Gizorz

I like to add my share on Celga. It's kind of off topic, but I am currently having the worst experience with them I could have ever imagined having with a shopping service, or any service in general.
 
My Celga experience so far. If you’re ordering items other than those coming from Rakuten, I harshly advice you not to proceed in doing business with these people at all costs.   About three months ago, I ordered two things off the UNDER CODE webshop with them. One of the items had a special instruction. And I think that it took them time to understand what had to be done after the application for this special instruction ended on the webshop. Anyway. Two items: that shouldn’t be such a very big deal, should it? For them it is. About two months ago, I suddenly got an invoice for the CD that was due to the second of June, so I was asking myself how on earth they had gotten me this item. I emailed them of course, and they told me it was the other item I had ordered so everything seemed fine. I payed for shipment and waited.   Once I got this item in the mail, I was flabbergasted. This item didn’t belong to me, I had never ordered it! Turns out it was the CD my friend in France (I’m located in the Netherlands so go figure) ordered. Of course I was mad, because now I both had paid for something that wasn’t mine and my friend had to wait longer for his CD because now I had to ship it to him instead.    I emailed Celga again, and surprisingly, they didn’t understand how this happened! After a few emails back and forth they ended up telling me that they weren’t able to purchase item #1 for me in the end. So, instead of this, you send me other people’s belongings? They refunded me for everything, so I thought I lost my item.   Until now. Item #2 was still due to release so I waited for this. After a few days after its release date I emailed Celga again to check in with them and see if they actually received it (since on their website it has been saying they had this item in stock the day I ordered it so I couldn’t possibly continue applying for shipment) and they, after several confirmations (with me adding an extra link of the item after they asked) told me that everything was fine and they should pack it up and send me an invoice for shipment. Two days later, I get this invoice by ordering via SAL. $41. Now, for a CD, this would be pretty insane, wouldn’t it? I ask them why, and they don’t answer me anything but telling me that for small packages EMS is cheaper. So naturally, I change my shipment to EMS. $46. I am set off, really. How can a CD, weighing perhaps 100 gram, be that expensive to ship? My further investigation this morning lead me to the invoice saying my items weighs 1,4 kilogram. Now there were some bells ringing. My item #1 would estimate being about such a weight. And when I click the link on the invoice of the item I ordered, I get a blank page on the UNDER CODE website (this item is out of stock by now, hence the blank page). So that could only mean one thing. After telling me they couldn’t get item #1, refunding me the costs, and me thinking this bid was lost forever, they still have it.    Now, I have to wait on #2 again. I have yet to place a new shipment request, and wait another few weeks perhaps to see if they actually have it at all.   Now… Their customer support. It is hopeless. I think currently their American side is being ran by three persons, and if you email with them back and forth it’s never the same person coming back at you. I think it would be much more convenient if they placed one person on an individual order instead of trying to get it done by multiple. If you ask them a question, it’s about 0% that it’s actually going to be answered. I’ve asked them an endless amount of questions and the only thing they reply is: We’ll look into it, thank you for your patience.

That's not what Miyavi fans were saying in 2008 when that album was released. Everyone was sick to death of that musical style and wanted Miyavi to move on to something new. Said fans voted with their wallet. I even remember Miyavi saying something about how dismayed he was that the album didn't sell as much as he was hoping it would. He then listened, got rid of the Kavki Boiz and moved on to something new and now there's complaints that he should go back.
 
If there's one thing about Miyavi as an artist, it's that he taps into a style fully before he moves on. He's done with that style and he's never going back. Ever. That's what the camp of Miyavi fans that wanted more Miyavizm found out the hard way.
It's also very interesting to read this argument:
 
 
This argument was phrased very similarly when This Iz The Japanese Kabuki Rock was in vogue. The album is a few years too late. He's doing the same thing over and over. It's so unoriginal. Things before it are the best things he's ever done. In a few years when Miyavi is doing something else, which may or may not even include a guitar, people will look back fondly on this moment and say that they wish he went back to this style of music.
Hindsight is so 20/20 it hurts.

In my opinion, this song is the natural follow-up to Ahead of the Light. The song structure, the chorus, everything points to a more mainstream, dancey sound. This is the closest to something the average western dude would listen to. If he made a collaboration with a more famous vocalist and stuck to the guitarwork, I would most certainly bet on average sucess/radio play in the west. He had his early vk phase, his distorted guitar phase, his mad skillzzz phase, his experimental phase, his raw guitar phase, and now this mainstream electronic influenced one. Each miyavi album tells us a part of his story. I guess it's pretty safe to say that this album will not please everyone. He does the music he wants to, and that's GREAT.

Yes, I think you shouldn't start a diru cover band.
I mean. Covering Dir en grey's songs plays a huge part in global warming and costs the tax payer a fortune.
And on top of that... it could be fun.  D :

MiA said something alluding to the fact that those songs were all recorded over a year ago. That was around the time of their first full length, which indicates those.songs didn't make the cut. They sandwiched that mini between two three month release sprees. That is perfect for working up cash for more activities.

