nullmoon

Can't believe I'm alone when it comes to asunaki koufuku, koe naki asu. One of my favs.
 
Anyway everything up to uroboros slaps. 

o stahp it you! nah, but forreal tho, that's a very heartwarming thing for you to say! 
 
for that, I give all praise, honor, and glory to The Most High, Yahuah Elohim (aka "GOD"). Anything good that I speak is of him and his word. I take no credit.
 
as for me, i'm just a royal fuck-up that's trying to do better
 
---------------
 
I think I may try to invest more time in drawing/sketching. I used to love to do it as a kid/teen, but fell away from it through years depression. Lately tho, my lady has been inspiring me to do it more often, and I've been surprised at the results! I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it as well.

Everytime Cat5 writes a lenghty paragraph on the forum I fall deeper in love with his morals.

i will say some shit right now.... feel free to agree or disagree with this onion: riyuu/wake belongs to the top 10 greatest songs these dudes ever recorded 

Facts. BIG facts.

I gotta disagree with you here. Maybe this is one for the unpopular opinion thread but I think you have every right to tell someone how to raise their children. The argument I often hear against this is "raising children is hard" but the way I see it, if it's hard, you should be taking every piece of advice in your stride and even if you're not following it, you should at least give it a chance. His daughter is eighteen years old, he is no longer legally responsible for her and her virginity is none of his business. I'm not saying he can't be there for her when she needs him, nor am I saying that sex trafficking/STDs/single-motherhood isn't a problem, but just because someone is having sex that doesn't mean they're in danger and it sounds to me like he's demonising sex when he could just be having a civil conversation about it with her. This whole "daddy's little princess" mentality is so backwards and all it does is regress young women instead of encouraging security, freedom and healthy father-daughter relationships. It may seem all very well and good now but how's she gonna fare when she has to be completely independent? Is she gonna have any idea what to do when she's faced with an adult issue or is she just gonna turn to her father to bail her out of every situation?
 
To clarify, I don't mean to sound hostile nor do I mean to attack you personally. In fact, I agree with your last few paragraphs... but if the generation before us can't take a bit of criticism when it comes to the way they parent, why should we take any criticism from them? This is why children don't listen to their parents, because many parents unfortunately feel like they can do whatever and get away with it because "how dare you question my parenting style". There's no such thing as a parenting style. Either you parent or you don't but how you interact with them on a personal level is dependent on you and I can't separate the way someone raises their kids from the way they are as a person.

is anyone else actually happy that silent hill s got cancelled because the cancellation took down the trademark Hideo Writing with it?..
 
I'm watching d*ath str*nding videos here and there and the persistent tila tequila tripping on DMT vibe of the dialogues pouring out from every cut-scene is making my braincells fight for oxygen extra hard tbh

So, a topic about the best jay-rawk cover art and there's no Isana Kagami? This is criminal.
 
She is best known for her works for Nocturnal bloodlust, but it's not just that: she did some services to Scarlet horizon, Babymetal and Soko ni naru, for example. It also includes design for goods, like posters and towels. It's not easy to find people abusrdly talented as her, so she deserves all recognition she can get. She has a website and Tumblr.
 
 
Nocturnal bloodlust - The omnigod

 
Nocturnal bloodlust - Providence

 
Nocturnal bloodlust - The best '09-'17

 
Nocturnal bloodlust - Unleash

 
Scarlet horizon - 7

 
Jester may fail & Saintz - Between 2 fires

 
Soko ni naru - Yaminabe (cute kitten <3)

this basically.
 
in retrospect everything they did up to wtd was impeccable with a fair share of random mistakes, but tbh there's no one in the scene right now capable of doing things right on the same level Deg did it back than.

.

Dressed up for Halloween as a cheap Ai from gulu gulu.  I actually felt really beautiful lol 
 

hello emo girl here
 
 

我、闇とて… is always my go-to track every time I want to listen to something on UROBOROS. It's a great ballad.
 
Now I kinda agree with the poll that TIW is their worst album ever. Just didn't want to judge an album I barely listened to. THE MARROW OF A BONE is much better for me after I have given TIW more listens.

