carddass

Digging this version of Law's a lot more than the original. It's sent me down a spiral and now I've put on the audio for the Rhythmless & Perspective DVD. Tracks like Pledge, Crow, loved, I know and hikousen sound spectacular in this form. I'm starting to think Kiyoharu's voice is more suited toward this slower style and not toward the late-Kuroyume / early SADS blow-his-voice-out way of singing which he can't really replicate like he used to anymore. I wonder what Kuroyume tracks he recorded? I can't imagine Like @ Angel being converted but things like Nakigara wo, Misery, yuri no hanataba and If are high up on my wishlist considering he sang those at his first lives in semi-stripped down renditions.

I'm surprisingly finding these vocalists somewhat complimentary to the electronic beats when I wouldn't have expected them to. Looking forward to this one!

Awesome...I'm looking forward to Elegy now~ It might be the first Kiyo album I purchase new since Vinnybeach. (So many of the albums after that one ended up in Book off NY on the cheap used a mere 6-12 months later)

Amazing vocal line-up! All he need was Baki (Gastunk) and Hyde to round out the all-star line-up.

Maybe i'm in the minority here when I say this but I hope the third guitarist means kiyoharu's doing another acoustic album like light & shade. Despite the greatness he achieved with certain solo albums, those acoustic-y ones and the subsequent live show on DVD were the last thing he did that really WOWed me. Not to mention, that he did spend a lot of this year as a solo artist performing 'Plugless' shows.

It sort of happened already. On Kiyoharu's 2012 Under the Sun, Miyavi provides his distinct guitar work on the track 'Judie'. I would say it's a good 50-50% mix of kiyoharu's style and Miyavi's.

On 10/20, Madame Edwarda will release a 2-disk compilation "Doppelgänger 1983-1985" containing unreleased, live and alternate takes. Their output during those years was limited to a few appearances on compilations, 2 singles and 1 full length album before they ultimately put the band on hiatus following 1986's Illumine. According to the tracklist from Diskunion, there are 13 unreleased songs from that era which, if they are truly full songs, would be quite alot considering they only released about 20 songs officially on thei aforementioned album/singles/comps. 1. 月蝕狂想曲 ~Lunar Caprice~ (未発表曲) 2. Opéra (live version) 3. Marionette (live version) 4. Arabian Nights (live version) 5. Le SABBAT II (live version) 6. LORELEI (live version) 7. INTRODUCTION (alternate version) 8. Opéra (alternate version) 9. NOSFERATU (alternate version) 10. The Horror CAVE! (alternate version) 11. NOSTALGIE (alternate version) 12. Le SABBAT (alternate version) 13. Trench Coat ~Prologue~ (alternate version) 14. Trench Coat (alternate version) Disc 2 1. LOW (live version) 2. White-Darkness ~Prologue~ (live version) 3. ヒステリックな侯爵夫人 (未発表曲) 4. Le SABBAT ~La Fin Du Eros~ (live version) 5. Arabian Nights ~Prologue~ (live version) 6. Arabian Nights (live version) 7. Étranger ~Maniérisme~ (live version) 8. NOSFERATU (live version) 9. カロリーヌ (未発表曲) 10. 刑事舞踏 (デカダンス) (未発表曲) 11. CARMEN (未発表曲) 12. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (未発表曲) 13. Le SABBAT ~La Fin du Thanatos~ (live version) 14. Soirée (live version) 15. Fill夢 ~Introduction of メッキII ~ (live version) 16. メッキII ~Longtemps du Temps~ (live version) 17. LORELEI ~Valse Infinie~ (live version) 18. Unfinished Veil (未発表曲) 19. Haunted Q (未発表曲) 20. Overture (未発表曲) 21. Cirque de la nuit ~夜のサーカス~ (未発表曲) 22. Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard ~賽の一振り~ (未発表曲) 23. Jeux d'artifices ~罠の戯れ~ (未発表曲) 24. HAMLET (未発表曲) 25. メッキ (live version) http://diskunion.net/punk/ct/detail/1007486522 And speaking of 'Illumine', it will be released for the first time on CD on 9/15. http://diskunion.net/punk/ct/detail/1007458331 The version floating around on the web / youtube came from my cassette rip which I've learned years might not have been transferred in the best way possible. So if you're into sound quality, surely the CD comes will sound alot better and hopefully be from the master tapes.

