nullmoon

Any chance of an upload please now that you've awoken my musical boner?

Any chance of an upload please now that you've awoken my musical boner?

Got my copy today from CDJapan.
 
This album is simply amazing. All the songs are notable, the production is on point and well beyond what is generally expected for VK, and it overall lives up to the hype generated from the three songs we got in preview. I'm sure it will be worth the wait for everyone else whose copy hasn't arrived yet.
And to be honest, I didn't realize there was this much skill in Retsu and Ryuya's guitar playing. Of course, Hiroshi is a much better drummer than Issei ever was, so that probably allows them to demonstrate their skill a lot more now.
It's pretty heavy overall, but there is diversity in the stylistic choices in the songwriting. There are a couple of ballad-ish songs (Malformation, D.Hymnus), but the final track 「人」と「形」is the most like that. Otherwise Vanitas probably comes closest to that Avalon-like Ballad feel.
 
I noticed that the 3 preview songs all say the music is by Retsu, but in the lyric booklet every song composition is credited as 02. Retsu is the 2nd member credited in the band members, so... I dunno lol
 
 

Can he let this fucking band go already. This is almost as bad as the hide tribute albums LMAO.

Kisaki trying to prove that Yoshiki isn’t the only shameless dipshit in town. 

Get on motherfucker!!!

Again? Just let this band rest in peace

This sounds like a bad april fools prank someone here would make

So most of the songs on this album will be released for the tenth time, great.

VK newbies モンダイジ!! (Mondaiji!!) released a PV for their new song "ラヴベリ-Love very-" and because they decided to disable comments on the video, I had to take my comments here!
 
'Hey guys! We're Mondaiji!!' I don't like that this caution tape is arranged in such a way that it isn't even pretending to keep anyone out of anything. It looks way more like they were learning about Maypole dances in class that day and had no streamers to make one.
 

Oh no we're only 10 seconds into this video and they've already started adding unnecessary post-effects in editing. They did not have a lot of confidence in this video holding up on its own.
 

See what a I mean? Though this was probably necessary considering the terrible lighting of this PV.
 

'We don't have a drummer yet.'
 

Did no one think that exposed fluorescent lights maybe wasn't the best they could do for lighting a music video featuring three men in tons of makeup? The lighting just screams 'this is a cheap PV we made on an iPhone!' and is the second worst thing about this video.
 

The worst thing is how unwilling the whole band is to just 'go for it'. I remember Jimi from Chemical Pictures blogging once about how to look cool in a PV you have to be willing to look ridiculous in person because normal movements won't translate with any energy on film. The dancing and jumping and instrument-ing in this video are so half-assed it's like the band are embarrassed. 
 
This is also my biggest complaint with their sound so far. I actually kind of like the summer-time fun vibes in the verses of this track, but no one in the band sounds like they really *mean it*.
 

I have no idea what this song is about, so I'm not sure if the classroom relates. But now the vocalist is singing into a chalkboard eraser cause why not.
 
(Though I do appreciate that they gave him a microphone in this PV, nothing makes singers look more awkward than when they have nothing to hold and don't know what to do with their hands.)
 

I feel ya bro.
 

'Quidditch after class??'
 

I actually think dude on the right's vibrator-on-my-hip blowin-some-bubbles aesthetic is pretty on point.
 

Again, dudes look like they got bored in the middle of shooting their own music video.
 

There's rapping in this song. When will VK vocalists learn that really all you have to do to not sound like my mom or the Beastie Boys trying to rap is rhyme more than one syllable?
 
Also there's no way that little cone would amplify someone's voice whatsoever.
 

'Oh shit I forgot to hold either my mic or cone or eraser. I'll just mime it for this shot.'
 

What's with the curtains in this classroom? I like to think they shot this video while school was in session somewhere and the school's principal needed all the middle school children to not see the VK horrors lurking in that classroom.
 
