doaseternity6

yes nostalgia lured me back haha. We had so many chats! half of the fun of mh in those days didn't take place/ or start on the actual board now that I think about it. It was all consuming in a way xD and I feel like I'm dating myself a lot but I remember going from daiforum ---> tokyonights---> tonberry ---> then here. You were probably on daiforum as well and a bet a few people may have been on Tokyonights too. And yessssss invisionfree ~ You are correct I absolutely do and thought about mentioning her. After she disappeared from the forum I still talked to her some on last.fm but then she officially vanished. I remember her, prism, nick (I can't remember his username now >_<) and missa were a funny group. Since your comment on the first post of this thread I've been trying to figure out who is this person that remembers me and all of that stuff from back. I've been rackin my brain like for sure I know you. Then I read the other thread and saw you're Kir/Chianti and was so happy haha. You were so much fun and definitely one of my favorite people from back then and I'm glad to see you still here. (It's funny because my second internet username is wrath of sekhmet, so I was like whoever this is they hella cool) also also I just remembered that guy darryl (sp??). That was another character XD.

Oh boy it's been awhile. I still follow the group on fb and saw this post and thought "gahdamn, has it really been 10 years?" That means I've known some of you since I was 16/17 and some of you like champ213 probably even longer than that from tonberry days and the great migration. A wave of serious nostalgia passed over me. This forum and the people on it were such an integral part of my life for so long. Fond af memories: downloads and rarez drama, Kiwamu hate, crappy indies vk thread, the mh Chat, chatting on msn messenger, chatting on soulseek lol, Jake's changing favorite bands every week, Dai/toasted waffles/the big change, being a mod and the staff dramaz (our pokemanz and mod colors too), yellow names, Fakkin' A, that dude mitsu (I think) who would randomly curse in the chat and had that terrible vk fanfiction and lyrics site, "generic" , Jake's feud with that dude that ended somehow with Cat5 and others infiltrating our ranks and then liking it here, lady revania drama, last.fm mass chart suicides and tagging dramaz, spinning on turntable.fm, when we first got emoticons and the subsequent abuse of said emoticons , demonandroid and all crappy vs. high quality rips dramaz, credit dramaz, IAMWILL, banning dramaz... okay lots of drama but ya'll get the point. Some of the best friends I've made I made on this forum and some of you I've gotten a chance to meet irl and hope to still meet others in the future. I honestly thought I would be on here until the bitter end but a year or so after I moved to Tokyo and got buckled down with school and life I slow faded and before I knew it it all seemed so distant. But every now and then I think back to this place and when I see some of you guys on fb or elsewhere the memories do come flooding back and I'm happy and proud to have been a part of this community. Some honorable mentions of some people Who've impacted my life on and off this board: Cat5, Champ213, Maiku, Prism, Zeus, Mima, Shogu, Missa, Ito, Spike760, Biopanda, Furik, Aion, Ash and more. So long and thanks for all the fish.

Yup, going to have to respectfully disagree as well. I will give you that I do think the visual's are superior to the dialogue but I don't think the acting is bad at all. Like Ikna I prefer Mads to Hopkins as Hannibal, although I love Hopkins, I think Mads portrayal of Hannibal is more well-rounded. I would say Hettienne didn't particularly leave a mark on me with her acting especially in comparison to the others I mentioned but Hugh I do think is quite good in his role. I don't think the dialogue is poor but I will say that it can be a bit much every now and then. No show is perfect, so of course there are things I think can be worked on but It's a very very far cry from even being a bad show for me. Yes, I think given some of the circumstances (licensing, schedules etc.) they've done a good job of re-interpreting the story in their way. Not to mention there have been some nice callbacks and twisting of the source materials that I think are pretty neat. I also agree so much on the acting in this series. It is subtle and I find so much more in their facial expression and body language than the dialogue. I think a lot of focus may be on Hugh and Mads as the leads but I really think Fishbourne is killing it, no matter how one feels about his character actions, I think he portrays Crawford with the appropriate nuance and the last few episodes he's expressed a shit ton without saying a thing.

