WhirlingBlack

Personally I think it works good at least in Japan as a set closer as its one of the tracks that has the most audience interaction out of the bunch, that being said, Rasetsukoku and ZAN has the same qualities and they fit better as a set closer musically.
 
However, overseas where people just do their own thing it would probably seem strange and out of place as a closer and that's where I hope they'll bring out Rasetsukoku or ZAN instead. 
 
Anything but THE FINAL, please.

I woke up in the most extreme and horrible pain I had and still have ever experienced. I could only take shallow breaths, even moving my hands sent me so much agony that my vision was blurring. I managed to use my knuckles to pinch my BF awake and barely whisper "911". I am beginning to come to terms with my own death. I'm pretty sure that something has ruptured and that I will be dead before I get help. I've got tears running down my face and I'm thinking about my mom, and how much I miss her. The EMT folks show up, strap me to a board, lug me down two flights of stairs and rush me to the ER. The doctor pushes on my gut and I finally let out a throat scratching scream. I was dizzy from the pain at this point and the pain is so unbearable that I don't even want to breath anymore. After sonograms and pain killers the doctor comes in to inform me that they couldn't see any of my organs on my sonogram. I AM FREAKING THE FUCK OUT. Where the fuck did my organs go?????
They couldn't see my organs because I was so full of gas. the doctor told me that sometimes severe gas can be more painful than an aneurism. He gave me something dissolvable, and a saline IV and I spent the next two hours farting in my room. And that is the story of my $15,000.00 fart.

WhirlingBlack. He's a total bro <3 (no homo)
 
Edit: I guess I can expand on this a little lol
 
We've been friends online for at least 6-7 years, but it's been so long that neither of us actually remember when we first started talking. When things went sour with my girlfriend at the time and I had to make last-minute international travel changes to try and salvage my vacation, he went out of his way to book himself a trip to Japan(with like... a month's prior notice) so that I wouldn't have to go alone. Every time I've been remotely in the same part of the world since then, he's flown in to hang out with me.
 
A true bro.

A potential market is a potential market only if it has potential. I'm going to guesstimate some numbers now to arrive at my conclusion from earlier.
 
Let's assume three things to begin with to make math simpler:
Monochrome Heaven is the only community on the internet that cares about visual kei. Everyone that visits MH is a gaijin. Everyone on MH is active and interested in visual kei. MH has 7588 members so let's round that down to 7500. That means that the likelihood of an indie band gaining a fan overseas out of a total of 7 billion people across 196.9 million square miles is 0.00000107142%. If this were distributed across all 196 countries evenly, each country would have approximately 38 fans. Even if I were to estimate the number of fans that would show up to a live, one concert for a reasonably popular visual kei band would have "two overseas countries" worth of fans supporting them (approximately 100). And the band doesn't even have to do anything except aggressively promote themselves within their prefecture(s)!
 
Those numbers are a reasonable representation of the popularity of visual kei in the world. We aren't even the 1% of the 1%! We are not a potential market. We aren't even a market because it's not like there are droves of people lining up to buy their music. So why would a band care about overseas fans when they can see 3x to 4x the returns in a single concert at home? Like any other small-time band, local fans take first priority. Live-limited releases are for the local fans. We're just lucky if one of them happens to share it with us.

I think crowdfunding can definitely be done right. A while ago the VK band Lacroix Despheres started up an indiegogo campaign for their 3rd album. It was going to be released either way, but they were raising money in order to increase the album budget and hopefully work with Video Game Orchestra to get a live orchestra on their new album. I ended up tossing in $35 to get a signed CD and some goodies, which I though was a pretty fair price. Unfortunately overseas VK fans are uber cheap and they only got a total of 33 backers with an average amount of about $35 per person totaling up to $1140(with ~$6131 donated through the Japanese crowdfunding site MotionGallery). Now they didn't end up hitting their goals to record with a live orchestra. I guess you could say that the campaign "failed", but they still get that money to help increase the production values, which is good.
 
The way I look at crowd-funding stuff like this is just a glorified pre-order system where you get to choose your own pre-order bonus. I think it's a great system for smaller bands who can't get the backing of labels, but still want to do the best that they can. Honestly, I would absolutely love it if more indie VK bands would jump on the bandwagon.

Artist: Lycaon Album: Camera Obscura Score: With a title like Camera Obscura, lots of interesting takes of what the concept would mean for this album came to mind. Sadly, from the first track it was apparent Lycaon went for the most direct translation. I was more than a little disheartened. The first half of this album did very little to raise my spirits, either. First and foremost, the levels in the mix and production are horrific. It's muddy, discordant, and downright unbearable in parts. Case in point, "Dark Night" has obnoxious levels of echo that clash with the high end string backing tracks. It's so bad I can barely follow any of the other instruments in the song until about half way through. I've heard a better mix come out of a 4 track recorder in a teenager's basement.

