Shmilly

Best Album so far is either CodeRebirth - CATHARSIS or ALSDEAD - IDEA. Still waiting on albums from GHOSE, Kaishin no Ichigeki and NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST first though.

OK, I get it. For those who don't, Japanese '9' is pronounced as 'kyuu' so it's basically the same as 'Q'.

After the previews we've been teased with, I was really excited to give this album a listen. Before I make any judgment, here's my thoughts as I listen to it for the first time through. Intro: Calm introduction to ALSDEAD's new world. Sets a nice atmosphere. IDEA: The energetic, somewhat heavy opening of this song is a bit of an abrupt transition from the intro, but it's nicely reigned in so as not to become just another forgettable rock romp. The chorus is better for it. Also Maki has really toned up the harsh vocals, it's nice to hear them return from his NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST cover, even if just for a brief appearance in one song. STARLESS: One of the two tracks we've already seen (or rather, heard) from this album. It fits better here than as just a single. An energetic track with a great flow between the verse and chorus. Twilight: A more electronically driven track. The production is great, and Maki's vocals are strong once again. HERO: Upbeat rock with that familiar but not intrusive electronic element so prevalent in ALSDEAD's style. Not the most memorable track so far and also a bit of an abrupt ending. D.9.N: Another one of those 'just what does the name mean?!' songs! This sounds like one that could be a lot of fun live, with the forcefully energetic but not excessively heavy (and again very catchy) chorus carrying it. Maki has definitely refined the husky edge to his clean vocals in recent years. KILL THE KING: I was super excited to hear the rest of this track after endlessly repeating the PV preview on their YouTube channel, and it didn't disappoint. This for me is the standout track of this album and the pinnacle of the 'IDEA' ALSDEAD are presenting. The chorus and vocals are once again powerful, but here the instruments are playful with some bass licks and a gorgeous, atmospheric solo from Shin. I just can't get enough. Adrenaline: True to its title, this song keeps the blood flowing and the energy running through the album. I think its placement following the previous two tracks helps, though it's still a strong track in its own right. As it gets into full swing, it becomes quite enjoyable indeed and one of the heavier songs with its fade out riff. ノスタルジア: Though a completely different song, the intro to this one and its placement in the tracklist remind me of Heaven from their previous album (which is one of my favourite ALSDEAD spins). The electronic motif comes back in the thoughtful chorus to nice effect. Shin also has another nice solo here. Picture: The other track from this album's sole single. It's a calmer song but the uptempo chorus and consistent instrumental keep the pace to stop it from becoming dull. Behind The Pride: There's a good balance of guitar and synth in this one. The simple intro riff does a good job of finding the energy from before the calm, though on the whole this does feel like a very standard ALSDEAD song. I hate to make a second comparison, but the end of the chorus really is slightly akin to Heaven. Worlds End: In contrast to the previous song, this one is definitely led by the prominent guitar. It's a kind of upbeat rock track with the aforementioned guitar keeping the pace and heavier riffs attempting to push the sound in that direction. A third nice solo rears its head (or neck?) here too. The live-style ending does a good job of feeding the impression that the listener is partaking in this album as well. Gravity: Lighter ballad-style closer. Somewhat uplifting, it does a good job of finishing the album on a positive note. For me, IDEA is a strong contender for visual kei album of the year. If you look at the run time, a lot of the tracks are regrettably short, so the whole album flies by, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. We recently had some glaring examples on Sadie's album GANGSTA of songs outstaying their welcome, but rather than leaving you wanting more of any particular track, IDEA just begs you to listen to it again. And again, and again. I could happily call this the best thing ALSDEAD have done so far.

I could dig it. It would rely on people tagging the bands involved though, trawling through pages of interviews you're not interested in would get old fast.

Ordered, looking forward to finding out what the live footage is from.

Not a bad idea, this. I'm still desperate to get my hands on a few things. I might refuse an offer if the price is unreasonable, but they're all rarez so try me. Signal / M・E・L・T -piano arrange- [CD] / from their live DIVE TO BLOOD -scars away- Signal / BOOTLEG LIVE DVD [DVD] / from their one-man Night of Judgement Signal / Crossing fate [CD] / from their last one-man Crossing fate グリーヴァ (grieva) / 最後ノ晩餐 (saigo no bansan) [CD] / from their live Dinner Show 機密制定ノ晩餐会 (kimitsu seitei no bansankai) グリーヴァ (grieva) / 終焉-Mad Death.- (shuuen-mad death.-) [CD] / from their one-man 終焉-Mad Death.- (shuuen-mad death.-) カルディア (cardia) / 末広がり「八袋」 (suehirogari) / goodie bag including live DVD and SE CD / limited at official web shop カルディア (cardia) / 1stAnniversarySpecialDVD [DVD] / from their first one-man 現実ノイローゼ (genjitsu no neurosis) -UP- リロード (reload) / [Hybrid_] Riddick / 君の居た場所 (kimi no ita basho) Riddick / 陰我 (inga) Riddick / 悟 (satori) -normal version only- Onegai shimasu~

