WhirlingBlack

It seems to be the god and death stars holding a tour to "force" (強制 mean to coerce or force someone) MUNIMUNI to release their new album, lol.

I'll believe it when I actually hold the album in my hands at the gig in July. 

i hope we can at least agree that being explicitly fired is usually a fuck you from your bandmates. bandmen  do dumb shit all the time and sometimes even mysteriously leave due to musical differences after being put on blast for dumb shit by fans... but when you get fired, and publicly outed for doing deplorable! stuff, your band doesn't want you to save face. so it's all the more interesting that his other group is carrying on... definitely makes me want to know what happened even more lmao

You've got a point, yes, BUT since they said fans informed the band it makes me wonder if it's acctually some minor problem, that the fangirls just got upset over and decided to make it way bigger than it really is (and due to the culture the band might then have felt the best thing to do is to get rid of Chaos since maybe a lot of fans would stop following them otherwise). I mean these kinds of bands are very dependent on their fanbase in Japan... And concidering the thing with Femme Fatale where one of the members got togheter with someone (was it a fan and he was married or some shit like that?), I wouldn't be suprised if this also was some weird shit like that. There's a limit on how much fans can interfere with bands private life and I think in Japan that line is a lot more blurry since they have the culture of always having to keep your face, and the idea of bands etc to always seem available (which is kind of fucked up IMO). I couldn't care less if my favorite bands memeber's cheated or got drunk, it's non of my business as long as they still do a good job when acctually working.

They found out he's italian

Heresy! Encores are an integral part of setlist planning. I say this as someone who have spent way too much time writing setlists for bands I like. They can provide a necessary break to not cause an abrupt break in the flow between styles (see Dir en grey doing their Marrow of a bone tour busting out MISSA material during the encore), as a way to build tension and expectation and to just allow the band a chance to breathe so they can have energy to squeeze out a few more tracks instead of perform a measly 15 songs.

This ties in nicely with a Facebook message I received yesterday. The lurker reading this can consider this my unofficial response, but I will get back to her shortly. Her question revolved around how to get started in the community, because from the outside looking in we can be a little off putting. But our attitudes towards music, especially Japanese music, is unique within the scene and to the Internet. We cater to an older, more seasoned demographic who know what they like and what they don't, and who really appreciate it when people take the time to explain their opinions. Other places centering around J-Rock are content with agreeing to disagree on a much more superficial level, eschewing any type of confrontation because of how easily it can slip into drama. I have a different philosophy regarding standing one's ground in a conversation, and I moderate with that philosophy in mind. I step in when things get too spicy, but overall I'm content to let two or more members plumb the depths of their differences in opinion because that's where the most interesting discussion lies. Conversation dries up quickly at the oasis of agreement, but I've had members sign up here solely to write reviews to disagree with mine. That's something that even five years ago, I would not have seen.
 
There are two extremes of fans, but as was said earlier these extremes are in every scene. We are a much smaller community, so those extremes appear exaggerated. I've witnessed fans who hate everything just to be contrarian, and I've witnessed fans with no concept of music they don't or cannot enjoy. Most members here fall into neither one of those extremes, remaining somewhere in the middle, even if we all gravitate to one extreme. The negative opinions prevail because of three main factors:
 
it's easier to be negative and engaging than positive and engaging (without seeming like a shill)  contrarian reviews are more likely to bring people to the table to argue back those with positive opinions about music just don't share them as often Like what you like, and if someone here writes a review that you disagree with, write a positive one back! It's the best way to keep a good atompshere where everyone feels like they belong, start deep discussion, and promote JRock at the same time.
 

I'm really curious as to why people keep saying the band hated doing the GAUZE tour, and most likely only base it on the one performance released on DVD. As someone who attended the entire tour I can attest to the fact that it didn't lack energy at most dates. Sure, it was a bit uneven at times, but that's how this band is. Some days are bound to be better than others and I've come to terms with that many years ago. I wonder if people confuse the nature of some of the tracks which doesn't really call for a whole lot of audience interaction, or in some cases I assume, can't be afforded due to the technicality and state of practice, with boredom and dislike.
 
The truth is, they wouldn't have done the tour if the whole band truly despised doing it, so I'll just put these opinions in the pile of other tinfoil hat conspiracies like the monthly disbandment speculations (that have appeared at least for ten years if not longer by now), Kyo communicating with aliens via inward screams and various other things in descending order of crazy.
 

Heresy! Encores are an integral part of setlist planning. I say this as someone who have spent way too much time writing setlists for bands I like. They can provide a necessary break to not cause an abrupt break in the flow between styles (see Dir en grey doing their Marrow of a bone tour busting out MISSA material during the encore), as a way to build tension and expectation and to just allow the band a chance to breathe so they can have energy to squeeze out a few more tracks instead of perform a measly 15 songs.

Heresy! Encores are an integral part of setlist planning. I say this as someone who have spent way too much time writing setlists for bands I like. They can provide a necessary break to not cause an abrupt break in the flow between styles (see Dir en grey doing their Marrow of a bone tour busting out MISSA material during the encore), as a way to build tension and expectation and to just allow the band a chance to breathe so they can have energy to squeeze out a few more tracks instead of perform a measly 15 songs.

