Champ213

This made me me lol a lot. Anyway, I will also try the new albums of the week. I'm fairly sire I heard the Progidy one but it was a long time ago. And I know exactly one Astrud Gilberto song, though I'm not sure if it's from that album, so I don't really know what to expect there.

I can't say I care much for singles at all. But realesing singles isn't very common among the non-japanese bands I listen to anyway. I'm fine with that, I can wait a few years until a new album is out. Among the two models you mentioned I think I still prefer the western one. Why? I think it's just nice to have an album full of fresh songs, instead a compiltation of stuff that was released over the course of 2-3 years. It's also annoying if you already bought the singles, and the album only has 2 or 3 new songs. If the singles come out after the album it's easier to decide if you want to pass up on them, or if you want to buy them for the b-sides (which I really only do in rare cases).

Yup.

Sadly, as far as I know, listen.jp doesn't accept Paypal, which was a requirement by the original poster. I haven't really come across any good japanese online mp3 store that allow you to buy without credit card. I really wish there was because I don't have a credit card either and I'm not planning to get one. But usually only Us/European stores like HearJapan, CD Baby etc. offer Paypal. I don't really know why japanese stores in general are so reluctant about using Paypal. Anyway, another thing you can try is to check our your regional version of Amazon. I bought a few japanese mp3s there in the past. They don't offer Paypal, but bank transfer. Since you have Paypal, I assume you have your own bank account, so this should work for you as well.

I'm kinda disappointed you didn't give yourself an afro. Because I haven't had an afro since 2009!!!!! ;P I'm kinda disappointed you didn't give yourself glasses Because I don't wear them all time. ;P Usually just when I'm outside, or want to watch TV. Never when I work on the computer (so not when making that avatar either) because at that distance, my sight ist still fine.

I'm kinda disappointed you didn't give yourself an afro.

I suppose Zess just randomly picks 2 albums out of the list of suggestions? I don't think there's a pattern behind it.

Not very remarkable, but....

This obviously: PjQbLqrB1t0

Lol, gotta love the exaggerated vk mannerisms during the performance bits.

If they disband I will be mad as hell. >.

_1ei3O7y2eg I'm not a vegan, but the viking rune stone sushi @ 8:50 is quite enticing.

CD Baby has a huge number of japanese artists and a few korean ones as well. They are specialized on independent artists, so it may not carry what you're looking for, but it's worth a try, I guess.

This is a bit OT, but... LOL! Yes, this is the hallmark of every badly qualified IT person. A few years ago my computer refused to connect to the internet, for no apparent reason. Against my better judgement I called the support hotline of my ISP, because I wanted to know if the problem maybe was on their side. The guy asked me 3 or 4 questions and then decided that in order to fix the problem, I would have to format the hard drive and reinstall windows, a process that would take hours if you consider that I'd have to backup all stuff and then re-install all programmes. I eventually fixed the problem by using Windows' system restore to reset the system to a restore point from the day before. That process took 5 minutes.

Yes, you still have to use a proxy, but you won't have to make a FB account because you can log in with our dummy account. I'll look up the account info and send them to you via PM. Since you're a staff member, that shouldn't be any problem. And you'll have a cool name too, cause the current TT name of our dummy account is "BANHAMMERING WAFFLE". XD

Maybe we should just more frequently schedule and announce events. Heck, they don't have to be theme nights each time, just arrange a date and time and say "Hey, let's meet then." Personally I'd like to go on TT every once in a while, but not each and every day, and I guess that's the same for most people, so chances of meeting each other are slim. But if we set a time and date, we know it's worthwhile to go on.

Sai, if you want you can use our dummy account which we made to create our room, back when only room creators had perm mod power. Since mod powers can now be transferred we don't really need it that urgently anymore, so you can use it to log in.

Done. Monochrome Halloween Party @ Turntable When? Monday, October 31st, 9 pm GMT (Time Zone Converter for time in your time zone) Where? http://turntable.fm/mhturntable What? If you have scary and/or Halloween-related music to play, go ahead! But anything else will be fine as well, just join us and have a good time! (If you think it should be at a different time/date, for example not at the actual halloween eve, let me know, I'll see what can be arranged)

Maybe we should schedule a Halloween Party night at our TT room?

Okay, I listened to the Tristania album. As I said before, Tristania are no strangers to me, as I used to be a half-assed goth in my teens. That was before the age of mp3 downloading, so I had their first album Widow's Weed as CD-to-tape-copy, lol. And I remember being madly in love with the song Angellore. I never fully listened to 'Beyond the Veil' though, I guess because I never got my hands on it before my interest in the goth scene faded. I know some of the songs though because they used to be (over)played at the local club at friday's goth/darkwave/ebm night. XD So, listening to this album was quite a throwback into old days for me. I especially remembered Aphelion, which (maybe because of that) also turned out to be my favourite track from the album. I kinda agree with Jigsaw though that, while pretty impeccable from a technical perspective, I rarely felt really "touched" by the songs, except for a bit of nostalgia. (But the nostalgia was much stronger when I looked up "Angellore" on youtube again - for some reason that songs seemed more emotional to me). Or maybe I would have liked the album more if I had listened to it 10 years ago, since I'm not that much into gothic metal anymore. I do applaud them for using some unusual instruments like the violin though, and the thing that almost sounded like an erhu. I can also imagine that the album needs more than one listen to get fully grabbed by it. It's still a very decent album, and I can understand why somebody would pick it as most representative gothic metal album. Overall: 6.5/10

Glad you liked it! Also: High five! Those are my favourite tracks as well. xD By the way, I found a 320kb/s version of the Tristania album. If anyone wants the link, message me. I'll listen to it later today.

Sadly, TT doesn't allow full albums to be played. I think the restriction is 3 tracks from one album per hour. Not sure if it works with rolling.fm. Personally I prefer to download the albums though, since for a proper review I like to repeat tracks etc. Anyway, since I recommended the AA album, I won't review that, but I'll try the Tristania one. I actually know some songs from it, thanks to my teen goth days, but I mostly heard them at the club, never really as a whole CD.

We probably won't make a poll, because experience has shown us in the past that the polls aren't very reliable, ie. that a lot more people vote "Yes" than will actually participate. Instead we will probably ask people to pre-register with us via PM if they want to participate. If we get enough registrations (I'd say we should have at least around 6 people for a good contest), the contest will take place. Anyway, details will be announced soon.

On that note, I think "best" doesn't necessarily equal "most represantative". You said "representative" in the headline, but "best" in the description. My choices are more about what I consider "best" rather than representative, save maybe the Amon Amarth pick, which would work with both.