DogManX

Hmm.. the first one that would come to my mind, though not japanese, is Burzum. Really. His ambient black metal is one of the best music i've heard in a long time, but as a person I can't arrange myself to not give a fuck on the fact that he's a fascist and murderer.

I think Byakura started off pretty interesting, but the records after their 2009 album (don't know the name) became sort of meh. The neo-traditional parts couldn't save it either. Deathgaze were great until bliss out came out (except for the bliss out bonus cd). The newer sound is so uninspiring, and there are no songs aside from "the end" which are worth listening to in particular, imho. They had interesting ideas in the beginnig, but now they just try to copy BFMV. And well, exist trace. Since they became major, they became shit. It was almost like some nightmare reminiscence, except for the fact that nightmare still managed to pull of decent records ~4 years later or so... Though, the band with the highest hopes from my side was XodiacK. But they disbanded, so no discussion.

@Zess Sigh isn't VK Sendai Kamotsu is OBVIOUSLY inspired by nightmare, which is a totally different band. Look here watch the solo

9goats all the way. There has just never been a band in VK like them. Amber gris..nah, they're boring as hell.

Nightmare 1. シアン (Cyan) 2. このは (Konoha) 3. White Room 4. Fly Me To The Zenith 5. Message 6. 極東乱心天国 (Kyokutou Ranshin Tengoku) 7. Honesty 8. ビルドウングス・ロマン (Bildungs Roman) 9. Over 10. 36.7° Dir en grey 1. かすみ (Kasumi) *new* 2. Obscure *original* 3. Vinushka 4. Macabre *new* 5. 304号室，白死の桜 (304 Goushitsu, Hakushi No Sakura) 5. Diabolos 6. 鴉 *new* 7. 蜷局 (Toguro) 8. 冷血なりせば (Reiketsu Nariseba) 9. Dead Tree 10. 輪郭 (Rinkaku) Malice Mizer 1. Garnet～禁断の園へ～ 2. 記憶と空 3. ヴェル・エール～空白の瞬間の中で～ 4. Au Revoir 5. Gardenia 6. Madrigal 7. 死の舞踏 8. Ma Cherie 9. Le Ciel 10. 月下の夜想曲 lynch. 1. Liberation Chord 2. Roaring In The Dark 3. Anemone 4. Ambivalent ideal 5. Cultic My Execution 6. This Coma 7. Prominence 8. Ecdysis 9. Lie 10. Until I Die Deathgaze 1. Miscarriage 2. Faze Human, Raze Human 3. Disease 4. Gethsemane 5. 死桜 (Shizakura) 6. Amends 7. Unchain Wing 8. The End 9. Grave 10. Sick Xodiack 1. Silence Mind 2. Misty 3. Meteoroid 4. 黒い太陽 (Kuroi Taiyou) 5. Holocaust Infernal Revulsion 1. Rot In Peace 2. Dead But Breathing 3. Blemished 4. Chain Of Blunder 5. Seventh Curse 6. Lord Conspiracy 7. Contrami(Nation) Sigh 1. Amnesia 2. Introitus 3. Curse Of Izanagi 4. Invitation To Die 5. Corpsecry - Angelfall 6. Dreamsphere (Return to the Chaos) 7. Severed Ways 8. Vanitas 9. Gundali 10. Doman Seman Exist Trace 1. Ambivalence 2. Resonance 3. Vanguard 4. Hai No Yuki 5. be Naked 6. Wrath 7. Water 8. end-less 9. True 10. Kiba

Death Metal Classic!

I don't really see the need to buy this. They've just recently released the AQA DVDs...except for the 3 songs they haven't played yet ,and the feeling that shinya is kinda in control of his drums this time (compared to the horrible drumming in AQA)... nah, I wait for the upload. And i don't really like that new 秒「」深.. the MISSA one was bad, this is even worse for me.

"In order to get all the songs you'd have to buy all three types, which is of course maximum profit for the band." For the band? You really think they see shit of the money? If it isn't for the most successful bands in terms of profit, the money goes to hundret different places - than to the band - .

The label that lets gazette still play and didn't disband it yet.

This band is sick, love it. Banquet in the Darkness (2003) probably their best album

Staying up early in the morning, don't wanna go to university, instead listen to this song

Belphegor!!!!!! Love them

Holy Cow! Naoki will be dead after this! But seriously, great setlist. They even play GRAVE!!!!

