Karma’s Hat

So I got infected two weeks back. It wasn't bad. I'd rather have rona ten times over than food poisoning or the norovirus I'll tell you that much. 
 
My girlfriend had been coughing for some time and I didn't really pay no mind. She's always sick so that wasn't anything unusual; she reckoned she had a fever but it never actually went up, so the whole thing was easy to ignore. Well eventually I got sick too. I was sore around my chest and back for about two to three days, the feelings of cold fluctuated but I never coughed or got a fever. I found all of this odd, but I didn't care all that much. I decided it was nothing and I tried to go for a trip to a nearby town to visit a place for some photographs. On my way to the train station I was feeling progressively worse the further I got, and by the time I was at the station I saw the next train was due in like two hours. I thought fuck it and went home. I didn't feel like, amazingly bad or anything. Just didn't feel 100%. 
 
Well the lady starts a new job and out of consideration for her colleagues she gets tested and of course a positive result pops back. The entire country is absolutely swamped in cases right now so no cops or sanitation department people show up to the door to check on our quarantine.
 
Basically how it progressed: Two days of aches and feeling of cold. About seven days of minor deterioration of the general physical condition. If I exerted myself by vacuum cleaning or something like that, I'd get a small headache. After the first week my sense of smell went away and it hasn't come back. I can taste somewhat though.  Other than the smell, I was back to 110% in about a week and a half. 
 
If you have any doubts about it being corona, I'm just going to go ahead and say that it wasn't that. This one feels so specific, I've never been sick like this in my life. It's not comparable to influenza, the flu or anything else. But aside from how many old people, nerds and weaklings my droplets have managed to kill already, this wasn't bad at all for a healthy 27 year old. It is however, a very specific feeling when you have it, and I guess there is no guarantee if my sense of smell is going to come back lol

I really wish they could or had interest in changing labels because all this lame shit is the fault of the management. It's not a coincidence that suddenly gulu gulu is doing the same promotional edits on spotify the second they got signed. I'm sure in promotion they have 0 creative control aside from the aesthetics of the merch and whether on this tour they'll be selling the star of david hot wheel or the Shinya XXL condom packet. They wouldn't even come overseas if they weren't forced to.

Not a chance in hell in this band is signed or getting signed. On Tanuki people aren't even sure if they're even active anymore. They've built a reputation for poor PR and a categorical refusal to do any of the activities that actually get fans in Japan. They probably only got this far with Issei's help, who took Nazare to a similar level of notoriety in like half the time while DIMLIM got nowhere. Who would sign such a band that's commercially on their last legs? Everything here just reeks bush league from letting a horny gya organize a gig in fucking Irkutsk of all places to hyping up a web shop that ends up not even materializing. Doing an overseas tour is not an achievement either considering you only got tiny live houses. It wasn't that long ago when vk bands came to Europe and the live houses averaged the capacity of 500 ppl minimum. Even Satsuki of the Rentrer en Soi and pedophilia fame had a house in Helsinki with the capacity of 600 at the stage of his career when he was completely washed up. Weebs will show up for anything. 
 
I like this band. It's just beyond salvageable at this point unless the members have a day job to finance it. 
 
 

Not a chance in hell in this band is signed or getting signed. On Tanuki people aren't even sure if they're even active anymore. They've built a reputation for poor PR and a categorical refusal to do any of the activities that actually get fans in Japan. They probably only got this far with Issei's help, who took Nazare to a similar level of notoriety in like half the time while DIMLIM got nowhere. Who would sign such a band that's commercially on their last legs? Everything here just reeks bush league from letting a horny gya organize a gig in fucking Irkutsk of all places to hyping up a web shop that ends up not even materializing. Doing an overseas tour is not an achievement either considering you only got tiny live houses. It wasn't that long ago when vk bands came to Europe and the live houses averaged the capacity of 500 ppl minimum. Even Satsuki of the Rentrer en Soi and pedophilia fame had a house in Helsinki with the capacity of 600 at the stage of his career when he was completely washed up. Weebs will show up for anything. 
 
I like this band. It's just beyond salvageable at this point unless the members have a day job to finance it. 
 
