ShanethVarosa

Okay cool, so I'm not missing out on anything by not having heard Innocent Lovers. Anyway, I really hope this single comes here because I literally love everything A has done.

^What is Innocent Lovers? Am I missing something? 

But I'll remain excited to hear this amazing band's incredible new song.

Lmao. @ all these posts for real. 

But honestly Gackt why are you bothering. Your last full length album was a compilation, no? So why even bother. This best of album is going to be an amalgamation of all those mediocre singles he's put out since 2010. The ONE not mediocre song he put out was White Lovers. Which means it won't be on the album.

Cover art and track titles I enjoy, but the preview is a little bit meh. I don't wanna say they peaked, but I think that Emotional Karma was an incredible album for a debut and it will be pretty difficult to top. I liked Avalon a lot, but it hasn't stuck with me and Die Kusse was just totally meh to me. I'm cautiously looking forward to this one.

Those all actually sounded incredible.

*blows dust off my 12012 fan card* Hey buddy, it's been a while.

I'm think this will be a mid tempo song as compared to Shadowplay and Daybreak. But I'm here for it. They've impressed me lately. I hope they keep it up, I miss being a huge a9 fan.

Just wanted to throw my two cents in, but I gotta say I almost 100% agree with Sai on the details of how Kamijo's voice evolved, but I found that Holy Grail was his worst period and I don't know what that was attributed to. But I think for the last era of the band his voice was fine. I mean yeah maybe average, but average was definitely accepted over Holy Grail which just had a LOT of bland moments where Kamijo didn't sound as totally GLORIOUS as it did on the first two albums and EP. Regardless, his work on the self-titled last album was flawless. He sounded great, just in time for him to start up his solo project with the voice he used on either Jubilee or Versailles.

Like someone else mentioned, I really don't think "Versailles" is dead, I think they're just doing other projects and in the future they may reunite. Who knows? I don't. But for now let's enjoy Kamijo's solo project and Jupiter.

I was taken aback by this news at first because it was so soon after Versailles initial disbandment, but I think this really did test my love for the musicians themselves apart from the name of "Versailles" if you know what I mean. Like of course I loved V's theme and atmosphere, but it wouldn't have been what it was if it didn't have the amazing individual musicians. 

That being said, a what-is-essentially-Versailles without Kamijo is going to be different and interesting, but I am totally ready to hear a full song and hear how the voice sounds. Hopefully he's at least good because I already KNOW I'm going to love the instrumentalists.

So ready. Everything about this is good for me. If the rumors of him setting up to release an album worldwide accompanied with a world tour and he comes near me again, I'm so going. So pissed I missed his last show in America. 

Idk what's more shocking, that their first live is so soon or the bands they're playing with.

Who else has heard the single and thinks it's fantastic?!

I don't know what it is about Div, exactly, that I love so much, but I think it's the fact that Chisa's voice is really really wonderful. He's an incredible singer with and without the aid from autotune and he can actually scream pretty well too. Something that I think a lot of VK bands think they can do, but they really cannot. This single, for me, is a huge step up from Sotsugyou which wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. It was just a lot of unmemorable stuff compared to the (imho) masterpiece that was Natsu no Yukue.

Taste of Life is a pretty awesome pop/rock song that offers an adorable music video with catchy lyrics and not necessarily much substance. It's just a fun song to listen to when in a good mood. I'd have to say the same thing about Aozora ni Parachute, it's another song that seems pretty uplifting and a song that you can hit the repeat button to a few times. RxR is a bit heavier which not all bands that go the pop/rock route can do. Div pulls it off well in this song mixing between clean and screamed vocals. 

Shinsekai no Mokushiroku is a kind of song you have to be in the mood for... When I get my hands on some Kanji I can take the time to translate it and see if it is actually as preachy as I think it is. If it is, it's not a bad thing at all. Hotarubi definitely had a point to make and for that reason it's still my favorite Div song. SNM is far too long, though, which a 3/3.5 minute intro of what is essentially static/white noise... It definitely could have used some trimming. I think it might have been a large part of the theme of the song, but 3 minutes is too long an intro for a song that's only about 7.5 minutes. Once the actual song starts off with lyrics and melody, though, the song cannot be beat. It's a really great tune.

