Zeus

I'd just like to add that they rescinded this ban a mere twelve hours later with the concept of gender badges.

The fear which prompted this move was cause for concern about male perverts cross dressing to sneak into female changing rooms. They didn't have concerns about female perverts sneaking into male changing rooms, which is why this was a one-way ban. Apparently, voyeurism is a huge problem in Japan and cons have historically been their time to strike. "Gender badges" are way of identifying a cosplayer as male or female so they can monitor what bathrooms you use.

Did you know Japanese smartphones are built to create a fake camera sound every time you take a picture? This is to deter pervs taking surreptitious pictures of women in public places without their consent. There is no way to turn the sound off. What's more interesting is if you take an unlocked American phone and put a Japanese SIM in it, it will force the sound on! This info was purely for context.

Usually, I would be in that boat too. But I find Mono wanting to change their approach more than their style. Even if they stay firmly in post-rock, there's a lot more they can do. I liked the addition of the orchestral elements but they've never truly leveraged traditional instruments in their music. "Traditional" would likely translate into a few Japanese instruments but they can appropriate instruments from all over the world if they wanted to. Even having one post-rock song with ethnic influence would bring a ton of diversity to their sound by adding just one instrument. Dynamics are a key part of their sound but a ton of their songs follow the same rising action / climax / resolution pattern. I would love for them to condense their sound into shorter songs like "Kanata", to hit us with another fake out like "The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain", to start loud and heavy and slow down into a crawl (no song examples at all), or to have different movements and musical motifs repeat within a song and to evolve through them (my favorite MONO track "Com(?)"). There's a lot that can be done and a lot to play around with and even if the results aren't good I'd give them props for trying. But it's been 17 years since their inception and as you said, it brings back memories of their earliest releases. I would give them credit for going back to their roots...if they had gone anywhere. I get the impression they slapped an orchestra over One More Step... and called it a day and that would have worked for me in 2009 but not in 2016.

4 hours ago, lichtlune said:

I understand there's nostalgia and the band has just reunited after a four year hiatus but there's no way this album is five stars imo. Especially when not even a single re-recording is better or just as good as  the original. The two new songs weren't anything outstanding either. I give this album a 7.5/10

I thought all of the re-recordings were pretty boss as well so my opinion is in the same realm as @ShanethVarosa's. I would argue that in general the older tracks from Lyrical Sympathy and NOBLE benefited more from the beauty treatment than their most recent material. I love what they did with "The Love From a Dead Orchestra", smoothing out those awkward transitions and giving Kamijo's vocals the power they needed. "Zombie" also feels 100x thicker and the interplay between the guitars is sweet. The production quality is like night and day in difference. Other tracks like "DESTINY" and "Serenade" didn't sound all that much different to me and "ASCENDEAD MASTER" even sounded a little off to me, but a lot of it for me is having listened to the original version of these songs so much I expect them to sound a certain way.

I'm sad to hear you couldn't get into it though.

38 minutes ago, Original Saku said:

Great review as always @Zeusbut damn.. i hate your opinion so much right now XD As someone who absolutely loves everything mono has ever done and who's love of the band has only increased with each release throughout the years, I'm so saddened to hear that you don't feel the same. Requiem for Hell is probably one of the most satisfying albums I've heard this year and damn do I feel that 5/10 rating is way too low for something objectively so solid... safe? sure. but solid nonetheless. I can only feel that you let your distaste with your own expectations dictate your final score.

 

I still love your review and writing style though, I wish I could articulate my musical opinion as well as you do

I'd have to say my affair with MONO has been the opposite over the years.

Their largest issue is trying to follow up Hymn to the Immortal Wind with a release that's more or less the same. They need to try something different but of the same caliber. Hymn is their magnum opus and I don't believe they will be able to best that with the same style. What kills me is that they feel like they only have one song and several different variations on it. I can't think of a single song within the last five albums hat doesn't start with minimalist guitar strums, minutes of agonizing build-up, dynamics foreplay, and an explosive emotional climax before a rather hasty ending. It's literally the same thing over and over and over again and the luster has long since faded. There are other ways to build post-rock songs and MONO need to learn that and adapt it into their music. Post rock is one of the genres with the most degrees of freedom and MONO uses none of it.