Acid Android's does sound the most interesting. Of course, it's probably because Yukihiro's channeling his inner Alan Wilder/ Depeche Mode which he's perfected over the years. As much as I used to love kiyohau's voice in early kuroyume and then again in late Sads / early solo....it's all just a trainwreck now. If only there was any financial rewards in recording acoustic albums like light & shade, only then might we get something decent out of him anymore.

Dead End's Serafine Creature Creature's Sen no yami yo ni Does anyone have a setlist or happen to record the whole show by any chance? I'd gladly kill for a good audio bootleg to hear these songs stripped down like this.

I was kinda hoping he would do this one day since he has alot of downtime between his various rehearsals, recordings and tourings in Japan. Sadly, I'll be visiting NY this week and will be long gone by the time this concert takes place. Any intrepid fan care to bootleg the whole show for us poor souls who can't make it?!

Morrie has made New York his home since the early 90's but he has never actually performed live there until now. His ongoing solo tour 'Solitude' will be having a one night performance at Kraine theater on August 27th: http://www.horsetrade.info/event/f5695ea63338c0d65e4bf76ec93ec9ea Tickets go on sale August 1st. For any fans of Dead End, Creature Creature or his solo work, this will probably be one of the only times to catch him live in the states.

I think the best way to really drive the point home to the fan base would be to make some sort of hilarious photo meme series. One half of the meme could be an image with Yoshiki and some release date announcement or tease announcement - there are probably countless moment since they reunited. The other half could be what Yoshiki was really doing instead. i.e.: hanging out with random celebrities, going to events, doing selfies holding a hello kitty doll, promoting some weird product. I mean, we fans have to keep ourselves entertained through the let-downs, shouldn't we!?

Awesome, this was quite a good video. Great editing, look and concept! I still haven't figured out the running (inside?) joke with using former bassist Toshi's face and name on promotion long after he departed. In this video he's wearing a t-shirt where Toshi is dressed up as Blue Blood era Toshi from X Japan.

This actually sounds more exciting than a normal X concert these days. No more overexhausted post drum solo falling down and concert delays! Toshi already knows how to hold down an acoustic live on his own with session guys during his solo lives so having Pata/Sugizo/Heath will be top notch. And maybe this will mean they'll dust off those tracks that Yoshiki doesn't want to play anymore: The aforementioned Rose of Pain live back in 94:

Yoshiki just had a major operation, one he's been pushing off for a while, so it's not happening. He's delayed the album for lesser things as we know. http://www.yoshiki.net/YoshikiSurgery.html Until that fateful day, here's a teaser from more than 2 years ago that really got the fans excited that release day was near: http://jrock247.com/2015/02/yoshiki-teases-new-x-japan-album/

Nice, nothing like some old-school fans still keeping the fuffu alive!

While searching google for other info about this announcement I came across an old post I did back in 2010 which referenced Matenrou's blog saying the doguu album would be out in 2011! Surprisingly 5 of the unrecorded songs back then that I mentioned are the exact ones that will appear on the album. The other two tracks haven't been played or changed titles along the way. http://beatforyou.livejournal.com/6011.html

Awesome. Can't wait to order this finally. I was secretly hoping it would have morphed into a 10 or 12 track album considering all the new songs they have. Being a fan of 80's new wave, munimuni's 'New Order Love Song' sounds like an awesome prospect.

Good riddance! Those Loudness guys were taking too many gigs away from those deserving but underappreciated 80's American rock acts who are owed top-billing before the imports! </sarcasm>

I still can't help but recall last year's, or 2015's, debacle with kuroyume's publishing rights being auctioned off. As far as I understood it, kiyoharu over-leveraged the brand, got into debt and burned lots of bridges. The question is - what happened to Hitoki through all this? Considering his ramped up activities in recent years with his solo work and participation in other bands, I'm going to take an unverified fanboy guess and say he didn't really get much (financially) out of Kuroyume when they came back together. If he treated as an equal partner in the group, like he should've, I'm sure he would've been pissed that the brand got trashed. If he was just treated as a session musician to get fans to believe this was truly kuroyume and had to play second fiddle to kiyoharu, I'm sure he would have grown tired of that too. What artist/musician wouldn't? And like a true business man who knows how to open up shop and go into bankruptcy at the right times, Kioyharu's continually new production companies or label signings, starting of kuroyume and sads roughly at the same time in the late 00's and constant whoring of FC and website exclusive goods, makes me believe he's the common denominator when comes to any and all drama. Disparaging the other party so publicly seems very un-Japanese and it sounds like an attempt at striking first to save face from the fans who he needs to buy his overpriced jewelry.