 

Not a chance in hell in this band is signed or getting signed. On Tanuki people aren't even sure if they're even active anymore. They've built a reputation for poor PR and a categorical refusal to do any of the activities that actually get fans in Japan. They probably only got this far with Issei's help, who took Nazare to a similar level of notoriety in like half the time while DIMLIM got nowhere. Who would sign such a band that's commercially on their last legs? Everything here just reeks bush league from letting a horny gya organize a gig in fucking Irkutsk of all places to hyping up a web shop that ends up not even materializing. Doing an overseas tour is not an achievement either considering you only got tiny live houses. It wasn't that long ago when vk bands came to Europe and the live houses averaged the capacity of 500 ppl minimum. Even Satsuki of the Rentrer en Soi and pedophilia fame had a house in Helsinki with the capacity of 600 at the stage of his career when he was completely washed up. Weebs will show up for anything. 
 
I like this band. It's just beyond salvageable at this point unless the members have a day job to finance it. 
 
 

Not a chance in hell in this band is signed or getting signed. On Tanuki people aren't even sure if they're even active anymore. They've built a reputation for poor PR and a categorical refusal to do any of the activities that actually get fans in Japan. They probably only got this far with Issei's help, who took Nazare to a similar level of notoriety in like half the time while DIMLIM got nowhere. Who would sign such a band that's commercially on their last legs? Everything here just reeks bush league from letting a horny gya organize a gig in fucking Irkutsk of all places to hyping up a web shop that ends up not even materializing. Doing an overseas tour is not an achievement either considering you only got tiny live houses. It wasn't that long ago when vk bands came to Europe and the live houses averaged the capacity of 500 ppl minimum. Even Satsuki of the Rentrer en Soi and pedophilia fame had a house in Helsinki with the capacity of 600 at the stage of his career when he was completely washed up. Weebs will show up for anything. 
 
I like this band. It's just beyond salvageable at this point unless the members have a day job to finance it. 
 
 

Not a chance in hell in this band is signed or getting signed. On Tanuki people aren't even sure if they're even active anymore. They've built a reputation for poor PR and a categorical refusal to do any of the activities that actually get fans in Japan. They probably only got this far with Issei's help, who took Nazare to a similar level of notoriety in like half the time while DIMLIM got nowhere. Who would sign such a band that's commercially on their last legs? Everything here just reeks bush league from letting a horny gya organize a gig in fucking Irkutsk of all places to hyping up a web shop that ends up not even materializing. Doing an overseas tour is not an achievement either considering you only got tiny live houses. It wasn't that long ago when vk bands came to Europe and the live houses averaged the capacity of 500 ppl minimum. Even Satsuki of the Rentrer en Soi and pedophilia fame had a house in Helsinki with the capacity of 600 at the stage of his career when he was completely washed up. Weebs will show up for anything. 
 
I like this band. It's just beyond salvageable at this point unless the members have a day job to finance it. 
 
 

Not a chance in hell in this band is signed or getting signed. On Tanuki people aren't even sure if they're even active anymore. They've built a reputation for poor PR and a categorical refusal to do any of the activities that actually get fans in Japan. They probably only got this far with Issei's help, who took Nazare to a similar level of notoriety in like half the time while DIMLIM got nowhere. Who would sign such a band that's commercially on their last legs? Everything here just reeks bush league from letting a horny gya organize a gig in fucking Irkutsk of all places to hyping up a web shop that ends up not even materializing. Doing an overseas tour is not an achievement either considering you only got tiny live houses. It wasn't that long ago when vk bands came to Europe and the live houses averaged the capacity of 500 ppl minimum. Even Satsuki of the Rentrer en Soi and pedophilia fame had a house in Helsinki with the capacity of 600 at the stage of his career when he was completely washed up. Weebs will show up for anything. 
 
I like this band. It's just beyond salvageable at this point unless the members have a day job to finance it. 
 
 

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
 
 

Ten years ago when we had the pig flu epidemic they rolled out a vaccine that ended up triggering narcolepsy on kids who had a genetic predisposition for it. So with that in mind, the chances of me getting a vaccine that they're just dying to put out there in the market in order to keep capitalism functioning for fat rich people and and save a few old folks from dying, is, quite frankly, 0.  Under no circumstance would I get it.

