Zeus

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

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

It's a boy, born 10/31, weight 3.9kg. An 8 pound baby delivered by a 5', 90-something pound woman. Damn that must have been tough.
 

He pulls this shit live all the time, and honestly the changes he makes sometimes stink more of Lars Ulrich style laziness more than anything else. 
 
– not playing the double bass pattern in the last few bars in the chorus of Red Soil 
– skipping the hi-hat accents in the verses of Audience Killer Loop
– whatever the fuck he’s trying to do in the Shitataru Mourou intro
 
Hell, wasn’t he even not bothering to play the rimshots in Ware Yami Tote? Changing parts/ad-libbing is one thing. Just not bothering and simplifying is another. 

Let people figure out their own sexual identity for themselves, even if it means that they are wrong for a portion of their lives. You are robbing people of a chance at self-exploration because of your own personal beliefs, which is no different than high-minded religious zealots who try to rob the LGBT community of their chance at self-exploration because of their personal beliefs. This was a perfectly harmless topic about people sharing experiences and asking questions until you complicated it with your sectionalism. What others have to say or how others define sexuality outside of Monochrome Heaven is irrelevant to this point because no one here prompted you to take it to this extreme and no one appreciates it. And unless this topic is literally causing you to be unable to live with yourself, you'll survive avoiding this one topic on this forum.
 
I would now like for this topic to return to a place where people can ask questions and figure out what they are for themselves.

My favorite album by them is Uroboros. Don't have anything else to say, it's just that good.
 
It's a bit hard for me to choose their worst album since I really dislike both Kisou and TIW, but going by the circumstances each one of those were released, I think TIW stands out negatively more. Kisou is an album by a band that is still trying to find their sound and is expanding their sonic palette by trying new things, but while the ideas are good on paper, it often fails flat when it comes to executing them. Saying that, I think Kisou succeeds at what it tries: to be a weird, experimental and off-putting album, which the strange-sounding production definitely adds to the atmosphere of the record.
 
The Insulated World, on the other hand, was released when the band already reached significant success and following, after a string of three records with very positive reception, and after the biggest interval between LP releases so it was a highly antecipated album. While Kisou at least has some originality, I feel like TIW is a rehash of ideas and formulas that already had some mixed reception at the time of their releases (see The Marrow of a Bone). The production is terrible and definitely doesn't add up to the album, the track order and pacing of the album is really problematic and the stand-out tracks are very by-the-numbers. Stuff from Kisou like "Jessica" or "Embryo" (and even though I don't like the studio version vocals, "24 Cyllinders" is an awesome composition) were legit stand-outs. I like "Ranunculus" a lot but I don't really think it has the power of their previous power ballads, and while the single tracks are fun to listen to, they are really underwhelming compared to the stuff that came before it. 
 
So yeah my complete list would be: Uroboros>Vulgar>DSS>Gauze>Arche>WtD>Marrow>Macabre>Kisou>TIW

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.

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.

When I did my own version of Vestige of Scratches I included both Hotarubi and Zakuro. One after the other even. Which, in hindsight, probably was ill-considered, but it worked at the time. 

Hotarubi works well in conjunction with the other Macabre tracks. I know for sure that I cant skip it whenever i listen to the MODE of live of MACABRE in general. Sure its not a Rinkaku or Vinushka but is def a chill groovy track that I've grown to appreciate as time went on.

But who actually considers "Hotarubi" legendary? I haven't heard a fan say "damn, I was spinning some 'Hotarubi' the other day and those firefly buzzes spoke to me spiritually". It's just...okay to me. On an album from an era with no shortage of ballads to pick, "Hotarubi" doesn't come to mind first. And "Zakuro" is so boring OMG.

But who actually considers "Hotarubi" legendary? I haven't heard a fan say "damn, I was spinning some 'Hotarubi' the other day and those firefly buzzes spoke to me spiritually". It's just...okay to me. On an album from an era with no shortage of ballads to pick, "Hotarubi" doesn't come to mind first. And "Zakuro" is so boring OMG.

But who actually considers "Hotarubi" legendary? I haven't heard a fan say "damn, I was spinning some 'Hotarubi' the other day and those firefly buzzes spoke to me spiritually". It's just...okay to me. On an album from an era with no shortage of ballads to pick, "Hotarubi" doesn't come to mind first. And "Zakuro" is so boring OMG.

