Karma’s Hat

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

The aesthetics from this era of vk are incredibly hideous and great at the same time. What's with the scarves? In another pv they have baggy pants and a guitar with a tribal symbol on it. The song rules tho
 
Visual 'til I die 

Calling them a deg knock-off because Jin started screaming 2/3rds into their career is a bit of a stretch. Not even the DSS prog aspirations of like one song the last album really cut it for such a label. 
 
Early Nega is quintessential UCP sounding stuff that was musically going along the same broad strokes vk was in general at that time. Deg doesn't have the trade mark on screams, growls and chugs when you can find that in vk from like 2000 onwards, or 2001 in this case since Ray was already ripping off Slipknot by that time while the boys in Dir en grey were still dressed in drag. 

Calling them a deg knock-off because Jin started screaming 2/3rds into their career is a bit of a stretch. Not even the DSS prog aspirations of like one song the last album really cut it for such a label. 
 
Early Nega is quintessential UCP sounding stuff that was musically going along the same broad strokes vk was in general at that time. Deg doesn't have the trade mark on screams, growls and chugs when you can find that in vk from like 2000 onwards, or 2001 in this case since Ray was already ripping off Slipknot by that time while the boys in Dir en grey were still dressed in drag. 

tbh without kisaki it isn't even mago, might as well be a cover band at that point. 
 
This band is so underrated I might go and resurrect the old Nega thread if there's one. Their long ballads from back in the day fuck 
 
 

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

When they're on and firing on all cylinders, they're like the most talented vk band around and every member can play their ass off. I'm of the opinion that their concept is holding them back because it's those moments when they don't sound like something that would play in the wash room of a chinese restaurant when they're at their best. The last track from the most recent album was a great showing how they would sound without all that... you know... shit
 
 

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

When they're on and firing on all cylinders, they're like the most talented vk band around and every member can play their ass off. I'm of the opinion that their concept is holding them back because it's those moments when they don't sound like something that would play in the wash room of a chinese restaurant when they're at their best. The last track from the most recent album was a great showing how they would sound without all that... you know... shit
 
 

Calling them a deg knock-off because Jin started screaming 2/3rds into their career is a bit of a stretch. Not even the DSS prog aspirations of like one song the last album really cut it for such a label. 
 
Early Nega is quintessential UCP sounding stuff that was musically going along the same broad strokes vk was in general at that time. Deg doesn't have the trade mark on screams, growls and chugs when you can find that in vk from like 2000 onwards, or 2001 in this case since Ray was already ripping off Slipknot by that time while the boys in Dir en grey were still dressed in drag. 

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

When they're on and firing on all cylinders, they're like the most talented vk band around and every member can play their ass off. I'm of the opinion that their concept is holding them back because it's those moments when they don't sound like something that would play in the wash room of a chinese restaurant when they're at their best. The last track from the most recent album was a great showing how they would sound without all that... you know... shit
 
 

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

took on the streets before deg /w @WhirlingBlack

Calling them a deg knock-off because Jin started screaming 2/3rds into their career is a bit of a stretch. Not even the DSS prog aspirations of like one song the last album really cut it for such a label. 
 
Early Nega is quintessential UCP sounding stuff that was musically going along the same broad strokes vk was in general at that time. Deg doesn't have the trade mark on screams, growls and chugs when you can find that in vk from like 2000 onwards, or 2001 in this case since Ray was already ripping off Slipknot by that time while the boys in Dir en grey were still dressed in drag. 

tbh without kisaki it isn't even mago, might as well be a cover band at that point. 
 
This band is so underrated I might go and resurrect the old Nega thread if there's one. Their long ballads from back in the day fuck 
 
 

The aesthetics from this era of vk are incredibly hideous and great at the same time. What's with the scarves? In another pv they have baggy pants and a guitar with a tribal symbol on it. The song rules tho
 
Visual 'til I die 

Calling them a deg knock-off because Jin started screaming 2/3rds into their career is a bit of a stretch. Not even the DSS prog aspirations of like one song the last album really cut it for such a label. 
 
Early Nega is quintessential UCP sounding stuff that was musically going along the same broad strokes vk was in general at that time. Deg doesn't have the trade mark on screams, growls and chugs when you can find that in vk from like 2000 onwards, or 2001 in this case since Ray was already ripping off Slipknot by that time while the boys in Dir en grey were still dressed in drag. 

tbh without kisaki it isn't even mago, might as well be a cover band at that point. 
 
This band is so underrated I might go and resurrect the old Nega thread if there's one. Their long ballads from back in the day fuck 
 
 

tbh without kisaki it isn't even mago, might as well be a cover band at that point. 
 
This band is so underrated I might go and resurrect the old Nega thread if there's one. Their long ballads from back in the day fuck 
 
 

Extended gig report from Berlin since I did one from Warsaw a year and a half back.
 
