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Zeus

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Posts posted by Zeus

  1. Posted

    On 12/25/2019 at 12:08 AM, The Reverend said:

     

     

    I don't know who that opener that wasn't is... but a one-man show sounds better anyway.

     

    It was better IMO. It sucked that we had to wait an extra half hour, but in retrospect I wouldn't have preferred hearing BYSTS. I came for Dir en grey, I didn't want what they were offering.

  2. Posted

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    Tracklist:

    1. "絶縁体" (Zetsuentai)

    2. "人間を被る" (Ningen o Kaburu)

    3. "Downfall"

    4. "Devote My Life"

    5. "Values of Madness"

    6. "Celebrate Empty Howls"

    7. "赫" (Aka)

    8. "Merciless Cult"

    9. "Rubbish Heap"

    10. "軽蔑と始まり" (Keibetsu to Hajimari)

    11. "谿壑の欲" (Keigaku no Yoku)

    12. "Ranunculus"

    13. "The World of Mercy"

     

    Encore:

    14. "Followers"

    15. "朔-saku-"

    16. "詩踏み" (Utafumi)

     

    After an unceremonious dinner of two donuts, I trudged my way through the rain and darkness to Gramercy Theatre for Dir en grey's TOUR 19: THIS WAY TO SELF-DESTRUCTION stop at New York City. I had concerns about the weather since it was raining all week, but thankfully the rain eased up by the time I reached the back of the line. The line wasn't the sea of umbrellas I had anticipated; other Dir en grey fans were less fazed by the weather and relied on the scaffolding to shield them from the elements. I made quick friends in line with the fans around me and we got to shooting the clay about different visual kei bands, which really helped to pass the time.

     

    Like I noted with my previous live experience at Playstation Theater, all types of fans rolled out to see the band; goth kings and queens, scene kids from high school and college, older metal heads, obvious netizens like myself, and everyone in between. One cosplayer impressed me with his "OBSCURE"-era Kyo outfit, while another gaggle of friends looked like shinobi. It's refreshing to know that Dir en grey's appeal is still universal. Unlike my experience in line at the GazettE, Dir en grey fans know their trivia.

     

    The organization was impressive until I stepped inside the venue, at which point it looked like a bomb went off. For those not in the know, Gramercy Theatre has a max occupancy of 499 people. There felt like way more than 499 people in line and in the venue. The security check was much more extensive - the guy went through my bag twice to make sure I had no recording equipment before searching me for weapons - but that part was organized. The true chaos was differentiating the merchandise line from the coat check line from the alcohol line. Everything and everyone was one vibrant, pulsating mass the minute I made my way down the stairs to the basement level.

     

    I fought my way to the merch line, which at this point was short because everyone was checking in their coats, and ten minutes I later I was greeted with disappointment. There were legit five pieces of merchandise available for sale, and the items I wanted were not in my size. Shirts were $40, the hoodie was $70. I spent enough money to pay down the karma debt on my years of downloading Dir en grey's music in one shot, and nabbed myself a sweet hoodie so big I could swim in it (as they only had small and extra large available). I'm shocked they didn't bring any copies of The Insulated World to sell, because I'm sure plenty of fans would have bought.

     

    Shoved the goodies in my bag, checked in all my stuff for eight dollars (definitely recommend buying a ticket with guaranteed coat check to ease the process here), then fought my way upstairs and into the venue. It's pretty narrow at first, but quickly opens up to two sections, one for standing and one for sitting. There were easily 400 people here by the time I found the alcohol bar, and seats were disappearing fast. Copped a Bud Light for $14, then ended up sitting off to the left side for the entirety of the show. For sonic balance reasons I suggest you sit or stand as close to the center as you can; Die stood to the right side and I could barely hear him, but Toshiya and Kaoru stood to the left and I could hear them clearly.

     

    BYSTS cancelled at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts, was no opening act for the New York show.  This was not communicated to us beforehand, so I sat around for what felt like an eternity before the show actually began. Once the lights dimmed the crowd came to life. As the band members strode onto stage one by one backed by an SE I've never heard before, all I could see were the instruments faintly coming into the light as the strobe lights moved so fast one could catch a seizure, and the crowd heads bobbing with the occasional camera capturing the live. 

     

    It was time.

