Karma’s Hat

I don't like the new version either. I find all of the changes they made questionable and the "improved" production really takes away the magical quality the original had, which is why I'm not too big on the idea of an album full of remade songs when it's Ruellia. In my opinion Ruellia did the Lo-fi right and a lot of their character came from their casette hiss and atmosphere created by the production, but now that it's clearer, their sloppy musicianship is exposed in a bad way. That thing that replaced the solo is just fucking terrible and the prominent piano sux. The new song is alrite, though the generic vk intro gives off bad vibes. I'll try to sit on it for a while before making a judgement though, since one tends to hold new tracks under more scrutiny than something that would already have been in their back-catalog - especially if it's some old band making a comeback ( which that has been surprisingly good so far ).

I thought that was fantastic. Great to see that they can still go.

Some actually useful general advice is hard to give, as every situation depends on the parties involved and the context in which it happens like culture, workplace, school etc. Really it's impossible to say for a complete outsider what causes it exactly ( though I would argue that those predators smell the weak and then pick on them unconsciously. It's not the 7ft 250 pounder who gets accosted for cigarettes at the train stop ), and when it has started, the situation is hard to unravel. And here I'm speaking of school bullying specifically. If there's really a general suggestion I could give, then it's bulk up and fire back I suppose - but it's a case by case thing really. Surely the best case scenario is to able to inform the authority and that would be that, however it is rarely so simple. "but people also dont see all the other forms of bullying that permeate all of society." This needs to be remembered 2. Though I'm not sure where you guys grew up, but if you tried to be a stalwart mountain of nobility in front of some chavs or neighborhood tuff guys 'ere, then you're going to be hustled down to your underpants.

Yar. When I arrived I had to suffer through the last song and after that I saw them buying drinks with their finnfag bangyaru. Horrors. Heidi was nice, especially the last song which ended up being the only one I recognised.

What the bar is open? Fuck well I'm still in the area... I heard one song of Inlame. They suck and their fans suck too

Not 100% sure whether it was the full line that I saw, but it was by far the shortest I've ever seen for a bijuaru gig in Finland. Needless to say the bar was not going be open, so I instead invested my 20 bux on two nice IPA's mmmmm

Metalcredz are probably not much a concern when you got Limp Bizkit and Bam Margera booked.

Ugh. Less bargain bin bijuaru metal riffs and more jangle please. But regardless, the vocalist is a beautiful soul and I can't wait for their first release

I punched the computer monitor

I'm sure Dir en grey coming face to face with reality resulted in such phenomenal footage that it just had to be shared with all the pressed stans out there.

BUT BUT YOU WILL LOSE YOUR VOICE AND YNGWIE MALMSTEEN AND??!133 UHGHUH All opinions and other junk aside; Jin has this uncanny ability to irritate the unsuspecting listener. I like Jin, I secretly like some Nega as well - but it sure took a long while to get used to Jin's voice. It has a very rough quality to it, as to me it sounds like he is under the weather and very sore in the throat - so much so that is causes him pain to sing at all. While it can certainly be considered one of its appeals, it's also why a lot of people can't get into the stuff he is in at all. So a negative reaction isn't really surprising. I guess I would also maintain that he is not a particularly expressive vocalist ( which seems to be the main pro-argument ) or a good one, but that's neither here nor there. I'm still looking forward to whatever this projects turns out to be.

And to add to the post above: Stop lumping all metal together as if the same trends apply to every single movement therein. I can tell you this much; the endless bickering about vocal technique and other acrobatics is not really present in the underground, while it seems prominent characteristic of the metalcore scene. Go to the youtube videos of Bring Me The Horizon ( cheap example, but you get the point ) and whatever have you, and you are bound to find all sorts of wank how good or not the vocalist is live, and how this and that guy losing their voice. This does not happen that much - if at all - in extreme metal, and the sloppiness and rawness of it that was inherited from hardcore is still widely appreciated among its fans. Go complain about vocal technique of some vocalist to the NWN forums and you'll most likely be laughed at. And I'm not discrediting technique, I'm just saying that it's not entirely necessary. My point being here is that "maybe the old artists needn't train as you think, but nowadays vocalists are meant to protect their vocal cords" Is simply not true. There are new and old extreme metal vocalists who have nailed the technique and there are also those that have not, and not many people pay any mind since the focus is on the ends and not the means. Deep as fuck growls do fit chuggy emocore way better than the rough performance from Live In Leipzig ever would have, and vice versa. Someone might not like the vocal chord destroying sloppy screams of bandomen X, but there's most likely someone out there that does, and whether there is any "musical quality" to whatever the said vocalist is doing, is an individual case-by-case debate in itself.

There was a thread of similar nature... http://www.monochrome-heaven.com/topic/2556-most-brutal-visual-kei-band/ nvr4get

What in the feck, they actually did that. First they didn't speak a word about the actual gig, but now they praise it to high heaven and say that they're going to get bigger than Loudness! rolf

A terrible "review" and Ghost is Swedish Lel

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything.

