Zeus

That very picture is the reason why I don't say I listen to visual kei as much as I say "I listen to Japanese music" or "I listen to music from all over the globe". It's embarrassing to be associated with people like them. It's OK to be a fan of whatever it is you listen to but there's a difference between enthusiasm and pointless imitation and every person in that pic has gone so far past the latter I have no words to describe how pathetic their existence must be. I've got friends up here that when I first told them went "LOL ANIME MUSIC". All those people do is reinforce the stereotypes. It took two years to tear that down somewhat. Also, everyone in that picture discovered visual kei two weeks ago and thinks trading mindless American music for mindless Japanese music is an improvement overall. Approximately half of them will soon get tired of visual kei given a year and transition to mindless Korean music.

Most likely postponed is my guess, although it's weird that they haven't announced even that. Natsuki did say that they were going to the studio soon in one of his blog posts so they might be running just a little behind schedule (or maybe they were too ambitious with that release date in the first place).

Decided to include a better picture so I could visually show it. Also, when I wrote that I was on something because I never would have seen it initially but since I did I can't "unsee" it.

I have no idea what the distinction is. .___. Can you explain or point me to somewhere that will?

Question: is lynch. considered visual kei, and if so WHY? I may be blind/not spending enough time stalking Hazuki's very existence, but they don't look very visual to me at all. Hell, I can probably find a band that looks more visual than them that isn't considered visual at all.

This is one hell of a shitty tracklist. No Ivory and Irony? No LIVING DEAD? No Recall? And yet there's Shade (one of their worst songs imo) and s[K]ape:goat? Passing on this.

Another thought that also occurred to me: before they released Uroboros they had both Dozing Green and Glass Skin and I thought both of those singles were pretty poor. Well, I can't say they were poor: I can just say that I wasn't very fond of them, especially Glass Skin. I still don't like that song all that much. Then Uroboros came and creamed all over me with it's proggy awesomeness, which is something I totally would not have expected. I think something similar will come of this album. One of the reasons why I like all of Dir en grey's full-lengths much more than I reasonably should is because the singles tend to suck and don't build my expectations up to a point they can't surpass. Then the album comes along and blows me away. The only time it hasn't done that for me is with TMOAB. Even Kisou didn't let me down and I HATED Jessica the first time I heard it.

This I agree with, but I do believe they only re-recorded OBSCURE because it's one of their "signature" songs, if you know what I mean.

They took everything that was good about Rasetsukoku and removed it, threw Kyo's garbled harsh vocals over it and then made everything br00tal and heavy. That's how they "butchered" it. It is beyond me why Kyo thinks that anything that isn't a straight up ballad needs to be ROAR GROWR URRRGH. I don't think he feels like he can sing on harder tracks anymore and must be constantly hardcore. It's annoying.

Chill the fuck out people, it's just a review thread on a forum that barely anyone reads. There's no need to get so personal.

Just came in here to say they used "Nega" on Haunted Jealousy and no one noticed/paid attention/cared. I just hate it when people feel the need to start a tag jihad every time a band changes a name but then again I tend to just ignore those people and let them bitch until they turn blue in the face while I actually enjoy my music so...have fun Negafans.

They butchered the riff, both in the tuning and in actually playing it.

My goodness that preview is great. I want the new album.