@ZML. Your first category: Nightmare - Outlaw (2002) The Piass - Dolei (2007) Sendai Kamotsu - Okuru Kotoba (2004) EL~ethnic legist - Indra (2009) exist trace - Annuncitation ~the heretic elegy~ (2007)

"he gets paid for sound mixing. their producing is done by Dynamite Tommy, who's been behind Dir en grey since 1998, or so, and used to have a good sense of what sells right now." Oh, sorry for confusing that. But really? That explains much.

My last rat just died... Gotta get new ones once I finished the cage.. Can't survive college without them :DD

I feel like after about 10 listens I should be able to give a personal opinion on it. First of all, the songs: I think there is nothing much more to say to the style. It goes deeper into the DSS cult-like crazyness. Basically no problem for me. UNRAVELING is a perfect example for that. AKATSUKI meets THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB meets RUTEN NO TOU. Kyo brings up interesting vocal lines, Die and Kaoru provide great tunes. The one problem I have with this song is it sounds like all these fractures of different songs were just thrown together and not elonged. I didn't really have a negative feeling to the remakes since except for kasumi, macabre and karasu, most originals don't really do it for me. Karma is redone brilliant, and judging from the poor original, they really rescued something here. Unknown..Despair...Lost works similarly. The original is a generic, boring VK song and a Luna Sea-ripoff to that. The remake actually got character. Kasumi and Macabre are pretty much flawless, the new additions work perfectly and make these songs good alternatives to the original ones. I wish I could say the same about Karasu, though. Although the instrumental part is absolutely great, the thing bothering me here is mostly Kyo. His need to put his vocals just EVERYWHERE makes every listen troublesome. It was for this reason i also despised the UNDECIDED remake back in 2007. BOTDV is by far the most interesting remake to me. It's a nearly complete reinvention of the original, and its sludgy, progressing tone is absolutely haunting. THE FINAL is...the final. Nothing big changed. Actually I can enjoy this song now. Kyo's vocals sound better, and Shinya doesn't sound like he used a keyboard to record his drum tracks. Which brings me to the production: It's..weird. An overuse of hall effects, Shinya sounds textured.. I don't understand why they hire world famous producer Tue Madsen to come up with a result every japanese Indie studio can come up with nowadays. But well.. it's Dir en grey. Overall: 8/10

The gazette? I don't know... I don't really disrespect much bands or musicians since i don't know them personally. But the gazette I hate musically. Especially the vocalist drives me crazy with his whiny never-really-get-the-right-tone voice.

Cynic at their best. Fucking awesome.

"my ears hurt when he's bullshitting about integrity and ideas bc post-WTD diru is a definition of a basement metalhead sellout but it's obv hard to take him seriously, he's basically paid for praise as well" Tue Madsen doesn't get "paid for praise" most probably, since he gets paid to produce their album. Of course he's not to take serious, he won't obviously ridicule the band on their own record. I also found the TM comment pretty unnecessary. Most of the time he sounded like he desperately searched for big phrases to get this over quickly. Or his english is bad, don't know. But there's always certainty that he may be impressed by them. Not impossible. Maybe you should explain what your definition of "basement metalhead sellout" is. Kind of a funny word.

I kind of oversaw this, so I introduce myself now. I have searched for a forum for japanese music, VK and a forum in which I can't get flamed for critizising Dir en grey . So I'm happy a forum like this exists. I am a total metalhead, I love Behemoth, Belphegor, Nile, Mayhem, Immolation, Cannibal Corpse, Cannabis Corpse, Vader, Opeth, Rammstein, Absu, Immortal, Hour Of Penance, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Chthonic, Dimmu, Old Man's Child, Obscura and many more. Besides I also like Hiphop like DMX (my username is taken from a magazine that falsely depicted "DMX" as DogManX instead of DarkManX), Eminem, Lil Wayne and every now and then I enjoy progressive stuff like Porcupine Tree.. On the japanese side I love Dir en grey, Nightmare, The Piass, Deathgaze, lynch, Malice Mizer, Sigh, Xodiack, Black Gene for the next Scene, Girugamesh (all stuff), D, Defiled, Intestine Baalism, Infernal Revulsion, Ellegarden, Head Phones President.... yeah. English is not my first language, but I try to do as less mistakes as possible ;D. Hope that wasn't too big. Have fun!

What promo?

Honestly, all "symphonic" parts until now are horrible. In some littttttle instances of certain songs like Obscure it sounded ok, but overall it was totally not necessary. Also, the symphonic elements used display a certain lack of creativity. It all sounds the same, over and over again. Lastly, the songs featured with syphonic overlay simply don't need that. So to me, for the most part, it made 90% of the songs ridiculously bad.

What exactly? ^^