Overall, 5/5

^^I saw that on Tumblr earlier.... It was really awful. Couldn't even attempt to read it.

I feel as though once again Zess has outshone my reviewing abilities, but I'm going to give it my best effort to express what I'm feeling about this EP/album.

The title song I enjoyed purely on the basis that it did remind me of Dum Spiro Spero in a way that it had both a heavy and ethereal quality that set it apart from other songs in their discography and the very album in which it was on. It was, for me, a step up from Rinkaku, a single I found to be... Not bad, but just boring and really unenjoyable. This song was a lot more... Fun, if you will, than the last single they released which is reason enough for me to like it.

The other songs on the EP I was skeptical of because I knew they were going to be reimaginings, but I didn't think any of them would actually be good. I thought they were going to be totally stripped down and almost Rinkaku-ized versions of their old and good songs. Thankfully it wasn't that way, it gave me what I wanted which was high energy, chugging guitars, and growls. Which idfc about what the popular vs. unpopular opinion is. I like Kyo's growls and churning guitars.

I'd have to say the absolute best and most stand-out song(s) is (are) both versions of The Final. The rock version of it was a simply brilliant rock song. No other way to put it. The composition and arrangement seems like they aren't trying to be anything, they're just trying to play music like a rock band should and do one of their most iconic songs justice. The piano version is just as good, but in a sense that it is WAY more calm and actually very beautiful.

Kasumi, Karasu, and Unknown.Despair.A Lost remakes were also very good. I don't have anything more to say about them other than I enjoyed them wholeheartedly. Even Macabre was pretty much fucking incredible on this EP, especially since I gave the original no time of day whatsoever. I actually sat through all 17 minutes of it and enjoyed it. Where the EP suffered was Bottom of the Death Valley which was a bit too long and boring for me... It had moments within the song that were pretty cool, but overall it was nothing too special. The WORST part was the unplugged The Unraveling. It really just sounded like terrible disjointed noise with no purpose other than being weird and "different".

Overall, though, my iTunes average rating of the EP was 5 stars.

I actually can't believe I didn't know about this until now. But nonetheless, I'm a little.... Taken aback. Seeing as Versailles was my favorite band. And still is. So it just seems like a bastardization of a band that didn't need fixing. To me anyway. But I'm glad they're carrying on the same sound and not changing things up too much. Unpopular opinion, maybe, but I really liked versailles through and through.

I really liked the preview, to be honest. I think the band is gonna do good things.

Totally forgot about Ahead of the Light!!!! That's on my flawless list.

bless u

The Flawless:
Matenrou Opera's Kassai to Gekijou no Gloria
m-flo's Neven

The Wonderful: 

Tegan & Sarah's Heartthrob
A's Shiroi Akuma/Sakura
Demi Lovato's Heart Attack
NoGoD's V
Sori's Dual Life
alice nine.'s Daybreak
Fall Out Boy's My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark/The Phoenix
Azealia Banks's Barely Legal (with The Strokes)
Rin's Reflect of Killing Fleur
Luminous by Satsuki
Avalon by Mejibray

The Good:
Satsuki's Luminous
Div's Sotsugyou
Koda Kumi's Color the Cover
Galeyd's Revolution
Namie Amuro's Big Boys Cry
30 Seconds to Mars's Up in the Air
Sadie's Soukoku no Tsuya
2NE1's We'll Take the World On
Selena Gomez's Rule the World
Boomerang by Nicole Scherzinger

Scums by Nightmare
Die Kusse by Mejibray
Disturbance by BoA

The GOD NO:

Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience
SNSD's I Got A Boy
TVXQ's Time

Azealia Banks's Yung Rapunxel

Lil Wayne's I Am Not A Human Being 2

Now that I have the mp3's, I can say some things about the songs.