But who actually considers "Hotarubi" legendary? I haven't heard a fan say "damn, I was spinning some 'Hotarubi' the other day and those firefly buzzes spoke to me spiritually". It's just...okay to me. On an album from an era with no shortage of ballads to pick, "Hotarubi" doesn't come to mind first. And "Zakuro" is so boring OMG.

Yeah, I believe so.

*This comment is entirely based off credits for mixing that I saw on discogs, just fyi.  

It would've been interesting to see more people remaster the tracks originally done by Tue Madsen since he was such an influence on the band's sound from DSS - Arche. Specifically, I'd be really curious to see what a Japanese sound engineer would do as I feel like there's a stark contrast in the way the songs are mixed on this collection and it seems to be divided by regional preferences (and by regional I just mean that there seems to be a different sound profile preferred by engineers from different countries). For example, it sounds like the Japanese engineers like cutting out the lows more so that the songs sound cleaner, but perhaps a bit on the sterile side for some songs. Western engineers sound like they like keeping the lows more for a bit of a dirtier sound which in turn makes some tracks a bit muddled sounding. Try taking a listen between Filth and Sustain the Untruth and I think what I'm saying might make sense (the prior being re-mixed by a Japanese engineer and the latter by another Western engineer that's not Madsen).
 
Now, you might say it's probably just because Filth was originally from 2001 and STU was from 2014, but if you take a listen to the Cage remaster (1999) I feel like the low ends on this mix are boosted way more than the original. And wouldn't you know, Western engineer. Just my observations, but I really wish Dir en grey would go back to using Japanese sound engineers because, overall, I prefer the way they mix the band's music. No hate against Western sound engineers at all as there are plenty that I love, but for whatever reason the ones that end up working with the band just seem to do a less than stellar job. 

Love them or hate them, almost everyone's got an opinion about Dir en grey. The scene stops to listen whenever Dir en grey announce a new single or album. As a long time fan of the band, I think it's the perfect time to express how I feel about all of their albums. My feelings will differ from album to album. Some albums have had the benefit of twenty years and others only a few months, so that's always going to be a factor in how I rank things. I will cover this from my least favorite album to my most favorite album, but by no means take this as a definitive list for Dir en grey. Everyone will have their own rankings and their own suggestions for where to start. I happen to think that this also a great order to introduce someone to this band.
 
This is a perfect topic for those that don't listen to Dir en grey or don't know where to start, current fans looking for spicy opinions and a pot to stir, or even old fans looking for a reintroduction into their new era. Not only have I included a PV for each album as a sampler, but I also put together suggested playlists for each album. The playlists are the order that I would have arranged the band if I were them. The songs are the songs that I believe are the best from each period. Some will require more effort than others to construct. To make it simpler, I have included my favorite three tracks and one music video from each album.

I will not consider the mini albums MISSA and six Ugly in this analysis, but some of those tracks will appear in the playlists I create.
 
DUM SPIRO SPERO
 
Album No: 8
Released: August 2, 2011
Length: 67:31
 
 
鬼葬 (kisou)
 
Album No: 3
Released: January 30, 2002
Length: 69:57
 
THE MARROW OF A BONE

Album No: 6
Released: February 7, 2007
Length: 50:05
 
ARCHE
 
 
Album No: 9
Released: December 10, 2014
Length: 68:01
 
🎖️The Insulated World🎖️
 
Album No: 10
Released: September 26, 2018
Length: 50:27

🏅Withering to death.🏅
 
Album No: 5
Released: March 9, 2005
Length: 51:14

🥉MACABRE🥉
 
Album No: 2
Released: September 20, 2000
Length: 72:57

🥈GAUZE🥈
 
Album No: 1
Released: July 28, 1999
Length: 64:47
 
🥇UROBOROS🥇
 
Album No: 7
Released: November 11, 2008
Length: 58:54

👑VULGAR👑
 
Album No: 4
Released: September 10, 2003
Length: 57:02

That's everything folks! Thanks for reading all the way to the end! Did you like it? Did you agree? Do you have your own rankings? Leave them below! I'm interested to know what everyone's opinions are, especially since Dir en grey is one of my favorite bands ever. So many people are passionate about this band like no other. If enough people liked this, I may follow up soon with one for the GazettE.
 

Until next time

There is no reason for it to be over eight minutes long. I would say the song is a solid six minute banger. But what does it mean when I place it second on the list?