Reading other reviews of this album on the internet I am not alone in my sentiments. Sadly, positive reception to this album is in the minority.
 

| A case study on the effects of diminishing returns.

I don't have hopes for new MONO releases as much as I do expectations. I expect dynamic, instrumental post-rock passages with minimalist beginnings and too much going on at the end. It can be anywhere from six to nine tracks, possibly come with a theme about joy, sorrow, or both, and pack anywhere from zero to two instrumentals which edge the listener for six minutes with no pay off. While this describes the entirety of their output since the band "broadened" their musical tastes with 2004's Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined, this should not eclipse their accomplishments. MONO only does one style well, but their brand of post-rock has influenced countless other bands and has become the face of the genre, so to speak. Unfortunately, unwavering steadfastness is not a quality I admire in music.

It's strange to see a band once heralded for their mastery of a genre slowly see the life strangled out of them by those same guidelines. Even bands that "don't ever change" do change in minute ways over the years. MONO is the most extreme example of a band that has not progressed since 2004, content to sail the same seas evermore. Nine albums later, you could be forgiven for asking if they know any other way. But it's a sad fact of life that the emotional crescendos and cathartic blasts of noise that punctuated Hymn to the Immortal Wind are the same ones powering Requiem for Hell; such an unabashed clone that calling them cousins of one another still doesn't cover all the similarities.

Knowing when to stick to your guns is different from knowing when to bring in different artillery. A year hiatus designed to help them grow as musicians has only pushed them into a corner where all of their songs are cut from the same cloth and fabric is running low. MONO have regressed far enough to call in veteran producer Steve Albini, who was behind their masterpiece Hymn to the Immortal Wind, and as such they reintroduce the crutch of an orchestra, but even this power play is no substitute for captivating melodies. I can tap my foot and know when the strings will cut in, when the song moves into second gear, and when the emotional catharsis is supposed to strike. What should be an emotional experience translates into crossing requirements off a list.

I fooled myself into believing that Requiem for Hell would be different and was angry when presented with more of the same. I bargained with my computer screen for just one track to start loud and heavy, or for a dramatic switch in direction and tone, and was deftly ignored. Cue the strums of the closer "The Last Scene", I've accepted the facade of depth behind the beauty and luster. For all the big talk behind the concept of this album, it fails to communicate this theme in a meaningful capacity. It doesn't even sound particularly dark for MONO; it's just more of the same.

When they get moving, the meat of each song is intense as it always has been. The rising action and apex of "Death in Rebirth" and "Requiem for Hell" are truly stunning pieces, interjecting noise and guitar distortion for some much needed contrast. "Requiem for Hell" reaches almost "Com(?)" levels of despair, the most captivating track on the release by far. MONO still has the chops to write engaging music, but they insist on twelve minutes of foreplay first. When I can go to any younger band with tighter songs and more focus, hit the climax and get satisfaction in half the time, MONO has to provide a compelling reason to carve out forty minutes for yet another interchangeable experience.

They don't.

Support the band!

Bandcamp

Of course he does. Those throat gurgles from COLLAPSE are serious business. I'd actually go out on a limb and say he has potential to have some of the best harsh vocals in visual kei.

BUT what he does with those harsh vocals is most important and he sounded like a trash compactor in that PV. Not to mention the entire structure of that sound screams budget black metal a la "Horobi no Bigaku"/"COHOL". TRAGEDY OF AVALON sounds much better.

I also prize clean singing in addition to these harsh vocals so I wonder if he has those capabilities.

I won't translate word for word but I'll provide a brief overview.

Quote

 

Vocalist Ryutaro of visual kei band "HOLYCLOCK", announced earlier this year (2016) that he was looking for his mother in an article on his blog. The report, written by Miwako Miyazaki, covers everything up until the present day.

Ryutaro hasn't seen his mother since he was four. There was a nasty divorce and for unspecified reasons the alcoholic, depressed father won custody. His father was abusive and even tried to commit suicide in front of Ryutaro, got remarried at one point & was abused by both stepmother and father, until he was rescued by his paternal grandmother who provided him with food and clothes. Ryutaro describes his existence as "just living" and music saved his life because it allowed him to express his feelings. HOLYCLOCK was the natural extension of that and his feelings became the stage persona known as Ryutaro.

