Jigsaw9

The overall sound quality and mixing of those two clips is so frickin' horrendous that I'll just keep thinking that it's only some kind of vague preview, and they'll hopefully sound more full/bearable on the actual release. But yeah, so far I don't really like these two (which is something coming from me, considering that I like their newer era a lot better ).

^ I think they're just models/extras/actors, yeah. At least they define themselves as a 4-member band in their profile.

^ Thanks for the heads up! Cool vid as always.

That's how I've been feeling about their music in the last 2 years. But anyway, gonna listen to the album after it comes out, they're still not too bad.

Official Facebook page has opened! - check out the cool member photos!

^ Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for too. ^^ Recently I really liked their single A-sides, not so much the B-sides (so I'm glad only the A-sides made it to the album xD), but I loved their previous album, so hopefully I'll like this one too. I hope it'll have traces of that dark/"occult" atmosphere (dunno how to formulate it better xD) that was characteristic for a lot of the songs on their previous album.

I was really looking forward to this album, and it didn't disappoint. Here's my two cents, song-by-song: - Fell to the HEAVEN: Awesome mood-setter, though a bit too drawn-out. Reminded me of DEG's last two albums in atmosphere. - Wrath of God: typical MEJIBRAY - nice and well-executed but nothing special. - Karma -Gareki no Mantichoras-: Still one of my faves from them. I like how they re-recorded it, sounds kinda stronger maybe. - Itsuka kimi ni korosare shineru nara: Lovin' the fast metal parts, almost a Northern melodic black/death style! The rest is usual solid MEJIBRAY. Cool song. - Sabbat: Already know it/love it. - Itsuwari no kamen/Jisatsu no uta: I absolutely adore this song! Cool guitar+bass work goin' on, and the whole thing is really "together". - Anemone: Drags on more than it should, but better than what I expected. Nice guitars and chorus (usually the chorus is the downfall of slow songs for me). - Spice: that riff feels like I heard it before somewhere, lol. Pointless song, not very interesting (that mellow part is good though). - Invisible Tower maker: Epic pop-rock track, one of my new faves. Vaguely reminds me of major J-rock (but with more "meat", haha). - EIPHILIA: Almost typical MEJIBRAY with some more conventional "neo VK" guitars, plus an infectious chorus. Lovin' it! - Mechanical beauty: Holy electro-rape, Batman! Has both amazing and amazingly irritating parts, lol. Interesting experiment, that's for sure. - Chameleon YUMMY: A punky SADS rip-off vibe going on, but still it's good fun. The type of song that they can repeat infinitely on concerts, haha. - KILLING ME: Nothing really new here, already like this one. I would've preferred a new song as a closing track though. All in all I pretty much liked this release. There were lots of outstanding good parts, but also some mediocre/heard-it-before things (but nothing I would label bad or unlistenable, thankfully). I appreciate their very light experimentation with electronics/programming on a few songs, it added an interesting dimension. Overall, I'm impressed. I hope they won't burn out too quickly at this amazing pace they're releasing stuff. They should go on some vacation or creative break now to keep delivering quality, haha (yeah, that probably won't happen). I'd give an 8/10 for this album, nice one!

Covers (TYPE A & :

Spot/digest video for their upcoming single & DVD: yZxTopvY9qE

Well... there goes the only current Japanese indie-rock band I seriously listened to.

^ I tried to decipher what their style is from their interview but since I don't really know much Japanese I didn't come up with much. I think they said something like it'll be more of a "real band" type of sound, more rawer, with the two guitars and live drums & all.

^ Yeah, it'd be great to hear it somehow. I guess they'll surely sell it at their first concert (since it's on the same day), and I hope there will be some more regular way of getting it too. I sent a mail to the contact address on Közi's website asking about overseas ordering availability by the way. I hope they'll reply.

Their first full-length album called GIFT will be released on 2012/05/29. Cover art (I guess?):

^ Yeah, actually that's the way I usually like to explore new bands. There are some bands though whose early stuff I find almost unlistenable but lovin' the new releases, so I guess it depends on bands + individual taste + luck too.