And while "Dark Night" is the worst offender, it's got company with most of this album suffering the same fate. "追憶 " has a crunchy guitar riff that should be ripping this album wide open, but instead I had to fight through mass amounts of reverb effects to hear just about anything. "Liar", "君を壊すガラスの衝動 ", "Rouge", "ILLUSION", and "メランコリック" are snooze-fests full of recycled garbage that go nowhere and are so painfully bland it hurt to listen to them, yet I still can't find traits to distinguish any of the songs from each other after the album is over. The lack of originality for most of this album is jarring, and when it does have something interesting happening it's suffocated by cheap production.

"悪女の微笑 " is in a battle for my favorite Camera Obscura song next to "ジプシー". And partially because its recording quality is leagues above the rest of the album. You can hear every instrument clearly and no one thing is eclipsing anything else. It's a decent song and the only one that made me even think about headbanging along to it. "馬鹿ね。" , while not as strong in composition, shares the better production value with the other singles. I could do without the chorus driving the song into the ground by the end. It's a fun chorus to start with, but in this case less would have been more. Then there's songs like "marionette" and "アネモネ" that found a way to survive in the pit of bad recordings. Something about both songs is stripped down and less complicated than the others so they end up better for it and loads more memorable.

I stopped checking for this band some years ago, around their 2009 release Chains of collar, because their nasally vocalist doesn't sit well with me. His voice is like a hybrid of Hakuei's (Penicillin) vocal pitch and the nasal tone of Ryutaro (Plastic Tree) without the edge or control of either. And this album makes me that much more grateful I didn't waste my time keeping up with Lycaon. This is, astoundingly, a step down from what they were even back then. Someone should have cut out all of these asinine SEs and saved the money to have the album mastered by a better studio engineer. I am usually more forgiving of visual indie bands for lo-fi sounding works, but this is not Lycaon's first album. This is 3 albums in; this is a band familiar with how a music studio works for the last seven years. And what makes it so annoying is there are select songs on this album that have better production. So why not all?

 

remember the good ol'days
 
 
with frypan
 
 
i miss frypan
 
 
bring back frypan

Why is it that every time there's a problem on this forum you seem to be involved in one way or another?
 
There's a very clear difference between stating a negative opinion and just being plain negative and you have a very difficult time distinguishing between the two. If you had just said you weren't going because you had no way to get to the venue and no one to go with, that's one thing. I doubt anyone would have jumped down your throat for it. But then you go on to insult the band in a thread full of fans hyped to go see them live, and you get mad because people react this way? That's not a surprise at all!
 
Nobody is saying that you are not allowed to discuss not going to the concert, but you need to learn how to communicate your thoughts in a more constructive manner. Diction matters. You sound depressed, off-putting, and holier-than-thou whenever you talk about anything and that's not a good way to start constructive conversation. There's a time and place to be polemic. There's a time and place to be polite. There's a time and place to discuss both sides of a situation. There's a time and place where you only discuss one.
 
Instead of blaming other people and circumstances for the situations you find yourself in, I think it's time you re-evaluate how you interact with other people. If you're always experiencing problems both on MH and IRL, the only constant is you. And this isn't advice to avoid "getting in trouble" on MH, it's just plain good life advice that I implore you to heed.
And before you play the autism card, you aren't the only person in the world that has it. You aren't even the only person on the forum that has it. Don't use your mental illness as an excuse or a crutch to worm your way out of this one.
And don't tell me that "I wouldn't understand" either. I do.
+++
EDIT: Everyone else stay on topic. Any future off-topic posts will be removed.