I started with Sakura because I was curious if this was just a remake of the one on the White Album and yeah it was, but this is actually a really good thing. The Sakura from the White Album had so much potential, but was never truly memorable for me. I thought it was nice, pretty, far from bad, but a twinge on the boring side. This totally gets rid of the boring factor and now brings out the bigness that this song has. It's really captivating and captures the concept of spring perfectly. 

As for the piano version, I was so desperately awaiting this because their piano version of Abyss will go down in history as my favorite piano ballad of all time. Granted, those expectations are almost insurmountable. But I think it would have been a decent challenge to that if Nimo had actually sung for this. Just as the original is by no means bad, neither is this. It's definitely very beautiful and it does have an ambiance to it, but would be 100% better if Nimo was singing the same way he had sung on Abyss.

I wanted to get that out of the way so I could focus on the brand new song. 

Shiroi Akuma really did not give me what I was expecting, but that's a good thing. Judging by the preview I was expecting a basic, VK/JRock song with poor production and lamely attempted singing. I don't know why, in hindsight, that's what A would give me. Nimo sounds fresh and fabulous in this song, production value is decent enough for my taste and the pace is kept up pretty well. The finale of the song is huge, climactic, perfect. Totally what I SHOULD have suspected from the beginning.

The orchestra version I feel the exact same as the piano version of Sakura. 

Zess is right, this band has probably the most potential of any newer band... Save maybe for Div. I totally adore Div and think both them and A could really go far in the music industry,

Specifically the Water and Wind movements if anyone has them?

I'm with Jigsaw in that I don't want to spoil the entire thing just yet, but I did listen to the previews. They both sound awesome! This era is definitely on track to be my favorite... If not overall, then at least my favorite since Alpha. I'm excited for the third single now too, if there's another avante garde/pop/rock style song thrown in there, I'm totally all about it.

That's so fucking cute! I am totally in love with it, it's so silly and fun and the overall sound of it is way better than Sotsugyou in my opinion. Can't wait for this full single.

I like the PV clip a lot, but am I the only one that really enjoyed DSS? I thought it had a lot of really good songs... And yeah this does feel a little bit like it's a leftover from that album, but I'm okay with that because I liked th sound of that album. Sooooo that being said, I'm totally ready for this EP in hopes the alternate versions of songs are going to be as good as the originals.

I honestly didn't know that Zero/Tsukasa were doing anything after D'espairsRay. I tried to get into Angelo for Karyu's sake and they definitely aren't awful, in my opinion anyway, but I don't find them to be particularly attracting especially when compared to other bands I like way more. They just don't stand out or compete well. For me, D'espairsRay was the band that got me into VK and they may not be my favorite band of all time anymore, but it is really hard to compete with the four of them coming together so perfectly. So until Hizumi comes back to music, if he comes back to music, I just don't care about the others' musical projects.

Kinda hate the promo look for this EP... I agree with Ito in that some of their looks and promo photoshoots are done incredibly well, but this one looks kind of bland and thrown together poorly. Kaoru and Kyo look.... Really unlike themselves to me.

Not gonna lie, this has been my favorite alice nine. single in years upon years. The sound of this single makes me think of the Alice in Wonderland EP they did like... what 6 years ago now? It's melodic and a little pop/rock and a LITTLE bit dance rock, which I always ALWAYS like. I think this one is way more memorable than any of the singles from "9" or Gemini. While both of those albums were pretty decent, they didn't hold a candle to Alpha for me and I think that if we get an alice nine. album this year, it may be on par with Alpha with a lead single like this. I'm not even ready for Shadowplay because I'm still so in love with this song.

Fantastic job a9, 5/5

I am 250% here for the cover art for this single. Way better than Daybreak's but I LOVE that song, so it's gonna be hard to top it. I cannot wait to hear what this sounds like!

I truly don't even remember this news, but I posted here... I'm getting old.

Anyway, I like the track list. B-Side is probably gonna be a bit heavier. Can't wait to hear it! And I wonder if that is gonna be the new song on their best album.