You can only see tzk's back because they can't show that he's crying

They have more merch out than music just saying
 
and 60 bucks for a fruit of the loom XXL t-shirt with their shitty logo on it oh my god 

Yohio is not just some dude like the guys from Emmuree or like Aie who do visual kei as a lifestyle for the love of the sport. He is a sunglasses-indoors-wearing blowhard who's portraying himself as a living legend hot shit CEO. For him to not reach a certain level he aspires to would be devastating. It's make it or break it for him to get there right now with the vision he had envisaged years ago with KEIOS, Desaiha, Lovelipop etc. 
 
And I actually have to disagree, I don't think he is that productive. Right now is the only time he has been consistent since the melodifestivalen hype when he put out two albums in short order, which ended after they forgot about him in Sweden and his second attempt at Eurovision flopped. His release schedule right now is making me so angry, like why does he put out single songs constantly without even really promoting them before he moves on to promoting the next one! The only good rollout he has done recently was for his previous solo track. It'd do better to have put out all the english DISREIGN tracks as a EP because they're already super mediocre so at least you could put 4 or 5 in one package with a PV and a ballad and promote it for weeks and not move on from one to the next without anyone caring.  No one has a relationship with the English DISREIGN and I've seen even his fans being confused and unenthusiastic. Right now there's a new DISREIGN track coming up with almost no warning and he already has three DISREIGN releases in the bag without a PV, and those PVs are his most popular content. He should've put out the DISREIGN tracks as an EP as well that he really actually promoted, and done the legwork in Japan if possible. I just don't think he can stomach playing second fiddle at a multi-man event where only 3 people came to see him, because unlike what his socials would tell you I don't think he can even draw a decent crowd in Stockholm, let alone in Japan. 
 
My armchair booking for him would be releasing YOHIO solo tracks as stand-alone and build up for the album like he's doing, then DISREIGN and english DISREIGN tracks as either 2 track singles or minis with PVs. And it's better for him to put out one release a year that he'd promote right, instead of shitting out tracks without promoting any of them. Less is more etc.  And while I'm sure he is busy playing CEO right now with dad's cash, he could even take a video of him recording something and post it as a daily Vlog because his ( small ) fanbase loves that. The way he abandoned his Patreon too just lowers the value of his brand and decreases the trust between him and the people dumb enough to pay for this trash. 
 
And this thread is great because after all, I think all this western stuff does deserve attention. For one, it's an outgrowth from vk culture so it is interesting in like a scholarly sense, and second the ones that are doing this are the ones who are brave and stupid enough to realise the dreams that more than a few members of this board have had myself included; and as an extension of that it's our duty to savagely tear down their hopes and dreams if necessary. If I was doing music I wouldn't have it any other way.

come back bro we all miss u

come back bro we all miss u

come back bro we all miss u

come back bro we all miss u

come back bro we all miss u

come back bro we all miss u

come back bro we all miss u

Just started playing the album. First impression is that it's pitch black and very dense, totally committed to being loud, dark and asphyxiating in the way it's produced and composed. Songs are loaded with shit despite being a bit of a toning down from early DIMLIM, and I like it. My first impression is that it's like this mix of early DIMLIM and a little bit some late 00's nu metal like Unsraw and shit like that. The vocals are awesome with enough personality to be able to be picked out from a line, while still being technically totally acceptable even when they retain this roughness that's characteristic of visual kei. Loads of early DIMLIM and heavier nokubura material callbacks in the songs, which is nice although it doesn't really reach the peaks they sometimes did. I haven't even finished the album yet tho so we'll see. 
 
For me personally this album won't have as long of a shelf-life as it will to other people who are fans of this style, and for them it should definitely suffice. 
 
Edit: Am I getting a little bored? yyeeaah probably
 
Edit 2: This is why you don't write about anything before you've even listened to it.  Idk if I'll spin this again but I'll relisten to some tracks in a bit. Definitely gets more early DIMLIM-esque in the second half although I suppose my earlier comments still hold some water. The best moments I reckon are the first two tracks by a country mile, or that one just gets exhausted of this kind of music when it's not top shelf in what it's doing. Anything further I'll suppose I will write in my 2019 ratings list. 

