WhirlingBlack

Did anyone manage to rip the live recordings? They appear to be gone now. 

this post has aged extremely well

Thanks a lot for the bootlegs, @Yukami 
 
Shuuji really went all-out Tetsu on "Kioku to sora" damnnnnnnn I LOVE IT.

They are on drugs. What the fuck are they doing. Fuck this band. Give me Mejibray. What are they doing. I’m so mad. I’m also drunk. 

(Thank you to @ricchubunny for posting about this in a status, which led to @Chi linking it to me!)
 
An account on Twitter, @KISAKI54175241, has begun to make some fairly serious claims against Kisaki, so here we are in the rumors section yet again. At the time of this posting the account has 66 tweets and multiple images. I saved an archive of the page at it is at this moment in case anything happens to it, so please let me know and I will post that somewhere.

Disclaimer: What follows is a translation of allegations made by twitter user KISAKI54175241. I neither endorse nor deny any of the claims made below, and I made a conscious effort to avoid sensationalizing anything in my translations... If you have any questions or feedback in that regard please let me know.

More importantly some of the content below is disturbing. There are mentions of domestic violence and child sexual abuse. Please read at your own discretion or skip to the summary below if you would like to know what happened without getting into explicit detail.

KISAKI54175241's posts (oldest to newest, although sometimes self-retweets that reordered her twitter timeline will cause discrepancies)
 
The translation as the account stands at 2:28 PM -6:00 GMT is complete.

This picture provided by @colorfuljinsei (originally from Kisaki's official twitter?) can serve as a tattoo placement/design reference if you would like to do any comparisons.


In summary, Kisaki has been accused of:
-Inappropriate sexual contact with a young child
-Domestic violence
-Being a habitual benzo seeker/user
-Being suicidal and using this as a manipulation tactic
-Astroturfing tanuki, working to have critical articles and twitters suspended
Allegedly, these matters have been brought to police.

If true, Shinya essentially saved dir en grey. 💋

He actually did an interview about this either last year or early this year. Idk if there is an English translation out there. Basically there are two reasons, and they extend to WtD as well. The first is that he didn’t want to play the simplistic rock/hardcore/metal drumming style that the rest of the band asked him to play for those records. He wanted to be more creative but they said it didn’t fit the style they were going for or something like that. The other reason is that they decided during that period when they were trying to break into the Western market to stop wearing makeup during performances. Shinya was the one member that was super against this and he nearly quit the band over it because he told himself from the beginning that he wouldn’t be in a band that doesn’t wear makeup. Obviously they have since gone back to wearing makeup. He said he was able to enjoy these albums more for what they are during the “mode of” tours but it remains his least favorite chapter in the bands history.

oh yeah that's definitely her. the shop is called yellow house and last time i went in the granny told me something along the lines of 'i don't go to yoshiki, he comes to me'. 

The rivalry only exists in the western fanbase as far as I know. In Japan, The Gazette are firmly viewed as a kouhai band to Dir en grey, and they treat each other as such, despite that Gazette is, as far as I understand it, a bigger commercial success at the moment. Dir en grey was at their peak of popularity in Japan when Gazette started and it only makes sense that they took inspiration, just like Dir did with the peak acts of its era. five years is a long time in the late 90s - early 2000s in Visual Kei.
 
Dir en grey fans in Japan had short-lived rivalries with Pierrot fans, and also with La'Mule fans for a certain period of time, the second of which due to some kind of drama between the hardcore fans regarding attacking each other etc. I don't remember the exact details at the moment. I don't think the band members themselves had any animosity in either case though, although I did get some glances from Kon (La'Mule singer) when I saw him live last year and wore a Dir en grey shirt, heh.
 
