jduv86

I almost refrained from sharing my thoughts on this album, because frankly, it's hard for me to articulate exactly how I feel about it. I have never enjoyed the GazettE that much. More often than not, I have found that they have been more of a disappointment when it comes to their albums as a whole. This even means their albums from the days when people called them "good". Disorder had some awesome tracks; but a large portion of it could have either been cut entirely, or refined to make the tracks less drawn out and repetitive. It was their first album, though -- so it doesn't really matter. Nil was more disappointing for the fact that it feels very uneven with tracks like Baretta, Cassis, and Silly God Disco leading into Discharge, and Taion.

All of their albums have this sense of being disjointed. It's not that the tracks were in any way BAD (though, some are); it's there was never much flow with their albums in terms of presentation and performance. DIM changed this (even though it has it's bad moments), and has ultimately brought them to BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY. Beautiful Deformity isn't just their most refined album on all fronts of musicianship; but it's also their most focused. Never before have we had a GazettE album that felt this complete. DIM came close; but suffered under it's own weight of b-sides (Headache Man) and borderline unlistenable interludes. Beautiful Deformity presents a band that finally put effort (since DIM) into exactly what they were trying to achieve. This isn't to say that they never tried to write their songs; but here it's more focused with the ALBUM as the centerpiece, instead of the individual singles. Thus, I can not review this track by track, because to do so would eliminate the experience for me.

This album is less memorable for it's individual tracks, and more noteworthy for it's ability to do what truly great albums do: present not only an idea; but also a specific sound to unite the album. After all, as I have said before, this is an ALBUM not a COMPILATION disc.

With that said, the placement of Redo that bridges the heavier sections with the "lighter" tracks felt odd as the heavily distorted Drop B guitar feeds into a jazz number. It was an odd choice; but nowhere near as weird as kannou to paradox by Sadie.

Overall, this was an enjoyable listening experience. Back to basics? Sure, as most of the album shows that; but it goes far beyond just the basics. It does what the GazettE had not done previously: write an enjoyable album from start to finish.


8/10

I'm just so amazed at how the band has comeback! That break really helped them to focus their sound and make even stronger music. This band is definitely at the top in VK. Why aren't they as popular as say (sorry because I love them so much...) Gazette!? Like seriously! They really construct some great music! It never gets old! I'm still blasting sh** from their first mini album. lol.

There hasn’t been anywhere enough time to properly digest this album, so consider this more of a “first-impressions” than a definitive review.
 
Going into this album my faith in the GazettE was pretty much the lowest point it had ever been at. I got in to them shortly after DIM’s release and greatly enjoyed not just that album, but their previous material as well. TOXIC and DIVISION, however, both disappointed me (especially the latter). FADELESS didn’t do much to convince me that this album was going to be any different, but I’m delighted to say that I’m pleasantly surprised by BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY, though it does share some of their previous two releases’ low points.
 
MALFORMED BOX - Good
The obligatory GazeStep intro. This one sounds substantially better than [XI] & INFUSE INTO in my opinion.  I guess there’s not much else I can say beyond that since it’s just an SE, so on to the next track.
 
INSIDE BEAST - Good
I really don’t want to like this track… but I just can’t help it. Although I don’t mind electronic music in general, I never felt that the GazettE were very successful when incorporating it into their own music. I felt that this was particularly noticeable in the English-titled half of DIVISION, most of those tracks just sounded like very formulaic GazettE tracks with some random WUBWUBWUB thrown over the top to try to mask how dull they were. INSIDE BEAST, however, seems to actually use the electronic elements as a key component of the song, and that’s why it succeeds where previous attempts failed. It’s also ridiculously catchy, particularly the chorus. This is probably going to be my ‘guilty pleasure’ of the album.
 
UNTIL IT BURNS OUT - Poor
This song is a complete waste of time and very characteristic of what dragged down DIVISION & TOXIC. It feels like the bare-minimum of a GazettE song, it does nothing particularly interesting and just feels like it’s there for the sake of having another song on the album *yawn*.
 
DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER - Good
Quite like this track. It definitely gives off a Marilyn Manson vibe which I’ve seen a few other people mention and personally I dig it. Ruki’s screams are incredibly satisfying on this song and generally speaking it’s just an enjoyable heavy track.
 
FADELESS - Poor
Didn't really care for this when it came out and I still don’t care for it now. I get the fact that it’s sort of a throwback to their YEEHAW GAZERAWWK days but all that accomplishes is highlighting how dull their instrumentation is at times compared to those days.
 
REDO - Awesome
For some reason I just really dig this track. It’s chill, relaxing and quite different from their other ballads over the last few years. Quite like the guitar lines in this track too, they aren’t exceptional but they’re good enough to keep the song interesting throughout. If I had to think of a criticism for this song, it’s that I wish it was longer.
 
LAST HEAVEN - Awesome
A lot of people have been singing this song’s praises and I have to agree with them, this is easily Ruki’s best composition in the SONY era. The highlight has to be that guitar solo towards the end, fantastic stuff.
 
LOSS - Undecided
I don’t know what to make of this song, on one hand I like many of the individual sections that it has but on the other hand I find it really disjointed when they’re all thrown together into the same song. It feels like the band tried to incorporate too many ideas and it just ends up feeling enjoyable yet awkward and directionless. Maybe I just need more time to digest it.
 
