DogManX

@Owl Thanks very much, smartass. I didn't ask for it. I have the feeling I made that pretty clear in my comment.

I always think Malice Mizer's PVs have a certain aesthetic to them which just renders them art. Hard to tell the cheesiness in them, but there are certainly ones who go a bit "over the top".

I heard there will be a movie finishing the saga. I hope sincerely that there will not be spoilers leaking which take away the result of that end fight. And yeah.. Sasuke, die already.

I honestly can't decide between the 2nd and 3rd answer. I chose the 3rd one in the end, because that's the time of an overlapping of pre-existing bands (roughly since late 1990) having their greatest time, and a lot of good newer bands showing up. (not counting in these copy-paste neo vk bands like diaura, mejibray, screw etc...) the time when girugamesh, an cafe, Dir en grey, Phantasmagoria, lynch, Deathgaze, D etc pp had their strongest outlets.

Oh yes, it does. It's OT to go further into that, but like I said earlier and from what I read in later comments about "racism" and what the hell else: If you don't even care to understand what you were presented with, and come up with an entire bunch of strawmen to attack that guy, you're being close-minded. Calling him a jackass is ALSO close-minded, subsequently to the genre he's portraying. Come on.. dat show tieing scene.. it just asked for it. But enough for now. Am I the only one who still loves PSY? That guy's definitely on my concert list in my upcoming asia trip.

Wow. Talking about closed-minded. That guy was at least comedic exaggerating about it. You guys just seriously insult him back with whatever you come up. BTW he didn't complain about it being in another language. I found that funny as hell, and I'd love for once hearing someone outside the scene smashing the hell out of a VK or generally japanese band or so. Please be more open-minded than you accuse him of not being.

Ach. Takayuki darf auch langsam mal ruhen, oder zumindest Pause machen. Der Typ ist jetzt bald 50.

This guy made a great review about Girls Generation. Really appreciated it.

There's this band called Grieva. Extremely original stuff usually, but this one might be erm.. inspired by Dir en grey. Look for yourself. Joking aside, anyone who denies Grieva's blatant ripoffs is just totally delusional. I only listened to most of their early stuff..but man, I was never reminded of THAT many "similar" songs (that's an understatement). You can't call that inspiration anymore. But it seems they went on creating their own stuff lately, which is a promising thing. Great band.

Mostly amazon. Yeah. What you gotta do without visa/mastercard.

No, not at all. This album is widely recommended as a "starter" album, and also widely represented on "best japanese rock" polls. People love this album. Not to my understanding, the horrible production really gets me off and I see it more as a 'failed 2nd Vulgar'... But I can understand the people getting a nostalgic vibe from it. .. Listened to Kisou again and.. man. It was the first album I bought and it's still damn awesome. Raw production, corny songwriting.. it's like TMOAB for the VK era.

Wow. I won't even answer to that.

Got excited from the Aoi Mochi review, but it's .. not that special. It sounds almost like lynch nowadays. I didn't listen to Monster, but it sounds very much like NOW, just a bit more technical. Production is very good..for a djent metalcore band. I don't know if you can call it "evolution" if a band tries to sound like other bands.

This time Darth Vader presents us a great band from the UK: Akercocke! Definitely worth checking out.

I don't care about StU. I didn't like the mastering of the song to begin with, way too plastic.

I'm sure about Uroboros. But Vulgar and The Unraveling are very close behind (although not listed).

A "dogma" declares itself as not being questionable. It is not synonymous with the rejection of false questions. Keep our "discussion" in mind when you accuse people of being dogmatic in the future.

Wow. My opinion already makes people mad. I definitely did a hit here. @ miyuu You don't seem to understand the very topic we talk about. In real life you may make understandable points about the "progress" of technique and social issues, but music is art. It is completely subject to individual perception. As is your opinion on the value of change in music. And this is not about "blocking change". You totally missed the point here. This is about people valuating change in music artists based on their personal interests, putting labels like "progress", "regress" or "development" or "maturity" on it. And about me saying these statements cannot be made reasonably, because they merely reflect the personal favor of the one making them, as you f.e. demonstrated multiple times now.

