DogManX

beautiful vocals! reminds me of Head Phones President very much. 9/10

In terms of Kiryu, I'd break it down differently. First of all, there is this popular expression that JRock/VK fans don't really listen to "western rock", since it all sounds the same anyway. So if a band like Kiryu comes up with some nice traditional synths, it's THE SHIT all of a sudden. ..And on top of that, they have a bassist who looks like a girl and a singer who sounds like a girl. Good deal for the average VK girlie.

Yeah man. Took me an eternity to get the Necrodaemon album. Great stuff indeed.

I think some of us mistook the hair shadows on Shinyas face for wrinkles. I agree though. Age or look shouldn't matter. Sadly this is an ex-VK band... so it DOES still matter.

Why VK? Because they're japanese and having some kind of styling here and there? Come on. And btw, I believe Kaoru's intend may have been a greek tunika... so much for that. And Shinya looks... different... without tons of bebè on his face.

True. You can't understand those without PSY.

To put this in short: This album should have been shortened to an EP containing the following songs: 1. ENIGMA 2. DEAD BLAZE 3. THE UNDERWORLD 4. BREATH 5. SADISTIC SMILE 6. FEAR If it'd have looked like this, I would have given it a generous 6/10. It's not bad, but it's far from outstanding. It all sounds badly recycled, and the only revolutionary thing about it really is the synth part in THE UNDERWORLD and the continuous tapping in FEAR. Both sounds good and fun to listen to, even if THE UNDERWORLD falls back into 0815 jrock metalcore formula once the chorus starts. The other 4 songs also sound good, they're energetic and supported by acceptale chorus sections. But it simply lacks tracks like "THE END" who highlighted the previous album with their outstanding quality. I'm not even going to mention the remaining songs, since they are literally nothing. While listening to the album I really asked myself "Wait a moment... did I just listen to a song? Because I don't remember". Compared to this, lynch's GALLOWS is a masterpiece.

Belphegor are back with some more devilish golden showers. The new album is particularly hard to get into, as I found it. Yet, it pays off to keep going with it, since I've not heard such evil riffs in a long while. Belphegor prove to me once more to be one of the finest blackened death combos out there. HAIL SEXDICTATOR LUCIFER! The new video is as always wonderfully thrashy, with a sense of "I know it looks bad, and I don't give a fuck". Brought me back to some old stuff too, awesome pace and riffing. And... the lyrics..oh my

After listening to the late single, I ask myself if bands like exist trace actually care at all about the music they do. So sad.

Chiko war auch nicht schlecht. Guter kleiner Mafiafilm. Blutzbrüdaz hat im Endeffekt auch weitaus mehr geboten als man zunächst erwartet hätte.

Very interesting. I've always been curious about the inner thoughts of a VK musician.. I mean, the REAL inner thoughts. Only thing is that it will probably not be translated. So non-japanese speakers will have a hard time with it.

This. Just a quick search on youtube reveals there's still alot of content up there. Also, I remember back in 2008 PVs being deleted already. I would say the VK thing in mid-2000's was a trend-kind of thing. When there was really the first time these bands got alot more attention than they used to before outside japan. Nowadays I think that shock and awe value is just sort of overused. People don't get excited by dragqueens playing heavy guitars anymore, and there are a lot of other crazy things arising everyday on youtube and other platforms nowadays. The quality of the music is highly subjective. And I seriously don't think that made "VK" big in the first place. The demographic kinda speaks for itself. The fact that many VK bands nowadays apear as mere session bands who disband relatively quickly doesn't make it easy, too. But I don't think it's the main factor. I think people just go on to like different things. In this more and more medial world fashion changes alot faster than usual, I guess. And big viral hits last a mere week before being replaced by another "hit". And really, where is the statistics that VK was ever "alive" on yt in the first place? Are there video view counts of the time where its supposed "golden age" was? Just wanna know...

That was sarcasm ^^ I tend to joke about myself a lot lately. No worries.

