Shmilly

This was a release I gambled on by ordering it in advance, and it surpassed my expectations. There's some real energy here and from the powerful opener to the catchy closer, I've been spinning it over and over since it arrived through my door a day after release. The short length and distinct tracks make it very replayable in my opinion. Considering the number of songs they debuted at their first one-man too, I wouldn't be surprised if they announce another mini or even a full album soon. I'm excited for their live on 1/15, got my ticket a week or two ago.

The full track is great, it's not just a ballad but another one of their dramatic works. There's some brutal screaming and breakdowns in it too and the full PV is quite moving, Second track was a meh ballad for me. Third track is super catchy and sounds like it would be great fun live.

This is decent. Nothing mind-blowing, but nothing like the worst thing to ever happen to VK. I don't get all the hate YOHIO and co receive from foreign fans, if anything we should be excited that 'outsiders' are actually attempting to make a name for themselves in an essentially exclusively Japanese music scene.

I have very mixed feelings toward this album. I used to be a huge Versailles fan, but somewhere along the line with their hiatus and the disappointment that was Jupiter, I lost some of the wonder that their epic orchestral arrangements used to bring. I can sum up my main disappointment with this album in one reason though, and that's the mixing. While it's really great to hear new recordings of old hits, several times they are more accurately described as misses, ending up with some of the quirks of the original recordings being polished out rather than having had new life breathed into them. Here's my take: the drums have been brought up in the mix, which is always pleasing with metal music; for the most part, the re-recorded vocals are much cleaner, although this is largely redundant on more recent tracks; and on the other hand, the bass has (disappointingly) sometimes been muted more into the background, leaving standout moments in some tracks like DESTINY a little lacking. In addition, for whatever reason the orchestral accompaniment sounds a lot more synthetic than it did before, meaning some of the atmosphere and spectacle is gone from the more dramatic tracks like Love from a Dead Orchestra. While it's great to see new recordings of the older tracks like Shout & Bites, Dead Orchestra and The Revenant Choir, whether they have been significantly improved by being brought up to date on recording quality and mixing is up for debate. Furthermore, while it's nice that everything was clearly recorded to fit a uniform standard, several of the newer tracks feel somewhat unnecessarily renewed. In my opinion, the original versions were plenty good enough and the new ones are just a little too clean, losing some of their magic. I'm particularly disappointed in DESTINY, where the slick bass in the bridge that kind of served to introduce fans to new bassist MASASHI is all but lost in the mix, and the new vocals feel more clean than emotional compared to the original. That said, when the new takes benefit from being re-recorded, they do really shine. Shout & Bites and zombie in particular are great. To round off this 'best album', the two new tracks are sadly rather forgettable; or at least, upon the first couple of listens, they didn't leave me with too much of an impact. It just felt like 'oh, Versailles are back!' This reveals for me a slight danger at the legendary group's return: while it's clear from their forays with solo work and Jupiter that, despite being individually talented musicians, they work best together as Versailles, this best album also reminds us of their signature style. And while more Versailles can only be good news, they need to be careful to remember what about their composition and world-building made them special, rather than playing it safe, when it comes to future releases. As a whole, particularly for new fans, this is a great album. But for someone who has followed Versailles since they first emerged on the scene, as an attempt at producing a 'best' album, it falls a little short. The return of Versailles is like a little kid coming home from school and showing their parents what they made that day. It's cute, but they tried a little too hard.

Nah, it's pretty cool. The previous two were limited to 100(!) copies each so I was pleased enough to get hold of a re-issue.

The 'new' track on the MDK single is just an SE, for those wondering.

Sounds decent.

Thanks to the update I was able to order a copy this time ^^ Thanks Delk!

Wait, was gishiki also released somewhere?

Unless some kind of new group is already confirmed, I'm not sure we'll be seeing MALISEND again. From the way they were talking last night, it seems like the 5 of them are super tight and couldn't imagine being in a band with any other members. We'll see though.

So mysterious I'm struggling to care.

4-type singles are a common thing these days, but I think this is the first time I've seen a 4-type album release... Lots of new songs and not just a single-fest, so that's great news. It's a shame how hit-and-miss these guys can be though, so I'll remain cautiously optimistic.

Well they look pretty... apart from Mr. Not-quite-black skinny jeans on the left XD Wonder what they sound like?

A shame, but it does make it easy for me. I was debating going tomorrow since I don't have other plans but I'm not really interested in the other bands playing, so I'll just go to the last one man instead.

Digging the video and new look. Something a little more unusual than just thematic visual kei costumes.

V. excited for this! Plus more live footage on the limited edition is great news!

Damn, I would totally have gone for the chance to see Yuri live again. Shame he's not involved.

Interesting...