Heresy! Encores are an integral part of setlist planning. I say this as someone who have spent way too much time writing setlists for bands I like. They can provide a necessary break to not cause an abrupt break in the flow between styles (see Dir en grey doing their Marrow of a bone tour busting out MISSA material during the encore), as a way to build tension and expectation and to just allow the band a chance to breathe so they can have energy to squeeze out a few more tracks instead of perform a measly 15 songs.

Heresy! Encores are an integral part of setlist planning. I say this as someone who have spent way too much time writing setlists for bands I like. They can provide a necessary break to not cause an abrupt break in the flow between styles (see Dir en grey doing their Marrow of a bone tour busting out MISSA material during the encore), as a way to build tension and expectation and to just allow the band a chance to breathe so they can have energy to squeeze out a few more tracks instead of perform a measly 15 songs.

Heresy! Encores are an integral part of setlist planning. I say this as someone who have spent way too much time writing setlists for bands I like. They can provide a necessary break to not cause an abrupt break in the flow between styles (see Dir en grey doing their Marrow of a bone tour busting out MISSA material during the encore), as a way to build tension and expectation and to just allow the band a chance to breathe so they can have energy to squeeze out a few more tracks instead of perform a measly 15 songs.

Heresy! Encores are an integral part of setlist planning. I say this as someone who have spent way too much time writing setlists for bands I like. They can provide a necessary break to not cause an abrupt break in the flow between styles (see Dir en grey doing their Marrow of a bone tour busting out MISSA material during the encore), as a way to build tension and expectation and to just allow the band a chance to breathe so they can have energy to squeeze out a few more tracks instead of perform a measly 15 songs.

2017.05.05 - Polaroid image by @hyura

2017.05.05 - Polaroid image by @hyura

2017.05.05 - Polaroid image by @hyura

I think it really comes down to what you expect when listening to music. Which aspects are most important for you to enjoy it. Is it originality? Talent? Sound and recording quality? Does the song comply with your personal genre preferences? And how do you rate these aspects? Your rating could be absolute. Comparing the song to everything you ever listened to in a vacuum. You don't care who made it and under which preconditions because all that matters is how much you enjoy it. Or maybe it is relative. You care about potential and compare to other releases from the same band or bands at the same point of their career because you enjoy seeing musicians grow. Both stances make perfect sense.
The first category of people might still listen to indies bands because they can be fresh and surprising and edgy but see no point in them if theres a larger band doing the same style but better and in high definiton. The judgement would be harsh accordingly.  The second category of people might even appreciate a little crappiness and overlook the plagiarism and basic recording quality and only get bored when there's no development anymore.
It's not petty, it's just a matter of perspective.

This is problematic because the same argument are used by delusional fans to claim that a band is completely original when they're clearly not. I take Grieva as an obvious example. I don't mind them, and I think they can be fun and a nice listen on occasion, but when people say that they haven't ripped Dir en grey off in several tracks, they're deluded. You can literally sing the lyrics to DIARY on top of a karaoke version of JEALOUS and it would mostly fit.
 
As  for "hatred", I think that people just try to assert their opinions about a band and assume that everyone understands that the "in my opinion" is implied. I like several things other people deem terrible, and vice versa people enjoy a lot of things I think is absolutely horrendous. And since the VK fandom is so heavily invested in their bands, when opinions clash it tend to lead to argument and people taking it as a personal insult. I don't think this is going to change any time soon so we just have to do our best to argue WHY we do/don't like something and then let everyone have a constructive debate. 

This is problematic because the same argument are used by delusional fans to claim that a band is completely original when they're clearly not. I take Grieva as an obvious example. I don't mind them, and I think they can be fun and a nice listen on occasion, but when people say that they haven't ripped Dir en grey off in several tracks, they're deluded. You can literally sing the lyrics to DIARY on top of a karaoke version of JEALOUS and it would mostly fit.
 
As  for "hatred", I think that people just try to assert their opinions about a band and assume that everyone understands that the "in my opinion" is implied. I like several things other people deem terrible, and vice versa people enjoy a lot of things I think is absolutely horrendous. And since the VK fandom is so heavily invested in their bands, when opinions clash it tend to lead to argument and people taking it as a personal insult. I don't think this is going to change any time soon so we just have to do our best to argue WHY we do/don't like something and then let everyone have a constructive debate. 

I have the autographs of: Dir en grey, deadman, D'espairsRay, Girugamesh (x2), Lamiel, aie (solo), The Gazette, MUCC, and probably a whole bunch more that I can't remember. 

I have the autographs of: Dir en grey, deadman, D'espairsRay, Girugamesh (x2), Lamiel, aie (solo), The Gazette, MUCC, and probably a whole bunch more that I can't remember. 

Actually, Kamijo supposedly gave them the idea of the name and said they should use it, and gave them that bogus explanation of it meaning grey coin in English, french and german, which they used to mention in interviews until they released the truth that it was utter garbage.
 
I'm going to bet also that any makeup steals by Kyo would be from Kiyoharu and not from Kon. For some reason visual kei musicians are very wary about taking influence from contemporaries, which is why when there are sessions and things they usually cover bands from the previous generation rather than their friends.