A huge difficulty I encountered when making this list was coming up with the order. Like a lot of others in this topic, I don't truthfully have a Dir en grey album I hate, so instead I organized it from "least favorite" to "most favorite". I did the same thing for the tracks on each album, and then I looked towards the singles and other releases for each period so I could analyze each era as a whole. I ended up with three different lists and this is the output after I merged them all together. That's why I stress the difference between a good Dir en grey album and a good Dir en grey period so hard; it actually does matter.

I'll go through my thought process with GAUZE below.

GAUZE is my third favorite Dir en grey album and the one that introduced me into this world, so I have fond memories of it. When I rate each track individually based on my enjoyment, I get the following score:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 2/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  3.5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 4/5
7."蜜と唾" 2/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 2/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 2/5
11."残-ZAN-" 3/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 1/5

Ranked on how important I think the song is to the album experience the list changes to this:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 0/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 5/5
7."蜜と唾" 3/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 5/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 1/5
11."残-ZAN-" 2/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 0/5

When I zoomed out and took a look at the whole GAUZE-era, there are some other tracks that get into the mix such as "-I'll-" and "Unknown...despair...a lost". Tracks we consider classics that fall out of the analysis if we only recommend the album. The fact that these two tracks weren't on the album brings down the score because that is the difference we have been trying to isolate! This is also why MACABRE ranks lower than intended on my list; I love the period to bits but the album has a lot of filler that members can make arguments for cutting and replacing with various other songs. Put all of these factors together and out pops the recommendations I wrote in the first post. Not perfect, but I tried to look at the whole picture and the small details at the same time, so the end result is always fighting against itself in principle.

VULGAR ends up at the top of my list because it's the album that requires the fewest amount of modifications to enjoy the period to the max. Listen to VULGAR + "腐海" and that's everything you need. UROBOROS falls to second because of the sheer quantity of tracks provided in this era and how many unnecessary retakes there are (and the "remastered" edition left an aftertaste of piss in my mouth that has yet to dissipate). 

There is no reason for it to be over eight minutes long. I would say the song is a solid six minute banger. But what does it mean when I place it second on the list?

A huge difficulty I encountered when making this list was coming up with the order. Like a lot of others in this topic, I don't truthfully have a Dir en grey album I hate, so instead I organized it from "least favorite" to "most favorite". I did the same thing for the tracks on each album, and then I looked towards the singles and other releases for each period so I could analyze each era as a whole. I ended up with three different lists and this is the output after I merged them all together. That's why I stress the difference between a good Dir en grey album and a good Dir en grey period so hard; it actually does matter.

I'll go through my thought process with GAUZE below.

GAUZE is my third favorite Dir en grey album and the one that introduced me into this world, so I have fond memories of it. When I rate each track individually based on my enjoyment, I get the following score:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 2/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  3.5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 4/5
7."蜜と唾" 2/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 2/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 2/5
11."残-ZAN-" 3/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 1/5

Ranked on how important I think the song is to the album experience the list changes to this:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 0/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 5/5
7."蜜と唾" 3/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 5/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 1/5
11."残-ZAN-" 2/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 0/5

When I zoomed out and took a look at the whole GAUZE-era, there are some other tracks that get into the mix such as "-I'll-" and "Unknown...despair...a lost". Tracks we consider classics that fall out of the analysis if we only recommend the album. The fact that these two tracks weren't on the album brings down the score because that is the difference we have been trying to isolate! This is also why MACABRE ranks lower than intended on my list; I love the period to bits but the album has a lot of filler that members can make arguments for cutting and replacing with various other songs. Put all of these factors together and out pops the recommendations I wrote in the first post. Not perfect, but I tried to look at the whole picture and the small details at the same time, so the end result is always fighting against itself in principle.

VULGAR ends up at the top of my list because it's the album that requires the fewest amount of modifications to enjoy the period to the max. Listen to VULGAR + "腐海" and that's everything you need. UROBOROS falls to second because of the sheer quantity of tracks provided in this era and how many unnecessary retakes there are (and the "remastered" edition left an aftertaste of piss in my mouth that has yet to dissipate). 

There is no reason for it to be over eight minutes long. I would say the song is a solid six minute banger. But what does it mean when I place it second on the list?

A huge difficulty I encountered when making this list was coming up with the order. Like a lot of others in this topic, I don't truthfully have a Dir en grey album I hate, so instead I organized it from "least favorite" to "most favorite". I did the same thing for the tracks on each album, and then I looked towards the singles and other releases for each period so I could analyze each era as a whole. I ended up with three different lists and this is the output after I merged them all together. That's why I stress the difference between a good Dir en grey album and a good Dir en grey period so hard; it actually does matter.

