ShanethVarosa

I haven't listened to a lot of pre-Mugenkyou music. I do know that Batsu and Atria are AMAZING singles and need to be checked out. Everything else Cielito mentioned is strictly his recommendation, but I will need to check them out too.

Mugenkyo.

However, I'm very partial to Gokusaishiki. It's one of my favorite albums ever.

This is kind of upsetting, I liked them... not too much, but I guess there's no hope of "Ayabie" getting better now. Maybe the new name and new singer will help.

I don't think I mentioned this before, but I really love NoGoD. They make me a happy boy.

Well.. Idk I wasn't. I don't care what anyone thinks about which female popstar is better, I like Gaga, who would be who I would listen to if I hadn't heard of Japanese music.

Let the discussion about the actual topic recontinue now.

I hate it how people seem to forget that opinion is subjective... It's like no one can have their own opinion without being wrong and being criticized, but thats just my opinion

Kay my official review from my LJ. Got it done sooner than expected.

Okay, I would like to start off by saying that anyone and everyone who has been saying that this album can not compare to previous albums, and that this album has too many mid-tempo tracks is totally right. When you put this up against Mugenkyou and Gokusaishiki... it just doesn't compare, it sounds like it's not even NoGoD who did the album. The only similar thing is that Danchou's voice is completely unmistakable and that II-Kaigi is amazing, but I'll get to that later. Overall, however, the album was very good and very pleasurable to listen to, so it gets an overall rating of 9/10 as long as you try to force the thought of this being NoGoD out of your head. I'm doing this review after my second listen through, so it's more accurate, and less bullshit.

1. Kodou - Just an intro, this is the first time they've put a specific introduction on an album and I genuinely do not approve of them ever doing this again. More music, less filler. 1/10

2. Shinzou - Okay this is the way to actually start off an album. It had a VERY Zesshoku feel to it, with the intense screams to start the song off, followed by beautiful melodic voices and guitars throught just about the rest of it. Zesshoku being one of NoGoD songs I deem "perfect" I may have to throw this one in to the "perfect" category as well. People have been commnting that the drums are off. I just don't hear it. 10/10

3. Akaki hi no Chikai - This song... I did not like at first, but it grew on me on the first listen and I full on love it at the second listen. Not much to say other than it's just a really good song they did really well. 9/10

4. Shounen to Chizu - *sigh* Here's where the album starts to... let's say... drop off. It's the first mid-tempo, guitars-tuned-up-rather-than-down song on the album and it's good. Not great. Not too memorable when put up against other NoGoD mid-tempo songs *coughshirasagiscough* but it IS good. It IS an enjoyable song. I'll give it an 8/10, with the understanding that songs like this... you can't have 4 and 5 of them, it has to be just 1. Maybe two. Otherwise a whole album can be reduced to shit.

5. Nagusami no Sora - Ugh. Here's how I honestly feel about this song: WHEN. WILL. IT. BE. OVER? The worst part about this song? The melodies are FANTASTIC. The lyrics (from what I can actually interpret) are GORGEOUS, then what's the problem? The length. And I have this problem with a lot of good JRock ballads, they're good! Great even! But the fact that it just feels like it drags on forever and that it's going nowhere really makes me disappointed. Versailles 10.5 minute "God Palace" passes in less time than this song, if you catch my drift. I really want to like it, which is why I rated it 4/5 on iTunes, but it's really only like a 7 or 7.5 out of 10 on the 1-10 scale. Meh, I'm very disappointed in this song.

6. Rouyoku - Conversely, this song was extremely short. Not even 3 minutes total. Good thing? I think so. It was kind of another Shounen to Chizu to me, mid-tempo pop/rock sounding song with not much too it. Just a song. Filler, kind of. Ending just cut off. Didn't impress me much. 6/10

7. Kimi ga Kureta Shiawase to Kimi ni Sasagu Namida - Anyone else notice how the instrumental songs are always track 7? Anyway, I digress. This one is ok. I don't think they're ever going to do another instrumental track that was as good as Aozora, so I may as well just give up hope. I liked this song a lot, I think it's kind of on an even playing field with Kono Ame no Mukou ni in that it was emotional. Made me feel things, rather than just head bangin' fun, but not something I can listen to over and over again. Still, quite good. 8/10