Someone really doesn't like instrumentals lmao, I personally think some of them help enhance the album's tone quite a bit with an easy example being Arche, "and Zero" really helps setting the mood that the album needs to flow better and I personally always place it as the first track in my personal playlist just before Un Deux or Tefu Tefu (still figuring out which track transitions better from it).
Also why do you not like "Ware, Yami, Tote..."? That thing has always been one of the album's highlights for me.
 
 

raison d'etre is among the top 3 catchiest songs on gauze and i will fight anyone who disagrees (but only verbally because violence is a sin in the eyes of the lord)

My favorite album by them is Uroboros. Don't have anything else to say, it's just that good.
 
It's a bit hard for me to choose their worst album since I really dislike both Kisou and TIW, but going by the circumstances each one of those were released, I think TIW stands out negatively more. Kisou is an album by a band that is still trying to find their sound and is expanding their sonic palette by trying new things, but while the ideas are good on paper, it often fails flat when it comes to executing them. Saying that, I think Kisou succeeds at what it tries: to be a weird, experimental and off-putting album, which the strange-sounding production definitely adds to the atmosphere of the record.
 
The Insulated World, on the other hand, was released when the band already reached significant success and following, after a string of three records with very positive reception, and after the biggest interval between LP releases so it was a highly antecipated album. While Kisou at least has some originality, I feel like TIW is a rehash of ideas and formulas that already had some mixed reception at the time of their releases (see The Marrow of a Bone). The production is terrible and definitely doesn't add up to the album, the track order and pacing of the album is really problematic and the stand-out tracks are very by-the-numbers. Stuff from Kisou like "Jessica" or "Embryo" (and even though I don't like the studio version vocals, "24 Cyllinders" is an awesome composition) were legit stand-outs. I like "Ranunculus" a lot but I don't really think it has the power of their previous power ballads, and while the single tracks are fun to listen to, they are really underwhelming compared to the stuff that came before it. 
 
So yeah my complete list would be: Uroboros>Vulgar>DSS>Gauze>Arche>WtD>Marrow>Macabre>Kisou>TIW

None of the pleading in the world could stop my grandfather from drinking himself to death. People drink for a variety of reasons and it would be foolish of me to assume his, but if he's facing death's door and he still won't stop then something must be compelling him to drink. Give yourself the peace of mind and say whatever you want to say to him now, because once he's gone he is gone for good. Maybe it will work.

My uncle drank all his life even while we persuaded for him to get help and is now bedridden with a variety of problems. I'm sorry to hear about your dad; I hope he gets the help he needs.

Kinda painful to watch how my dad is slowly killing himself with alcohol. He's just drunk all the time and has been to the hospital for who knows how many times already because of too much drinking. He was told by a doctor already 20 years ago that his liver was in a very bad condition because of alcohol, and he did manage to reduce his drinking a good amount back then (mainly because mom was always so mad at him about it - I still remember those nights when he came back home late and drunk as fuck and mom yelled at him. I had never seen her so angry. It scared the shit out of me). But after I moved out and mom divorced him a little over 2 years ago, he of course started drinking more again. And it's gotten to the point where he's pretty much always just drunk again. I wonder how much time he has left if he keeps that up... Most likely not much. I'm not very close with him (I'm actually a bit scared of him) but I still don't want him to die like that...
Why does alcohol even have to exist? What good has it ever done to anyone? Just how many families has it ruined? How many kids has it traumatized? I don't think I even wanna know...

their new live DVD/Blu-Ray "A9 LAST ONEMAN BEST OF A9 TOUR『ALIVERSARY』FINAL & 15TH ANNIVERSARY“THE TIME MACHINE”～もしも時が戻るならば 願いますか？～" will be released in advance at their lives since 2019/12/25 and at regular stores at 2020/01/08 (DVD: 5980yen / Blu-Ray: 7980yen)
 
