Zeus

This is the truest thing I've read in this topic yet.

So what if you liked DIM, disliked TOXIC and DIVISION, was lukewarm towards BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY, kinda liked DOGMA, and like NINTH? I guess I can't consider that a hard-on...

Because even they realized that the first minute and a half is excessive. The cut down version lacks a lot of the atmosphere of the original, which I've come to enjoy, but I don't think the song needs 90 seconds to get started. A 30 second introduction would do just fine, I think. And I also don't think that the 90 second introduction of Deity makes up for the bits that were cut from Myaku (both could have been included because there is barely enough room for it). It's a fine song, just boring. And considering how long MACABRE is, sometimes it's the first road bump in the album when listening to the whole album in one sit. For the record, I'd take Hotarubi over the last two tracks any day of the week.

This is not an exhaustive list of grievances, but it should do. MACABRE Why release one of the best ballads of your career in Ain't Afraid to Die, and then not include it on the album? Why does the album end with Zakuro and Taiyou no Ao, two of the most resident sleeper songs on the whole album? Wake is basically Luna Sea's Hurt. Why does the country bop Audrey get sandwiched between the prog behemoth of MACABRE and the thrash Rasetsukoku? Why is Deity four minutes long, and why does that minute and a half intro mean that Myaku has no intro or outro? Hotarubi is just boring. Where is children and why is it nowhere to be found on the album when that deep cut is better than most of the tracks I've mentioned? KISOU Why is the production paper thin? THREE instrumentals? Really? It's there to hide how disjointed the whole album feels and it doesn't do a good job. PINK KILLER is a terrible way to end the album. And it's not even the song that's bad, just the shoddy execution of it. tfw Zomboid's remix is better than whatever shit stain placed second on the album. embryo is snoozeville. I don't care how egregious the lyrics are, the rest of it is about as exciting as sleeping in a broken washing machine. Why are the best non-single tracks on the album not called Bottom of the death valley (24 Cylinders, Gyakujoutannou Keloid Milk) B-sides of the previously released singles? JESSICA comes out of nowhere and doesn't belong on an album so vulgar. The Domestic Fucker Family is just foochin' terrible and I don't think a re-recording could save that song, even if they went all in on the doom direction. I can go on and on with some other albums, but I think you get the idea.

Drink lots of water and stay cool man, you deserve it.

I am so glad you posted this. This is a hilarious take on visual kei music videos that actually makes me want to watch it once.

I have some more questions about 理由 remake. Maybe you have/can find the answers: Is the solo still the same? Is the melody the same? I remember complaints about plagiarism from some Kuroyume song, but for the life of me I can't remember what song it is. It's shorter I'm guessing because of the shortened intro. Is the guitar tone close to "Ryoujoku no ame"?

My honest guess is that they will hold out on re-recording GARDEN until they announce disbandment, and that will be a parting gift. No proof, just a gut feeling.

I was expecting people to not be so damn negative. This topic is six pages of snarky comments and it's exhausting to read. Dir en grey is not the world's most perfect band, but we could all do with more positivity.

and yet despite all the negativity most of you are going to listen to it anyway x

It would be easier to rank if you chose what you thought was the best song for each band (I know this is very subjective). I'm not sure what the criteria is.

I've listened to XIII a few times and can confirm that this isn't a new low in lynch.'s career. It's not a new high either. It's hard to do new things when your livelihood revolves around doing the same thing in a new way in perpetuity. With no immediate flaws that demand attention, It's not the stinker that GALLOWS was on first listen. I do have a lot of nitpicks about certain songs and choices made, which work together to take the album down a few pegs. I haven't listened to lynch.'s new material seriously in a year and a half because I got tired of the monotony of their heavier sound, but respected that willingness to push in new directions, fail a few times, and learn from those experiences. They've walked back on that experimentation here for the most part and in many ways have regressed to SHADOWS-era songwriting capability, but they walked it so far back I don't sense any of the lessons learned in the final product. I say "for the most part" because a large part of my burnout comes from how one-dimensional their heavier tracks are, and that is still front and center. XIII gets good when the band lets songs like "RENATUS" and "SENSE OF EMPTINESS" do all of the talking, and makes me realize how much I'd kill for a ballad mini-album from them. There are other deep cuts in XIII which indicate that effort was spent on the album; the guitar melody at the end of "GROTESQUE" is an easy example of new ideas put into production. Songs like "JOKER" illustrate there are still visual-kei motifs they haven't exhausted yet (although I feel like that carnival/jazz take on rock was done better on "GHOST"). But dear god, the amount of times I was listening to a new song and thought I was listening to something else entirely is too damn high, much like rent. And having two one minute interludes on the album to bulk up a track list that would otherwise look anemic is a personal pet peeve. There's not much left to say except that it's another album from lynch., it's at least better than half of their previous albums, and it's not doing anything to turn old fans away or to bring new fans into the fold.

I have an iPod to solve that problem.

Even though you said that I introduced you to Arlequin, I've fallen off of them after "near equal" disappointed me. This topic gave me the inspiration to go back and try them out again. With a mix of old and new stuff I'm sure I'll find a way to fall in love with them all over again. This is exactly what I needed and I didn't even know it. Thanks @emmny!

I was going to say that they sometimes record a 90 second version of the song just for this purpose, but then I remembered we were talking about X JAPAN here and them recording and releasing anything is an accomplishment in itself.

Go ahead and create one then @BrenGun

If this was intentional, then perhaps I will be eating my words in a few week and saying it's better than I gave it credit for. One little quibble I have is that the song fades out too fast before it cuts to the title card and the rest of the episode, as if the song faded out naturally and then someone added another fade out on top of it. I'll revisit my feelings at the end of the season and see where I stand on it.

Eh, the song is okay but that's just distraction from the album that's still not here. I could give a rat's ass if the song is good or not, because we're only going to hear 30 seconds of it and most of us stop watching the anime as soon as the ending theme starts. It could be worse, it could be better.

@nekkichi i just updated the forum software. let me know if you still have The Bug.

I swear @nekkichi, you are MH's favorite or something. You get all the fun bugs. What you see there are posts that we've hidden. I don't know why you could see them at that moment because you aren't supposed to be able to. You can't see them now when I checked again. It's probably a forum bug.

You definitely should because I guarantee 80% of the forum has never heard of this, and posts on the internet have a habit of disappearing. Of course, we will all keep in mind that these are rumors and should be treated as such until we get official proof (IF we ever get official proof).

I'm looking forward to this. He started sounding really good near the end of SCREW, so if he finds a band that's more complimentary to his vocals it can actually be good.

The next step would be to start one and see if it's something that you wouldn't mind doing every day, and if its useful or not.

The loudness I do hear. When I was doing comparisons, I was using DIVISION as my reference album and it struck me how much louder NINTH was. I would be willing to give people that criticism because its true, but it hasn't affected my enjoyment of the album any. Probably on par with DIM, definitely above Stacked Rubbish.