Pandabear

The HAARP Machine - Lower The Populace So awesomely techy.

^ you might be overreacting there a little. And I read the link you posted and I'll have to disagree with you on the reason western vk bands fail. It's not because of how the Japanese music industry works. I don't know how authentic that interview is you posted, but even if everything in it was 100% true, which I'm sure isn't, it wouldn't explain why western vk bands don't work out. Vk western bands not working out is not due to the connections to business people they lack, access to studios, producers, marketing or because they don't have a pimp label to get them out there. It's because of the reasons people have already mentioned here. They're young, inexperienced, sing in Japanese, don't know to dress VK, and lack any originality, basically knocking off bands like the gazette. When you can't sing/play your instrument properly, have a unpleasant image, don't appeal to your native speaking audience, and are a near carbon copy of some foreign band, how can you not expect disastrous results? Added to this is the fact that most western vk bands will further comes across as trying to hard or "weebos" to people who are familiar with the Japanese music scene and do low budget production studio recordings or cheaply made music videos. Plus if they only listen to horrible indie vk bands, then how can you expect something good to come out? When you put out subpar or crappy music regardless of what genre you play (vk or not), you better expect to have people call you on it and be prepared for all the criticism. I'm not saying it's impossible for there to be a good western vk band, it's just no one has done it properly. You would need people who know their instruments, have some basic knowledge of theory and composition, actually write lyrics in their native tongue and have a good sense of how to dress. And they would also have have to some originality and not just sound like X vk band. I know bands/musician who listen to j-music in general and are inspired by it, but they don't blatantly rip off the sound/image of another band. They do their own thing in their own original band/project. So far, I only know of 2 western vk bands that actually are decent. And the reason they more or less have succeeded where others have failed is because they avoided the common pitafils other western vk bands have fallen into.

^ Nice. I've been meaning to check out aphex twins. And ever since Mirror's edge, I've become a huge solar fields fan. Introduction being one of my favorite tracks he's made period. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FviZW1BeGtU

Aquarius in the house. And according to what I looked up I can be. Friendly, Humanitarian, Honest, Loyal, Original, Inventive, Independent and Intellectual. Intractable, Contrary, Perverse, Unpredictable, Unemotional and Detached.

^ lol Those two maximum the hormone covers were so awful.

Still my favorite metal album of 2013.

Reviving this thread from the dead and renaming it. Discussion for all types of electronic music. House, club, electro-pop, trance, techno, drum and bass, dub step, experimental, ambient, etc. It's been a couple of years and after getting to properly know this genre, I've become a huge electronic music fan. Recently I've been into stuff like Flux Pavillion. Who's probably my favorite dub-step artist right behind zomboy. Guy has great melody and danceable beats. Flux Pavillion - I Still Can't Stop Flux Pavillion - I Feel It Also love Trifonic. He mixes ambient-triphop-experimental-glitch together for some amazing stuff. Trifonic - Ninth Wave

^Also curious about the new album. And lady isn't as horrible as some of mainstream western pop music out there. She's pretty good. You might want to give her a try. I think it's just trendy to hate on her because she's a pop artist and is extremely well known. The Fame was allright. The Fame Monster was a good step up and I love the more heavy electronic influence on that release. And Born This Way, was probably the best thing she's done so far. I recommend working you're way backwards with her releases.

Yeah personally I don't see the need for the creation of all these other categories. We already had them before and it was condensed. I think things work better the way they are now. Talking specifically about the DL section, tt gets people to try out new genres and bands they wouldn't otherwise try out and if you're looking for specific genres or bands, you can use the search function. It's a win win for everyone. For those who want variety/are looking for different music and those who want to specifically listen to one type of genre. I haven't seen that many people interested in jdrama/kdrama, so I'm not sure how active those threads would be and for anime/manga you can just start threads for that in the entertainment section. And I don't see the need for a specific K-pop section either. If you want to download k-kop, you can go to the asian section where it's posted along with other asian music that's non-japanese. Actually, most of the posts in that section recently have become Korean releases. For the global music, simply start a thread for whatever korean band/group you want to discuss. I believe there's already Korean thread in there too. I don't understand why it's so important to have a category specifically dedicated to K-pop, when want you want can already be served with what the forum offers.