Artist: sukekiyo Album: VITIUM Score: The essence of sukekiyo, molded into perfection. sukekiyo has managed to slowly convert me from being a mildly disinterested bystander to a casual listener who's always on the lookout whenever something new pops up concerning the band. Their first full-length IMMORTALIS proved to be a slow-burning behemoth of many faces (and facets), and their latest offering VITIUM isn't too far off from that impression either. Kyo and co. don't seem to be in a hurry, as evidenced by the size of this new 'mini' album which is still longer than most bands' albums. Throughout these 37 minutes, they present their compositions in typical sukekiyo fashion: sprawling, mysterious, unpredictable. This time around, however, it seems they were able to craft a more unified sound for themselves (as if they weren't already unique enough), with a concentrated approach to boot. Each song sounds more coherent in and of itself, while still retaining the "expect the unexpected" avant-garde quality they've come to be known for.
VITIUM starts off powerfully and majestically with "leather field" – a dark flower blooming and branching out in sukekiyo's aural grotto. Hints of manic aggression and weirdness also rear their heads, prefiguring what's to come in the second track "dunes." This song introduces a demented vibe with its jittery guitars and drums, the band's interpretation of violent jazz-metal. Surprisingly, we are treated to an interlude next ("dot") that doesn't do much in itself but it serves as a fitting ambient intro to the following "foster mother." Kyo's deep croons drift onto a hypnotic beat complemented by beautiful guitar flourishes and keyboards that evoke an ambiguous atmosphere, on the edge of tranquility and uneasiness. One of the standout tracks for sure!
As VITIUM's centerpiece, "雨上がりの優詩 (Ameagari no yuushi)" pales in comparison to "foster mother," although it is a decent slower number complete with some fantastic textures and a soothing, airy outro. The atmosphere continues through "maniera," but it quickly turns into a quirky explosion of psychedelic metal tinged with calmer acoustic noodling. If DIR EN GREY drove out to the desert high on mescaline, this is what they would jam out. If "maniera" was the hallucinatory freak-out, the second interlude "白露 (Hakuro)" serves as a soundtrack to expulsion – not as fun but still necessary. All the more so, it heightens the magnificence of the follow-up, "celeste." Switching between tumbling piano sludge and schizophrenic episodes, it's a strong indicator of what sukekiyo is capable of. Naturally, after all of this there's no other way to go but softer, as "focus" closes the record with ethereal floaty melodies... or so it seems until the flamenco bit kicks in, segueing into one last creepy look into the abyss.
As you can tell, this mini album is quite a trip from start to finish. Whereas IMMORTALIS seemed overly long and drawn-out at times, VITIUM manages to capture the band's perfected essence, more powerful and twisted than ever. It is clear that sukekiyo has finally found its own voice. Let's just hope we'll get to hear that voice more in the future as well!

HOLLOWGRAM SET-LIST at 2015/01/17:
 
01.ideologue
02.Albus
03.KISS RAIN
04.Rufus
05.adolescent
06.Butterfly in her dreams
07.シルエット(silhouette)
08.vinyl
09.gasoline
10.Stand the devil's like
11.Pleasance Liddell
12.Don't cry for the knell
 
EN1
01.思い出の意味(omoide no imi) (kein) (Vo.眞呼(maco))
02.blood (deadman) (Vo.眞呼(maco))
03.quo vadis (deadman) (Vo.眞呼(maco))
04.mistletoe

Had a photo session with my friend today. Enjoy my sexyness!
 

"New song 1" from the Gauze tour is sampled at 2:30-2:57, it's the chorus section though and that's not entirely representative for the track as a whole, as usual with Dir en grey.

Another note for the album, new song 2 is only about 2½ minutes long.
 
Could explain the long tracklist if there are several more songs of this length.

I don't know if I mentioned this in the other thread for the tour, but the new songs are played on six string guitars. They didn't change guitars between Yokan and the new tracks.

I don't know if I mentioned this in the other thread for the tour, but the new songs are played on six string guitars. They didn't change guitars between Yokan and the new tracks.

The concert heavily features videos from their Gauze era, including clips from the PVs of the songs they're playing. Always careful to avoid shots of the bandmembers, though. The only time they actually showed old band footage (during MASK) the bandmembers faces were all censored out. As intro they are using the Gauze -mode of adam- music and the video for it. 
 
It showed that its been a while since they performed many of these songs, now that I re-evaluate a bit, I'm not sure if the band actually felt "bored" about any of the tracks, but rather weren't used to it, because the delivery on the new song was also a little bit stiff. I'll report again a bit later in the tour to see if this has passed by then. 
 
Kyo were struggling with some microphone issues early in the concert but it was resolved during raison detre.
 
Info on the new track:
New song starts off with a atmospheric short intro with acoustic guitar, then goes into a complex and pretty rapid exchange between heavy tremolo picking reminiscient of black metal mixed with some punk-esque stuff and some short phases of more DSS sounds and also sections that sounds quite Gauze-y with clean guitars. Has a decently short guitar solo. There's no harsh vocals at all in the song. It's roughly three minutes long.
 
First impression is that they tried to squeeze a little too much stuff into a too short timeframe, but I'm sure it'll grow on me during the tour, the guitarwork is some of the best they've done so far, I like how its more riffing (BM style) than chugging.

The concert heavily features videos from their Gauze era, including clips from the PVs of the songs they're playing. Always careful to avoid shots of the bandmembers, though. The only time they actually showed old band footage (during MASK) the bandmembers faces were all censored out. As intro they are using the Gauze -mode of adam- music and the video for it. 
 
It showed that its been a while since they performed many of these songs, now that I re-evaluate a bit, I'm not sure if the band actually felt "bored" about any of the tracks, but rather weren't used to it, because the delivery on the new song was also a little bit stiff. I'll report again a bit later in the tour to see if this has passed by then. 
 
