least there's that.

WHAT NO

This is a really cool idea! January was kinda underwhelming for me (mostly because I didn't have much to listen to), so this will definitely help me out a lot.

Aw, that's too bad. :/ But it's not like they've been very active lately anyway...

lol PSC's lineup these days NAOKI is the best thing in this entire thing and he's just a solo musician.

I actually like this song a lot better than their other recent ones, despite still being overproduced and sounding like 30 Seconds to Mars' "The Kill" at times. I have a feeling this will sound fantastic live.

Is that really Aika singing? o_O If I didn't know, I could easily say it was Hayato from DuelJewel. Doesn't sound like him at all. (song kinda sucks btw)

lol even AN CAFE at their peak could only get 8k people to Budokan. Good luck to them.

I'm 100% biased towards Kagrra, so my vote easily goes to them.

amber gris is one of those lowkey bands for me where most of their releases are really pleasant and well done (and best of all, they bring tons of nostalgia), but while I respect and expect great things from them, there was never enough for me to love them. I'm not sure how much of my disappointment with Ruvie disbanding had to do with this though, probably enough to not allow me to enjoy their earlier output as much as I expected to. I do think, however, they've been getting gradually better and I'm finally starting to reeeally like them. Their new mini-album, for instance, is gorgeous and has been on repeat here for days. I hold them in a certain 'triforce' of non-core indie VK nowadays along with Moran and Blu-BiLLioN. They're a nice presence to have in the scene and I think there's still lots of good things to come out from these guys.

Zekkeishoku is a thing of beauty, but I agree with nekkichi that I don't think they ever wanted to use a heavy sound full-time. Every softer band was doing it around 2004-2006 for the attention (remember Plastic Tree with "Ghost"?). "Yami ni chiru sakura" is probably just a product of some nostalgia from their Givuss days (even more so given how "Byakuya ni kuroneko" was the b-side of the single). But yeah, my interested peaked with Zekkeishoku too and disappeared some time before Alpha.

Late 2002. Anime songs and friends led me to discover some MALICE MIZER, X JAPAN and Gackt stuff. I used to get my music from Kazaa and WinMX as well, but then everything changed with Soulseek. Geez, it's been too long.

^ I listened to this a while ago and thought it was quite boring. :/

They should put all the I, II, III and IV tracks in order this time. I expect most of Kakera and some other songs from their other major albums too. I'd be nice if they included some songs from Rashinban (one of their best and most underrated releases ever) other than Mr. HEAVEN, which was already in their first compilation. I ordered their first best-of, but I'm not $$$ure I'll be able to get this one sadly.

Voted for VULGAR again. Great album + lots of good memories attached to it make it basically untouched for me. Wtd. is a very close second though.

please come back full-time, mako-sama :'(

I'm actually surprised they're still going. I never expected them to do anything after LAZZARO and now we're on what, their fourth/fifth post-disbandment album?

Some great onea have been mentioned already! SCLL's "mai" especially is fantastic. That's probably the song I've listened to the most in my life. lol As to some of my favorites that haven't been mentioned yet... D - Phantom pain (from "Tafel Anatomie", 2006) Kagrra, - 妖しの光 (from "[gozen]", 2002) 清春 - 光 (from "MELLOW", 2005) La'cryma Christi - 未来航路 (from "Lhasa", 1998) Laputa - Sadness (from "c.a.k.e.r.a", 1999) SID - 紫陽花 (from "隣哀‐レンアイ‐", 2004) B'z - DEEP KISS (from "SURVIVE", 1997) ONE OK ROCK - 内秘心書 (from "ゼイタクビョウ", 2007) me-al art - 共鳴 (from "exist", 2008)