^ Cool covers!

Yeah, that "world tour" sign was on a previous flyer too...it's just a kind of joke. But cool, 6 songs sounds nice.

PV preview: NHvoCAIOfQc

I think it's this Clémentine (she's associated with Sony Music Japan too, so might be her). But yeah, really WTF/horrible tracklisting (except for SID and POLYSICS being there)... I guess they just hired some random foreigners for lots of $$$ to show how "influential" and "respected" Laruku is internationally (lol right).

^ Yep, it is! The bonus tracks are all Japanese artists actually. Sorry, I left out the original katakana writings. ^^"

New PV spot: XNNVsHJWEG4

Tribute album tracklist: 01. Vince Neil / Blurry Eyes 02. Orianthi / NEO UNIVERSE 03. TLC / RAINBOW (this one's Niji of course) 04. Eric Martin, John 5 / HONEY 05. ZEBRAHEAD / READY STEADY GO 06. BOYZ II MEN / snow drop 07. Maxi Priest / Vivid Colors 08. Michael Monroe / HEAVEN'S DRIVE 09. Daniel Powter / STAY AWAY 10. Clementine / flower [bonus tracks] 11. POLYSICS / SEVENTH HEAVEN 12. SID / Shout at the Devil 13. Hemenway / Caress of Venus 14. TOTALFAT / Driver's High DVD tracklist (sorry, I was too lazy to romanize these): 01. 虹(1997 REINCARNATION, Dec.23,1997 東京ドーム) 02. 花葬(Tour'98 ハートに火をつけろ!, Oct.21,1998 国立代々木競技場 第一体育館) 03. Caress of Venus(1999 GRAND CROSS TOUR, Aug.22,1999 東京ビッグサイト 駐車場特設ステージ) 04. NEO UNIVERSE(RESET>>LIVE*000, Dec.31,1999-Jan.1,2000 東京ビッグサイト 東展示棟) 05. HONEY(CLUB CIRCUIT 2000 REALIVE, Oct.27,2000 Zepp Osaka) 06. HEAVEN'S DRIVE(TOUR 2000 REAL, Dec.6,2000 東京ドーム) 07. Driver's High(Shibuya Seven days 2003, Jul.6,2003 国立代々木競技場 第一体育館) 08. REVELATION(SMILE TOUR 2004, Jun.12,2004 大阪城ホール) 09. READY STEADY GO(LIVE IN U.S.A., Jul.31,2004 1st Mariner Arena) 10. TRUST(AWAKE TOUR 2005, Aug.31,2005 国立代々木競技場 第一体育館) 11. 叙情詩(ASIALIVE 2005, Sep.25,2005 東京ドーム) 12. the Fourth Avenue Cafe(15th L'Anniversary LIVE, Nov.26,2006 東京ドーム) 13. 夏の憂鬱[time to say good-bye] (Are you ready? 2007 またハートに火をつけろ!, Aug.26,2007 富士急ハイランド コニファーフォレスト) 14. Killing Me(Are you ready? 2007 またハートに火をつけろ!, Aug.30,2007 沖縄コンベンションセンター劇場) 15. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM(TOUR 2007~2008 THEATER OF KISS, Feb.10,2008 国立代々木競技場第一体育館) 16. あなた(TOUR 2008 L'7 ~Trans ASIA via PARIS~, May.9,2008 LE ZENITH) 17. forbidden lover(TOUR 2008 L'7 ~Trans ASIA via PARIS~, Jun.1,2008 東京ドーム) 18. Blurry Eyes(20th L'Anniversary LIVE, May.28,2011 味の素スタジアム) 19. GOOD LUCK MY WAY(20th L'Anniversary LIVE, May.29,2011 味の素スタジアム) 20. X X X(20th L'Anniversary TOUR, Dec.4,2011 京セラドーム大阪) (source)

Event Horizon Saw it for like the 3rd time, still good.

Haha, awesome!

Awesooome~

^ I looked at vkdb, but couldn't find any info whether he did anything after Lamina. There's not even a "personal/unknown status" written under his name there.