     

    Despite Dir en grey performing both "絶縁体" (Zetsuentai) and "The World of Mercy", the show felt as if it passed even faster than the GazettE. Dir en grey gave a great show overall and performing the album songs live has changed my perspective on them. Kyo's Joker-lite face paint was a nice surprise for sure; I wonder how influenced he was by the eponymous movie released earlier this year. He tried to get us to sing along a few times and was obviously pissed when we didn't know the words, but what can you expect from a crowd whose first language isn't Japanese? I can recall he tried during "Rubbish Heap" and "The World of Mercy", and the second attempt was much more successful than the first. 

     

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    Photos courtesy of u/ raggedypan from Reddit.

     

    The biggest change are my opinions on "絶縁体" and "Devote my Life", tracks I didn't enjoy on disc but enjoyed greatly live. Unfortunately, "The World of Mercy" is still a big miss for me. Even understanding that the song is the thematic end to The Insulated World didn't shake my convictions, although I must admit that the music video for this song is unapologetically brutal, even for Dir en grey. It is hard to describe what I saw since the video was censored with a triangle overlay, but there was a bloody rampage that starts about halfway through. I don't understand what's so shocking that it needs to be censored live, considering they played the uncensored versions of the "朔-saku-" and "人間" PV's. Having said that, Kyo pantomiming disembowelment during "The World of Mercy" is one of the highlights of the show for sure.

     

    Aside from "赫" (Aka), most of the time the projects were little more than a lyrics video. "赫" (Aka) has a beautiful music video of burning baby dolls and piano with a red filter over all of it accompanied by some lyrics. It's tame so I hope they officially release it after the tour's conclusion. In comparison, "絶縁体"'s video is a more cryptic affair of flashing imagery, one that works better live than as a standalone music video. The way "絶縁体" ends stuck with me far after the show is over. At the end, the music video was revealed to be within the mind of a human, so thematically  "絶縁体" and "人間を被る" are much more connected than I thought. It also ends on same "human slicing" technique that we saw in "人間"'s PV. The heavy use of projection imagery also explains why the set lists for each stop on the North American tour are almost identical, save for one song in the encore.

     

    I hope all of the visualizations and more come our way via the next installment of the AVERAGE collection of uncensored music videos (AVERAGE INCEL?).

     

    This was an album-heavy show, but we still got some throw backs in the form of "Merciless Cult" and "朔-saku-". The former came on halfway through the show where as the latter was part of the encore. The new version of "朔-saku-" - which is basically the studio version with gutturals replacing the  screams - was pretty dope, but I felt that the new version of "Merciless Cult" live hit so much harder. "詩踏み", the encore closer, was also much better than the studio version. The extended distortion was the perfect way to end the encore. I'm jealous that Denver got "腐海" (Fukai 2018) and that Dallas got "理由" (Wake), but that's how it is sometimes.

     

    The New York crowd was a rough one. I sat in the back like the old rock geezer I am, but at one point during the show I saw security pull one person out from the crowd who was getting crushed. There was also a crowd surfer at another point during the show, which was also wild. I actually got to spoke to him after and he was a pretty chill dude. If you are of a smaller frame or have doubts about the ferocity of the pit, I would find a seat before the show begins.

    As the show winded down to a close, the band members disappeared one by one. Shinya and Kyo were the first to go, leaving the stage almost immediately after the encore. Shinya threw his drum sticks into the crowd and disappeared second; Kyo was first. Toshiya hung around for a bit but didn't engage the crowd much and left soon after. It was the two guitarists, Die and Kaoru, that entertained the crowd the most. They waved at the fans, threw picks and water bottles at the crowd, and took their leave after two minutes. We were treated to a bit more darkness before the lights cut on and reality came crawling back. The show was over and it was time to go home.

    If getting inside the venue was a pain in the ass, getting out was an even bigger one. I played my cards right and still had trouble getting around. The downstairs area was simply too small to contain all of us. I heavily advise buying merchandise before coat check. There's a wider assortment of goodies available before the show and a lot of people wait until after the show to buy, so more likely than not you will always be on the shorter line. I was on line long enough to meet up with @Ro plz and chat about our experiences for a bit, but the scene was too chaotic and we were quickly separated. I tried to wait outside, but there was another show for SURFACES lined up and the security were motioning for us to disperse. I stuck around for ten minutes, chatted with some random fans, and bounced.