@ miyuu I didn't take positions. I merely took your position and explained how this is a matter of opinion. If you view band's changes as "mature" and a "healthy" thing generally, then that's based on your point of view what "maturity" in music really is and why bands "have" to change in favor of health (unless their music is not "absolutely perfect" as you phrased it). You represent the fairly common opinion that change is necessary and/or has to be accepted as a sign of maturity or development, take it as you like. My UNPOPULAR OPINION was that I don't take positions in this issue and precisely, I don't promote the view that an artist's change generally has a "good" value of any sort, may it be maturity or development or the mere necessity of doing so. Simply for the fact that it doesn't prove a point other than your personal favor, which you ironically fabulously presented in your last 2 sentences. This wasn't meant to be a discussion to elaborate your points of view, I only highlighted THAT your had this point of view. I don't use words like "maturity" in music.

@miyuu I apologize for linguistic problems, since english is not my 1st language. I of course meant change first and foremost. I talked about situations in which bands made more or less "noticeable" changes in their formula, be it music, style, whatever. Situations in which those discussions about change or stagnation usually appear. Of course they also appear on bands who stay more or less the same over the years, but well. But otherwise it's really a matter of opinion, as I said. When is a band "mature", what defines "maturity" in that context, in what intensity do you view album differences, why you think "loops" are bad or change is generally "healthy". It of course proves my point, thanks for that

Change or "progression" in musical style or appearance is widely viewed a positive value. That may have the reason that we as a human race always want to overcome old structures or previous generations. On the contrary, people who speak for stagnation or against progression for certain artists or bands are often turned down to be elitist trolls or whatever. I don't believe that any of the arguments can be generally applied (for the UNPOPULAR OPINION mainly the argument for progression) as it contains generally a matter of taste. In fact, I believe people only use this "bands have to develop to stay good" argument if they themselves have no problem with the end result of band's progressions they base their argumentation on.

Oh Oh! I love those threads! Thanks very much fpr opening them! Opeth - Blackwater Park http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4_Z7rPnBMo Great closer for a great album. The mood sweeps from heavy to almost silence as this song progresses to be an album for itself in the end. Porcupine Tree - Collapse the light into earth Perfect finisher as it sums up in total what the album brought so far, only in acoustic Deathgaze - Amends By far the most beautiful ballad they've ever done, very close before dearest. And at the same time one of the best songs they've ever made in total. ナイトメア (Nightmare) - 時分ノ花 (Jibun no Hana) What I like abous this song so much is that it actually doesn't seem to fit as a "closer", from what it appears to be, yet there could have been no other song to close their best album "anima" as this one could. Very nice progression and well placed solo to accomodate. I'd also have put "Amber" from Dir en grey, but I feel like it wasn't really necessary to close the album. It's nontheless a very beautiful outro.

Can the fandom around NB, Diaura or Unite really be counted as "hype"? I mean I understand hype as an extreme form of fan appreciation that reaches widely across the genre. There's some talk about these bands here and there, but it's far beyond special as I see it. They get mentioned, that's all. NB had a technical approach to their metal music in the beginning and I rmember alot talks about them because they went into being a VK band (since it's usually the other way round). Aside from that.. nothing serious. Same about the other bands.

I'll just post this last one since it wasn't reduced to "japanese band's" openers, was it? I'm sorry if the opposite would be the case. However, I find the epicness just astounding in this case. Fun thing is that this song works just as well as a finisher. Ex Deo - Romulus

Best album openers? Easily Dir en grey - Audience Killer Loop Very strong opener. Haunting atmosphere and killer riff. Nightmare - 蛹 (Sanagi) Sets up a great mood for the follower "Varuna", that guitar line is just great. D'espairsRay - Damned (...), this is the most awesome opener with the most powerful riff of all time.