Karma’s Hat

it's out x 
 

it's out x 
 

it's out x 
 

it's out x 
 

On my first listen I was hung up on feeling that something was missing and I just kind of assumed that it was the absence of tangible bass lines from the compositions. Now I've realised I think it's more that when they took out the chugs they just didn't manage to get the riffs to replace them. The songs like What's Up noodle around where chugs would've been before ( in Malformation, Rijin imagine the metal riffs gone and only the noodling remain ) and the "heaviest" tracks in here like Funny World are just really fucking bad, like Girugamesh MUSIC and NOW era distilled through Retsu's IG filter. In Rijin everything is still together and the flourishes are just that. This album has stuff that I like that would've been cool on songs in Chedoara, like For the Future is moody and 'aight. 

Yup, really. It has very little of any vk signatures in it, and that's cool for a change. It's dumb and heavy and that's ok. 

Yup, really. It has very little of any vk signatures in it, and that's cool for a change. It's dumb and heavy and that's ok. 

Yup, really. It has very little of any vk signatures in it, and that's cool for a change. It's dumb and heavy and that's ok. 

ˆ I think we've been through that already 
 
Each to their own, you either buy it or don't. As a forum I don't think we have to collectively white knight for some high school dropout's rockstar dreams in 2020 when the amazon is burning and shit. If h00mans can't find a more sustainable way to produce and distribute music other than by manufacturing rows upon rows of plastic junk to sell for idiotic prices to fund all the parasitic middle men of that entire process who have nothing to do with the music anyway, then I don't mind if we just nuke the entire culture and go back to playing drums in circles.

ˆ I think we've been through that already 
 
Each to their own, you either buy it or don't. As a forum I don't think we have to collectively white knight for some high school dropout's rockstar dreams in 2020 when the amazon is burning and shit. If h00mans can't find a more sustainable way to produce and distribute music other than by manufacturing rows upon rows of plastic junk to sell for idiotic prices to fund all the parasitic middle men of that entire process who have nothing to do with the music anyway, then I don't mind if we just nuke the entire culture and go back to playing drums in circles.

ˆ I think we've been through that already 
 
Each to their own, you either buy it or don't. As a forum I don't think we have to collectively white knight for some high school dropout's rockstar dreams in 2020 when the amazon is burning and shit. If h00mans can't find a more sustainable way to produce and distribute music other than by manufacturing rows upon rows of plastic junk to sell for idiotic prices to fund all the parasitic middle men of that entire process who have nothing to do with the music anyway, then I don't mind if we just nuke the entire culture and go back to playing drums in circles.

the thinking man's CD purchasing take: VK musicians are mostly sleazy douchebags and it is in fact the people's moral duty as god-fearing citizens to pirate their music in order to teach the bandomen a valuable lesson about sharing things other than STDS with their fanbase.

they could afford a drone for the pv and yet the guitar still sounds like they had to share the same bag of ramen together 😕 

There's one guy making these top PV videos on youtube on a monthly basis and when you get through one of them you'll think "I never heard of any of these fucking bands" and they sometimes actually look like they got money behind them as well. 
 
 
fantastic resource to see what's going on the scene as long as you know what you're getting into. of course most of the bands sound "generic" because the amount of bands is absurdly high and that's how this music always sounds like anyway with slight variations. 

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.
 
 

NEW AGE CULTURE and Merciless Cult were handily the highlights of the set and while I still think it was cool to see the album in its entirety, it doesn't make me crave for a set of old songs any less. They're so good live now that I'd go crazy for a TMOAB live even

NEW AGE CULTURE and Merciless Cult were handily the highlights of the set and while I still think it was cool to see the album in its entirety, it doesn't make me crave for a set of old songs any less. They're so good live now that I'd go crazy for a TMOAB live even

This must be the most outlandish and fantastic fan theory I ever heard. Like aimi said according to every interview they've ever put out that I've read they pretty much were dudes in the local scene jumping from band to band and eventually the present formation sans Kai formed out of the corpses of these local bands. They were never affiliated with each other in any way since they were on totally different labels and based in a different city. All the bands that have deg associations are from the Dynamite Tommy family like Merry and Rentrer En Soi. If I'm not mistaken some Gazette members like Kai and Ruki had day jobs before making it big too, so any roadie story is just unlikely when deg was consistently touring the country from the moment of their inception and gazette dudes had barely had their first bands by the year 2000. I think the rivalry is the invention of western fans because in Japan they have nothing to do with each other
 
 

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.
 
 

There's one guy making these top PV videos on youtube on a monthly basis and when you get through one of them you'll think "I never heard of any of these fucking bands" and they sometimes actually look like they got money behind them as well. 
 
 
fantastic resource to see what's going on the scene as long as you know what you're getting into. of course most of the bands sound "generic" because the amount of bands is absurdly high and that's how this music always sounds like anyway with slight variations. 

There's one guy making these top PV videos on youtube on a monthly basis and when you get through one of them you'll think "I never heard of any of these fucking bands" and they sometimes actually look like they got money behind them as well. 
 
 
fantastic resource to see what's going on the scene as long as you know what you're getting into. of course most of the bands sound "generic" because the amount of bands is absurdly high and that's how this music always sounds like anyway with slight variations. 

I heard from a reliable source that Kagerou fans beat up Otogi from Awoi 'cause he ripped off one of their songs. How do you get beaten up up five feet tall gya is beyond me but I guess that happened. 

This must be the most outlandish and fantastic fan theory I ever heard. Like aimi said according to every interview they've ever put out that I've read they pretty much were dudes in the local scene jumping from band to band and eventually the present formation sans Kai formed out of the corpses of these local bands. They were never affiliated with each other in any way since they were on totally different labels and based in a different city. All the bands that have deg associations are from the Dynamite Tommy family like Merry and Rentrer En Soi. If I'm not mistaken some Gazette members like Kai and Ruki had day jobs before making it big too, so any roadie story is just unlikely when deg was consistently touring the country from the moment of their inception and gazette dudes had barely had their first bands by the year 2000. I think the rivalry is the invention of western fans because in Japan they have nothing to do with each other
 
 

There's one guy making these top PV videos on youtube on a monthly basis and when you get through one of them you'll think "I never heard of any of these fucking bands" and they sometimes actually look like they got money behind them as well. 
 
 
fantastic resource to see what's going on the scene as long as you know what you're getting into. of course most of the bands sound "generic" because the amount of bands is absurdly high and that's how this music always sounds like anyway with slight variations. 

I heard from a reliable source that Kagerou fans beat up Otogi from Awoi 'cause he ripped off one of their songs. How do you get beaten up up five feet tall gya is beyond me but I guess that happened.