     

    I had a blast and can definitely recommend seeing Dir en grey live if you have the money or can snag the tickets for a reasonable price. Money was the biggest contributing factor on my decision to go; buying the tickets from a scalper ran me almost $200!  This was one of their better live performances judged solely off of all the live recordings I have seen and heard of the band, and Kyo is in good shape vocally for this tour. Go with friends if you can, and if not try to arrange to meet up with people from here! Fans are really friendly to talk to considering none of us knew anything about each other other than that we were fans of the same band, but that speaks to how deeply music can connect people.

     

    :3 Until next time! :3

     

     

    nick, sleepy coffee, PIZAZ and 6 others reacted to this

  3. Posted

    the current state of affairs in my life is unnatural.

    I feel as if i'm being railroaded into stress despite my strongest objections. Work is reaching all time high levels of stress and everyone can feel it, but no one knows to look to in order to get off this crazy ride. The keys are stuck in the ignition and we're going too fast to jump out or to even take a breather. I've reached that point where I've said "fuck it" 1000 times, then I said "fuck it" to "fuck it", and now I'm just laughing maniacally while pounding on the keyboard and hoping to create a Picasso. No one knows who is in charge or who is accountable anymore.

     

    If it were just one big project, then I could buckle down and get the work done. It's at least fourteen. Granted, some of them are smaller and not as important but everything is a priority at the eleventh hour. I can only ignore a project for so long before those requests become demands and I have to prioritize them over my well-being, because no one takes being demoted to second place very well. I'm dealing with a gigantic company merger while moving everything to the cloud. The future is so uncertain. My hair is turning grey and wiry at a record rate. I can't take the day off work - not even for a traffic ticket - without getting deluged in calls about what to do. And yet, I see my co-workers laughing, joking, and generally horsing around as if there isn't a mountain of work to get done and no time to do it.

    I look at the "to-do" column and I have ten tickets that just won't go away. I look at the "Done" column and there's 40 tickets. In the last three weeks. And I closed 1/3 of all of the tickets out of a group of 15 people. Doesn't take a math degree to realize those proportions are fucked up.

    People keep asking me to slow down, but how do you slow down any slower than this? I'm not pushing myself as much as I feel pushed. Like pushing a kid in the water and telling him to stop drowning, I'm not sure what to do next. The bosses play this little game where they say "if it's not important, don't do it" and then wait until the last minute to make a task important. That way, I have to get it done and I don't even have enough time to bitch about it. And then they say "oh this was an exception, it won't be like this next time!" Of course it won't, because it will be a slightly different circumstance and it's something ~we'V3 NeVeR EXPeRIeNC3D BeF0Re~

    But don't push myself so hard you know. There will always be work to do. Let's only focus on the essentials.

    OH HEY ZEUS THAT THING I SAID WASN'T IMPORTANT BROKE AND NOW WE NEED YOU TO FIX IT BY YESTERDAY  K THX LOVE N KISSES BYE

    OH HEY ZEUS WE KNOW YOU CALLED OUT OF THE OFFICE BUT I'MA NEED YOU TO COME IN REAL QUICK AND TAKE A LOOK AT THIS ISS-

    HEY THERE I KNOW YOU'RE BUSY BUT COULD YOU TAKE A LOOK AT-

     

     

     

    CAT5 and Gesu reacted to this

  16. Posted

    What I am envisioning we preserve are things like tabs, interviews, lyrics translations, etc. No one thing in particular, but everything and anything that may be of interest to a fan five years from now. What we know about the past is a result of what people did and didn't preserve, including information. One thing in particular I'm interested in finding was that expose from the whistleblower a decade back or so. Something like that would be interesting to dissect and compare to the scene today, but we can't do that unless we find the original article. Anything archived can be posted here or on another website such as vk.gy and linked here. I'm not too picky on how or where it's done, just as long as it's done.

    platy and R/O reacted to this

  18. Posted

    The situation in Hong Kong is a dreadful one. I wish that there was a peaceful way to resolve the situation, but as long as countries and leaders subscribe to the doctrine of might makes right, we will continue to have these same problems take new form. 

    However, I do not want the pressing immediacy of the topic to supercede the rules we've established. In case you need a refresher these are the two rules.