I'm not liking this at all.. Hope it's not a representation of what the rest of the album sounds like because I'd be really disappointed...

I'm not liking this at all.. Hope it's not a representation of what the rest of the album sounds like because I'd be really disappointed...

I'm not liking this at all.. Hope it's not a representation of what the rest of the album sounds like because I'd be really disappointed...

Requesting Japanese lyrics or booklet scans of the whole mini!

ugh lol and those are apparently Di'Vorcing (sorry in advance as I'm drunk and can't help myself, send me a truck full of aspirins tomorrow)

Oshare kei

I'd go just to get into Satsuki's harem of lil finn girls

Throwing my initial skepticism aside, I decided to give YOHIO's album a spin. Much to my surprise, what I found was something beyond my wildest dreams.
 
The record begins with a tasteful intro track that immediately sets the epic and grandiose mood of the album. As soon as the dubstep break kicks in, we can feel his undying urge to "break the border" which can be attributed as the overarching concept of the whole release. Next, we are treated to a couple of powerful and immensely catchy visual rock tracks. The overall spirit of innovation is present throughout, as the artist breaks those borders that limit genre classifications, melding his art into something transcendental - it's a musical "REVOLUTION" (to quote the title of one of the more outstanding and totally not tired songs of the record).
 
YOHIO shows us his versatility even more in the next segment (this album can easily be divided into separate thematic parts that make up a whole concept, but more about that later) that contains a more poppy type of music. Be it the infectuous power-pop of Heartbreak Hotel or the simply matchless never-before-heard intense beauty of Sakura, falling (penned together with Gackt, another maestro whose innovative song structures amaze us year after year now) YOHIO decides to conquer our hearts, taking no prisoners. Little do we expect the shocking continuation...
 
The album takes a sudden darker turn with the arrival of the next track. INNOCENCE is like the unrelentingly aggressive yet captivating masterpiece MEJIBRAY or the DIR EN GREY guys have tried and tried but failed to conceive over the past years. When YOHIO screams, he screams for all of us, and we immediately make that connection subconsciously - a transcendental and almost religious experience/bond between artist and listener. This feeling is then heightened and pushed to the extreme on the next set of more emotional songs, of which the highlight is TIMESCAPE, a totally necessary and interesting piano instrumental.
 
YOHIO continues with another instrumental number, this time showcasing his impeccable guitar skills. Seriously, for a moment I thought I was listening to Steve Vai but then I realized - YOHIO is the Steve Vai (Su...Suteibu Waii?) the Japanese market never had. Thus, in this sense BREAK the BORDER becomes much more than a mere album (however fascinating it might be): it is a cultural mission statement, a proclamation of creativity and the generous offer to hand down that exceptional creative streak to the thousands... no, millions who will surely be listening! Finally, the album closes with the ever-strong title track, concluding this fantastic musical journey.
 
In conclusion, we can say that YOHIO's debut album is not only a flawless set of songs but a concept album chronicling the inner drive and torments of the artistic mind. The first segment (tracks 1-3) does what, indeed, is in the title of the album: it breaks down the borders with its unusually innovative approach. The second part (4-9) symbolizes the conflictual emotions and desires he carries, a genius bogged down by the mere earthly elements of this world, the artistic spirit forever tied to ever-fallible physicality that entraps it. After we have broken all borders what remains? This fascinatingly diverse musical "anarchy" is calmed and concluded by the ending segment (10-12) that delivers the message of purity and staying true to oneself. The artist is reborn like a phoenix from the ashes, and can begin his musical adventures anew, sometime, somewhere...
 
A truly beautiful album if I ever heard one. This will no doubt be mentioned among the classics, when we take a look back a few decades later.
 
Fooled ya? ;D Happy April 1st!

During their talk-event, HIZAKI and TERU announced their new project to be :
 
Band name : Jupiter
 
Line-up :
 
Vo. ZIN
Gt. HIZAKI
Gt. TERU
Ba. MASASHI
Dr. YUKI
 
They will hold two lives to start the band : on 4/17 and 4/21
 
Rumors saying a video introducing the band will be on Youtube within 3 hours (Midnight Japanese Time)
 
I have never been that fucking excited (even though... Jupiter... wtf...)
 
I can't wait to see more !

Hello fellow Monochromiums,
 
After having thought this through for quite a bit of time (and copious discussions with the other staff members), I have decided that I will be stepping down as a moderator on this forum. I am very honoured that you voted me for staff of the year and I've appreciated all the love and kind words, but it's time for me to step down now. There are personal things I must first finish before I can be in full duty of this forum again. I want to thank everyone for the loving support and I hope you won't miss me too much while I'm gone. I wasn't the best mod anyway.
 