True, I should have elaborated that I meant in the case of this band solely, and with that I still stick to my guns. What was being argued here, was that this band has changed when it comes to the writing process and I think this is not the case. There's just nothing to go by here. Early part of their career is poorly documented and sometimes there a contradictions too ( In Road To Nameless Liberty Uruha says he composed Discharge, credited writer however was Ruki IIRC )

I hate to break this to you guize, but songwriter credits hardly mean shit, especially when a bulk of their stuff doesn't even have such ( Don't quote me on that, but I recall that especially the first five EP's have none ). We don't know the in's and out's of their writing process, how it has been before and how it is now. if you really think that they don't have time to polish their stuff, then what about the first few years of their career. They released five mini's, a few singles and a full album in the span of two years and those releases are arguably their best shit. Despite the """"slow"""" period around DIM and TOXIC, their release schedule as of late hasn't been much different of what this band has gotten used to. Stop speculating.

Ugh for real. I find the comparison to regular ol' hairspray free jap indie rock very apt too, with the lame PV just enforcing the blandness overall. It's not bad per say ( I don't think Merry ever is ), it's just not much of anything really.

Now this was a bit confusing. Project, as in the PV? If this is the DVD for the album then I doubt anyone ever expected anything but a PV or two. Long gone are the days of Road to Nameless Liberty The two faces thing is obviously the band members in different costumes lawl

Kai's contributions are well known. How about the remaining blue mods or Ito? What I'd like to see is the remaining staff members to post here. None of the staff members whom have very blatantly been accused here have responded, despite hovering over the topic from time to time. I seriously hope we're not waiting here for an official response from the PR team after it has covered all the angles, while the inactive's keep on living in their own sphere.

Indeed the trial run is a must, but it should also apply to all existing staff members as well ( I would go as far as to say that they've run their trial course a long, long time ago ). Your numbers are more than enough, so what needs to happen is getting rid of fat and replacing that with those who seem more apt for the job. It won't do that this whole thing culminates into another green mods disaster, where the existing staff members, whom seem out of the loop from the daily happenings of this very music scene and this community, seemingly try to off the workload to a bunch of former regulars who soon grow tired of the whole thing. I honestly think that if there's even one rotten apple of slacking and apathy in the barrel, the infection spreads. For example, presumably two of the staff have not seen this topic yet despite it being up for almost 24 hours, and one of the them hasn't even logged in since 4.10 for christ sake. I know I'm probably just saying what has been said between the lines before, but I wan't to make this 100% clear with no misunderstandings. With that said, I'm also up for candidacy ( which is not the reason I made this topic I assure you ) while vouching for Stylelover and Whirlingblack, and all of us hang out here practically 24/7.

While it sounds a bit silly, I believe that arbitrary colors and titles help to take some people one step further when it comes to activity. So if someone doesn't seem like the world's best user at the moment, it doesn't mean that they wouldn't change after being granted modship. Obviously a new sexy staff wouldn't be found over night, but that's what discussion is for.

Lately me and various other regulars ( whom I hope voice their support for immediate action and add to the discussion ) have been thinking that there's a problem, and that is the severe lack of participation in forum activities in part of some of the staff members. It's pretty much widely acknowledged all around that especially a bulk of the blue ( and the late green, whom were subsequently and justly culled ) mods are notoriously inactive when it comes to interacting with much of the community. It's true that I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and what are the contributions of each one there, but I do believe that actual "moderating" is far from being the only job of a staff member. A member of the staff should have a proactive approach to the forums; interacting with the members, making topics and creating discussions as often as possible and not just once or twice a month when the mood is right. The benefits of this approach for example have been seen in the review and general sections. If Zess and CAT5 wouldn't have made all the topics and discussions there that they have I bet nobody would have and the general section would still be pretty much dead. I think the forum would benefit a lot from updating the staff roster with users who are in the loop of the current goings in the Japanese music scene, and imporantly the said users should be known by the people and the people should know them. I bet many newcomers who registered in the late 2012, early 2013 have no clue who these people are and I can't really blame them, seeing as some of the staff rarely post anything that classifies as a contribution. And I'm not trying to come off as hostile, but I really think this forum has seen a surge of activity as of late ( some people would very much disagree with me though ) and I think that we should capitalize on that with a new, active and participating staff. There should be as little inactivity as possible and most definately zero people that clearly stick around just because they're friends. A mod status should be for those who are absolutely dedicated and if the time comes when they cannot live up to their duties, they should resign without a second thought. edit: I urge everyone to say either yay or nay below. There needs to be some discussion about this because this is what people complain about all the time. Everyone, and I mean everyone has complained about the forum being dead at one point. I honestly think that a staff that is right there in the middle of everything is the best way to engage this problem. While I also realise that you might be hesitant to do a revamp after the failure of the green mods, culling the one or two that are certainly solely dead weight right now and replacing them with new ones wouldn't hurt. edit2: To address another concern that was voiced: The user and mod apathy. It may be a convenient excuse for staff members and users alike to free themselves of the burden of contributing just because "What does it matter when nobody else won't do anything either". That's reasonable, why would anyone post when nobody else does? I feel this concern can be directly addressed with a proactive, enthusiastic and most importantly of all, in the loop staff. What makes or breaks any content creator and site on the web is quality and consistency. The amount of good coming from a staff that brings life to where there isn't should be obvious for anyone. One or two mods can't do that alone, it needs to be the whole team. These changes need to be done swiftly and throughout with zero compromise or months long discussions between the administration. I think it's necessary that the amount of new blood is large is enough to reinvigorate the staff and forum.

Yar I hope the PV's won't be plagued by attempts at fan service like noticeably aged Kai with a whip. I squealed a little when it showed Ruki on the bed, but the rest of the members could gtfo from their PV's for all I care.