nullmoon

the wind whispers: stream CHEDOARA ～ ～ ～

As a Brit, what the actual fuck...? This is just plain weird. What next? Kyo meeting Trump? (Please let this happen) 

The fact that he's back still more mind blowing than the new music itself. But it's not that bad,since I've been into similar stuff like sukekiyo...Seeing this guy coming back gives me hope to keep on waiting for Otogi/Natsuki/Satoshi,etc,and even Tsuzuku back at metal one day. Who knows.

Nice, even worse than expected. 

just sent the insulated world to a musician friend of mine check out,and his mind is blown away .he instantly became a DnG stan.then i got intrigued,like "why can i not enjoy that album as well?".so i just decided to give it a spin,without any sense of criticism or comparing with previous works,and it actually flowed really well. i've come to the conclusion that TIW can be an outstanding experience for non DnG hardcore fans.compared with the 3 previous albums,TIW is just ridiculous,but i think if we take that out from the dir en grey-hall and listen to that as a random metal album,we'd be able to enjoy with no problems.

How can you not stand Kaishun?!

It's hard for me realize/accept ( I was not the biggest L'arc fan) how influential they were to the boom (rather, the second wave, leading to the golden era) of Japanese culture to the USA, but yeah '04-'05 was a pivotal change. I mean, L'Arc~en~Ciel returned out of nowhere with their single in the anime, combined with the album SMILE the same year, along with the touring here, and then the shit going down in Japan with NANA (that soon headed our way) being iconic....
Yeah, they did a lot those 2 years lol.

Arche as a whole is really good; but there are a few tracks I can't stand including Midwife, Kaishun, and Sustain The Untruth. Midwife isn't a "bad" song per se; but holy shit that intro is terrible. I've ranted about this several times before. Kaoru writes this amazing groove and what does Die do? He fucking ruins it with this terrible lead work. And OF COURSE it's a few db higher than Kaoru in the mix so you get this awful lead guitar passage and all the good shit is buried underneath it.
 
Fuck that song. One of these days I'll stop being lazy and write my own lead passage for a cover; but right now I'd rather keep complaining.

Dream setlist for na tour would be a few songs from every release but no way that happens 

the best stuff on arche is really good. Kaishun, magayaso, rinkaku, midwife and tosei ranks high in late dir en grey to me and some other songs are good as well

Thanks very much, guys! 
 
@YuyoDrift, thank you for transporting me back in time! It's fascinating to hear about Hyde's/L'arc's influence back in the day. Plenty for me to listen to now as well

Half-right. I was around when the original "Glamorous sky" released, and in order to fully understand, we need to backtrack a bit.
 
The amount of people I knew (mostly girls) that were into VK/Japanese Rock at the time (2001-2005), were also hardcore manga readers (Japanese everything, amirite?), and the series NANA (already been out for maybe a few years) was definitely one of the top selling manga at the time (I'm sure both in Japan and Internationally). Tying HYDE into it, L'Arc~en~Ciel had just recently resumed activities after their hiatus, and it was definitely their song "Ready Steady GO", used in the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, that shot them back up into the limelight here in the USA. Their old albums were dusted off the shelves and played non-stop (there were AMVs for their songs all over the internet at the time), and when people heard that HYDE was composing a new song for the live-adaptation of NANA, to be sung by none-other than Mika Nakashima (who was the main character for the live-film, and already recognized as the music artist she was), the hype got real. So real in fact, that you can check billboards for Japan and any articles online reviewing the song, it was a #1 hit for WEEKS.
 
I also knew people that were fans and could play the guitar, and apparently "Glamorous Sky" is very easy to understand composition-wise, and can be dissected to play certain parts that the fans are comfortable with, without ruining the song.
 
I never really looked into the song after about a year of its debut, but with the recent re-recorded version of the song (included in the single Kiss of Death (Produced by Hyde), which was the OP of the anime Darling in the Franxx), I was surprised that the reception to a song that was already 13 or so years old was as good as it was. It was snuck in there, and if it weren't for the advertising, I don't think people would have noticed. I definitely recommend you listen to the 2005 version of "glamorous sky" before checking the 2018 one (her voice has changed slightly in this one, and the emotion of the song is almost non-existent).
 
Just an FYI, the reception of the song influenced other music companies to implement the same strategy, such as the 2018 version of "A Cruel Angel's Thesis (Zankoku na Tenshi no Tese)", which was used for the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, and sung by Yoko Takahashi. Definitely another heavy hit song of the times before Mika Nakashima.
 
 
EDIT:
 
For those wondering, the anime-adaptation of NANA was not that big of an influence to the overall popularity of the series or the song "Glamorous Sky", so much as the Manga/Film was. The anime is now recognized as a "must watch" by those around in the anime scene at that time, but the song by Mika Nakashima/HYDE is separated only by the order in which everything happened. More people will know of the song before they know about the anime/manga they are associated with. Which explains why a lot of "covers" don't reference the series so much as Mika Nakashima herself.

Yeah, I think the connection to NANA is a big part of the appeal. I know that SHIN covered it because he said he used to read the NANA manga and the character Shin from that series was where he got his stage name from. Plus most of the people who cover it also tend to be big Hyde fans...

It is just a very popular since being featured in the NANA anime, that's all?
And it was composed by hyde from Laruku, so you know he's getting that money.

I refuse to watch this MV, but hey the song is nice! :'D 

bleh, Hizumi's my boi, but they're gonna have to come better than this...
 

Not too excited about either song, but it is nice to hear him again.

Hmmm while none of the tracks sound exciting to me, I do love hearing Hizumi’s voice again. But if I had to chose out of the two, I liked Another Face best!