     

    Quote

    1. Any current discussion regarding worldwide politics is now limited to the Current Events section of the forum. Limits will include news articles only from reputable sources, as well as detailing factual occurrences that can be found easily online. All topics found elsewhere on the forum, political in nature, will either gradually be transitioned to this subsection of the forum, or closed entirely if they fail to adhere to rule #2.

     

    2. After much discussion, future topics concerning non-Asian politics are hereby banned on MH. This means that NO new discussions about the upcoming USA 2020 election, Brexit, the Republican or Democratic parties, mass American shootings, acts of terrorism, or any other content tied into politics and not in Asian countries will be allowed in the future. In addition, future topics concerning the intersection of sexuality and politics, current events concerning China and it's policies/politics, and anything related are going to be prohibited as well. 


    The administration will be monitoring this topic very closely and will close it if it reaches a point where we feel uncomfortable.

    CAT5, saiko, YuyoDrift and 2 others reacted to this

  19. Posted

    On 11/11/2019 at 9:51 PM, R/O said:

    That one’s specific to a very, very narrow set of artists, not to mention dying, but it’s a veritable treasure trove when it comes to trivia and info over those very few artists.

    We should archive this information.

    saiko and R/O reacted to this

  22. Posted

    2 hours ago, Zeus said:

    so the question is how long will it take for zeus to re-engineer this for free? answer is idk

    but in all seriousness this isn't that difficult to reconstruct if you have a few hours and are skilled with some code. If anything, you'll do a better job manually specifying said parameters because you can tune whatever you write yourself to have the desired outputs needed.

     

    But basically if the whole pipeline is just breaking down a video into it's image components, upscaling the image components, and then putting them back together while preserving the audio track then that really isn't too difficult to reconstruct. I tend to disregard "AI" as buzzwords in anything that tries to describe a complex task as vaguely as possible, but I have a good inkling about what their AI is trying to do...and I don't trust it. AI is code for throwing a bunch of shit at a neural network until it works and you don't know why. @colorful人生 send me a really low-res video (and my mix pls) and I'll see what I can do with the five minutes of spare time I have a day.

  24. Posted

    11 hours ago, Nowhere Girl said:

    Hotarubi is my favourite song on MACABRE.

    I also really like Taiyou no Ao.

    We found the heretic! /s

     

     

    3 hours ago, AverageS said:

    Someone really doesn't like instrumentals lmao, I personally think some of them help enhance the album's tone quite a bit with an easy example being Arche, "and Zero" really helps setting the mood that the album needs to flow better and I personally always place it as the first track in my personal playlist just before Un Deux or Tefu Tefu (still figuring out which track transitions better from it).

    Also why do you not like "Ware, Yami, Tote..."? That thing has always been one of the album's highlights for me.

     

     

    Fun fact: "and zero" was there but I removed it because I couldn't figure out which of those two tracks to put first.

     

    It's not that I don't like "Ware, Yami Tote...". I just think almost everything else on UROBOROS is better.

  25. Posted

    14 hours ago, chocobuzz said:

    Kinda painful to watch how my dad is slowly killing himself with alcohol. He's just drunk all the time and has been to the hospital for who knows how many times already because of too much drinking. He was told by a doctor already 20 years ago that his liver was in a very bad condition because of alcohol, and he did manage to reduce his drinking a good amount back then (mainly because mom was always so mad at him about it - I still remember those nights when he came back home late and drunk as fuck and mom yelled at him. I had never seen her so angry. It scared the shit out of me). But after I moved out and mom divorced him a little over 2 years ago, he of course started drinking more again. And it's gotten to the point where he's pretty much always just drunk again. I wonder how much time he has left if he keeps that up... Most likely not much. I'm not very close with him (I'm actually a bit scared of him) but I still don't want him to die like that...

    Why does alcohol even have to exist? What good has it ever done to anyone? Just how many families has it ruined? How many kids has it traumatized? I don't think I even wanna know...


    None of the pleading in the world could stop my grandfather from drinking himself to death. People drink for a variety of reasons and it would be foolish of me to assume his, but if he's facing death's door and he still won't stop then something must be compelling him to drink. Give yourself the peace of mind and say whatever you want to say to him now, because once he's gone he is gone for good. Maybe it will work.

    chocobuzz and nullmoon reacted to this
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