I'll go through my thought process with GAUZE below.

GAUZE is my third favorite Dir en grey album and the one that introduced me into this world, so I have fond memories of it. When I rate each track individually based on my enjoyment, I get the following score:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 2/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  3.5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 4/5
7."蜜と唾" 2/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 2/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 2/5
11."残-ZAN-" 3/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 1/5

Ranked on how important I think the song is to the album experience the list changes to this:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 0/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 5/5
7."蜜と唾" 3/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 5/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 1/5
11."残-ZAN-" 2/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 0/5

When I zoomed out and took a look at the whole GAUZE-era, there are some other tracks that get into the mix such as "-I'll-" and "Unknown...despair...a lost". Tracks we consider classics that fall out of the analysis if we only recommend the album. The fact that these two tracks weren't on the album brings down the score because that is the difference we have been trying to isolate! This is also why MACABRE ranks lower than intended on my list; I love the period to bits but the album has a lot of filler that members can make arguments for cutting and replacing with various other songs. Put all of these factors together and out pops the recommendations I wrote in the first post. Not perfect, but I tried to look at the whole picture and the small details at the same time, so the end result is always fighting against itself in principle.

VULGAR ends up at the top of my list because it's the album that requires the fewest amount of modifications to enjoy the period to the max. Listen to VULGAR + "腐海" and that's everything you need. UROBOROS falls to second because of the sheer quantity of tracks provided in this era and how many unnecessary retakes there are (and the "remastered" edition left an aftertaste of piss in my mouth that has yet to dissipate). 

Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?!

Kisou and Macabre are in a similar boat for me in one regard. Their periods were excellent and full of a lot of fan favorites. The albums are quite jank, especially Kisou.

@BrenGun is correct. She floated this idea a while ago, and we gave her the same reason then as we did now: it's a lot of work to maintain. Splitting the forum into visual kei and "other" a few years ago took a concerted effort from all of us, and it took hours, and it wasn't perfect. To maintain a "new bands" section would require us to put forth that kind of effort regularly. That work would fall on the staff...and we are not doing it.

On top of that, I think that this idea would not work because of user browsing habits. I have observed that users are less likely to frequent a particular sub forum here the more deeply nested that sub forum is, and that's because it is not immediately obvious that the forum is there. It's true for every forum category here, and even for groups, a criminally underrated feature which allows members to construct their own "forums" here. Only a fraction of users here will ever frequent a forum nested more than three levels deep, and barely anyone uses the groups functionality.

Even topic tags would be messy because someone would have to tag all of the new band threads, and someone else would have to go through and untag those threads after X amount of time. Nobody is doing that. We could hire an entire team of moderators, give em a color (let's say green), and make that their only task and they still wouldn't do it...because it's a soul crushing task with no reward other than "Thanks!" from some stranger halfway across the planet posting on MH using two coconuts and a McDonald's Wi-Fi connection.

Finally, I don't think this would work because of user posting habits (which is related to their browsing habits but is not the same). The News section is so popular because that's where breaking news goes, and then tons of members post their feelings and responses to updates and conversation there. The Artist forum should be the place of 90% of the conversation that happens in the news thread, and we've tried to redirect conversation there in the past, but members just like posting in the News section. 🤷‍♂️

tl;dr: The news section is always going to be packed and clogged with threads. It's a good problem to have. Any attempt at wrangling order out of chaos is futile. 

Thank you for posting this topic but the answer is no.

@BrenGun is correct. She floated this idea a while ago, and we gave her the same reason then as we did now: it's a lot of work to maintain. Splitting the forum into visual kei and "other" a few years ago took a concerted effort from all of us, and it took hours, and it wasn't perfect. To maintain a "new bands" section would require us to put forth that kind of effort regularly. That work would fall on the staff...and we are not doing it.

On top of that, I think that this idea would not work because of user browsing habits. I have observed that users are less likely to frequent a particular sub forum here the more deeply nested that sub forum is, and that's because it is not immediately obvious that the forum is there. It's true for every forum category here, and even for groups, a criminally underrated feature which allows members to construct their own "forums" here. Only a fraction of users here will ever frequent a forum nested more than three levels deep, and barely anyone uses the groups functionality.

