relentless

The one thing I really liked was the quick rhythm changes roughly midway through; but other than that there's not much to say. Everything else about it has already been done by the GazettE multiple times.

Happy Birthday to the best of the best, Johannes Brahms! Symphony No.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do5sp6FiXGE Piano Concerto No.1 Clarinet Quintet Also, let's not forget about Tchaikovsky's birthday today!

I'll take good instrumentals over a good vocalist any day of the week. There's a greater degree of nuance in a good instrumental ensemble than there is just one vocalist.

Death by asphyxiation, or death by immolation. I don't know, both suck at the end of the day.

That is a poor analogy to say the least mainly because what you're arguing, or trying to say, isn't inherently clear. First you made vague references to what I mentioned in my first post (visual aesthetic = success). Afterwards, you mention Sony not being a profitable company in Entertainment (something you have yet to provide relevant evidence for outside of TV sales). Next, you get into this bizarre conspiracy theory about how it goes all the way up to the government who fund Sony. Then you dive into "research and development" which you never made clear what you were referencing in the first place. Ok...for the sake of any readers and the coherency of your argument, it sounds like you're making a (poorly worded) argument that revolves around these premises: 1. Sony is not profitable in Entertainment, and 2. the Government ultimately decides Sony's business ventures (or something...you were pretty vague on this). Framed like this, I can kind of see what you're trying to say. Would it be an accurate assessment to say your argument is about how the government wants Sony to be profitable, so they are putting pressure on them to remove themselves from the Entertainment sector / reduce the scope of their Entertainment business? This I imagine would fall in line with what you said about Dir en grey maybe focusing on European and Japanese tours to reduce costs; but that is no more than a blatantly stupid conspiracy theory which I have no doubt came from a place like Tumblr / any Dir en grey community that enjoys circle jerking over the most bizarre and detached-from-reality gossip. Also, you completely miss the point when you said I'm talking about "product value". I'm not arguing the "value" of a product, I'm arguing marketing (and lackthereof) towards a given product. When discussing a band, the concept of "product value" is useless because it's directly related to fan support: the amount of fans and the amount they spend determines a band's "value". EDIT: Also, this just caught my eye: Oh hey, I just so happen to run the financial end of a major construction company! What luck! What about insurance costs in construction are you talking about?

Yes, because that is irrelevant when it comes to the discussion of band marketability and the lackthereof. If you want to have a separate discussion about Sony Entertainment and their failing TV sales, we can do that. Note: the link you provided only talked on Sony's profits in the TV market, which =/= their assets in music. If you want to present a better and more representative statistic, make it relevant to the topic next time, because this is all that's said in the article you provided:

Because your comments are scattered in thought and largely disconnected, I tried to boil down what you said into one line (let me know if it's a misrepresentation so I may edit it in the future): It appears the crux of your argument relies on the assumption: visual aesthetic = success. Basically saying: as Dir en grey revert back to greater visual presentation, that means they're getting "big" again...or something. Again, I'm assuming the argument with what you've given, so I apologize if this is at all inaccurate. There's just one problem: it doesn't take into account the real issue of marketing. If I were hard pressed to find a solution, it wouldn't have anything to do with visuals or the lackthereof in the first place because in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't matter. So, if "visuals" aren't the reason for this, what is? Simply put: marketing the product. At the end of the day these bands are products that are sold to consumers. "Dir en grey", for all intents and purposes, is a brand. It is literally no different than marketing a brand of beer on television; but the issue lies in the fact "Dir en grey" , the brand, doesn't receive the proper marketing to get that product out there. The issue isn't "Kyo-sama doesn't wear the cute kabuki make-up, therefore their sales will drop". No, it doesn't quite work like that. It's a lack of effort in building the fanbase through support tours, and a lack of marketing to get word out about North American tours. Dating back to 2008 (post-Deftones tour), Dir en grey has done ONE support tour: with "Apocalyptica" of all people. Even then, that was a co-headline tour, not as a support act. What bands have Dir en grey toured with since then? A bunch of nobodies. Some french groove metal band recently, and some band named "Preschool Teaparty Massacre", or some shit. Why is this important? Because bands in the US, and across the rest of the world in Pop Music, largely work on support tours to gain new fans, and for some reason Dir en grey either refuses to do this, or no one wants them as a support act. The latter is highly in question, so if I were a betting man, I would go with the former. Going on headlining tours where there's 0 means to build the fanbase, and the lack of money put into North American marketing, is a far more significant factor than "they dress like teh cute womenz now, so they're totally hot right now". Effectively, Dir en grey has been doing North American tours with the same fans from 2007 with no effort to expand it. Could this be because the band, or whoever acts as their main source of management, don't see it as worth it and would prefer to do a headlining tour for some quick cash and call it a day? That's very possible; but the issue isn't grounded in their aesthetic, it's grounded in their lack of marketing.