Does anybody here watch Hannibal? 'Twas one of my favorite shows from last year and I'm glad it wasn't cancelled due to low-ish ratings and NBC being a huge suckfest lol. It is in it's second season now and shit is getting really real since last episode. The show has some of the best visuals on T.V. right now and it's kinda doing the charismatic serial killer thing right given how often it's done wrong (Dexter (I never want to speak of that final season again) and The Following immediately come to mind)

Good thread~ Apparently the first place I traveled to was Puerto Rico but I don't remember as I was a toddler. Since then I've been to Curitiba (Brazil), Antigua(Caribbean), I've lived in Tokyo for the past 4 years and have also been to Sapporo. Now that I'm out of school I plan on visiting elsewhere in Japan. Went to Marrakech (Morocco) this past February (as well as a day in Madrid layover, passport stamped so it counts I guess lol...same with Beijing actually) and hopefully going to Thailand/Laos/Vietnam with friends later this year. My dad migrated to the US from Liberia but I've yet to go and visit family there but hopefully this will also be sometime soon since my dad took a trip back recently and everything seems to be getting better. As far as in the states, since my mom is from Florida and most of my family live in the south (Maryland,Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia etc.) I've been frequently. I lived in Philadelphia by myself for about a year and a half. Visited LA once after H.S. graduation with my besties at the time. I want to retire in Sapporo I love that place so much. And Marrakech was amazing!!! So different from the cities I'm used to but i truly loved it and hope to go back some day.

Seasons 1 and especially 2 were excellence. I'd rather just forget Coven existed. God awful despite having the highest potential of all of them. Folks on the A.V. club have been pitching Hell Circus for the longest time and it looks like we'll be getting that with Freak Show so I want to be excited but since Ryan Murphy can't seem to have nice things for too long I don't have high hopes.

^ Pretty sweet mix there. Makes me a little nostalgic since I haven't listened to quite a few of those bands for a long time despite a big fan of them back in the day. Mine: 1) 女王蜂 - 口裂け女 2) St. Vincent - Dilettante 3) 44th music - Coffee & Cigarettes 4) Ling Toshite Shigure - missing ling 5) AlunaGeorge - Kaleidoscope Love 6) Alice Nine - Rumwolf 7) Chouchou Merged Syrups. - 針中察するに 8 )HaKU - What's with him 9) Alice Nine - Heavenly Tale 10) alt-J - Breezeblocks Favorite's a Tie.

From The Beginning of 2014

TK from Ling Toshite Shigure - Contrast Phantogram - Voices St. Vincent - St. Vincent

This thread is beautiful. Can confirm being Sexorcist Percussion and I'm also 99.9% sure I'm the awful person who played Erasure. The link to Mitsu's fanficiton in Will's manifesto makes me miss Mitsu something fierce. I hope he's still out there somewhere inundating someone elses forum with fucks. Also in relation to The Crazy Chaplin's: http://xblack-dot-eggx.livejournal.com/profile