THE STUPID TINY INSECT - Good
What happens when you fuse VENOMOUS SPIDER’S WEB, SLUDGY CULT & ヘドロ together into one song? You get THE STUPID TINY INSECT. Somehow this track feels more complete than the aforementioned three in my opinion, it’s not revolutionary but it’s certainly enjoyable.
 
IN BLOSSOM - Awesome
This track is ridiculously awesome! Well, it’s awesome once that awkward, unnecessarily-trying-too-hard-to-be-heavy, intro is done with. Once the song properly gets going, however, it just kicks ass all the way until the end. Fantastic stuff.
 
鴉 - Awesome
Another ridiculously awesome track. I love the energy and its “in your face” nature. This just sounds like one of those songs that the band had a lot of fun with and you can feel that when you listen to it. In that sense it kind of reminds me of their indie days; it’s scrappy and just fun as hell.
 
黒く澄んだ空と残骸と片翅 - Undecided
I've had a different impression of this song each time I've listened to it. On one hand it’s an energetic heavy track, on the other hand it feels kind of generic and formulaic. I guess this is another one I’ll have to let sink in before I can make my mind up.
 
TO DAZZLING DARKNESS - Poor
This is the most disappointing song on the album in terms of what I expected after hearing the previews. I already knew that I didn’t care for FADELESS and UNTIL IT BURNS OUT’s preview didn’t do much to make me interested in the song but I was expecting more from TO DAZZLING DARKNESS. It starts out quite good, it’s atmospheric and dark, but then it just seems to aimlessly meander around and never really develops into anything.
 
CODA - Good
A good closing track, very atmospheric build up before it finally starts to break out about half way through the song. Probably my favourite closing track since DIM SCENE.
 
Conclusion
BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY is a definite step up from the GazettE’s previous two albums, though admittedly that isn’t saying much on its own. My big issue with TOXIC & DIVISION was how formulaic many of the songs sounded, they were effectively the bare-minimum requirements of whatever GazettE-song-archetype they were going for. BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY’s tracks feel like they have a lot more soul put into them aside from the occasional let down here & there. It might not reach the heights of DIM or NIL, but it’s definitely the most consistent album they’ve put out in the SONY era so far. I’d rank it below DIM & NIL but well above TOXIC & DIVISION, kind of in the middle ground that I also consider DISORDER & STACKED RUBBISH to be in.

Bad news for mankind.

They simply dont fail!

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

Pretty interesting interview, it's really cool to see how the band thinks, but look for your self.
 
http://www.mtv81.com/videos/video-interviews/the-gazette-segment-1/
 
 
http://www.mtv81.com/videos/video-interviews/the-gazette-segment-2/

There's also Reila, Cassis, and Nakigahara

Once we resume recording duties, I'll make sure to share some of our demos with you :>

It's nice to see another maryland resident here~
I'm already involved in a musical project at the moment, so I really can't contribute anything haha
It's also a shame our musical tastes are completely different, as I listen to more oldschool visual kei ;<
Good luck on your band though!

^ Maximum the Hormone...I think? I like it...not better than Sphere, but I do like it. I have mix feelings about the previews, but I still think overall it's good.

(since you wrote that) i was thinking the opposite yesterday xD.
i think i am a lot more excited for nb.

As long as Trombe doesn't disband, everything's fine

Wow, Ashley sounds like a complete bitch.

This toned down look is a lot better than the "hardcore dark and edgy vk band" they were sporting for the last releases
 
Let's see how this will end.

01. ABZU (SE)
 
02. PANDEMIC
 

  03. LAST RELAPSE  
  04. DOMESTIC CRISIS  
  05. EMPTY GLASS  
  06. DISASTER  
  07. SPHERE  
  08. Aster  
  09. UNBREAKABLE  
  10. Obligation  
  11. Lost Memory  
  12. Reverence  
  13. Bury Me  
  14. PLEASE OF TORTURE  
  15. A DAY TO RE:MEMBER  
 

Mejibray and Nocturnal Bloodlust fan! Sweet! Welcome!

Reita only composed the intro to Miseinen? Lame haha. That's one of their great songs, I thought he composed it entirely. Respect for Aoi for being the composer of Shiroki Yuuutsu, Hanakotoba, AN UNBEARABLE FACT, and D.L.N.
 
Naturally, the ones that i'm more attracted to were Uruha-composed: VOICELESS FEAR, DIM SCENE, Baretta, HESITATING MEANS DEATH, and Kyomu no Owari Hakozume no Mokoshi.
 
As for Ruki, it's safe to assume he composes all the title tracks: VORTEX, RED, REGRET, SHIVER, the whole BEFORE I DECAY single, but props to him for Nausea and Shudder, Naraku, and CALM ENVY

Haha cute but you kind of are. Osare is a joke term for oshare so yeah Nyasagi is right. Oshare means someone who's really stylish, osare means someone who thinks they're really stylish, but in fact they're not.

http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/313108/ranking/cd_album/
 
here are their albums listed in order of sales

Misha Mansoor & Tosin Abasi - Optimist

I hope they get all this solo crap out of their system...honestly, if you're still going to work together on every project ---you might as well just form Deluhi again with 3 members...xTRiPx has only 3 members now AND they are killing with their music! I'm pretty sure Deluhi as a 3 piece would do just fine.

Aggy was almost basically nonexistent, Leda has the bass skills to fill that spot as well

Will we ever get a perfection like Sphere again? Idk, but I have major high hopes for this mini