 

HOLYCLOCK's success gave them the opportunity to perform at a one-man live, which was also on Ryutaro's birthday. Ryutaro wants to do the very Japanese thing and apologize to his mother, because when the divorce happened presumably the courts let a four year old choose who he wanted to stay with. He chose his dad over his mom and that presumably broke her heart and led to her disappearance. He thought a good way to apologize would be to invite his mother to the live, but he has no way of contacting her. He tried contacting the family registry to inquire about her new residence, but the officials called it a "nuisance" and that the mother did not desire to be contacted.

 Still, Ryutaro wants to at least see his mother, since he can no longer remember her face. When April 11 came, of course, Mom did not appear. This hurt Ryutaro's feelings a lot, but he decided to continue searching. After the one-man in Tokyo, Ryutaro had plans to return to Kansai the next day to enjoy a day off. He was discussing plans with other members of HOLYCLOCK on where they would meet up and what they would do when Ryutaro's foster mother contacts him through the chat with the following message

 

"Now I say I'm grandma?"
 

Turns out his "foster mother" (paternal grandmother) called Ryutaro's mom. Apparently, she was reading the story (which had blown up over the net) and had no idea it was him & had been looking for him too! She wanted his number because she wanted to contact him but couldn't talk at that moment. Ryutaro was speechless and consulted with his buds, who suggested it's better to meet up in person. They all went with him to a cafe and met his mother, his younger sister, and an attendant. His sister knew of his existence because his mom kept a photograph of him and she always wanted to meet him. Ryutaro also found out that his younger sister had children.


Until this point, Ryutaro had completely forgotten about his maternal grandmother, who had been ill & hospitalized for quite some time. The situation was bad and the doctors estimated she had a month left. She was falling in and out of consciousness daily, and the description implies she was possibly suffering from dementia. At this point, Ryutaro's mom realizes that he really did want to meet his family and wasn't pressured into it and the "mom" turns on inside of her. At some point she admits she never contacted him because she thought he didn't want to be contacted, but that his grandmother's worsening condition made her change her mind. States she never forgot even if she remarried and that she will always regret all the lost time.

At this point the article back tracks to trace how the pieces came together. The ex-husband owned a small shop and the mother of the ex-husband often exchanged a New Year's card at one point with Ryutaro's "foster mother", who inquired about meeting up and was greeted with a "maybe", which led up to the events of April 12th.

 

Once reunited with his mother, Ryutaro wanted to know more about the rest of his family. They arranged to go meet his maternal grandmother, but Ryutaro came down with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. He never did meet his grandmother and she passed the evening he was supposed to see her. The doctors gave him permission to attend her funeral and he was able to make it there at least. When he got there, he met all the relatives who were overjoyed to tears to finally meet him and see that there was a one-sided reunion at least. There were so many names and faces he could not keep up.
 
Overall they had a nice, if superficial reunion, but Ryutaro notes that the relationship between him and his mother was still rough. Initially he was embarrassed to meet his mom because of what he's been up to (honor and all that), but mom supports his choices and even bought one of his CDs! Since the reunion, Ryutaro has noted that while you cannot make up for lost time you can make new memories with the time that's left. Even though they've exchanged contact info, have meet a few times, and went to the funeral together he still can't call her "mother". He looks forward to the day he can and has a one-man scheduled for next April 20, 2017. He plans to bring mother then & be able to call her as such. She's set to become his biggest fan. Ryutaro also notes that his band members in HOLYCLOCK are responsible for pushing him to meet his mother and the rest of his family & that they are still supporting Ryutaro in all of this.

Obligatory plug for HOLYCLOCK's latest EP.

 

tl;dr - sad story, Ryutaro looks for long-lost mom, finds her and a whole lot more.

Goddamn onions.
 

Perhaps I'm a sucker for dank rhythms, but in the margin is one of my favorite tracks from the EP. The disjointed rhythm is what got my attention, but I do agree that Annabel struggles the most vocally on that track. She strains to hit notes just out of her range a lot. I revisit the album a lot and Jihan wa Tsugu and thor are still my favorites.