[tracklist]
SE Cradle to Alpha
01 RAINBOWS
02 Heart of Gold
03 Le Grand Bleu
04 UNDEAD PARTY
05 MEMENTO
06 cosmic world
07 NUMBER SIX
ーEntr’acteー
08 GEMINI-0-eternal
   GEMINI-Ⅰ-the void
   GEMINI-Ⅱ-the luv
09 birth in the death
10 光環
11 ヴェルヴェット
12 明治
13 華一匁
14 平成十七年七月七日
15 CASTLE OF THE NINE
16 九龍
17 闇ニ散ル桜
18 タイムマシン
19 革命開花
20 Waterfall
21 the beautiful name

But who actually considers "Hotarubi" legendary? I haven't heard a fan say "damn, I was spinning some 'Hotarubi' the other day and those firefly buzzes spoke to me spiritually". It's just...okay to me. On an album from an era with no shortage of ballads to pick, "Hotarubi" doesn't come to mind first. And "Zakuro" is so boring OMG.

I voted MARROW OF A BONE as the worst only to be remembered it features those three magnificent tracks, as Zeus pointed out. I really can't hate any of their albuns, I'm hopeless, lol.
 
I think MACABRE is their best album (Zeus, can't forgive you for choosing Zakuro as one of the worst and omitting the legendary Hotaru), but my favorite is... DUM SPIRO SPERO. Yes, kill me.

While this sounds great on paper, I'm very skeptical about how they might be executed as most of their remastering efforts have either been negligible or took something away from the original mix. I did, however, think Vestige of Scratches was an overall good remastering of older tracks and would be totally on board for a similar sound. Songs like "Child Prey" hit so much harder and having a Vulgar remaster with VOS execution would be amazing.

There is no reason for it to be over eight minutes long. I would say the song is a solid six minute banger. But what does it mean when I place it second on the list?

A huge difficulty I encountered when making this list was coming up with the order. Like a lot of others in this topic, I don't truthfully have a Dir en grey album I hate, so instead I organized it from "least favorite" to "most favorite". I did the same thing for the tracks on each album, and then I looked towards the singles and other releases for each period so I could analyze each era as a whole. I ended up with three different lists and this is the output after I merged them all together. That's why I stress the difference between a good Dir en grey album and a good Dir en grey period so hard; it actually does matter.

I'll go through my thought process with GAUZE below.

GAUZE is my third favorite Dir en grey album and the one that introduced me into this world, so I have fond memories of it. When I rate each track individually based on my enjoyment, I get the following score:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 2/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  3.5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 4/5
7."蜜と唾" 2/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 2/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 2/5
11."残-ZAN-" 3/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 1/5

Ranked on how important I think the song is to the album experience the list changes to this:

 
1."Gauze -Mode of Adam-" 0/5
2."Schweinの椅子" 3/5
3."ゆらめき"  5/5
4."Raison Detre" 3.5/5
5."304号室、白死の桜" 4/5
6."Cage" 5/5
7."蜜と唾" 3/5
8."Mazohyst of Decadence" 5/5
9."予感" 4/5
10."Mask" 1/5
11."残-ZAN-" 2/5
12."アクロの丘" 4/5
13."Gauze -Mode of Eve-" 0/5

When I zoomed out and took a look at the whole GAUZE-era, there are some other tracks that get into the mix such as "-I'll-" and "Unknown...despair...a lost". Tracks we consider classics that fall out of the analysis if we only recommend the album. The fact that these two tracks weren't on the album brings down the score because that is the difference we have been trying to isolate! This is also why MACABRE ranks lower than intended on my list; I love the period to bits but the album has a lot of filler that members can make arguments for cutting and replacing with various other songs. Put all of these factors together and out pops the recommendations I wrote in the first post. Not perfect, but I tried to look at the whole picture and the small details at the same time, so the end result is always fighting against itself in principle.

VULGAR ends up at the top of my list because it's the album that requires the fewest amount of modifications to enjoy the period to the max. Listen to VULGAR + "腐海" and that's everything you need. UROBOROS falls to second because of the sheer quantity of tracks provided in this era and how many unnecessary retakes there are (and the "remastered" edition left an aftertaste of piss in my mouth that has yet to dissipate). 

I'm just noticing this but mio has a until the day I die tattoo, noice