Kyo were struggling with some microphone issues early in the concert but it was resolved during raison detre.
 
Info on the new track:
New song starts off with a atmospheric short intro with acoustic guitar, then goes into a complex and pretty rapid exchange between heavy tremolo picking reminiscient of black metal mixed with some punk-esque stuff and some short phases of more DSS sounds and also sections that sounds quite Gauze-y with clean guitars. Has a decently short guitar solo. There's no harsh vocals at all in the song. It's roughly three minutes long.
 
First impression is that they tried to squeeze a little too much stuff into a too short timeframe, but I'm sure it'll grow on me during the tour, the guitarwork is some of the best they've done so far, I like how its more riffing (BM style) than chugging.

The concert heavily features videos from their Gauze era, including clips from the PVs of the songs they're playing. Always careful to avoid shots of the bandmembers, though. The only time they actually showed old band footage (during MASK) the bandmembers faces were all censored out. As intro they are using the Gauze -mode of adam- music and the video for it. 
 
It showed that its been a while since they performed many of these songs, now that I re-evaluate a bit, I'm not sure if the band actually felt "bored" about any of the tracks, but rather weren't used to it, because the delivery on the new song was also a little bit stiff. I'll report again a bit later in the tour to see if this has passed by then. 
 
Kyo were struggling with some microphone issues early in the concert but it was resolved during raison detre.
 
Info on the new track:
New song starts off with a atmospheric short intro with acoustic guitar, then goes into a complex and pretty rapid exchange between heavy tremolo picking reminiscient of black metal mixed with some punk-esque stuff and some short phases of more DSS sounds and also sections that sounds quite Gauze-y with clean guitars. Has a decently short guitar solo. There's no harsh vocals at all in the song. It's roughly three minutes long.
 
First impression is that they tried to squeeze a little too much stuff into a too short timeframe, but I'm sure it'll grow on me during the tour, the guitarwork is some of the best they've done so far, I like how its more riffing (BM style) than chugging.

The concert heavily features videos from their Gauze era, including clips from the PVs of the songs they're playing. Always careful to avoid shots of the bandmembers, though. The only time they actually showed old band footage (during MASK) the bandmembers faces were all censored out. As intro they are using the Gauze -mode of adam- music and the video for it. 
 
It showed that its been a while since they performed many of these songs, now that I re-evaluate a bit, I'm not sure if the band actually felt "bored" about any of the tracks, but rather weren't used to it, because the delivery on the new song was also a little bit stiff. I'll report again a bit later in the tour to see if this has passed by then. 
 
Kyo were struggling with some microphone issues early in the concert but it was resolved during raison detre.
 
Info on the new track:
New song starts off with a atmospheric short intro with acoustic guitar, then goes into a complex and pretty rapid exchange between heavy tremolo picking reminiscient of black metal mixed with some punk-esque stuff and some short phases of more DSS sounds and also sections that sounds quite Gauze-y with clean guitars. Has a decently short guitar solo. There's no harsh vocals at all in the song. It's roughly three minutes long.
 
First impression is that they tried to squeeze a little too much stuff into a too short timeframe, but I'm sure it'll grow on me during the tour, the guitarwork is some of the best they've done so far, I like how its more riffing (BM style) than chugging.

I'll try to give some kind of report of the show they're playing tomorrow after I get back.

I'll try to give some kind of report of the show they're playing tomorrow after I get back.

It was a short set but Hizumi sounded pretty well, probably better than he did last time I saw them in 2009. I think the short setlist was just trying to play it safe for the moment being, but as far as I understand it they're not ruling out further performances completely.
 
Hizumi also participated in the encore of Angelo singing one of their songs together with Hazuki from lynch. and the vocalist of RIZE.

It was a short set but Hizumi sounded pretty well, probably better than he did last time I saw them in 2009. I think the short setlist was just trying to play it safe for the moment being, but as far as I understand it they're not ruling out further performances completely.
 
Hizumi also participated in the encore of Angelo singing one of their songs together with Hazuki from lynch. and the vocalist of RIZE.

It was a short set but Hizumi sounded pretty well, probably better than he did last time I saw them in 2009. I think the short setlist was just trying to play it safe for the moment being, but as far as I understand it they're not ruling out further performances completely.
 
Hizumi also participated in the encore of Angelo singing one of their songs together with Hazuki from lynch. and the vocalist of RIZE.

It was a short set but Hizumi sounded pretty well, probably better than he did last time I saw them in 2009. I think the short setlist was just trying to play it safe for the moment being, but as far as I understand it they're not ruling out further performances completely.
 
Hizumi also participated in the encore of Angelo singing one of their songs together with Hazuki from lynch. and the vocalist of RIZE.