WhirlingBlack

also @ZeusComing here to set the facts about Dir en grey straight:
This is incorrect, Setsuna was a WIP project song by Dir en grey that developed over the course of 1997 (starting out as 5 minutes and evolving into a nearly 7 minute track) until finally being scrapped in the first half of 1998 for reasons unknown. Whether Setsuna was an official title or one given to it by fans is still subject to speculation.
 
"Ai Murasaki Iro" Is in fact pronounced "Ranshishoku" based on a newspaper interview which I scanned and upped some year ago from a indie magazine made in early 1998. I know this due to the fact that the name was written out in katakana. It's the onyomi pronunciation of the same kanji. They played this song at every oneman live starting from August 1997 until their last indies live at the Budokan, after which it was scrapped due to poor audience response, supposedly.
 
They  had another unreleased longer track that they played throughout the second half of 1997 and on and off into early 1998 which then subsequently disappeared as well. No known title for this track.
 
There was an early version of Mazohyst of Decadence played from 1997 which differed slightly.
 
raison detre had a early quite different  version which premiered at their oneman tour in late 1997 and evolved into it's current form during 1998.
 
ZAN is also one of the earliest songs they wrote, and it was played from their first tour in april 1997 and onwards in various stages of evolution until it arrived at the GAUZE form in late 1998.
 
Tsumi to Batsu was also performed during their last indies tour in a slightly different format.
 
They also premiered two new songs at the DUM SPIRO SPERO and Kisou part of the recent tour respectively which haven't been mentioned or played since. 
 
I could go on but I think that'll do for now.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I think it's hilarious how every time they release something there's a line of doomsayers prepared to prophesize the end the of the band and how it's inevitably only going to go downhill from here. Disbandment imminent. 
 
People have been saying this for the past fifteen years that I have personal experience with, and I'm sure before that people in Japan complained how Gauze and their major debut was inevitably going to lead to them blowing up and crashing. And before that people most likely complained that MISSA didn't sound like La:Sadie's. 
 
It's almost as if people confuse their subjective opinion of a single song/release with how the band is doing at large. 

I think it's hilarious how every time they release something there's a line of doomsayers prepared to prophesize the end the of the band and how it's inevitably only going to go downhill from here. Disbandment imminent. 
 
People have been saying this for the past fifteen years that I have personal experience with, and I'm sure before that people in Japan complained how Gauze and their major debut was inevitably going to lead to them blowing up and crashing. And before that people most likely complained that MISSA didn't sound like La:Sadie's. 
 
It's almost as if people confuse their subjective opinion of a single song/release with how the band is doing at large. 

I think it's hilarious how every time they release something there's a line of doomsayers prepared to prophesize the end the of the band and how it's inevitably only going to go downhill from here. Disbandment imminent. 
 
People have been saying this for the past fifteen years that I have personal experience with, and I'm sure before that people in Japan complained how Gauze and their major debut was inevitably going to lead to them blowing up and crashing. And before that people most likely complained that MISSA didn't sound like La:Sadie's. 
 
It's almost as if people confuse their subjective opinion of a single song/release with how the band is doing at large. 

I think it's hilarious how every time they release something there's a line of doomsayers prepared to prophesize the end the of the band and how it's inevitably only going to go downhill from here. Disbandment imminent. 
 
People have been saying this for the past fifteen years that I have personal experience with, and I'm sure before that people in Japan complained how Gauze and their major debut was inevitably going to lead to them blowing up and crashing. And before that people most likely complained that MISSA didn't sound like La:Sadie's. 
 
It's almost as if people confuse their subjective opinion of a single song/release with how the band is doing at large. 

I wonder where ( or who's pocket ) those raving reviews came from, 'cause the footage I've seen doesn't really match with what's been reported. Saw the last song, and while Toshi was trying to get folks hype the fucking crowd literally no-sold it like they'd never seen that in their lives. Dude, you could catch individual woo's from the audience because it was so quiet. 
 
found the clip in question 
 
 

Personally I feel like the band and the audience is always WAY too excited about that track. It's the only Dir en grey track I can't even bear myself to interact during concerts for, they tack it on every single live it feels like, and yet the audience roars whenever it starts and acts like it's a godsend. 

The sad part is that live tracks COULD be interesting, if it was done right.
They COULD for example include some old live track from the early days, perhaps a special performance of some kind, something they rarely play... But instead it seems like they almost without fail choose boring material.
For example, they played the original versions of Karma and Byou Shin at the MARROW leg of the depression tour, they weren't featured on the DVD, so it would've been a neat live track bonus to have them included on the single.
But instead we get their latest single in one of the poorest renditions I've heard so far (and I've heard way too many I'm afraid). 
 
I'm just trying to say that including live tracks could be interesting if they actually had a clue what people wanted to hear.
 

As someone who has listened to Ash daily for the past decade or so I can honestly say that the Ash solo is the best piece of music they've made since pre-Arche at least. I'm not sure what Kyo is doing vocally in some parts though (changing the lyrics completely kind of sucks), but the music is spot on.
 
Oh yeah and there was a new song somewhere on the single too, I rather enjoy it. The chorus is neat.

