DogManX

Did we witness any improvement after DSS? Yes. Was the improvement big enough to make it worthier than 'the holy quadrinity' (Gauze-Vulgar) or even Uroboros? No. Kudos to them for realizing that 'catchier direction' is not going to be a massive turn-off though - sob harder, DSS aficionados (jk). Personal favs: Kaishun, Chain Repulsion, Rinkaku, Cause of Fickleness Other highlights: Uroko, Tousei, Magayasou, Behind a Vacant Image I love this kind of pseudo fact-establishing about what Dir en grey does wrong and right, and what they supposeldy "learned" and what "we" witness and perceive as "improvement" or whatever. I've never heard of this "holy quadrinity" either. But other than that, good review

Fair for me. Back to topic. Holy shit that would be awesome.

HA So Original Saku as a mod can call me any names with no justification whatsoever, but when I reflect on his writings in a similar way he does on mine, .. I get silenced. That's what I call misuse of authority. Is that what you mean by "writing however the fuck you want"? Calling users names, denouncing and disrespecting them clearly? But wait, what was this "I don't want to act differently" about? You are in a position in the first place (!!!) to be able to act differently without any consequences. And you make use of it! Call me names? Whatever, I'm just a tiny user. You're a mod. But me throwing that back because I don't want to be pushed around by a prick? No. Immediate ban. Let me make this clear: I do not care if you're a mod, if you treat me like shit I will respond to it. And if no one here will do anything about that, this forum is done for me. Just another place where a mod's position gets over his/her head. Sad story. But I'm sick of it. All I wanted is at least an admission from your side that you may could have acted differently back then. But you can't even do that.

Easy for me. Best performance

I'm sorry Zeus, but this is inappropriate. Not only is it not true that your staff is in "consistent tone", far from it. Also you can't just dismiss a complaint or allow a mod to tell me to "shut up and stop whining" about it because of reasons that are not directly connected with the issue. There are other ways to do so. And I have nothing to do with people not responding to your reviews. I could accept that you would dismiss my complaint because of my ..unpoliteness.. as sai pointed out, and I already apologized for being harsh in that initial comment. I can't accept though that you will defend a mod telling me to just "shut up", which means something different than a regular user telling me that. Even though I restricted myself from even minding that unnecessary comment. It is inappropriate language in that context, and in any shape or form it has to be pointed out as such. Thank you.

I did not want to talk down the reviews. I enjoyed reading them and I imagine alot of thought going into them. I was concerned especially with the poll and only with the poll. Thanks, beni. I actually didn't want to write into the review section, that kinda kills the flow of the reviews for me.

>>However, it's kind of useless to just complain so to say and not offer any other solutions or give them feedback on how they could do better<< That's exactly what I did. I GAVE a solution. I EXPLAINED what I found wrong in this. What else do you want? And just to repeat it for the sake of it: - I criticised your poll because they gave unprecise and prescriptive options to choose from, which in the end are just limiting and confusing. - My solution was a very simple alternation of the options from this poll. Reason being that this would erase alot of confusion for what to choose, ease the overlook of the overall impressions for outside readers and give way to a way more free range of explanations and positions. I wrote them two times, how did you overlook this? I was being rude and I apologized, but you can't just make stuff up, man. You gotta read before you write.

Because I like to critizise things when I have the feeling of doing so. I don't like to ignore things. I loved the reviews, all of them. I love your thread. But if there are things that bother me, I will talk about it. Sry btw if I appeared too rude on this.

@Zeus I'll make it short: Their best album to date! Overall good, but had some flaws. Some good, some bad. Average album. Below average. Too strange / try hard. Only liked a few tracks. It sucks. Makes for a nice coaster for my beer though. 1. You literally take the words out of your readers/potential reviewers. It's up to them to decide if there had been "flaws" of if Dir en grey were "strange" or "tried too hard". You're already putting your own expectation of how the reviews may look like and take them into a poll where they don't belong. 2. There's a difference between "flaws" and simpy things f.E. I personally don't like. And every reviewer/listener may have a very individual take on this. The term "flaws" takes a relatively objective position, without being specified. Some would f.e. argue that "music" as itself doesn't have flaws but simply is dependent on the listener. 3. To start off with "BEST ALBUM THEY EVER MADE" is ... pretty high-stacked, isn't it? Again, I feel a very cynical vibe about this. If you put it that way, people who would consider it maximally on par with their best releases while still giving full score would naturally hesitate to do so because of the way you put it. That's why I suggested to you the pretty simple alternative of - great - good - average - below average - bad See the difference? Much more free and it gives much more possibility to express notions of like/dislike in every possible way. It doesn't make you look cynical btw. I won't argue on that any further btw. I said what I wanted to say.

Bankrupcy in Nightmare town? Anyway it's actually a pretty solid song. Catchy melody, calm and even a change of motive at the end. If the A-side is that good, the B-side on this single must be a fucking hymn.

I talked about song nr. 11.