(Hopefully it's something innocent like nap-time darkness. Going to school in America, we had drills where we had to hang things to black out the windows so hypothetical school shooters wouldn't be able to see into the classrooms 😢)
 

Who ya got as the GOAT, MJ or LeBron?
 

'What are you doing to the clock??'
 

'Hehe, time to go! Saika you're such a trickster!'
 
These guys have a one-man show coming up at Takadanobaba AREA this fall, whoa!

Whoa~! Yokan 2.0 is happening?!! 👻

理由 me up! (理由 me up inside)
 
 
What's the reasoning for that? With Ranunculus, the lyrics were on screen. For the other song, "I cannot love myself" (or sth like that) was audible and/or on screen, too. Kyotaku calls it "Punk's Not Dead", iirc.
It's so confusing, all these new songs @.@

Thanks, appreciate it. :]

Sounds like maybe you just don’t like heavy/aggressive music? I like both bands but your claims of sukekiyo being more sophisticated are a bit pretentious. It’s just different. Why would he want to be in two bands that sound exactly the same? 

Thanks for looking into this. I'm not sure why you're getting so much slack for trying to be helpful but I appreciate your efforts anyhow

It's probably a wordplay on this: http://tangorin.com/dict.php?dict=general&s=猫を被る
 
Also, I asked kyotaku for her take on the title translations and wow, would you look at that:
01. 軽蔑と始まり (Keibetsu to Hajimari) - scorn and beginning 07. 赫 (Aka (could also be read as ‘kaku’ but English dir site lists it as 'aka’)) - shine, glitter 11. 谿壑の欲 (Keigaku no Yoku) - unlimited, insatiable desire 12. 絶縁体 (Zetsuentai) - insulator (the cap from the merchandise from this tour has 絶縁 (insulation/disconnection) printed on it so I’m assuming that one of the new songs (new or new-new) they play is this song ) 13. Ranunculus - the language of flowers says 'attractive’ or 'brilliant’ Looks like my translations aren't that wrong at all, huh. Who would've thought.

and yet despite all the negativity most of you are going to listen to it anyway x

Isn't Ranunculus a Harry Potter spell?
 

I want the 理由 remake to be beautiful and the Deeper Vileness remake to be disgustingly heavy.

IF the band is having a tough time selling tickets -- to my knowledge there is 0 indication of this -- they have no one to blame but themselves. Their international strategy and presence for the past 6-7 years has been virtually non-existent, and as time goes by people have naturally forgotten about them. 
 
There's 0 buzz surrounding this band. Once upon a time they were willing to tour abroad as a support act for bigger bands -- why aren't they willing to do that today? Today they expect to do a headlining tour abroad and all the fans they were gaining in 2008-2009 will start magically showing up. That's not how music promotion works, especially when general audiences are so fickle that they can love a band one minute, and be gone the next. 
 
The reality is, if Dir en grey wants to expand their audience in the West they have to put in the work to make it happen. Having a Facebook page isn't enough. Having your members make vids on YouTube promoting your tour isn't enough. You need to bring that music to audiences that haven't heard your music before, and lately -- for the past 8 years or so -- they've had 0 interest in doing that.

When is he ever?

Jesus, could Kaoru be any less enthusiastic? 

To me it's all the fucking same too. It might be the most SADS influenced with a certain effort in having lamestream appeal, but you know that's a side of the gazette that was always there, if not present then lying dormant. DIVISION is the one I think has gotten the most unjust treatment as it really is in the continuum of the latest albums from the first song to last. I understand not being into some of their albums if your relationship to gazette is lukewarm anyway, but having a hard-on for any post-DIM album while despising another is just silly. 

I for one loved that album. Probably my favorite album post-Dim. I liked that it was just a casual pop experience with catchy melodies and formulaic songwriting.  A solid guilty pleasure.
 
But, I still stan the good old Eternal days ガゼット with Yune.

SO y'all can have an MH meet up in EU but none in the states.
 
Fuck all y'all and i hope DEG cancels this tour. 
 
I wanna see MH ppl too!