When it comes to Gazette I think it's simply the case that both bands became large roughly around the same time in the west with the big "boom" in 2006-2007, they competed for a similar demographic and had a similar style, and since teenagers love to pick sides and create ever smaller groups within already small groups, it was probably easy to force people to identify with either or. I know that as a Dir en grey fan first and foremost, for a long period it was among many of my acquaintances viewed as unacceptable to be anything more than a casual listener of Gazette. Being equally fans of both bands would never happen as you would be fostered into this group mentality from others based on whichever band happened to catch your fancy first.
Thankfully, I haven't seen this in many years among people I associate with, but it could be because I no longer am in touch with the youngest generation of fans, and all of us oldies have matured past that stage.
 
 

The rivalry only exists in the western fanbase as far as I know. In Japan, The Gazette are firmly viewed as a kouhai band to Dir en grey, and they treat each other as such, despite that Gazette is, as far as I understand it, a bigger commercial success at the moment. Dir en grey was at their peak of popularity in Japan when Gazette started and it only makes sense that they took inspiration, just like Dir did with the peak acts of its era. five years is a long time in the late 90s - early 2000s in Visual Kei.
 
Dir en grey fans in Japan had short-lived rivalries with Pierrot fans, and also with La'Mule fans for a certain period of time, the second of which due to some kind of drama between the hardcore fans regarding attacking each other etc. I don't remember the exact details at the moment. I don't think the band members themselves had any animosity in either case though, although I did get some glances from Kon (La'Mule singer) when I saw him live last year and wore a Dir en grey shirt, heh.
 
When it comes to Gazette I think it's simply the case that both bands became large roughly around the same time in the west with the big "boom" in 2006-2007, they competed for a similar demographic and had a similar style, and since teenagers love to pick sides and create ever smaller groups within already small groups, it was probably easy to force people to identify with either or. I know that as a Dir en grey fan first and foremost, for a long period it was among many of my acquaintances viewed as unacceptable to be anything more than a casual listener of Gazette. Being equally fans of both bands would never happen as you would be fostered into this group mentality from others based on whichever band happened to catch your fancy first.
Thankfully, I haven't seen this in many years among people I associate with, but it could be because I no longer am in touch with the youngest generation of fans, and all of us oldies have matured past that stage.
 
 

The rivalry only exists in the western fanbase as far as I know. In Japan, The Gazette are firmly viewed as a kouhai band to Dir en grey, and they treat each other as such, despite that Gazette is, as far as I understand it, a bigger commercial success at the moment. Dir en grey was at their peak of popularity in Japan when Gazette started and it only makes sense that they took inspiration, just like Dir did with the peak acts of its era. five years is a long time in the late 90s - early 2000s in Visual Kei.
 
Dir en grey fans in Japan had short-lived rivalries with Pierrot fans, and also with La'Mule fans for a certain period of time, the second of which due to some kind of drama between the hardcore fans regarding attacking each other etc. I don't remember the exact details at the moment. I don't think the band members themselves had any animosity in either case though, although I did get some glances from Kon (La'Mule singer) when I saw him live last year and wore a Dir en grey shirt, heh.
 
When it comes to Gazette I think it's simply the case that both bands became large roughly around the same time in the west with the big "boom" in 2006-2007, they competed for a similar demographic and had a similar style, and since teenagers love to pick sides and create ever smaller groups within already small groups, it was probably easy to force people to identify with either or. I know that as a Dir en grey fan first and foremost, for a long period it was among many of my acquaintances viewed as unacceptable to be anything more than a casual listener of Gazette. Being equally fans of both bands would never happen as you would be fostered into this group mentality from others based on whichever band happened to catch your fancy first.
Thankfully, I haven't seen this in many years among people I associate with, but it could be because I no longer am in touch with the youngest generation of fans, and all of us oldies have matured past that stage.
 
 

in real talk all this talk about post-core amphibian dainty-punk is getting very tiresome, especially since the main proponents of creating these inane subgenres and categories and marketing gimmicks come from people who've been listening to metal for two weeks and think they're now on the up and up for discovering ritual ambient or some shit like that. 
 