Where did this meme come from?

Today, 5-5-2015, marks the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead. Because of this, I felt it would be appropriate to do a write-up on them: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_Dead The significance of the Grateful Dead doesn't reside on their studio albums, because though it's true they released excellent music with the albums Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, Wake of the Flood, Blues for Allah, and Terrapin Station, the band's focus was on live performance, and using albums as a means to get new material out to fans. Instead of relying on studio albums to push their music, the Grateful Dead would go through the process of testing new material on the road, waiting a period of time to perfect each song and to gain fan support before committing them to a record. Because of this method, and because the Grateful Dead rarely (if ever) constructed set lists for their shows, their music was allowed to expand in an improvisatory setting, making every performance unique. Being a band that preferred touring over sitting in the sterile environments of the studio, it's no surprise the Grateful Dead performed over 2,300 shows across their 30 year active history, with the surviving members going on the road to play since their last show in 1995. In many ways, the Grateful Dead revolutionized live performance to a degree no other band has done since. Their set lists were often broken into several parts with each show nearly reaching 3 hours, with a level of freedom in the material they wanted to play to the point on several bootlegs and recordings you can hear band members say to each other "what's next?", as they preferred setlists that fit the mood of the shows they were playing on a given night. In the Summer of 1974, they built the largest speaker system ever constructed up to that point called the "Wall of Sound", which was used for the band to tweak their own sound on stage without delay, and without relying on an engineer to make changes at the soundboard. This gave them complete control over their sound and allowed them to best replicate the sound they were hearing to the audience. At a time when the Grateful Dead were at an all-time high, it's no surprise their Summer '74 run of shows are so highly regarded (see the Weather Report Suite below). The Wall of Sound: Perhaps the most notable aspect of their live shows (aside from their origins as a band that were heavily involved in the California Acid Tests of the mid 1960s where they got their start), is their encouragement of fans taping their shows. Even with the new age of technology, fans taping shows is heavily frowned upon in many musical circles; but not for the Grateful Dead. In fact by the time their following grew (fans that referred to themselves as "Deadheads"), and more people came to tape their shows, the band began setting designated taping areas behind the soundboard for the best possible sound. Because of this, the Grateful Dead's live history, being one of the most valuable assets in rock music history, is free to the public. As lead guitarist Jerry Garcia once said of fans taping shows "once we're done with it [the show], they can have it". The Music Grateful Dead's music, as demonstrated below, went through multiple influences that touched on traditional and popular music of the time. Folk, blues, rock n roll, country, bluegrass, and even aspects of Prog Rock all feature or were featured in the Grateful Dead's music at some point. From quick rhythm and blues covers of Chuck Berry, to complex progressive arrangements with the Weather Report Suite, one may not be able to point towards a "progression" in their music other than at the start of their career; but can instead recognize their style and presentation as entirely their own. Early Material: Psychedelic St. Stephen Alligator Dark Star (30 minute improv, one of their most legendary songs) Post-Psychedelic material, getting more into folk, bluegrass, and country Sugar Magnolia Casey Jones Ripple (Acoustic -- George RR Martin's favorite Grateful Dead song) Friend of the Devil (Acoustic) Mid-70s and Beyond: growing individual style Mind Left Body Jam > I Know You Rider Looks like Rain (ballad) Weather Report Suite (the closest the Grateful Dead got to Prog Rock) Estimated Prophet (Reggae influence) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVnjtmgIJfs We Can Run (ballad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSZXihfk_wk Ramble on Rose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4wmxyk-DqM Legendary Performance: 5-8-1977, Barton Hall, Cornell University (often regarded as the best Grateful Dead show, typical of their 1977 run) https://archive.org/details/gd77-05-08.sbd.hicks.4982.sbeok.shnf

It's as if John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, Davie Bowie, Liberace, and Marylin Manson all had a hand in designing that look.

I usually don't have much to say about setlists because something like that I trust the band to do (though I'll admit, sometimes I wish they didn't have setlists organized and just showed up on stage and went with whatever songs felt right at the time), I just ask for no more of the Final. Please.

Nah, this one is:

A Japanese festival with Atom Bomb imagery on the poster = maximum edge

For that Dir en grey troo fan cred

Early Burzum and early At the Gates are GOAT. Just felt the need to share.