I appreciate that you actually averaged your score. EDIT: Review time from an obsessive fan of Ambrozia - Royal Order era Lycaon. Expect this to not be pretty. First things first, the announcement of the title of the next song is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've heard in quite a while. In general, there are just superfluous bits added to almost every song. This is JUST NOT NEEDED! It ruins the flow of the entire mini and I don't want to hear Yuuki's garbled pronunciation of MALIGORRODU every time I want to hear Marigold, for example. I'm contemplating butchering the mini just to get rid of all the excess noise. Mini title is also atrocious and the cover is fittingly awful. I'm also going to give you a pro-tip right now: divide this mini straight down the center. Disregard the first half and listen to only the songs beginning with "I love sex blah blah blah I better be using protection". The first track sounds like the intro to an "Adam & Eve" bondage porno. It's not outright terrible but my greatest gripe with the song is that it takes too long get started. There are plenty of good ideas bubbling under the surface but none of them get any time to shine or get aggressive. Could have used some work, more progression or an extra minute. Not too sure which would have provided the best results. 5.5/10 I liked Jesus when I first started listening to the single but after two or three spins I was done with it. Low replay value here and there isn't anything new or inventive going on. It could be tons worse though. 5/10 Nibame no Onna is terrible. It's like EROS had a love child with Pierrot and it was then set aflame and thrown in a garbage can. Listen Lycaon, you cannot write jazz songs. Yuuki's range does not fit with these songs. Your 'jazz' compositions consist of Rito hitting the same fucking note for eight measures. For the love of God, if you're going to continue writing this abominable trash, take lessons from 8-eit. Oh, and drop the fucking horns and the wannabe slut antics and beg your tranny drummer to come back and write good music for you again. Yuuki's lyrical content is also garbage. I don't have to speak Japanese to know he's just babbling. Literally, he just babbles. You do not sound sexy. 2/10, one point purely because I hate giving a 0, one because Hiyuu has nice bass lines. "I love sex, I love drugs, I love rock'n'roll" is where things start getting better, pardon the bad title. Intro is like Jouyoku no Acme except more sinister. The rest of the song is surprising, ranging from decent to good. I could do without the gratuitous amounts of Engrish and I feel like the chorus is repeated once too much but the songwriting is there and the ideas are at least 80% executed. 7.5/10. Needs a better title. Marigold tries to take the place of Kesshou Hana. Sorry but you can't usurp my favorite ballad by them. A few points for trying though. I actually almost might take this mini seriously if it weren't for the first three songs being lame. Intro doesn't fit but when the actual song part starts (remind me to cut that out guys) everything picks up. A LOT. Not too much to say here, but a good change of pace. 8/10. ...and here I thought that this was going to be a terrible song. Hello, The end of [Delusion] x Mental Help. This makes me wonder why they chose to dick around for half of this mini. I had to go back and lower almost every rating by a point after hearing this since the rest of the mini is clearly unacceptable in the wake of this song. The guitar line in the chorus is a little grating, but I'll deal with it. Good song. 8.5/10. This averaged a 6/10. Mini could have been so much better but the last half made up for it. They should have chopped that off and sold this as a single. I would have been much happier. Ambrozia remains the better mini of the two. Also, Lycaon, quit queefing around. Start taking your music seriously again.

If we're counting songs that haven't been re-recorded, then they wouldn't do either of those. Kiri to Mayu was re-recorded as Sangeki no Yoru and Ash was re-recorded on the Myaku single, both from the Kaede ~if trans...~ "single". I would definitely love to hear a new interpretation of these, as long as they don't try to force their new style on a song that doesn't work. The interpretation of "undecided" was perfect. as long as not Byo Shin And Children, both have been re recorded. Esp. Children, have been 3 times and having different sounds each, though not as radical as current re-recording. If any, re-record jessica, berry or [kr cube] please. make this punk pop song into something harder! Children has been re-recorded THREE times? I thought it was just two, once for the Taiyou no Ao single and once for six Ugly. Where's the third one?

There's not too much they can re-record on Missa but if they went with a re-recording of Ugly I think I'll be pleased.

^ I'm sorry relentless but I couldn't contain my laughter. You missed will by a few months. I don't think you two would have gotten along very well...

Definitely, this. I also don't mind the B-sides as being remakes. They've hardly ever released "new" songs as B-sides anyway and they used to have really shitty remixes instead. Even if some of them are hit and miss, it's still a step up from what we used to get.

They also put All this I'll give you on the album! FUCK YEAH!

I preferred Oceanborn era the most. When she switched to less of an operatic style of singing I felt her voice lost some impact. Oceanborn is still a great album though.

If not "metal", what to call them?

iPod Touch. As others have said, Zune's completely dated, no last.fm support (if that's applicable) and the player is awful. Just awful. It's slow, buggy, crashes, completely butchers your tags and has a smaller store selection than iTunes' store does (even if iTunes sometimes butchers the translation of the names).

I'm in America (and school) so no festivals for me. Also, this thread needs more Moonsorrow. Just sayin'. I stopped putting off listening to them today and gave their latest album 'Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa' and so far it's been really great.

I might be wrong, but I read somewhere that the album version of LOTUS will be longer and reworked. Perhaps that's when it will feel complete, because right now I feel like I have half a song. I don't think his mixing of the CD will have anything to do with whether or not Kaoru/Die will compose more songs with breakdowns. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic though.

I also heard similar about EITS's newest album. Haven't listened to it but if that's the general consensus then I don't need to.