Zeus

Dunno why it was moved here but apparently there is a new single coming out around that time.

Regular: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-49-en-47-agent-70-3xaa.html

Type A: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-49-en-47-agent-70-3xab.html

Type B: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-49-en-47-agent-70-3xac.html

That does prove it.

Interested in that DI3SIRAE CD. PM sent.

If they've confirmed three editions than it's most likely true, although to be fair I expected five. Hope it's good.

The band I stole my username from so you know naturally I have to say something about them. They're fantastic. I can't imagine how much my life would be different if my friend didn't blast NoGoD into my ears. Their last album...wasn't my favorite material (to be fair though, nothing will EVER top Batsu) but I'll continue to follow them because they're just that damn good.

Only one I have here to contribute:

Kyotaro (ex. EIGHT, Black:List) blog: http://ameblo.jp/word-culture/

ISIS - Hym

maybe they'll becoming SuG-like

oh god, please, NO

Oh crap, I just read "abandon phone" and I thought this applied to the phone Internet. If this applies to regular Internet....

I just had to suppress my anger there. If that happens then I'm blacklisting Verizon. If all companies want to charge tier like this I'm going to go to coffeeshops for my Internet needs.

This would normally enrage me to no end and summon a tirade from the depths of hell but then I remembered how useless accessing the Internet from a phone is. I've never had a situation where I've needed to get online to do something, and if I need to do something computer related I'd need MY computer. Phone internet just doesn't cut it for me :\

It's upsetting that they'll try to suck people dry any way they can.

They'll just live-distribute anything these days...

Have to comment on what you said about RED. At first I thought I'd hear lots of screaming fans as the guitars started up but it sounds like a studio live (think of Dir en grey's Shokubeni (Shot in One Take) or HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR's Ichirin no Hana (Studio Live)). It really does sound like they messed with it though.

Otherwise, agreed with your entire review. It just wasn't good.

I wouldnt be so sure. Zeshokku said that they made a PV for FRAGILE. They did the same with Plug into the Soket. They distributed it at a live and then released a PV with a normal release. Maybe they plan to do that with FRAGILE, too.

When you can understand French, a lot of old-school VK bands' names sound very strange or just plain wrong.

I'm a grammar nazi so things like BUMP OF CHICKEN kill me.

There is alot of music from japan that stands out while there isnt too much from the west that stands out, that said the music cant be good, but there simply come things from japan that cant be produced anywhere else - while what comes from america is being produced everywhere else.

Music is universal. Artists from all countries take things from their country just as much as they rip off and borrow things from other countries. As a matter of fact, this happens so much that if you were to maintain "principle" and not listen to music that got an idea or a riff from somewhere else you'd pretty much just ignore music altogether. It's like Champ said, it's not about how original your ideas are, it's about how well it's done.

The Japanese do music just as well as any other country does it - it's just that you prefer the way it's done in Japan compared to how Americans do it differently, Canadians do it differently and Swedes do it differently. Anything that can be produced can be copied and made better or worse.

And agreed with SUBLIMINAL:

I hate this thread already.

It's going to be full of herp Japan is so unique, white people can't make music this good derp derp

What a stupid, close-minded mentality to have.

What was OP thinking? -___-. This place is full to the brim of VK fanatics that think that any artist that doesn't dress up in more than four colors isn't worth listening to. I saw this faggotry on a last.fm shoutbox where someone stated loosely that Fear From The Hate would be a better band if they were VK. No. But that's getting off topic.

To be on topic, I'm not addicted to Japanese music anymore. I was addicted when I had the notion that only they could make music and that everyone else sucked. When I finally realized a simple truth that all stopped.

And this was the simple truth: VK is relatively underground in Japan. In order to stumble across it you have to actively search for it. That means everyone on this forum went actively searching for UNDERGROUND MUSIC! Once you immerse yourself in it overseas you get this delusion that VK is rampant across Japan and that everyone listens to it and knows who Dir en grey or MALICE MIZER is. This is wrong. To find good music anywhere, you have to scratch past the surface and dig deep. The problem here is that plenty of fans dug deep and found VK and are now content with where they sit so they don't want to dig again in another country and find more good music because this is good enough to them. This is my personal experience and I'm sure someone else may share it.

If that album's even half as good as Surveillance I'll be content. DELUHI needs to incorporate more piano into their songs like Vivid Place and The farthest. Damn those were good songs.

First things first, s[K]ape:goat is such a bad track to recommend to a beginner. It doesn't have that DELUHI spark and probably could turn a listener or two off if that's the first thing they choose to go after since the title is so funny looking. Personally I'd go with some LORELEI or the entire Surveillance EP. Go with something else - almost ANYTHING else. Just not that.

Second things second, it wasn't until now that I REALLY started noticing how visualless DELUHI has become. They might as well just stop calling themselves a VK band because save the gay scarf, they look like they just put whatever on in the morning and went to the photoshoot.

And finally, Frontier was alright, The farthest had it's moments and Departure was just not good. That album better BRING it.

A little something that bothers me would be the complete bastardization of both band names and song titles. Inserting a character that I cannot accurately reproduce with my keyboard (ex. CO?E THE CHILD) is pushing it, but then they like to add in brackets and colons and all sorts of shit that make it worse. s[K]ape:goat is just completely unnecessary and Kar+te=zyAnose is just ridiculous.

I almost always associate anything with a colon in it to be pure shit.

Mugenkyo.

When: Sometime in November 1999.

Where: Elementary school lunch room. Weeaboo introduced me to Dir en grey. First response was "who the hell are those faggots".

First song: Cage. The rest is history.