2 hours ago, Pho said:

@SeimeisenAs for Hasuo... well let's just say that my biggest criticism of late-era sfp was his apparent disappearance from the band's creative process. I don't know whether he was pushed out, lost interest, or what (and let's be honest, none of us will ever know), but the band's music sorely missed his input in their last couple of years if writing credits are to be taken at face value. I've been enjoying his stuff with LAGITAGIDA and 385, but this is what I've really been hoping for.

It's so hard to resist inferring. I believe that there was musical differences and that it broke the band apart. The two main composers could not see eye to eye and the sound engineer had way too much influence. The entire liner notes of Prog-Roid are credited to Yumi and Ryo, as if she ceased asking for input from her band members and wanted to do things her way. The other band members are barely credited at all. Her message for leaving school food punishment sounded in line with that as well, describing the sound the band was chasing as "distorted". Now Yumi and Ryo are in a band together, Hasuo has his own band and his three compositions sound like indie school food punishment songs. Too much lines up for me to think much else.

Looks amazing, if a little disjointed. What's the theme for this album?

| A promising band creates an instant classic with their first release.

I smell a rivalry brewing within the depths of indie pop.

It all follows from the implosion of the still revered pop quartet school food punishment. A source of joy for many, internal and external pressures slowly tore the band apart. There was an overt sense that during the latter part of their career some members of the band were restraining their talents. We hoped for the best, but we saw it coming when vocalist and lead composer Yumi Uchimura suddenly left the band to pursue her own vision of music via la la larks. For all intents and purposes, la la larks filtered out what remnants of early school food punishment were left, opting for a ho-hum sleeker major label sound.

I looked forward to the solo efforts of Masayuki Hasuo, but I never thought he would team up with Haisuinonasa's Yoshimasa Terui. Undeterred, the duo found Argentina-born vocalist Annabel, who is probably the closest sounding person to Yumi that isn't Yumi, and returned to their roots with siraph. Their self-titled release immediately brings to mind the soundscapes of riff-rain that I fell in love with many years ago. The similarities are more than uncanny. I would call them an almost outright challenge to Yumi's new band, except Terui's compositions take the band into places Yumi would only dip her toes into. siraph sounds as if you teleported air feel, color swim into 2016, with six cuts brimming full of energy and craving to be heard. "時間は告ぐ" (Jikan wa Tsugu) alone is enough to convince me a few of them were composed with a not-so-different vocalist in mind.

The mini album is an earworm of catchy tunes for sure. The unpredictable drum rhythms and thick bass suit Annabel's rougher vocals like a glove, so much so that I'm willing to overlook her vocal imperfections as just another element to the track. If the progressive opener "in the margin" doesn't snag you immediately, "時間は告ぐ" follows a more conventional song structure that is sure to please. My personal favorite is "thor", which combines the chillwave and pop elements with a progressive rock touch for one hell of an awesome track, but I'd be lying if I said they all aren't good. Even the mellow closer "想像の雨" (Souzou no Ame) leaves me immediately wanting more.

It's rare to find a band establish their sound so firmly with their first release, but it doesn't surprise me that siraph strike gold on their first try. la la larks is cool, but it never filled the hole school food punishment left vacant since 2008. siraph is the band I didn't know I needed. It remains to be seen if la la larks will respond to the challenge or remain in their hemisphere of electro pop. As promising as this is, I believe siraph has enough chops to grow into their own band and expand their sound into places we have not yet seen. For now, this band has my attention.

Support the band!

✹ This release is available for purchase online via JP iTunes. Thanks for the information @Pho! ✹

1 hour ago, robkun said:

Who have the edge in terms of popularity and overall relevance internationally? DIR EN GREY or X JAPAN? Let the battle begin.

This isn't even a contest. Dir en grey comes out with an album every two to three years. X comes out with an album every two to three centuries.