Some of it is very.. far fetched. This is what I could defnitely clarify: AWAKE-evoke the urge- 02.-1 ( Static-X / Get To The Gone ) 07.forsaken ( Breaking Benjamin/ The Diary of Jane ) 08.paranoid parade ( Static-X / DestroyAll ) BLISS OUT [DISC.1] 08.UNDEAD FACT ( Bullet For My Valentine / Wakingthe demon) 09.SIX BLACK NINE ( Static-X / I Am / …InA Bag) 10.GRACE ( 浜崎あゆみ / HANABI-episodeⅡ-)　 CREATURE 04.VICE ( D'espairsRay / REDEEMER ) 12.CREATURE ( VAMPS/ SEX BLOODROCKN'ROLL ) DECADE 05.死桜 ( Static-X / Start A War ) Damn that last song is SO OBVIOUS

I must say 懐春 developed to a real favourite for me. So much it trumps Rinkaku actually (in my eyes). What a truly great song.

Kareki created a buzzkill here? You don't say

@Perez Yes exactly

@ Wicked Teletubby If you accuse Deg of recycling their own material, you should at least be able to present more than this comparison. This is an open discussion, so I'd say you keep that in mind for comments you don't want to get reactions from.

Lol anybody noticed that "dubstep" in Midwife?

I honestly don't know where people get this WtD vibe from. There are exactly 2 songs having vocal chorus sections which COULD have been on that album.. other than that, there's really no connection... at least no more than any other album.

This album is what I would call a final STOP sign for anyone who seriously expected a second Withering To Death (and associates). Once again Dir en grey go on showing that they are willing to take any risk, just to express themselves. The album is more fluent and consistent than Dum Spiro Spero, but still it is a natural evolution from that style and I think it's safe to say that we can expect this sort of evolution in the future ahead. It also carries an atmosphere that is beautifully consistent. Each song sounds like it is supposed to be on THIS album. What takes this album to the extreme is the change from melodic one-liners to total dissonance (Chain repulsion --> 禍夜想). Those elements are also much more focused into each song for its own than in the past. You don't get another DREAMBOX here, because it either is totally harmonic, or it is totally crazy and unpredictable. Past songs like Shitataru Mourou appear like early inspirations to what conceptualizes the sound on this album. Distorted, through-composed with one theme after another, and still focused. Sukekiyo and tool are also greeting in the background. The guitar work is great on this album. There are great chord progressions (鱗, Phenomenon, revelation of mankind), reminiscences to old VK (Cause of Fickleness, 懐春) and downright hypnotic riffs that may turn a theme into a whole song (The Inferno). Faster, more technical, heavily layered. It's like kaoru and die read a few sukekiyo reviews on which their own guitar work on deg is ridiculed in comparison, just to shove it back into the writer's a**es. The solos here and there are a nice touch, but not really necessary. Toshiya steps back a bit from his metallic slapping sound. His bass isn't as present anymore, but still contributes with warm and soft riffs, and of course also he gets times to shine (sustain the untruth, 懐春). Shinya's drums are for once not overly experimental and actually try to fit into the songs, with great result. It is still to see though if he manages those disciplines on stage, too. 輪郭 was helluva song in 2012 and it still is on this album. Other highlights are Phenomenon, 懐春, Cause of Fickleness, Revelation of Mankind. 空谷の跫音 takes the "Vanitas" spot, but ends up in a totally different direction. The Inferno does the obligatory "heavy-song" and somewhere resembles "Decayed Crow", but ends up being a very solid piece of death metal. There are problems though. The placement of the songs seems spontantous from time to time. Un deux is not the strongest song on the album to say the least, and it also doesn't fit as an opener. Likewise, the finisher doesn't quite feel natural in its place. Sustain the Untruth would have been better maybe. This album is heavily experimental, it doesn't try to sound compelling, and the listener should really know what to expect and how to deal with it. Dir en grey fans of the post-Uroboros material may find joy with this piece, fans of the older stuff on the other hand might just be overwhelmed by the unconformity presented to them. Dir en grey have once more proven they're not just this band which does "western metal" now. ARCHE is a solid release with my score of 8/10. wow this sucked I hope someone can put it in better words than me

Early favourites would be 鱗 Phenomenon 輪郭 Cause Of Fickleness Midwife 懐春 The Inferno Revelation of Mankind Early MEHs would be un deux 濤声 Still unsure about the rest. I agree, this album is 80-90% totally solid.

No. Absolutely nothing. It's a blant, no-risk radio rock song, appealing to the mass of jrock fans and the mass beyond. It's so blant it could have well been written by Nickelback or Reamonn. I of course only make a case about my perception here.

Well I'm at Widwife right now (loving it) and I can definitely say it's just totally not the material for average jrock (up to) WtD fans anymore. This is some serious shit. I feel like the experimentations are a lot more consistent and above that more structural progression like on DSS. I don't feel like reviewing the first few songs because I honestly just can't grasp it for the moment. Need more listenings definitely. As for those so-called "abominations" like Cause of Fickleness.. meh, where's the problem? "The Final" was much more of an insult to me as a fan than anything I've heard this far. EDIT: Ah well, studio magician Shinya. I was really impressed at some stuff he let out here.. but I honestly hope he will practice enough to get them right on stage!

I cannot grasp how awesome this song is. Way better than Different Sense and a great PV

I've always wanted to see those old song performances. Hope someone uploads the vids on yt quickly.