^ What band has two members with the same name? I don't think I've ever heard of that. If you're talking about different bands...well after a certain point that's just unavoidable. There are but so many names in the Japanese language. Like last.fm pages, people just have to learn how to share.

Wow that sucks. Hardcore actually. Don't listen to LEON but that's sad. I thought July passed already.

VURTOX NO!

Goddamnit get back soon.

Patient: NoGoD

Diagnosis: way too many mid-tempo songs nowadays that follow the same exact formula. They went in a goddamn circle.

Cure: FUCKING DOWNTUNE THOSE GUITARS. It doesn't even have to be heavy! Kinshi Suzume worked beautifully and the guitars didn't sound like fairy shit. More passion, more experimentation and more feeling please.

This must be said: in comparison to other VK albums, Kakera continues to uphold the NoGoD tradition of beating the shit out of their "music". In comparison to Gokusaishiki and Mugenkyo, this album fails.

Polemic review now:

One word describes most of this album: BORING!. I love NoGoD to pieces, don't get me wrong. My name is based off the best track of Gokusaishiki. What they need to stop doing is being NeoGoD: basically trying to experiment and explore every fucking genre of music. I'm all up for experimentation but for these guys it just does not work. Ever. Rashinban has this same exact problem. The EP was split right down the middle: half badass rocking tracks that would melt your face off with the pure force of NoGoD, and then the other three tracks that sound like NeoGoD just put in a fresh tampon and felt bliss. No.

I'm not even against upbeat, poppy tracks. Shukufuku no Uta and Shirasagi did it right way back when. Here, it's just missing the NoGoD spark that sets everything over the top. First off, fuck that :39 second intro at the beginning. NoGoD hasn't done one of those since Kanna Fukyou and doesn't need to do it again. Just start off with Shinzou, which sounds like Zesshoku except worse because the band was trying too hard to be harsh instead of just letting the melodies flow. Perhaps if it weren't so cookie-cutter we'd have a winner.

Akaki hi no Chikai was pretty groovin. Less forced than the previous track but also slightly less harsh. Don't care too much about that. It has the NoGoD flavor mixed with their new affinity for more melodic portions and it works. If the rest of the album was like this Kakera would have been brilliant.

But it isn't.

Shounen to Chizu is boring as all hell. It's so Hakoniwa/Hakujitsu Sakujitsu-ish. It's nice sounding but goes nowhere and does nothing and falls flat. What they see in this song I do not know. Nagusami no Sora is even worse. These plodding ballads/mid-tempo pieces with no emotion do not work. What needs to be said though is that for the most part, while this song doesn't grab me the way it needs to, there's a portion around the last 1:25 of the song where it picks up and reminds me a bit of Kinshi Suzume to the point where it's not a complete waste of time.

Rouyoku is experimental but that beginning is just not good. Why am I halfway through the album of a METAL band and only the second and third tracks were relatively metal? No. NeoGoD needs to cut this shit out. Thank god it's short.

kimi ga kureta shiawase to kimi ni sasagu namida also has the distinction of being the most atmosphereless instrumental they've done. Does not get the lingering hope vibe of Kono Ame no Mukou ni and does not even scratch the surface of Aozora. Too standard, doesn't even end properly. Skip.

Kakusei - the good single that sets this album back onto more familiar territory. Does everything right and sounds like NoGoD and not some generic band. Why is this one of the best on the album? REALLY?

kajitsu wa warau is another one of those mid-tempo rockers that does something right actually! I enjoyed this a lot more than I did a lot of other tracks in this vein. This would have worked much better if the rest of this album didn't sound very similar to this (will get to at end). A definite listen because it somewhat sounds like NoGoD.

Pause - Disbelief. That's what I call this track. Fucking best thing on this album hands down. Sounds like the bigger brother of Ring-a Ring-o. THE REST OF THE ALBUM NEEDS TO BE ON THIS LEVEL. Really sounds like the only song they spent a reasonable amount of time on.

kimi ni okuru itsudemo kienai uta reminds me a lot of kimi ni okuru bukiyou de migattena shi, not only in name but because they generally employ the same style. this sounds much more mature and refined however. If the rest of the album didn't sound like a worse version of this this too would have worked.

Ai is just too much of the same really. Nice bonus track, much better than Yumemi Shoujo for sure, but neither one of them end off the album the same way Yume did, and that's a shame. Reminds me a bit of Kalmia except it doesn't sound completely cracked up on coffee. More restrained, more proper. I knew coming in this wasn't going to be a rough number but still...too much of the album sounded like this.

Positives: there was no Ano hi no Sora wa Gokusai de. Holy fucking shit that song was boring. Even if everything sounded too mid-tempo for me to enjoy this thoroughly nothing was so rock bottom shit boring that I fell asleep half-way thorugh.

- there was nothing extremely horrible in general. It just sounds like they played it way too safe and did it because they knew it'd work and not because they wanted to. Don't they understand that they hardly ever make bad music when they're sticking to what they know best?

Bad: too much mid-tempo-ness. Why is it that so many tracks on this album start out with one guitar plucking strings in a lonely fashion? You couldn't break my face open with a mid-tempo song that actually ROCKS? You couldn't find another way to start off a slower song? What about some more acoustic strumming leading into some electric goodness, like Rinne Tenshou? It does sound like they are trying to appeal to a bigger crowd and this I have no problem with - what I have the problem with is that they're trying to forget that they're a metal band but then have II-Kaigi shitting over everything else on this album! You just can't fool me for 9 tracks, turn around throw that in my face and go back to doing the same shit for the rest of the album! YOU'RE GOOD AT THAT STAY WITH IT MAN!

Overall, decent album. Perhaps even great album. It's just their worst so far. I'd keep it though. Potential to be a massive grower.

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.