Alpha is my least favorite A9 record but not in the sense that I think it's bad. I actually love the majority of it, it just isn't as amazeballs as their other records but it's really excellent for a normal pop-rock effort imo. That said onto Supernova: It is really the first A9 record I think I actively dislike. I never really thought I'd see the day haha. It feels so weird...so disjointed. Probably as other's have said due to the track listing which is sad because I think one of their greatest strengths is that they really have always been good at telling a story/having a really good flow on their albums (one of the main reasons I think zekkeishoku is so powerful). I think Sai hit the nail on the head with what is mainly wrong with this album and it's that it lacks focus. I mean on previous albums they've run the gamut of different music styles but it still felt connected and purposeful and here it's not that they are mixing sounds that makes it feel without focus, there is a clear electronic element here but it all just feels so thrown together. The changes are really abrupt for me too...like why put mebius after Seven...if anything maybe after SHINING...and on that I don't understand why SHINING is the opener when a9 are known for having dramatic engaging openings...all Shining does is set the mood for disappointment really. Why? This album just keeps me saying "why? what were you thinking guys?". That said I don't think there are any songs I really hate individually besides the obvious Shooting star and SHINING (though it's grown on me a little...very little), even Mebius, which is kind of like shooting star in the what is this band going for anymore sense of pure fuckery but unlike shooting star I like the verses and the disco like break down stuff that I kind of miss from some of their older songs (dat chorus is god awful doe). The song is kinda kitsch but in an endearing way I guess. I actively like Seven and KID out of the 4 actually new songs and +- is pretty good too though a little forgettable when it really needed to be amazing given the low amount of new songs. I actually kind of really love 1 minute kidding and the outro even though they were both unnecessary for this record (it's a record that really didn't earn a good outro the way Gemini did). Also both of those have more of the electronic elements that I truly like from this band than the stuff in shining or mebius. Shou is also probably the star of supernova though and on that front I'm really proud of him as an individual. I think he's doing really great things vocally and especially melody wise here but the instrumentation itself is tired with the exception of Shadowplay, KID, Seven, and maybe kaisenzenya...people say it's messy but I don't think so. I really like the shifts but the drums definitely don't cut it and in turn execution isn't perfect but there is instrumental effort there that isn't in most of these songs. (Exist is somewhere in limbo for me, I think this is really solid and good alice nine instrumentally but it isn't interesting in the way the other songs I mentioned at least were and would represent the resident "typical" Alice Nine song on a given album to me.) I think that's where the alpha comparison comes in more than anything though, not because alpha is terrible but because instrumentally the album feels overall reductive. That the bands compositions would be reminiscent of that period is troubling for a band that only seemed to be growing at one point. Besides that, I've always felt a9 were at least one of the most cohesive bands in Vk, I personally never felt one part was stronger or weaker than the others but this is the first time I'm truly thinking one person, Shou, has really been spotlighted and while I'm proud of him personally, it drives home how much more powerful this band really is when they are all pulling their weight. Tora and Hiroto don't really play off each other memorably, no memorable basslines really and Nao's drumming is downright bad in a few songs...The only songs that really reminds me of how great this band is at having memorable parts that mesh is Shadowplay and SEVEN tbh. Also this may be strange but none of these songs actually make me feel anything. Every a9 album has had songs on it that I could really identify with or triggered an actual emotion in me but there is really nothing like that on this album (though of course if the album was just filled with awesome compositions I wouldn't have been that bothered by this. It also doesn't help the fact that From Kurayami does illicit a feeling from me and was made a b-side instead of an album track kind of hit the point home for me lol) I guess the bottom line tl;dr is while I don't really dislike the songs individually as a whole the album is disappointingly without focus and fails to at least make that up with inspired compositions and heart. Maybe the only a9 album I wouldn't actually recommend to somebody. Shou is doing the damn thing tho. EDIT: My track list solution I've been listening to it in this order and imo it greatly improves the album for me. Also +- is better than I originally thought once I switched listening devices I heard some stuff that i was missing previously...it's still very anime opening but it's got much more going for it than I initial gave it credit for. I also realize that I kept forgetting daybreak was on this album before I switched up the track list because while it is an okay song the urge to skip it was always strong. Upon re-discovering it I will add this one to one of those songs that the band is actually cohesively good on even though it isn't one of my top songs. Download and listen to "9" (the album before this one) instead. If you liked Gemini, you will like that. Then add the Shadowplay single (because Scarlet is win as well) and you are pretty much golden. You may like a few songs on this but If you're serious about checking out something post-Gemini "9" is the better bet.

The cover art is gorgeous! Though I agree it would have been perfect without the text. No disappointment in the B-side/Reprises. From Kurayami is sooo good but i can't help but be disappointed that it was regulated to a B-side and not put on the album instead of all the damn spring singles. The lack of new material is disheartening but here's to hoping that the new tracks are outstanding I guess lol.

I realize we liked a lot of the same things this year on the non-Japanese side of things but that's mostly in part because I've been really behind on the J-indies scene this past year. Definitely going to be going through and catching up on many of these and share my thoughts on my new listens. One thing though I will say is actually I was disappointed in this Toro Y Moi album. I was really looking forward to it as a fan and after "So Many Details" was released I had high hopes but the overall album was so-so to me. I'm not sure if it was because I felt he hit too many of the same beats over and over again on it or if the lyrics just really started to irritate me lol. On the subject of the latter: I think his lyrics have always been kind of annoying non-sense but I don't think he's sung so much or more like his vocals/lyrics weren't as much of a focal point. Like... Underneath the Pine it is easy to get lost in the lushness of the music but on Anything in Return I kept getting taken out of the groove by them.