That has to be from a former bandmember, since it looks like the venue footage and those are never sold or given out, sadly. Its a shame, good history that gets lost this way all the time.

That has to be from a former bandmember, since it looks like the venue footage and those are never sold or given out, sadly. Its a shame, good history that gets lost this way all the time.

That has to be from a former bandmember, since it looks like the venue footage and those are never sold or given out, sadly. Its a shame, good history that gets lost this way all the time.

Did you see her show? 
 
2 hours of unashamed pride. A full size brass marching band, skits during song breaks and an all black female orchestra. Beyoncé is pushing the boundary of musicality politically, sociologically, in every fucking aspect. Show some damn respect. 

Pretty sure it's mainly because we can all agree with the fact that Yoshiki is an egotistical dickwad who only cares about playing celebrity instead of actually doing his job.

Vulgar was released in 2003, haha, but I think he referred to how back in the day, OBSCURE was usually the first PV you showed people, not when it came out.

too bad. he should focus on a good band (luna sea) instead.

Do they honestly need even a single guitarist for Yoshiki's 45-minute-long piano-wanking?

I'm living for this~ Amazing stuff!

We're not grouping by race though, we are grouping based on where the bands are located/have their main activities. Which is why we agreed for example that DISREIGN (whatever happened to them) would be allowed in the J-Rock forum as their base of operations is in Japan. If we were grouping by race we'd have all kinds of trouble trying to determine racial composition of bands, and I know most of us staff would rather not become hobby eugenicists on the account of keeping the Japanese Rock scene racially pure. We said the same to the people who, as opposed of your opinion, demanded that we remove bands with one or more foreign members from the VK section entirely.
 
The question was raised a while ago and it was this conclusion we came to as a team, but I on a personal level would be open to a Visual (International) sub-forum to differentiate from the other foreign acts. More and more proficient musicians overseas are starting to identify with the term so I could see there being an eventual demand for one.

We're not grouping by race though, we are grouping based on where the bands are located/have their main activities. Which is why we agreed for example that DISREIGN (whatever happened to them) would be allowed in the J-Rock forum as their base of operations is in Japan. If we were grouping by race we'd have all kinds of trouble trying to determine racial composition of bands, and I know most of us staff would rather not become hobby eugenicists on the account of keeping the Japanese Rock scene racially pure. We said the same to the people who, as opposed of your opinion, demanded that we remove bands with one or more foreign members from the VK section entirely.
 
The question was raised a while ago and it was this conclusion we came to as a team, but I on a personal level would be open to a Visual (International) sub-forum to differentiate from the other foreign acts. More and more proficient musicians overseas are starting to identify with the term so I could see there being an eventual demand for one.

We're not grouping by race though, we are grouping based on where the bands are located/have their main activities. Which is why we agreed for example that DISREIGN (whatever happened to them) would be allowed in the J-Rock forum as their base of operations is in Japan. If we were grouping by race we'd have all kinds of trouble trying to determine racial composition of bands, and I know most of us staff would rather not become hobby eugenicists on the account of keeping the Japanese Rock scene racially pure. We said the same to the people who, as opposed of your opinion, demanded that we remove bands with one or more foreign members from the VK section entirely.
 
The question was raised a while ago and it was this conclusion we came to as a team, but I on a personal level would be open to a Visual (International) sub-forum to differentiate from the other foreign acts. More and more proficient musicians overseas are starting to identify with the term so I could see there being an eventual demand for one.

I'm interested to know where they got the notion of being a "visual" band from, they mostly look like any other western -core guys. 

Based on the oneman tours D'espairsRay could do before their first disbandment, I think it's fairly safe to say they had a decently large fanbase in Japan.
Also, as for being the target of dislike overseas, I'm not sure if we were in different circles or what but I distinctly remember them being quite hyped from an early stage, just the fact that they were one of the earliest bands to come to Europe back in 2004 should be proof that they received popularity fairly early here, the shows sold very well too.
 
I think bangya circles are kind of misleading often as well, because most people have one or at most two bands they hardcore follow and don't usually care much for other bands, so you can often end up thinking that it's representative of the VK fanbase as a whole. Sort of like how overseas VK fans have no idea who GLAY is since they don't have any fans, but in Japan they're one of the biggest VK bands around. It becomes a closed group culture of sorts, just like there are bands that are/were hyped on here that had next to no following in Japan.

Start from the beginning and work your way forward. It's a time investment but it's interesting to follow the bands evolution and as a new listener you have a chance to do it much faster than the rest of us could. 

dumb sis, I (and most of my clique) have been purchasing legal media (and concert tickets, if we're at it) since ~2004, when the only delivery option was DHL and it was expensive a.f. to ship shizzle alone
 
I lost interest in ~supporting the scene~ almost completely many years ago and buy less than 3 CDs per year on average and I don't care if you're trying to buff your own ego by re-telling no1curr indiefag bandomen some distorted version of western fandom you're trying to invent for whom? for what?
 
literally get a life and get off social media and let band management do their job deciding how and where to sell their products.
 
oh and learn how to make coherent points, or something, for real, before u run amok screaming about muh filesharing gaijin pigguz