Al Mu'min and Mike Semesky are awesome. The HAARP Machine - Extension To One

Yeah, I don't really think there's a yes or no answer to the original question. I'm of the opinion that downloads, albeit even when illegal, do more good than harm. That being said I also think there's this misconception with people that buying albums doesn't help the band and only helps these "evil" record companies lol. Yeah, on occasion you have you're greedy corporate labels that will try and milk a band's music to death and try to pocket a large amount of their profits, but that's not really a common occurrence. If a band does sign with a label like that, than that's there fault for not going over their contract and feeling out the label beforehand. If anything, shady promoters who don't honor bands the guarantees they were promised for playing gigs is far more common and problematic than the evil record label thing. Being on label is a business and part of that is a band being loaned money to record an album, make music videos and promote themselves. In return, the label gets a share of the album sales. That's not being evil. It's called business. And let's not forget DIY bands who front their own personal money to make an album and get direct profit from every album they sell. And even though I believe illegal downloads don't hurt bands, the belief that buying albums doesn't help the band is wrong. The band still makes profit from cd sales even if it is minuscule, but more importantly it helps them establish their name in the music scene. The most important time for this is when an album debuts. The higher it charts, the more the band can benefit from it. Not only does it get there name out there, but it establishes to the industry that their music in demand and thus the band will get more backing for bigger tours, more opportunity for tours, get in with bigger names, get endorsement offers, and help them make more profit in other various avenues. All that from buying a CD. I don't know if that's the way the Japanese music industry works, but that's how the western music industry functions. Personally, I don't really buy that many Japanese physical releases. It does get way too expensive. I usually buy 3-4 Japanese albums a year and that's about it. I reserve my money for only the bands I enjoy and I know won't let me down. On occasion I do buy digitally or buy a Japanese album after downloading. I do buy a lot of western stuff though. Usually about 2 - 4 albums per month. Sometimes more. Part of that is because how cheap albums have become. I remember when they use to be like $15. Then they went down to $14-13, then $11 -10. Now most I see debut at $8.

Devil Survivor - 2 episodes in, seems okay. Animation is great, story is so so. Blood Lad - About a teen vampire obsessed with all things Japanese trying to revive a high school girl he liked who accidentally died so he can drink her blood. 2 episodes in and I'm really enjoying this.

Yeah I found this release a lot more tolerable then when they go full pop-rock. It's definitely not old girugamesh, and I wouldn't call what they're doing metalcore either, but they're basically mashing up some heavy guitar playing, occasional double bass with your typical pop-rock chorus and some dubstep inspired passages. Everything actually sounds decent and not disjointed like when other bands attempt to do the electronic/rock thing. I actually could have done without the poppy choruses in Incomplete and limit breaker. They're a bit to happy sounding for my taste, but the actual music is good. Satoshi probably is not going to do screams, but If he did, or had on these songs, they could have sounded a lot better and rounded off that upbeat chorus better IMO. Takt is actually my favorite track. The electronic tinged mid tempo verses with double bass and the guitar chugging sound like it could be off Music and the chorus like from Reason Of Crying or like a chorus the band would do before they went downhill. They need more tracks like this. It's not old giru, but it's a lot better then what they had been putting out. Checking out the album when it comes out. 6.5/10

Don't get all the negativity, perhaps using the phrase backup band was a bad idea, but it looks like they're simply looking for other musicians to work with and be part of the band. And even if they could only sing, I don't get what would be so bad about finding other people to take care of the instruments for them if they weren't capable of doing it themselves. That's like a guitarist taking flak for looking for a singer to sing vocals because they don't have the skills to do it. Not everyone can rule at every single musical aspect a band requires. @ OP Anyway good luck with the band.

i don't care what anybody says. Atilla's new album is fun as hell. Atilla - Middle Fingers Up