The scene: Berlin, shaking and dying, sporting a bloodshot visage from the night previous as usual, I had managed to score some decent vegetables from the bazaar at a rather handsome price for Germany, all in an effort to recover before the show, but I'm thinking: will these carry me over? Just how many gin tonics is too many? Either way duty calls and I head out to meet Gaz in a bar nearby, who already a few beers deep inadvertently encouraged me to go for one that was 15% and then it was off to the races. 
 
The bridge to Friedrichschain; running to take a piss somewhere in the corner I step on human shit, I was thinking that the only way that this isn't the worse thing that would happen to me today would be if they played The Final for the encore. I take out 40 euros from the ATM and it charges me 4 euros for the transaction. Fuck it. I'm getting beer, and this is the only way. No one takes card in a conspiracy to bleed me dry. I see Whirlingblack and two of our mutuals coming over; I bum a cigarette; the line is possibly the fastest moving I've ever experienced in my life, especially considering just how long it was; turns out the reason why it was moving fast was the inspection for the ticket was literally the door man taking a cursory look almost in the direction of my phone and going "boom" and letting me in. I got the ticket just the night before and it was nice to see that was for nothing. Could've used someone else's and I'll remember that next time.
 
Lots of merch; I get nothing; I get a beer and some shots instead. In Warsaw I got three, now I got four. I've upgraded. The plan is that the second the lights go out we'll just strafe by the wall and when it gets heavy we'll just muscle our way to the center for the pit. Works every time and did so again. 
 
Okay, so the concert had exactly the same setlist as the previous, which is the full Insulated World album, World of Mercy, Merciless Cult and a rotating encore song. This was my first time seeing them with a set that was dedicated to promoting an album so I was moderately excited about that despite not being hugely into the fucking thing. This model works in a live context fairly well imo, like the mood is consistent and you get to see the thing in a slightly altered light; but most importantly of all that meant that this could just be the first time I won't get to hear The Final and an even better chance to never hear Sustain the Untruth ever again. The whole thing kicks off with Zetsuentai and the one marked difference from the 2018 tour is that the theatricality is even more present than last time. The first performances of Devote My Life and Keibetsu Hajimari went by like a blur in an underwhelming fashion, whereas now they've got synchronised head banging and a lot sharper performance by Kyo, who must've after performing all those songs like a hundred times now figured out how to make them work. The heavier stuff worked very well this time around and I wasn't the only one feeling the physicality since the crowd in Berlin was, for the most part, really good. Loud, energetic and the second I saw the pit was going I joined it and stuck by it til the very end. It wasn't even one of those usual weeb pits where you'll see people politely shoving each other, nope, it was the closest I've felt to a real one in one of these shows since 2010. Occasionally shit would be really tight like during Merciless Cult ( I actually in retrospect wish we would have gotten more old songs based on how good this was ) and Devote my life and although I'm just a bit saddened about no wall of death happening despite the chances definitely being there, it was still obviously really good; maybe even too good perhaps, because I do remember some of the looks from people nearby who weren't much having it. Too bad my philosophy is that leben ist krieg and if you're not in shape to hold your own, go to the back and sit on your phone there. By the end I remember one dude air punching himself a karate pit and at some point that enraged some other short purple haired dude; and of all the times to do this bullshit it was during the biggest surprise of the night which was NEW AGE CULTURE. I think eventually security stepped in on that dude flexing in front of his stupid girlfriend I guess.
 
So yeah as far as the band goes, I honestly don't remember any moment when a complaint would've registered. The sound in the venue was good and that made it already just a bit better than the usual, and looking at the clips on youtube I'd say yeah, it's the usual for 2020 Deg. They're really good live rn imo, way better than before the mode of tours. One thing that has to be said tho is that Kyo did sound just a liiiiiitle more constrained that what I remember from last year. Followers is a rough fucking song to pull off, and World of Mercy has some difficult parts as well. I guess it just comes with the territory, doing all these tours like this; my opinion on the matter is that if you're actually minding shit other than your phone recording, you don't really care that much. 
 
The shows ends after the Followers, NEW AGE CULTURE and Utafumi encore that got such a loud reaction by the end that I was almost hoping for them to come back for a second encore. This was not to be however, so after picking up Die's pick from the ground by accident and waiting half a century for my jacket we scatter off into whirlingblack's hotel that was just around the corner, and what better way to cap off the gig other than washing away all the memories and a few others with a rather absurd and expensive haul for the already overpriced kiosk downstairs; and by the time I got back to my hostel all that red wine, sparkling wine, beers and a few others went back to where they came and where I should've went myself: the toilets of Berlin.
 
 

o fuck. I miss them a lot actually