DemoCD [limited] trailer: https://youtu.be/es0M0AGYQHw (no embedding allowed)
 
Two Songs
- XStream
- ANOTHER FACE

Vivid but not exactly cohesive.... 
 
-Driving around the West Midlands (the county where I live in the UK), complete with potholes, grey weather, and bad drivers. 
 
-Walking around and coming across some random field with a play area in the middle. Pretty sure this was from another dream. 
 
-Walking around a bustling town centre. There was a middle Eastern dude busking. He was playing deathcore shit on drums, it was great. 
 
-Speaking to one of my friends (an ex girlfriend) about relationships while we're in an arcade. 
 
-My brother owns a horse in this dream. I plan to give it a three course meal (an apple for each course) for its birthday. Of course apples come in all sorts of flavours in my dream. I decide on apple pie flavour for dessert. Cut to me in the back seat of a car, feeding a horse an apple in the passenger seat of the car. 
 
-I wake up. 
 
What? XD 

I must be a straight man then lmao

Please take what I say with a HUGE grain of salt...cuz I ain't no expert or any of that shit, but imma keep it 💯 with you. We tend to over-complicate things. I think the main reason most relationships fail is because ppl are ultimately more committed to themselves than anything else. I mean, outside of glaring incompatibilities and straight-up abuse, there really isn't much that two ppl who are TRULY intent on making things work could not overcome.
 
But generally, muhfukkas just don't wanna make sacrifices or put in the effort. We generally take the path of least resistance. You also have a lot of ppl that'll deceive themselves and use the flaws in a relationship as an excuse to opt out of that relationship, when in reality, they have ulterior motives and just wanna do whatever they want to do. These are the kind of ppl you usually find jumping from "relationship" to "relationship". But those ppl are idiots cuz guess what?  EVERY relationship is going to have issues. Every relationship is going to face conflict. Why? Cuz ain't nobody perfect. We all fuck up. We all make mistakes. But what makes a perfect relationship? 2 ppl who never stop giving a perfect attempt at it.
 
But see that takes heart. That takes courage. That takes patience. That takes forgiveness (a damn near infinite amount). That takes maturity. But see ppl fuck themselves over thinking relationships are supposed to be all sunshine and rainbows. Ppl think that relationships are for your own "happiness", but you'd have to be a damn fool to think that. Happiness should be a byproduct of your relationship, but it should never be the goal of your relationship. It's a fuckin' emotion - which means it's flimsy as fuck. You're liable to feel a million different emotions in one day, so to make something as unstable as that the very foundation of your relationship is silly. What's gonna happen as soon as you don't feel "happy" anymore? Usually, that's when strange penis and vagina starts looking REALLY appealing to folks   Next thing you know, you dun ruined your relationship over a temporary emotion. I digress.
 
Relationships are going to test your fuckin spirit, and you gotta be prepared for it. Anybody who truly loves you is going to keep it real with you, and so in contending with them, they're going to reveal things about you that you didn't even know. You're going to experience sides of yourself (good, bad, and UGLY) that you didn't even know you had. A good relationship is going to bring all of this out. Suppressed trauma will surface. Scars will be picked at. But you have to be willing to face all of this. The good, the bad, and the ugly. You can't just expect the good, and ignore the bad, cuz that shit's going to get ugly inevitably lol. You have to be willing to realize that, yeah, you do have some bad and ugly parts of yourself that you need to work on. You have to be willing to grow. Your partner as well. That's why patience and forgiveness is so paramount. And it's a neverending process...but it's going to make you a better person and continue to refine you.
 
So you see why commitment is so important. I mean, REAL commitment. Most ppl don't wanna go through all of that stuff that I just mentioned. You'd be shocked at the lengths ppl will go to to avoid dealing with themselves, and a good relationship is going to force you to confront yourself and your issues. We live in age where all ppl wanna do is be comforted. Don't nobody wanna voluntarily put themselves through something like that. Don't nobody wanna jump in the fire. And honestly, a lot of ppl would rather jump ship than face the depths of their very own heart.
 
But anyways lil sis, I know my tone and my language can be harsh, but don't let me frighten you or anything. I'm just trying to keep it real with you and let you  know that relationships take a dead-serious level of commitment and spiritual maturity. It's going to be a challenge. But accepting that challenge is actually way better than not doing it imo. When both you and your partner fully commit and both of you look at the relationship as something you're in together...as "us vs the problems" and not "me vs my partner"...when you're both willing to face that fire together and understand that tough times WILL come...your experience will be much deeper, richer, and fulfilling....a lot more than simply looking for fleeting "happiness" in other ppl.
 
You gotta be willing to make an effort tho. That's actually one of the functions of marriage, aka making a covenant with your partner. You make a vow to stick it out, so when issues arise, yall gotta figure that shit out. Cuz like I said, most ppl will take the path of least resistance and leave a relationship/partnership before even trying to work shit out. Especially in these days where ppl feel like they have infinite "options" via social media alone, and treat ppl as if they're expendable. Shit, muhfukkas is unfriending ppl left and right over simple-ass disagreements these days. Petty shit. That's the kinda world we're living in today, so a lot of ppl have no hope of actually being in a successful relationship being that damn petty lol.
 
Anyways, hopefully I said something that made sense to you. I talk too damn much

@CAT5: "I ain't no expert or any of that shit" 
@CAT5:  proceeds to roll out a well thought-out essay that would make marriage counselors weep 

So I just looked them up and found this:
Not unusual, my arse. As an autistic person, I'm offended. How could you even say something like that in front of your child? "This school doesn't meet the standards I set for my child's education so I'll murder her". Appalling.