But...only the cold grip of winter is a worthy setting for Kyo's pain...

That'd be nice. They did that during the co-headline tour with Apocalyptica, right? The weather was excellent when they played.

Mozart's Divertimento in E-flat major, K. 563, his only completed string trio, is one of my favorite works by the composer. Divertimenti were generally regarded as beautiful pieces to be enjoyed as background music at parties and celebrations; but Mozart's is in no way a simple party piece. This is usually the work I point people towards who are looking for Mozart recommendations.

Fall Japanese tour, Winter North American tour.

Pls post problematic content elsewhere.

Just gotta go with the flow. It helps to remember the series is one large arch of parties trying to seize the Iron Throne. Not EVERY character wants to be King or Queen; but most are involved in one form of the other.

A new (and possibly) unpopular opinion: Here and elsewhere I've found this to be a popular opinion: This follows the assumption that Time = Quality; but that's simply not true -- it's not even an accurate assessment on writing music. I understand the intent of these opinions: people want the bands they like to release quality, which I wholeheartedly agree with; but quality is not restricted by time in any way. It's especially puzzling when these comments are made towards bands like Sadie and the GazettE, who were never paragons of songwriting to begin with, releasing material such as "Psychopath", "Tomorrow Never Dies" (after a 2 year break), or "Shoot the Targets Hidden in Your Mind" and "Rize a Flag" (a few months over a year). When you actually consider great songwriters, whether it's from the past 50 years or past 500 years, "time" and waiting has little to do with the quality of a composition. I've mentioned this in the past; but look at the stretch of Beatles albums from 1965 - 1970 (for the sake of simplicity, I'm ignoring their early albums because of how vastly inferior they are to their later works post-Rubber Soul, as well as soundtracks): Rubber Soul: 1965 Revolver: 1966 -- (often considered the most historically significant Beatles record, as well as their strongest creative output as a band) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 1967 The Beatles ("White Album"): 1968 Abbey Road: 1969 Let It Be: 1970 The only caveat with this argument, that I will readily accept, are the different conditions the Beatles worked under vs. a band like Sadie, Dir en grey, or the GazettE. The Beatles had a level of artistic freedom in the studio that the aforementioned bands don't have. The Beatles also stopped all touring activities to focus on their albums in this time frame, which those bands can't do today. Yet, at the same time, these bands have double, even TRIPLE the time the Beatles had to write an album, yet it doesn't often show up anywhere in the quality of writing. I think it's misleading to say a band needs X amount of time to release a good product. Composition is certainly time consuming; but that doesn't mean a band needs to wait a stretch of time to ensure the quality of what they're writing when there's no relation. Bands have released great music after waiting several years, they have also released great music after waiting a few months. The last person I'll mention is the Original Gangsta, Johann Sebastian Bach, who was employed between 1723-1750 as Cantor of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig where he had to provide music to be performed during ceremonies every week. And these weren't some little 2 minute pieces in between worship, no, they were massive Organ works, highly profound choral works with upwards of 7 movements each, and large-scale dramatic works about the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, and John that would feature over 3 hours of music, along with the various settings of the Mass. JS Bach was the very antithesis of the notion "they should probably take some time off before they write more". When JS Bach wasn't pulling his knife out on people in public and cuttin' fools (this actually happened), he attributed his writing to working hard. And if there's any solution I can think of that can get bands like Sadie or the GazettE to consistently release great music, it would be to look seriously at their craft and put more effort into their writing; but when tracks like "Psychopath", "Required Malfunction", "Attitude", or "To Dazzling Darkness" make the cut, it makes me wonder what their songwriting process actually consists of.

It's very possible the reason they space the dates out of their tours is to ensure maximum comfort for Kyo's voice as you said. The other members wouldn't need nearly the amount of rest Kyo would to recover from a string of shows like they sometimes do through Europe and North America.

I finally gave this "Grieva" band a listen. I think there's only one appropriate reaction for this moment:

Their touring schedule is actually pretty light in comparison to other bands. Look at the most recent tours: 11 dates in August (Japan) with multiple days rest between many of them, 19 dates from November - January (Japan) with multiple days rest between shows, 15 dates from April - May (Japan) with as much as a week off between some shows. After that the only thing consistent about their schedule are the 8 shows in Europe this May; but that's mostly comprised of festivals through an 11 day period. Judging from their touring pattern, they'll probably go back to Japan until sometime in October, do a few shows in Japan, then go to North America for a quick headlining tour there sometime in the Winter.