ShanethVarosa

I usually don't like buying digital releases unless situations force me to (See: Julia Massey & the Five Finger Discount's albums Is There Room for Me? and Five Letters From Far Away and Georgia Holt's Honky Tonk Woman). I really like having physical copies so if I can go into like Hot Topic or FYE and buy this album I will absolutely do it. If not, then... I will consider buying it just so he can maybe release some physical albums in the states to show he has fans here.

Well I love his recent work with these samurai sessions. I'm 100% excited and ready for this. I totally forgot its coming out already next month. Is it true this is coming out in USA as well or is that just a rumor?

Two months later, I finally get to bring some good news to the 2NE1 topic! YG has made a teaser poster titled "Who's Next?" with the date 2013.05.28 and a list of YG artists, several days later they eliminated half the artists. 2NE1 is still on the list, and their name is in the biggest and most obvious font. On top of that, 2NE1 has been posting individual member teaser videos recently called 2NE1 LOVES. They showed the poster for the first time on May 7 Korean time (21 days before the announced date) and the numbers in the date add up to 21!! I think this is it guys. We will know all about 2NE1's comeback on or by May 28.

I think the most logical thing would be the Violet UK project finally taking off, but if they said it's an X JAPAN press conference and not JUST Yoshiki, then there might be a chance it actually has to do with X's full album. Which, honestly, I hope it is and not Violet UK. Also, Yoshiki said he's working with Hans Zimmer so like.... I'm pretty motherfucking excited about that. Holy shit.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with this EP. I think it was definitely an improvement from Die Kusse which wasn't memorable at all. I think Avalon was a little better than almost anything on this EP, but nothing they've done yet in 2013 has captivated me in the way that Sabato and Divergent did last year. Specifically, I think that Messiah was pretty decent. It was a good Mejibray track that wasn't too great, but not bad at all. Just... Good. Then there was Worms which I totally fucking hated. It was messy and noisy and the... What screams? growls? Idk what they are, but they sounded like Donald Duck passing a stone. Fallin' Maria was... On the level with Messiah I think. It was good, not great. I do think the last two songs: - 枷と知能　-それってとても人間らしいって神様は笑ってるの- and Insomnia were excellent and really can grow on me to become some of my favorite songs this year. Insomnia specifically was very very very well done. An excellent and outstanding track.

Idk really I like it, but I'm not totally on bored because it really DOES sound very similar to old releases. Like I mean. That's just sort of all they do. I haven't listened to Dead Blaze at all since it was released because it really didn't captivate me. In fact, I BARELY listen to Creature except for The End because that song slays. But... Idk I just really need them to stop being basic. I like the sound of this song more than Dead Blaze though so I'll probably like the whole single more.

mte

I would like to second nekkichi in the wondering who is shaping their artistic direction because it seems like such a weird... off-the-deep-end translation of sound, which didn't work on recent releases for me, but... I thought THIS release was excellent. Maybe it is mediocre by some standards, when you compare it to some of 12012's greatest songs... Obviously it doesn't really compare, but I think this is a huge improvement from their most recent atrocities unto my eardrums. I was highly skeptical of Chaboo-Chaboo... Or whatever it is. Because I think it's a dumb name and the preview showed the worst part of the song, but even that was good to me. Like, the title track, EP opener, and Door to the Sky really did it for me. Sorry if this ends up being the unpopular opinion, but if they did more like this I'd be down.

I also really liked it! Sounds way better than their album and Cunning Killer. Here's to hoping the full EP will be as good.

Very cool. I'm quite ready for more Hizaki slayage.

Hopefully the music is better this time around, but omfg at the title. Lord save me.

Fuck yes! His work last year was underwhelming, hope this one really sticks out. Can't wait!

Sweet deal! I'm excited. Loved their last major stuff. So I'm looking forward to this too!

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.