Yea, I don't like this. The song itself is basic, not bad per se but seriously basic and I think I'm more annoyed at it because of that. I feel like I would've rather it had just been terriblewtfidon'tevenknow like Shooting Star at this stage in the game lol. The song would've been okay if this was still the Alpha/Vandalize era but these are steps way too far back. I agree with Perez in that I quite enjoy their poppier sound but imo at this point they have proven that they could make much more skillful and interesting pop tracks than this so it's disappointing. That said personally I did like the other released album tracks though so I'll just ignore this until then.

I haven't listened to much new-ness this year so it is a really limited list but.... GOOD Downy - Mudai (5th) (album) The Novembers - Zeitgeist (album) Chouchou Merged Syrups - Since (album) SIM - Pandora (album) LAGITAGIDA - TUTELA!! (album) AlunaGeorge - Body Music (album) Phantogram - Phantogram (EP) The National - Trouble Will Find Me (album) Robert Glasper - Black Radio Vol. 2 (album) Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels (album) DIV - Zero One (album) Alice Nine - SHADOWPLAY (single) Haisuinonasa - reflection (single) Coheed and Cambria - The Afterman - Decension (album) (can't believe I almost forgot that one!!! the first part came out in 2012 so I guess only the second qualifies but soo good) BAD I can't say I listened to anything that really got under my skin but I was extremely disappoint by Akai-Koen's and Tricot's albums this year. EDIT: actually now that I think about it Alice Nine's Shooting star was so bad I scrubbed it from my memory. That one pissed me off, especially since it came after SHADOWPLAY. EDIT 2: After checking out some of the other posts I realize I'd also forgotten ART-SCHOOL's album from this year....also so bad I scrubbed it from my memory. WTF TAEYANG - RINGA LINGA. There is no reason I should like this song. It is obnoxious, quotes miley cyrus and provides no emotional calories but but but but itunes says I've listened to it 80 times or something so I guess I must begrudgingly agree that I like it. I guess it's spiked with some kind of Swag-gu or something. Iono...*hangs head in shame*

Well that's unfortunate. Granted I hadn't been keeping up with them for awhile now.

Maiku hipped me onto DIV when I came back and I have to say it really is a great album and I look forward to hearing more from them in the future. Exactly what I like in my VK <3 Other than that, I remember having liked a picture of her's previous EP from sometime ago but haven't listened to/didn't know about C yet and I will have to get on that soon. D:

Crest and Nest are just different floors of East and West actually. They are all together haha. Interesting news though, they are popular live houses true but I'm not sure what to make of Tsutaya actually buying the naming rights and whether that means there will be some further integration of the businesses.

Yes! extra lawlipawpz gravy. I chortled far too uncontrollably at that song and I'm sure my neighbors want to maim me for it. I kind of just have it on ignored. But yes, the 2 previews don't really illicit any feelings from me apart from 'meh' right now and I'm just really hoping for at least an interesting album. WE SHALL SEE.

^ looking at the site. That song (and it's instrumental) will be sold limited during the winter tour and then on universal's music store page starting 12/11. It won't be on any album and will come with a bunch of downloadable pictures (if I'm reading correctly 3 random member solo pics (1 icon size and 2 for your smartphone bg I think?) and one big one for your PC of the whole band) The USB thing has an original design using the member's animation (whatever that means). It will have Daybreak, SHADOWPLAY and Shooting Star Pv's + Live performances of Zankyou whiteout, Gekkouyoku and Mugen no hana from the 9th anniversary live in shibuya. And this one is just limited to Universal's music store. Also there are previews of both itunes songs already: http://web.pscompany.co.jp/alicenine/2013winter_special/download/ I'm iffy on them personally, nothing too exciting going on in that time. Exist's preview sounds slightly more interesting though with what it has going on as it's trailing from the chorus.

I was waiting for this kind of news soon! Can't wait. I'm hoping this means the last 3 singles won't be included though. Even though Shooting Star was the only real fail imo it would be nice to have virtually all new songs.

I haven't been following music news for a long time so I didn't realize the particulars to be honest but actually I have a song by them. I don't think this is their first live but their first live since October. At least I've seen them twice, once at Zankyou's Anniversary live and the Like a fool record's event, the latter of which a compilation was given out. I will up the song tomorrow when I get the chance (I think the rest of the comp are just old songs anyway). I think the band sounds great on paper but imo they are just okay.

Some demons are a little too hard to face haha.

The kind of thing you don't tell your kids about until they're well past adult-hood.

Hisashiburi.