Some brief thoughts on my first listen, written as I'm listening to it. 01 MODE OF GANGSTA: reminds me a little of the intro to the GazettE's TOXIC album. Poor intro and far too long. 02 DEAD END: definitely a Sadie song, and I think it's that quality that makes me quite like it more than anything unique going on. 03 WELCOME TO THE UNDERGROUND: an interesting clash of styles but this one doesn't do much for me. 04 SHOOT THE TARGETS...: this one's quite fun and I think it would be good live, but it's a little repetitive. 05 GESSHOKU: I like this one, though perhaps more for what it comes after. It's also kinda standard Sadie fare. 06 TOKYO GYPSY: a little all over the place, but the bass is prominent. Not particularly memorable though and outstays its welcome a little. 07 RIZE A FLAG: nice riff but essentially the same structure repeated like 4 times. 08 HOWLING: the chorus is pretty catchy, and it's nice to get some heavy riffs on this album. Decent solo and bass work and electro elements aren't too intrusive, it's not like we've had much of them so far. I could dig it. 09 HATE ME OR LOVE ME? not what I was expecting from the title. Unfortunately forgettable after a promising heavy(er) start. Also too repetitive to be this long. Maybe it could be OK live? 10 BLEACH: well it's the same song from the mini, and the only one we've heard before. I think it fits better here than in front of a bunch of re-recordings. I like this one, I always found the chorus to be really catchy. (Bonus fact: I sang it at karaoke once xD) 11 THE NEVER: decent Sadie rock ballad. Not a lot else to say about this one at the moment. 12 MESSAGE FROM HERE: decent Sadie non-rocky ballad. Little on the long side. Could have ended nicely with a piano fade at 3:40ish instead. 13 PHRASE OF LIFE: actually a really nice instrumental. It's just a shame that sticking it on the end of the album instead of somewhere in the middle means it's easier to just skip it and listen to something else. Also the run time on this adds to that problem. Songs I liked: DEAD END, GESSHOKU, HOWLING, BLEACH. The overwhelming impression I got from the first listen was just... average. There's not enough memorable material here, which leaves me (despite having no expectations as such) disappointed. There's a handful of tracks that are either too long or too repetitive as well. It's nice to see Sadie trying something a bit different, but this album is just a little too inconsistent to recommend easily.

jujo has been playing with them for several months, he was just never officially a member until now.

rockyriffs-poppypoppop-reggae-NINNIKU IREMASU KA?

This is a weird question because in my mind there are loads of different ways to 'remember' a song. One is the way it makes me feel when listening to it - for example, some songs seem to inexplicably alter my mood (OOR's The Beginning has always been a really powerful song for me, whereas something like the opening riff to Signal's Undertake just gets the blood rushing). Obviously I tend to instantly forget songs that haven't made much of an impression, but as long as something catches my interest like interesting vocals, solos, riffs, lyrics, etc then it will probably warrant at least a second listen. Music that I listen to a lot I can remember pretty much entirely. I could run the song through in my head without listening to it. And others where I took the effort to find out the lyrics (or translate them myself) I could also literally sing along to as I do it. On a related note, if a song I've been listening to recently or one I have listened to a ton of times pops into my head and I can't recall exactly which one it is, I can usually follow it through until I recognize a part of it that reminds me who the artist is or the name of the track. Actually, my 'thing' is being able to name tracks just by listening to them. I know it's not a particularly unusual skill, but friends have told me even when listening to artists they really like that they need to look up what the track is called. If I listen to an album a lot, I could probably tell you its tracklist, or at least every song on it but not necessarily in order. Basically in a rough answer to your question, if I'm not interested in a song the first time through, I probably won't bother with it again unless it's from an artist I really like. If I hear something I've listened to before, odds are if I liked it I'll be able to tell you exactly what and who it is.

-makes playlist-

Maybe this isn't the right place to discuss this, but since we all seem to be on the same page about the progressive metal influenced tracks being their best, what kind of album would you like to see using tracks from their previous (and this) releases? The song that caught my attention from NoGoD was kamikaze, and I've been waiting for an album like that for as long as the next person.

Interesting, so the first three are previously released tracks, and the last three are covers of each other. Might see if I can get a hold of this, since I can't get enough Cardia at the moment.