8. Kakusei - Didn't impress me first or second listen on the single, kind of impressed me on first and second listen on the album. I definitely find it... better than Shounen to Chizu, but not by much. Where shounen to chizu is an 8/10, this one is an 8.5... Better beginning and better instrumentals... similar voice. 8.5/10

9. Kajitsu wa Warau - This song is an interesting one. Mellow verses that have more tha just drum and bass in the background... That annoys me... when a verse has nothing but drum and bass in the background. It's like. Put some more power behind it. I thought this was a very powerful song, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Choruses were PHENOMENAL. 9/10

10. II-Kaigi - Honestly, the only thing I can say about this song (Other than it's Ring-a Ring-o part 2) is that it's just perfect. a 6 minute song that passed in less time than the 5 minute Nagusami no Sora. 10/10

11. Kimi ni Okuru Itsumademo Kienai Uta - This... is a good closing song. In comparison to Ano hi no Sora wa Gokusai de (that dragged on FOREVER), this song wrapped up in a succinct amount of time and had some catchy melodies and other things going on. 9/10

12. Ai - The bonus track on the regular edition. I think it's a good song, another very good song. Nice, melodic, fun, made me feel happy, not completely remarkable, but not bad at all. 8/10

Yeahhh I didn't have anything to do this morning, so I started the topic really early, haha. I'm on my second listen through, so I' going to write a track by track... probably on my livejournal when I get home from work tonight, then copy and paste it here.

@Phones666 think if this is your first experience with NoGoD other than Kakusei (which you liked) you are BOUND to like the full album. The band has so much talent that it'skind of hard to say bad things about them, because their songs are good, but they become boring and repetitive after a while if they aren't God damn perfect (like Zesshoku, Aozora, Atria, Maboroshi, Saikou no Sekai, and Kono Sekai ni Mihana Saretemo.)

I would like to ask the opinions of those who knew the band for a while: Rank the instrumental tracks from each album.

For me:

Aozora > kimi ga kureta shiawase to kimi ni sasagu namida > Kono Ame no Mukou ni

But I did enjoy them all.

Thanks for sharing! But I can't do anything with that. If someone can romanize the album lyrics for me and post them here, that would be phenomenal.

If they're going to do more ballads: at least make them as good as Kono Sekai ni Mihana Saretemo. End of story.

Well, we are talking about music we would listen to if we never heard Japanese music. I don't particularly see a problem. Just sayin...

I'm not a gay man but I love Cher. Have since I was about three years old. If I were gay, she'd be my diva.

I think if you listen to Gaga, you shouldn't be searching for lyrical or musical substance. I like her because listening to her music is enjoyable for me. I like her because she doesn't appear to be shallow to me, she spreads love in spite of hate. I like her because she does have a nice voice, although she isn't using it to the best of her capabilities. I like the music she released before she became "Gaga."

From what I've seen, she is absolutely lovely and appreciative of her fans, which is rare in pop music. So I disagree with the remark about her not being human - there are thousands, millions of kids who relate to her outside of the music. I wouldn't personally claim to relate to her, but I agree with a lot of what she stands for and find her involvement in equal rights campaigns admirable, especially since the industry she's in is so corrupt and greedy.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut that's just my opinion. Whatever, whatever.

Brief review from me to start things off, I'll go into more detail later, but for now:

It's a very nice album, without too many if any really low points and I don't think there are any songs I would deem "completely unlistenable." I'm thinking, for me, the lowest point might be... Nagusami no Sora and the highest point is Shinzou. Overall I'll give it an 8/10 for the first listen, with potential to get better.

My main concern is: Will I remember any of these sogns 6 hours from now?

@kir and shimbo-dono: I don't know what it is about gay men but we do love the divas I literally like just about all of them except Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. I LOVE CHER. Haha... and Ke$ha. I think she's a filthy filthy mess, but her music is fun.

Versailles: Basically everything Shaneth said.

Moi dix Mois: Love the music and the lyrics that Mana makes.

Malice Mizer: This band got me into VK, and they were way above their era, and they made the most epic album known to man: Merveilles, plus you got to love the costumes they were on the Gackt era.

D, Matenrou Opera, Kiryu, Kaya and VII-Sense: I love their style and music because they actually know how to compose and still have time for good looks (well with several exceptions here and there).

And most vk symphonic metal acts out there, because even though they're VK they ACTUALLY MAKE GOOD MUSIC.

This.

