chemicalpictures

Yay! Thanks for making the 2018 post. Gonna do my best to update this regularly and not wait until September like I did last year... >>;
 
 
Last updated: 4.13

I finally listened to some releases. My list is probably not going to be large enough to keep a file on as per usual, so I will just do it here instead.
 
 

another announcement in a few hours, by the way!
 
 

another announcement in a few hours, by the way!
 
 

😁

I didn't know they were on spotify!
 
I'm on the second track and already hooked, that's some classy electro-pop right there!

Only now I got a PS4, so I'm catching on the classics right now. Started a Playthrough of Bloodborne, I'm now on the last boss, avoiding killing it till I buy the DLC and complete that, cuz NG+ is not really up my alley, and I also wanna invade some n00bs first. Freaking great game tho, brilliant level design (besides forbidden woods, fuck that place).
 
Also started The Last of Us, hoping it is as good as people say. That prologue was HEARTBREAKING

Personally, I'm not a gamer so I'm out of the modern gaming scene, but I'm into retro games.
Today I just beat Metal Gear Solid on extreme mode (3rd playthrough on extreme - Speed run / No Damage) but still missed the Big Boss rank just because I killed more than 25. :<
 

Picture is LQ as fuck, but it's the only one we were able to take on their show (That's Josh Radnor  from HIMYM and Ben Lee's really nice indie/folk project called Radnor and Lee) I'm the one on the leftmost, with a bunch of random people shoved together on what they called meet and greet, lol

You know what day it is... It's (literally) the middle of the year! This is my first time doing this, and since K-pop is being posted; I'll add all the genres I'm keeping up with atm. More stuff will be trickling in until the end of the year since there are a crazy amount of releases. 
I'll be modifying/adding stuff constantly, but I like the format so far.

We can be heroes just for one day （笑）

　
 

Here's a selfie with everyone that was still around for the very end of my Jrock panel at Acen this year.
 

I think oneman tours and the size of the tour final livehouse says a lot about how the band is gauging their size. I'd say any band playing on 1000~1500 capacity livehouses on their tour final is pretty much sucessful nowadays, which means they can sustain band actitivies without the need of a part time job.
 
But that is definitely the soft cap of a band grow. to break this barrier is WAAAAAY harder, would need some kind of mainstream breakthrough, or at least employ some alternative tactics to earn a bigger following

Totally... Artists complained, but their strategy was undeniably solid. During the golden days of psc carnival, top 5 indie charts were all theirs. I remember bis complaining about their insane schedule (well, 5 minis in a year span is kinda insane), just to leave and, while their momentum was going, singles were top 1 oricon, songs in tv shows, collabs... as soon as their pace slowed a bit their popularity took quite a hit. And I think it was more or less what also happened to A9 and Kra, so I guess you can't have it all in vk biz...
 
The beggining of the end was PSC indies, imo. When they were focused on, and had a tight grip on a few solid acts, only danger crue was somewhat near them in popularity.

It's good; but not great.
 
One of the strange things about the GazettE is their inability -- or unwillingness -- to create a cohesive, solid, album experience that is consistent from start-to-finish. Throughout their career, the GazettE have only been consistent with one thing: mediocrity.
 
Take any of their albums and you'll find a mix of great music with strange forays into all kinds of styles ranging from smooth Jazz and Muzak to pop-punk, and electronica. While a band cannot be faulted for seeking to explore new sounds and styles, criticism is due when it results in an overall product that is lacking in consistency and impact. Without fail, the GazettE is consistent in that trend. Even albums considered among their "best" (NIL and DIM) are packed with the musical equivalent of bumper-to-bumper traffic. Often the albums will start with a strong trio of songs (Nausea & Shudder, Bath Room, Maggots) and then immediately devolve into boring, meandering pop tunes such as Namaatatakai Ame to Zaratsuita Jōnetsu, D.L.N., and Shadow VI II I that grind everything to a halt. 
 
This is a trend that, without fail, you can apply to every GazettE album. Except one.
 
DOGMA (2015) is an album best described as the GazettE's first real, and serious, attempt at consistent songwriting within the Metal style. In the past, we got structurally boring tracks like OGRE, HEADACHE MAN, Before I Decay, and DISCHARGE characterized by their simplistic progressions, structure, and rhythm. These are songs by a band, that you can tell, don't really understand metal because the style was largely unfamiliar to them. Years of refining their craft lead them to DOGMA, and as a result we got the most cohesive and impressive GazettE release to date. Each track fits into that "DOGMA style" and feels like they're part of one unified sound. Even the individual contributions by band members (Deracine, Wasteland, Grudge, Paralysis) fit into the overall sound of the album and don't deviate in anyway that could be perceived as jarring. DOGMA is, without a doubt, the GazettE's best album.
 