9 hours ago, CAT5 said:

I've always thought lynch. to be a solid band, but I've never been heavily invested in them. As a result, I never have any great expectations when listening to them. As long as I get a new song or two to bump, then I'm good - and "AVANTGARDE"  gave me "F.A.K.E." and "PHANTOM", which are both great tracks. Granted, the rest of the album was solid, but I doubt I'll revisit in its entirety again. I will say though that listening to this album was overall a more positive experience than the previous release  "D.A.R.K. -In the name of evil-".

What was it about D.A.R.K. that rubbed you the wrong way?

4 hours ago, Danao said:

Why does every Lycaon related thread has to turn that way ?

 

You can't even see the infos in the thread between all the useless spam created here

Nobody's here to wipe it clean or... ?

Reports and PMs work faster.

If this topic gets much longer I will split discussion about the band away into a new topic in the Artist forum and leave this topic solely for new releases.

I know you touched on it a bit at the end of your review, but I should elaborate a little more.

lynch. comes in 3 flavors: concert, studio, and somewhere between. The last three albums hit each of these in turn. I hated the sandpaper sounding GALLOWS and it's singular focus on chugging and aggression. I loved D.A.R.K. because it felt like a studio lynch. album with some stabs at creativity. A few tracks had some iffy riffs but I was willing to overlook that since the entire package was solid. lynch want to return to that "live" sound but it's really hard to capture on disk IMO. By trying to meld the two sides of themselves together they lost all the advantages either one had. Each song sounds like a remix of a lynch. song I already heard and while it's not as one-dimensional as DEATHGAZE's regurgitations, I'm hard pressed to spin this when albums like IBIM and SHADOWS appeal to me infinitely more. I want to like this and maybe this will grow on me, but right now I'm chilling at about a 6/10 myself.

Great review @togz! Sad to say lynch. isn't appearing on any lists from me this year.

3 hours ago, DarkWater said:

 

Totally...

Okay as a guy you shouldn't have sex talk or sex or anything related with underage girls.

But still as a woman, I think you also can ignore/avoid those type of guys.

Of course if they wanna meet you up somewhere and you go there, man GIRL you know he is 30+... kinda stupid already to meet up an person way above your age.

So don't know (-_-) woman can be pain in the ass and to love to hurt man. 100% if a dude is kinda famous. 

I think he just had some bad luck.

3 hours ago, midi:nette said:

Well, I hope that piece of shit experienced several anal prolapses in prison ✌

 

 

A++ job at blaming young girls for being abused cuz they totally asked for it lmao

Two points I must point out very quickly:

1. Unless one of you two have inside details about this case, we don't have enough details about what happened. All we know is that he had sex with various high school girls, and that he allegedly held underage orgies. In retrospect, backlash around this has been very minimal, as if someone pulled a lot of strings to sweep this incident under the rug. Doubly so when many of us already accept that this isn't an isolated incident, and that the entire relationship between band members and their tsunagari  are alarming to say the least. There's plenty of blame to go around, but before anyone points fingers at a particular party - no matter how cogent the argument - get proof.
    
2. Wishing rape upon someone is not cool, even if you could make a case that it was deserved.

This just jumped into my head as well. HOW COULD I FORGET?

@blackdoll so are they independent or signed with a new label? i figured the way they severed ties with shimizuya means there's no going back there, but any other industrious indie label would want to snatch this band up asap. but then on the other hand I don't know how the boys feel about labels and they may have taken the time off to raise funds to diy. you got any more deets?

I was expecting 30% more energy based on the name alone but this is cool.

@itsukoii how did you like that mix i sent you?

The case got dismissed.

http://www.lazygamer.net/gaming-news/tmartn-csgo-lotto-win-motion-dismiss/

On one hand, I don't condone the sentencing handed down to this man at all. Let him live, be, and do what he wants. On the other hand, knowing that he lives where he lives and that he could get killed for expressing himself, what possessed him to be so open about it all? Having pride in your sexuality is different than posting your number online and offering blowjobs for all to see.

https://myanimelist.net/animelist/silverxlotus

started a myanimelist ^__^

18 minutes ago, The Piass said:

I thought the auction was to end on October 9th  

I mistranslated it. The auction officially ended today at 1pm (got confused at what 26 day 13 meant so I thought it meant 26 days lol).