:$

As soon as I saw you wrote that, I thought that too. teehee! But I don't argue stupid shit like that. You're team HAGuilera, I'm team GodGa, and that's just fine

Also, I had no idea you were a fellow homosexual.

WHARGARBL. I HATE CHRISTINA AGUILERA. But I digrees, I would much rather Miz Spears over her any day of the year. I also just want to say I love gagaloo's voice and the way it's synthed and stuff, Idk, I know a lot of people don't like her, her haters don't bother me as much as Madonna's haters bother me. Madonna is my personal lord and savior.

Annnnyway, Gaga has a song called Speechess and the song goes like that and I was just using it as a joke because of your gaga bashing, haha was not being serious.

^ Haha, yeah. People should remember that in the end, any form and genre of music can be put up for ridicule. You can ridicule vk fans, oshare fans, metalheads, goths, hipsters, ravers, angura fanboys, emos, rap fans, metalcore fans, people listening to mainstream music, people obsessing over crappy bands because they're rare and unknown, trve and grim black metal fans, or whatever else you can think of. Some of the bands I listen to are grown-up men dressed as vikings. That's virtually calling for ridicule. XD And hey, somtimes it's fun to ridicule, so if you hand it out, you have to be able to receive as well.

So if you like the music, you should stand by it and accept the bashing you might get, because in the end, somebody will always bitch, regardless of what you're listening to. No taste in music is beyond reproach.

Btw, I like some stuff by My Chemical Romance too.

EXTREMELY well said.

Also @SUBLIMINAL haha yes I'm a he and it's cool! No harm no foul. The only reason why I'm embarrassed about MCR is because everyone in my general area looks at MCR like... Idk... kidmetal or something hahaha. Like only 12 year old scene/emo posers would listen to it but I actually like the music because i like the music, not because I'm scene and it's mandatory or some shit.

And I assume you mean MCR is less embarrassing than Madonna, Gaga, Katy, and Miley correct?

I get a lot of shit because of Miley, but I'm not embarrassed just because I'm just a huge fan. I can at least see where the ridicule comes from.

Madonna, Katy, and Gaga: There is no shame whatsoever.

Yo, Madonna is fucking boss. Katy Perry and Lady Gagonmacock can go eat shit. Not even my shit becuz I would not expend the effort for them to lavish in my otherwordly shit.

Seriously though, I don't understand this whole big shit over Gaga. She is not unique. Her music is in no way original or good, except that you can dance to most of it. Her lyrics mean nothing and she's become a gimmick. Her music is catchy, but that is becuz she recycles the same beats that have been recycled from the fucking 80s. The hooks that she sings have been written and sung by SOOOOO many artists before, and despite the fact that she isn't a terrible singer with a horrible voice, she rarely ever uses her voice to the effect that she could. If she hadn't started wearing those terrible outfits, she would not have become famous. And even then, she hardly designs any of those outfits. People design it for her. So how does that make her original? She is everything I have against pop music, THE FACT THAT LADY GAGA DOES NOT EXIST OUTSIDE HER MUSIC. She is not a human, not in the way that people can relate to each other. To the general public that consumes whatever crap is played on the radio or on the TV, she is entertainment. Even when she tries to have messages or make a statement, they are always done within a music video, a novelty that is consumed by the masses and is soon an afterthought because her statements are just their to bring about controversy. She is thing that churns out music and controversy outta her ass that can be gobbled up. No one cares about her and no one cares about what she says or what she stands for. And that is the epitome of pop music. This is the very reason why Lady Gaga is the quintessential pop artist, and also the very reason why Madonna is, and forever will be, the Queen of Pop. Because despite the Gagster making her living as a novelty, Madonna is the artist that makes the trends, the trends that are rehashed by artists like Gaga who become novelties. In short, Madonna is the Queen of Pop because her calculated moves and music create the novelty pop acts that have been manufactured since she came out in the 80s.

tl;dr - Gaga is a worse and rehashed version of Madonna. She will never out controversial Madonna and her music will never be as trend-setting as the music that Madonna has put out. Lady Gaga is a low-quality carbon copy of everything Madonna has done, except wear stupid gimmicky clothing.

Gaga jokes aside,

I wholeheartedly agree that Madonna is better. I'm like Madonna's biggest fan so to say that I like Gaga as much as Madge would be a total insult to Madge. However, I do really like Gaga's music. Why? Not for the lyrics... there's not much merit to them. Her outfits? Naw, I like this whole avante-garde freak thing she's got going on, no doubt, but that's not why I like it...