Thanks for the offer. PM sent!

It was definitely after he broke from the Home of Heart / Masaya's cult that he adopted this new moniker. I imagine it had to do with legal associations from his previous endeavors - AFAIK, he might've signed over his previous management to Masaya so anything under his original 'Toshi' might go directly to HoH. Not to mention his autobiography basically explained that he was penniless despite all those years of gigging for Masaya's group. He's working his ass off now like he did back then but now at least he looks like he's having fun doing it and hopefully living more comfortably. For a tragic read about how Toshi original became brainwashed and how he quit the band, read this great translation: http://www.xjapantranslations.com/brainwashing-12-years-of-hell-1 Anyway, Toshi and his backing band might be more X than X Japan is these days. He's pretty much playing all of the songs X fans want to hear live. I mean look at this fricken setlist from a recent live! Dear Loser Vanishing Love Sadistic Desire WEEK END Standing Sex Desperate Angel Celebration Say Anything World Anthem Blue Blood Alive Stab Me in the Back Joker Orgasm Encore: Toki no Umi e He's also performed other classics in recent years like Rose of Pain, Silent Jealousy, Unfinished, Tears, and Dahlia . http://www.setlist.fm/setlists/toshi-23d6dc87.html

I blinked and saw the limited edition on amazon for a moment around Christmas, got busy as per the holidays, and then saw it was already sold out and missed getting it. Still holding out for hope that it'll turn up at a reasonable price before falling back and buying the normal edition. I wasn't expecting too much of that old sound which was a product of its generation - I was hoping to hear some good dark goth rock. I'll find out sooner or later once I get my hands on it. I'll have to pounce on the split CD release if it ever goes on sale to the public. And Eby from ZiKill is quite the surprise! Besides Tusk, the Zikill guys need to make a comeback.

I actually do remember that now. For some reason I applied that story to Tetsuya Komuro instead of Yoshiki. It sounded fantastic and unbelievable back then....and almost plausible....and then the excuses started piling up year after year with bogus announcements and as a fan I started to realize most of what he says is a sham.

I agree early era X is great and would love to hear proper studio versions but I actually wouldn't fault him for not releasing those. For starters, most were never recorded in a studio. A few of those (Right Now, Tuneup Baby, Only Way) were directly done by guitarist Jun / Hisashi Takai and once he left, none of those songs were really played again afterwards, IFAIK. SBR, Feel Me Tonight and Lady in Tears had demos but nothing they could remaster by any means, even if those master tapes existed they would possible sound not great since they didn't have a budget to properly record, and you know Yoshiki and his recording habits now!, not to mention they all scream of 80's Iron Maiden influenced metal which the band has long moved past. Install never made it far and it's probably for the best. It wouldn't have fit well with VV, I think. I doubt a proper studio version exists for the same usually no time / no budget scenario most bands suffered through early in their careers. I'm more annoyed that alot of those demos on Rose and Blood didn't get picked for Jealousy. 'Shadows' , 'Light Breeze' and 'Rose and Blood', while being somewhat typical of the time period and the latter being Xclamation 2.0, would've rounded out the album better. I don't hate many X / X Japan's songs but that album has two of my most hated, Desperate Angel and Joker (Celebration 2.0!) that I would've gladly traded out for the aforementioned demos. Those demos were clearly better songs and with proper recording polish would've sounded even better. But of course, we know the story, Yoshiki didn't like the demos, the band got annoyed the songs didn't get used and Taiji ultimately got kicked out. I've always dreamed and hoped that the early Violet UK tracks would get released one day. The ones from 1996-2001 or so. It's a crime that they never did. White poem I is a great example that escaped obscurity by being used as a X song, the rest were snippits used in the 7-11 commercials, the Sane movie, and in a few other odd promotional places. They had an old school trip hop feel or like Massive Attack which had broken big around the same time before the VUK project became mush-filled electronic songs like a protools sample project screaming about the infinite number of layers it could support which is what those songs in 2005 on myspace and Itunes felt like . I imagine there being no chance of those every being released now, if they were, they'd be reworked into dreck. Here's one VUK early song which legend goes was played at a press event by Yoshiki. Amazing to my ears!