A band like Dir en grey is impossible to strictly, or at least in a very definitive way, to categorise because they're a combination of two very amorphous musical traditions of visual kei and metal anyway. Their nu-metal base acquired somewhere midway through their career has been almost completely transformed thrice over due to the accumulations of sounds and techniques they've kept on acquiring over the years, and while visual kei is a strange case in of itself ( like, you can still hear the influence of X and Luna sea from almost every band, namely in vocal melodies and how guitar solos function, or that even in 2018 a vk song exceeding 2 minutes in length would not be caught dead without a chorus ) Dir en grey is unique even within that context. They've had progressive elements and done weird shit through mazohyst to hotarubi and then revisited these techniques again and again later on ‑ all the while having songs seemingly contrast in genre on the same release; and despite this there's still a common thread and heritage running through their stuff, but it just defies simple category since they're quite unique. Even if what I just wrote doesn't make any sense, the point still stands that there's else you could call THE UNRAVELING other than visual kei or alternative rock/metal, and neither of those in today's context mean much of anything. 

SANA/HITT/SATSUKI three-man might be able to fill a stadium in the donetsk republic

I just realized that the album is close enough that the leaked section could be from a press copy of the album (they tend to be distributed pre-mastering). In that case though, the person is in big trouble since you have to sign very heavy contracts to get access to those things, and leaking could result in having to pay large amounts of money, not to mention no one in the industry will provide you with copies again.

He played only songs by La'Mule, here's the setlist from the gig.
 
溺れた奇形
モ･ノ･ク･ロ
cry in past
ナイフ
ウサギの罪
 
I can understand that you were pleased, that's quite the amazing setlist, I'm jealous!

He played only songs by La'Mule, here's the setlist from the gig.
 
溺れた奇形
モ･ノ･ク･ロ
cry in past
ナイフ
ウサギの罪
 
I can understand that you were pleased, that's quite the amazing setlist, I'm jealous!

He played only songs by La'Mule, here's the setlist from the gig.
 
溺れた奇形
モ･ノ･ク･ロ
cry in past
ナイフ
ウサギの罪
 
I can understand that you were pleased, that's quite the amazing setlist, I'm jealous!

This single, unless the previews and title track are severely misleading, should cement their position as the most interesting new band in VK. I'm surprised by just how much I'm enjoying it. Visually excellent PV as well.

This single, unless the previews and title track are severely misleading, should cement their position as the most interesting new band in VK. I'm surprised by just how much I'm enjoying it. Visually excellent PV as well.

This was literally like, only a teeny tiny period during WtD and MOAB eras when they mostly played their newest material ( as most bands around the world usually do while promoting an album. ) Before the Mode tours were even as much as a thought, even the fine people of Finland had the chance to hear the tracks Zakuro, old Karasu, old shokubeni, Wake/Riyuu, 24ko Cylinder and Drain away played live in 2007 and 2011. They got a gigantic repertoire and still there was only a small handful of songs they didn't play after 2006

To be fair, their roadies are pretty famous nowadays, I think Kamijo could do a decent job with some MM material. If I miraculously manage to gather some cash I'll go for sure.

I don't know why but it feels like every single interview, review or article written about X Japan or Yoshiki in particular in the west are a bought shill piece ghost-written by Yoshiki himself. The amount of critical questions regarding the delay are always nil. 
 

I guess a guitarist falling sick is now legit reason to scrap the whole album, even though it was supposedly finished and the member returned to the band after recovering?
 
 
So either the album has 100 songs, which it better have after this long wait, or Yoshiki doesn't understand how percentage works. 
 
 
It's nice he's acknowledging that he doesn't care what fans want, he NEEDS to make his English CD because this is really all about him getting to mingle some more with C-list celebrities at baseball events. See also that the magazine claims it's an interview with the band, yet only Yoshiki seems to be interviewed.
 
Just disband already, this has been a train wreck for ten years by now.
 
 

I hope the yakuza chops off their fingers after that in-store