(I know this is from a demo recording, but I'd argue it's well produced+mastered)
For best results listen with headphones and crank it
The snare drum attacks you because the waveform isn't compressed into a brick, it's spikey and has peaks. Because some parts are allowed to be quieter than other parts, stuff like that stop-start breakdown around 1:10 hits hard and feels really punchy.
The recording's got a nice room ambience, the toms rumble. There's a sense of space, everything is where it should be in the mix. 
A++++++
 
play this at an equivalent volume
Soso production, not-so-good mastering. Notice how the drums don't really punch through. Everything is kinda flat and fighting for space. When the "loud" part comes in around 1:50, it doesn't really hit you like it should, because the "quiet" part before it is compressed to be basically just as loud as the loud part.
 C-
 
Bad mastering, bad everything else:
this re-recording. play it at any volume, it will be loud no matter what volume you have it at. notice how it makes your ears bleed. every sound feels like it's coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.
F-----------
 
Generally speaking if production/mastering isn't something you care much about and isn't something that can impede your enjoyment, it's best to keep it that way. It can be such a pandora's box for people who get anal about stuff.

I think a lot of that feeling of people coming and going stems from the western boom years and like other people said, from the fact that it has somehow been hogtied into the same brain rot caravan with Kpop and therefore people tend to become aware of both simultaneously, allowing for lateral movement between the two. Then there's that other breed of us getting into our 30's finally coming to grips with mortality and that this is a very fruitless endeavor, so now there's also these existential crisis' going on with the older guard. This basically goes a long way to explain why everyone in this scene is so fucking stupid, you were either into a dumb fad when you got in or you were dumb enough to stay for too long. 
 
But like, about the psychology of people who come and go, being gya one day and rastafari the next — I never got that. I have, my entire life more or less, liked the same things and I never really dropped out of anything. There's some faux pas you'll find from the times when I was like exploring stuff like western metal when I was 16, but everyone goes through that one way or another when you build your frame of reference and refine your taste and ideas of what music should be about. The people who change every word in their bio on an yearly basis with only the words "I stan" remaining in place can't be counted on for anything. How do they even finish meals is beyond me let alone stick with something when everything they do is so dependent on if the weather is fair. They're the same people who'll abandon their folks into a home, but take a taxi from another city once the inheritance is on offer; just picking the carcass of cultural capital that other people worked for, that other people laboured to put out there. I'm in this shit for the long haul and this relationship will end only when one of us dies, either me or the scene. No matter how reprehensible I think the scene operates or what I think of the fucking people in it, it's still important to me. 

I think a lot of that feeling of people coming and going stems from the western boom years and like other people said, from the fact that it has somehow been hogtied into the same brain rot caravan with Kpop and therefore people tend to become aware of both simultaneously, allowing for lateral movement between the two. Then there's that other breed of us getting into our 30's finally coming to grips with mortality and that this is a very fruitless endeavor, so now there's also these existential crisis' going on with the older guard. This basically goes a long way to explain why everyone in this scene is so fucking stupid, you were either into a dumb fad when you got in or you were dumb enough to stay for too long. 
 
But like, about the psychology of people who come and go, being gya one day and rastafari the next — I never got that. I have, my entire life more or less, liked the same things and I never really dropped out of anything. There's some faux pas you'll find from the times when I was like exploring stuff like western metal when I was 16, but everyone goes through that one way or another when you build your frame of reference and refine your taste and ideas of what music should be about. The people who change every word in their bio on an yearly basis with only the words "I stan" remaining in place can't be counted on for anything. How do they even finish meals is beyond me let alone stick with something when everything they do is so dependent on if the weather is fair. They're the same people who'll abandon their folks into a home, but take a taxi from another city once the inheritance is on offer; just picking the carcass of cultural capital that other people worked for, that other people laboured to put out there. I'm in this shit for the long haul and this relationship will end only when one of us dies, either me or the scene. No matter how reprehensible I think the scene operates or what I think of the fucking people in it, it's still important to me. 

Actually, Arche is not as bad. It's loud but has a much cleaner sound. TIW feels like they threw overdrive over everything on top of whacking it all up to '11'.