OK maybe I was being a little enthusiastic, but there's no need to be so harsh. I enjoyed XIII's story for what it was, and what the sequels turned it into has nothing to do with the original game. I agree that XIII-2 took things in a strange direction and it wasn't anywhere near as engrossing as the first one, and as for Lightning Returns well, I haven't even played that one. Also, it happened. You can pre-order Final Fantasy XIII on Steam for just £9.89 here in the UK, which seems like a reasonable price. Personally I'm going to hold off for now since I put enough time into it on PS3 however many years ago that was now. If it gets a sale cut I might be interested in playing it again.

I don't really get all the hate this game received. Sure it was pretty linear compared to previous entries, but the story was top-notch and the visuals were gorgeous. For the right price, I'd pick this up on PC too and see if it looks any nicer. If it does end up making the port, could this mean FFXV might eventually come over too? I can only imagine how beautiful that would look. With a demo finally looking to see a release next year, we might actually be in the right decade to play it!

I'm aware of that, it's just a little out of my price range right now. Thanks though!

Bump for return from Japan. Really want the カルディア (Cardia) one!

Haa, I remember years ago I had a channel with literally all of Gackt's PVs at the time and eventually a lot from Miyavi too. I hit figures on views and subscribers that these days would have made YouTube hit me up for a contract - hell, I even met someone at high school who showed me my own channel that they were always watching. xD But of course I got some kind of message from Crown or Gordie or something that my immature self chose to ignore, and soon enough my channel soon disappeared. That's just one example but I certainly agree with people that the stronger stance against copyright, particularly from labels, has had a huge influence on the YouTube visual scene. Back when I had that channel, it was easy to find fans uploading full PVs and concerts that you would be thrilled to watch. I used to download a bunch of PVs to put on my iPod that no longer seem to exist on the internet. Now you'd be running a risk of including a short music clip in your video because of audio checks. I also agree that the whole 'Promotional Video' as a buying incentive is a ridiculous trend. The money bands - especially visual bands - sink into PVs goes completely to waste when it doesn't serve that purpose. Including a PV with your new release should be a nice bonus, not an incentive to buy multiple editions or encourage loyalty to certain retailers. And having spent almost a year now living in Japan, I'm hard pressed to think of a place you could go to watch all the newest 'Promotional Videos' other than the brief clips some bands put out nowadays. That said, in response to the whole visual kei community on YouTube topic, I think it's as much a case of times changing as anything else. The Japanese use this wonderful expression 'しょうがない' which basically means inevitability - it can't be helped. People these days are busy and even if they're watching videos they probably won't even take the time to hit the like button, let alone leave a useful comment or initiate discussion. This compounds the copyright issue too; people who can't be bothered to comment on a video probably don't want the hassle of risking copyright on their channel or even have much time to actually upload something. It's a shame, but it's the way things seem to be going lately.

The thing with AKB is that everyone wants to be a part of it. There's huge nationwide auditions for new members, and singing/dancing schools where hopefuls go to learn how it goes. I don't know how many young girls are forced into applications by family members or coerced by talent scourers, but I think there's plenty of them who willingly try to join the idol steamroller that is XXX48. I find it hard to believe that this many people either don't know or care if it's really true that the rate of entering the adult industry is so high. Also don't forget that AKB members aren't even allowed to find boyfriends. The reason there's so damn many of them is because the different groups are rotating performances since they're so in demand for TV, concerts and shows, etc. I don't know how much the girls earn but at least the frontrunners (who star in TV ads, magazines and whatnot) are probably getting a decent salary. And I've seen plenty of examples of those who 'graduate' going on to other sectors of the entertainment industry, or beginning solo careers, rather than the adult industry. Don't get me wrong, I think it's shocking that these girls are denied a normal education and upbringing from such a young age, but I personally don't see enough evidence that they aren't enjoying the AKB lifestyle or regret signing up for it. After all, they competed with thousands of others to get in. Yes, it's over sexualized, but that's unfortunately become part and parcel of the group's identity. I can't say how much it's still rooted in the darker origins. And in reference to the inequality in working conditions for men vs women, a recent poll actually found that over 60% of women wanted to become housewives rather than work full time like their husbands. Gender roles are pretty well entrenched in Japanese society right now. I'm only speaking here from what I've gleaned myself in the last year or so of living in Japan - I don't follow AKB48 at all or even listen to their music, there's just a huge exposure to them, particularly here in Tokyo. As for the author of the article, there's a fair amount of bias in there, but I respect him and his book Tokyo Vice is a good read. The man worked for Yomiuri Shimbun (the biggest newspaper in the country) in the past.

UPDATE! New prices, some items sold. I'll answer comments or PMs!