I’ve been hearing good things about this release so I decided to check it out and I’m glad I did. I’m not sure what surprised me more, how good the album was or the fact that such an amazing album came from a vk band. The album is powerhouse of great powermetal. Most vk band either take the metalcore route or the happy ubeat pop-rock thing, sometimes both, but instead of going with such a out played route Jupiter chose powermetal. After listening to the album it’s seems like it’s a no brainer. The genre allows them room for complex composition, musical technicality, hefty song lengths and a sense of epicness. Instrumentally the album is great. Tight rhythms from the drums and bass, epic powermetal riffs/solos from the lead guitar and lots of atmosphere from the vocal choirs, orchestrations and keys. The vocals are strong and have that vk sound to them, but are done in way that fit the powermetal genre. The question of musicianship and composition is clear from first few songs. These guys know what they’re doing. And it proves that vk bands are capable of putting out great releases when they know what they’re doing and have the technical ability to pull it off. I don’t think there’s a bad song on this release. The only downside in my opinion is the long album duration. Although the songs themselves never really feel like they are dragged out despite some hitting the 5 and 6 minute mark. This is the best vk relase I’ve heard all year and will probably be the top vk release of 2013. I can’t really see any other band coming close to the musical technicality, composition and cohesion Classical Element offers. 8.5/10

I was disappointed with SCUMS, and the issues I had with that release are very much present in DIZZY. Take the title track, the intro is very rockish and nighmarish as are the verses. The guitars are great and there’s enough variety and ear candy to engage in and enjoy. Then the chorus hits. This is where things went downhill for me. It’s like a complete 360 from the mood of the song. It turns very upbeat and sickingly happy complete with synth work and it just doesn’t work with the rest of the track. I wish the chorus had continued in line with the mood the rest of the track had already set up, or they could have just taken the chorus and made a different song with that it that fit it’s upbeat and happy nature. I’m high roller, I enjoyed a bit more because it was more cohesive and there were some cool drumming and guitar grooving going on in some parts, but I still feel this could have been better. Killed In Summer is probably the track I enjoyed the most. I feel like this is the only track were all the components of the songs worked well together. Great guitars, bass, vocal melodies, and synths. Everything leads naturally into each other and doesn’t feel like it was simply tacked on. Which is the major problem I had with this release and SCUMS. Killer In Summer is the only track I'm keeping. This was yet another disappointing release by the band.

I feel like every time I read a recent Gazette review on here, I always come across the word generic. In fact, not only do I think that the word was used wrongly to describe the Gazette’s music, because no matter how disappointing their recent releases may have been I don’t feel they were generic, but that the majority of reviews on MH for any gazette release had actually become generic. And so I come here again, and find that word being used to describe fadeless, but for the first time I feel it actually applies. Fadeless is no way anything unique or original. Not even by gazette standards. Everything is way to simplistic and stripped down, from the guitar riffs to the drums. There might be a few interesting moments here and there and in the other songs, but they don’t do much and aren’t enough to save the songs. I don’t know what chord progression they used for quiet, because it really lacks progression, especially in the verses, and that’s why it seems to go nowhere. Forbidden Beaver feels like a filler track. It’s just meh. I like the title of the track and it is probably something only a band like the Gazette could pull off, but they failed to accomplish anything musically pleasing. I wouldn’t call this release bad, but it lacks any interest and creativity so it’s very stale. No one likes to listen to bad music, but nobody enjoys mediocrity either, which is what this release is. What makes this more disappointing is the fact we’re all aware the Gazette can deliver good songs when they want to. I’m at least glad they dropped the electronic rock bit. They really did not know how to do that at all. In regards to that issue, I feel like this is a step in the right direction. Now the band just needs take a dozen or few steps forward and put out something good. Fadeless is just okay. 5/10

Atilla - Hellrasier

Best prog band in the whole of Australia. Karnivool - Simple Boy

^ Thanks, but I plan on buying that album. Only 1 more day. The Discovery was a prog-tech masterpiece and I'm pumped to hear the new material. Their recent singles were missing the prog structures and technical guitar leads the discovery had, but I'm hoping they saved all that for other songs on the album.

Almost forgot these. Karnivool Mastodon Baroness Stargazer After The Burial - Modern prog djent type of band, but they almost strictly use growled vocals. Music is great though.

Ones that haven't been mentioned. The Human Abstract Blotted Science The Evan Brewer Project Guthrie Govan Tool Coheed and Cambria Intervals Pomegranate Tiger Red Seas Fire Enslaved These ones have more screaming and growling although they still employ clean vocals sometimes. Born Of Osiris The Faceless Volumes