Best regards,
 
sai

Didn't know this could be the roots of drama.
Some people just care too much.

VK IS NOT DEAD. TOPIC CLOSED

Be careful here. Hindsight is 20/20. it's easy to say that the visual music from the 90's is better than today's music because only the best of the best have survived over time. I can guarantee you that there are just as many crappy visual kei bands now as there were then - there was just no outlet to hear about them. Many of these crappy bands have been lost to time, and some of the good ones too. It only seems different because the Internet allows us to find out about virtually any band that forms within the last few months. We are now barraged with more information than ever before. It's not the scene that's changed, but just your perception of it.
And for the record, the whole "90's VK scene" was fraught with as many faux-goth bands then as the scene today is filled with metalcore bands that like electronic effects. It's a challenge to find good artists doing something different no matter what genre you listen to, no matter what time it comes from.

I'm forced to take this article with a grain of salt after noticing they took quite a few liberties with explaining the subject.

My first issue being with the fact that he takes an entire two paragraphs to basically say that no one knows if the Burning Keiretsu is real, and then goes on to make assumptions for the rest of the second part about what the Burning Keiretsu do and how they organize their business. He just literally wrote there's no source of information on them. Where is the author getting his facts from?




Without numbers and quantitative data, this means nothing. He glosses over this until the next section, where he begins to take one or two examples to show that Burning indeed does exist...except he's saying that all official sources have never put Burning down on paper. So how does one come across this data? How is this data verified? He said that he found it on "JASRAC". I looked around on JASRAC and couldn't find a thing. This isn't to say that the author is making this up, but if you discover this data you need to record it in case it suddenly becomes "lost", and if you're talking about a company that doesn't want to be known you better include date and time of retrieval as well as a cache stored somewhere. Saying "I found this at some undisclosed time in the past" is shoddy reporting.

After I skipped to the end and found nothing resembling a bibliography or a list of sources, I stopped reading. He may have some valid points here and there about the general structure of the industry but with no sources I have no idea how much of this is accurate and to what degree.

I'm just posting this as a disclaimer before people go all "OMG LIKE CORPORATE MONOPOLY" all over this topic.

Madoka retired the scene. Shou did official support for para:noir and is still doing support for other bands I think. Jin is doing support for everyone and their mother, just like before unsraw. I'm not sure what tetsu's up to. Jun has a new band Ms.LIAR according to vkdb. Yuuki popped up on twitter again for unsraw's revival/second disbandment live but I don't think he's doing anything. No idea what's going on with Rai.
 
 
Shou's blog: http://profile.ameba.jp/sho-official/
Tetsu's blog: http://profile.ameba.jp/tetsu-official
Jin's blog: http://profile.ameba.jp/jin3official
Yuuki's twitter: https://twitter.com/yuuki_ofc

It makes me sad that all of the stuff the members have gone off to do has been relatively crap compared to D'espairsRay (imo).
 
Karyu joining Angelo is probably the worst blow, considering I don't think that bad has made a single good piece of music.
 
The Micro Head 4N's really isn't terrible, but they aren't that good either. I think I might even like them if they had a decent vocalist.
But all of this just makes me miss D'espairsRay more. I wish they would have tried some solo stuff or something, I think those would have had the potential to be more interesting. Oh well. I wonder how Hizumi's vocals are doing now.

it is announced at アヲイ(awoi) live at Nishikujou BRAND NEW at 2013/02/07 that their new maxi single (title not yet finalized) will be released at 2013/04/03, although details have not yet been announced
 
 
SET-LIST at 2013/02/07:
 
アヲイ(awoi) Part I:
SE
01.abelcain
02.センチメンタル・ラストシーン
03.メランコリィ
04.Sunnyday
05.ゴースト
06.生キル為ノ歌

万里:
SE
01.ヤクザムシ
02.彼氏
03.雨の子供

アヲイ(awoi) Part II:
SE
01.unhappy birthday to me
02.ゆびきり
03.RED MUTATION
04.フェル
05.メリーさん
06.バタフライ

https://www.facebook.com/events/495990767117800 Casually leaving this here just in case.

I think you need to know something about music to be able to criticize it. No, you don't need to be a professional, nor a musician, but you need to have an idea about what makes music generally good and what makes it generally bad. 
 
Like, for example, there was this girl writing a music review blog. One of her favorite bands was, indeed, Gazette. She introduced the band and whereas our opinions about the band differed a lot, I could explain it by saying that Gazette just haven't clicked with me. BUT! When she introduced Kai, she used the sentence: "I think Kai is an excellent drummer because he's so perky and can follow the beat." At that point I realized she knows nothing about music and should not be writing a music review blog. Seriously? CAN FOLLOW THE BEAT? Is that your qualification for an excellent drummer?! Fuck me in the asshole jesus christ almighty.

I'm glad he still isn't wrinkly and gross.