I like it simply because I'm a faggot who likes to dance. Hahahaha, that's what it comes down to with me.

My main issue with this term and how every former Diru fan uses it as a reason as to why they dislike Diru's new shit is that the term means and describes nothing. "American metal" does not tell me what type of music a band plays. A term like "blackened thrash metal" TELLS ME INFINITELY MORE.

Not addressing your point but...THIS!

Oh my god I fucking hate it when people throw this at me! "Oh I don't listen to Diru anymore they're too American for me now!" WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN? First off, most people didn't listen to Dir en grey back when they were VK. I WAS THERE SO I WOULD KNOW! The bunch of these VK-posers need to hop off.

Secondly, it's not that Dir en grey is playing "American metal". It's that they're no longer wearing thigh-high bitch boots and loads of make-up. If you listen to the music, which you know, they MAKE, the stylistic differences between Kisou and Six Ugly are not that big. Kyo just has more screams and they tuned their guitars differently. Hell, the transition between Kisou and VULGAR isn't all that big. It's not until Withering to death. where you see these stylistic changes that people dub "American metal". Hell, I bet if they kept up with the VK act people would be jizzing buckets claiming that they're only getting better.

Versailles: Basically everything Shaneth said.

Moi dix Mois: Love the music and the lyrics that Mana makes.

Malice Mizer: This band got me into VK, and they were way above their era, and they made the most epic album known to man: Merveilles, plus you got to love the costumes they were on the Gackt era.

D, Matenrou Opera, Kiryu, Kaya and VII-Sense: I love their style and music because they actually know how to compose and still have time for good looks (well with several exceptions here and there).

And most vk symphonic metal acts out there, because even though they're VK they ACTUALLY MAKE GOOD MUSIC.

Versailles - love the visuals, themes, lyrics, and composition.

D'espairsRay - I think they just keep getting better with time, contrary to popular belief.

Dir en grey - They make me feel angry, in the best possible way.

Kaya - Love his voice and lyrics above all, the musical compositions are phenom, as I love dance music, visuals I love least, because I don't fap over girly looking men (even if they're quite attractive)

D - Big fan of a lot of their music. Maybe not all. But most.

I HATE NEGA AND DALI AND SIVA AND ALMOST ALL UCP BANDS. There, I figured out something in JRock I vehemently hate. And not JUST because they're UCP, but because they're completely unimaginative and shit. Nega usually has really good ideas and themes and visuals, BUT theu just suck at music. So so so much suck.

I find myself agreeing with the Kingdom Hearts comments haha, but yeah Phones666 if it's not really your thing I don't blame you for not liking it. For me though, awesome single. I love his genre of music.

^ Haha, yeah. People should remember that in the end, any form and genre of music can be put up for ridicule. You can ridicule vk fans, oshare fans, metalheads, goths, hipsters, ravers, angura fanboys, emos, rap fans, metalcore fans, people listening to mainstream music, people obsessing over crappy bands because they're rare and unknown, trve and grim black metal fans, or whatever else you can think of. Some of the bands I listen to are grown-up men dressed as vikings. That's virtually calling for ridicule. XD And hey, somtimes it's fun to ridicule, so if you hand it out, you have to be able to receive as well.

So if you like the music, you should stand by it and accept the bashing you might get, because in the end, somebody will always bitch, regardless of what you're listening to. No taste in music is beyond reproach.

Btw, I like some stuff by My Chemical Romance too.

Also @SUBLIMINAL haha yes I'm a he and it's cool! No harm no foul. The only reason why I'm embarrassed about MCR is because everyone in my general area looks at MCR like... Idk... kidmetal or something hahaha. Like only 12 year old scene/emo posers would listen to it but I actually like the music because i like the music, not because I'm scene and it's mandatory or some shit.

And I assume you mean MCR is less embarrassing than Madonna, Gaga, Katy, and Miley correct?

I get a lot of shit because of Miley, but I'm not embarrassed just because I'm just a huge fan. I can at least see where the ridicule comes from.

Madonna, Katy, and Gaga: There is no shame whatsoever.

I'm beginning to just hate this thread. No one but Zesshoku is doing it right. And maybe Tokage.