So imagine my surprise when the GazettE released a couple singles, and began promoting NINTH. The aesthetic was similar, the band's sound was similar, so I thought we would get a perfect compliment to DOGMA. In some ways we did, in others we didn't.
 
First let me say, I really enjoy the production on this album. DOGMA, despite great songwriting, was mixed in such a way where there's not much low end present in the mix. The bass and drums are largely drowned out by the over-prominence of the guitars. This is why some people here have said NINTH is mixed in a way that it sounds "muddy" -- because the mid-range instruments (guitars) are not has heavily prominent as they were in DOGMA or other releases. For once on a GazettE record, you can feel Kai's strikes on the drums and the low-end crunch of Reita's bass. The guitars are still there; but they're dialed back somewhat, leading to a more even mix that does not overshadow any of the other members.
 
With that said, it appears lightning was unable to strike twice for the GazettE, causing them to fall into composition faux pas that see them pulling from the well of musical gimmicks they seemingly always return to. One of which is Kai's insistence of playing this stale, party rock, pop-esque drum beat that opens the track Uragiru Bero and is played consistently in several other tracks that feel like the GazettE are moving away from a serious Metal sound and towards a combination of DOGMA with a mainstream pop/party vibe. There is also the GazettE musical gimmick of including hand claps to count along to the beat. Hearing this in the intro to the verse of ABHOR GOD, I can picture all of the Japanese girls clapping along and dancing in unison -- which is a strange visual for a song that opens up the way that ABHOR GOD does. And that's part of the problem for me: on an album that has tracks like ABHOR GOD and NINTH ODD SMELL, we're then treated to the designated pop sections and the run-of-the-mill pop punk tunes like UNFINISHED.
 
The GazettE tricked me. I thought when they released DOGMA, it would usher in an age of great songwriting because the band was challenging themselves in ways they hadn't done before. Not only were they trying to write metal tunes, they were trying to write good metal tunes. Serious metal tunes. That, apparently, was a one-time thing because the GazettE are back to business as usual. There's a lot that I enjoy about this album: FALLING, NINTH ODD SMELL, Uragiru Bero, and ABHOR GOD include some really stellar moments; but then you realize you're listening to an album by the GazettE, and I feel like the band suddenly realized it as well.
 
 
 
 
7/10
 

Totally... Artists complained, but their strategy was undeniably solid. During the golden days of psc carnival, top 5 indie charts were all theirs. I remember bis complaining about their insane schedule (well, 5 minis in a year span is kinda insane), just to leave and, while their momentum was going, singles were top 1 oricon, songs in tv shows, collabs... as soon as their pace slowed a bit their popularity took quite a hit. And I think it was more or less what also happened to A9 and Kra, so I guess you can't have it all in vk biz...
 
The beggining of the end was PSC indies, imo. When they were focused on, and had a tight grip on a few solid acts, only danger crue was somewhat near them in popularity.

man I can't unsee Asagi small legs and huge upper body
 

 
aaaaayyyyyy lmao

man I can't unsee Asagi small legs and huge upper body
 

 
aaaaayyyyyy lmao

man I can't unsee Asagi small legs and huge upper body
 

 
aaaaayyyyyy lmao

They announced two new singles for July and there's a new album coming later this year; I'm excited, though some of the new songs they played recently are very hit-or-miss. I didn't like the new ballad they played last year, but GIRL is awesome.

Sky fits heaven ❤️

Listen to FALLING, then immediately to TWO OF A KIND. I think you'll find easier to pinpoint the "muddiness" people are talking about. I'd bet money they recorded FALLING album's mix after finishing all the other songs.
 
And few listenings after, still pretty much disappointed. it's not a bad album, I was just expecting so much more. There's absolutely NOTHING new here, which is understandable, as they said this one would be a a lookback at their career (It also explains why people seem to like it). Thing is, I'm not really fond of run of the mill gazerock. I mean c'mon, how many times they've made UNFINISHED-like songs before? And even on songs that had potential, they managed to fuck up somehow (ABHOR GOD chorus, first verse of THE MORTAL, anyone?). I wanted to further develop on why I believe this is a step back for them, but eh, whatever

kiwamu scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel yet again. 2018 is cursed.