Lol funny how you don't mention TO BE OR NOT TO BE (their newest album ). Good thing, stay away from that. @Sai You as a moderator have some sort of responsibility. Majestical parade? Did everyone forget about the huge disappointment it was after the AVEX albums came out? I would say, giving more time to SCUMS is definitely worth it. And if that doesn't do it, try the other ones mentioned. Other than that, Libido (2004) is also very strong in my opinion.

can anyone translate what it says? lol that outfit. reminds me of that random boy that runs around in the ZAN PVs.

I love rats!! Currently have three young males. Akin, Eren and Malik. I hate..hmmm... Sabretooth cats. Always get killed in the high grass of Reach. *troll*

They really did it. Wow. Yurameki. I just hope they will tape this one. I MUST HEAR IT EDIT and lol to Die's comment on the album >>‘We will end up with an absolutely new and different sound from DIR EN GREY as compared to the previous album’ (Die)<< Absolutely new... like just different from DSS. If they do it in the style of Sustain The Untruth though, that wouldn't be THAT revolutionary, really. Very excited about this big talks.

Wow, cool name. "Arche", like noahs ark? Seems like a consistent follow up to "Dum Spiro Spero" judging from the title. Or the greek word: αρχη [archê] Greek term for beginning or ultimate principle. The Milesian philosophers looked for a single material stuff of which the entire universe is composed, while Empedocles identified no fewer than four elements whose mixture makes up ordinary things. For both Plato and Aristotle, however, the αρχη most worth seeking would be an originating power from which the material order flows and upon which theoretical knowledge of its nature might be grounded logically.

Oohh that struck hard. I nearly felt the cringe through your letters. Although I was not thinking to take the thought that far actually..that was you... Anyways I'm outta here. Idol crap always prepared for new ridiculous scandals.

Cough. relentless, my man. Sorry to burst in like this, but. Babymetal. There you have it. Coold bloodeed.

Well, I wonder why no one has stated the obvious question yet... THE GAZETTE. Why? Precisely what do people find so affecting about them? I want to know. DIR EN GREY doesn't need any explanation if one knows at least randomly every "era" of their discography. And not only this. It's the affection a lot of people have to Kyo especially. He's real to a big part of his fans, to put it in harmless words. And this gets furthermore underlined by the band's history, always going overboard and provoking their fans either with unusually personal lyrics, gore-eske performances or eventually dropping the visual aspects as a whole. I'd not say they're just a "starting point" for j-rock fans. There have been other bands since 2000 quite as much at the front as them (D'espa, MUCC; Nightmare, The Gazette etc). It's just that their unpredictable behaviour and their wide range of dark rock/metal styles keeps many people affected in the process of stumbling across them. (I personally didn't start with them precisely because everyone talked about them and I therefore expected some Bieber-eske hype.)

Well someone has to be a man in the band..to compensate for Shinya you know.. ..wait. Is he sitting on a naked man's ass????

Compared to VK drummers, of course.

He's much more talented in doing shy shoujo girl impressions than drumming. And honestly I wouldn't miss him if he'd quit the band. I also don't think the band would be quitting if he left. EDIT ok I take that back he's not a bad drummer, he's just not flexible at all. And now that you mention it, Shitataru Mouro is also such a song. I cringe everytime it starts because I just know in beforehand he doesn't get that intro clean. And it's really a song that invitates to do drum fills. If you'd put Hellhammer before the kit during this song...it would reveal its full potential. But apparently Shinya never variates beyond the studio track..that he barely manages to do in the first place.

No problem. I've heard alot people mistaking the snare hammerings in Different Sense and Decayed Crow as blast beats, also. And it astounds me everytime I see the live footage, to see that it took him like 3 years to manage keeping up with his feet on these sections. Not to mention he totally skips the double bass sections in red soil... I mean in studio he can apparently do a lot of things, but the only way I can explain his fucking up live is that he doesn't appear to ever practice. Hence... good thing he stays away from blast beats.