Even topic tags would be messy because someone would have to tag all of the new band threads, and someone else would have to go through and untag those threads after X amount of time. Nobody is doing that. We could hire an entire team of moderators, give em a color (let's say green), and make that their only task and they still wouldn't do it...because it's a soul crushing task with no reward other than "Thanks!" from some stranger halfway across the planet posting on MH using two coconuts and a McDonald's Wi-Fi connection.

Finally, I don't think this would work because of user posting habits (which is related to their browsing habits but is not the same). The News section is so popular because that's where breaking news goes, and then tons of members post their feelings and responses to updates and conversation there. The Artist forum should be the place of 90% of the conversation that happens in the news thread, and we've tried to redirect conversation there in the past, but members just like posting in the News section. 🤷‍♂️

tl;dr: The news section is always going to be packed and clogged with threads. It's a good problem to have. Any attempt at wrangling order out of chaos is futile. 

Thank you for posting this topic but the answer is no.

Love them or hate them, almost everyone's got an opinion about Dir en grey. The scene stops to listen whenever Dir en grey announce a new single or album. As a long time fan of the band, I think it's the perfect time to express how I feel about all of their albums. My feelings will differ from album to album. Some albums have had the benefit of twenty years and others only a few months, so that's always going to be a factor in how I rank things. I will cover this from my least favorite album to my most favorite album, but by no means take this as a definitive list for Dir en grey. Everyone will have their own rankings and their own suggestions for where to start. I happen to think that this also a great order to introduce someone to this band.
 
This is a perfect topic for those that don't listen to Dir en grey or don't know where to start, current fans looking for spicy opinions and a pot to stir, or even old fans looking for a reintroduction into their new era. Not only have I included a PV for each album as a sampler, but I also put together suggested playlists for each album. The playlists are the order that I would have arranged the band if I were them. The songs are the songs that I believe are the best from each period. Some will require more effort than others to construct. To make it simpler, I have included my favorite three tracks and one music video from each album.

I will not consider the mini albums MISSA and six Ugly in this analysis, but some of those tracks will appear in the playlists I create.
 
DUM SPIRO SPERO
 
Album No: 8
Released: August 2, 2011
Length: 67:31
 
 
鬼葬 (kisou)
 
Album No: 3
Released: January 30, 2002
Length: 69:57
 
THE MARROW OF A BONE

Album No: 6
Released: February 7, 2007
Length: 50:05
 
ARCHE
 
 
Album No: 9
Released: December 10, 2014
Length: 68:01
 
🎖️The Insulated World🎖️
 
Album No: 10
Released: September 26, 2018
Length: 50:27

🏅Withering to death.🏅
 
Album No: 5
Released: March 9, 2005
Length: 51:14

🥉MACABRE🥉
 
Album No: 2
Released: September 20, 2000
Length: 72:57

🥈GAUZE🥈
 
Album No: 1
Released: July 28, 1999
Length: 64:47
 
🥇UROBOROS🥇
 
Album No: 7
Released: November 11, 2008
Length: 58:54

👑VULGAR👑
 
Album No: 4
Released: September 10, 2003
Length: 57:02

That's everything folks! Thanks for reading all the way to the end! Did you like it? Did you agree? Do you have your own rankings? Leave them below! I'm interested to know what everyone's opinions are, especially since Dir en grey is one of my favorite bands ever. So many people are passionate about this band like no other. If enough people liked this, I may follow up soon with one for the GazettE.
 

Until next time

There's always a reason for people to do what they do. And in this instance, I am referring to both your mother and your oldest brother, but for different reasons.

I have no idea what your brother did and I'm not going to ask you to share it, so you can pretend that I "covered" it.

I don't understand the whole situation concerning you and your mother, but I can relate. I understand what it feels like to know a family member is horrible person but apparently nothing you do can convince someone otherwise. If the math isn't adding up, odds are there is something you don't know. Maybe a lot of things. Some piece of the picture that you are missing. Parents are pretty good at hiding their past from their children. The only two people in this world that would be able to tell you are your mother and your brother, and we can nix the last one.

To get her to understand where you are coming from, you first have to understand where she is coming from. You need to understand where her mind is so you can break down that mental fortress she's put up between her and her pain, so the points that you are making can come across. Right now she hears you but she doesn't. Doing this may require you to learn some painful things about your family that you may not be ready for. Prepare yourself to the best of your ability, and begin by thinking about the types of questions that you should be asking. There's obviously some reason why she wants to keep extending the metaphorical olive branch, and that's at the heart of your issue here. Until you figure out what that reason is, the situation probably will not change.