Shmilly

Great news! Is there a setlist for the one man?

Sounds tight. Looking forward to more from these guys.

Great news for them, I just wish I could understand what all the hype is for. Guess I'll give their album a second listen since I don't remember much about it. Edit: Oh now I remember, I didn't like their mini-album so I never checked out the album in the first place. But since they have a new guitarist and Ryo the trackmakermaster was in on it, maybe I'll give it a spin.

The name is stupid but the preview is awesome. So happy to finally see Juri recording some more stuff that isn't boring J-pop.

Side note, they played a couple new songs at their one man at the end of December so that's promising.

Aw well. There goes another promising one. Do they? Maybe bands with attractive members, or ones that already have some level of popularity. Cost of polaroid slides/potential cameraman aside, it's also a big time investment. From experience I've had back stage at some indie VK gigs, they sure spend a lot of time making the same tired poses for countless cheki shots, and often after that even longer signing or writing on them.

Judging by their last release, they're moving in a good direction. Cautiously optimistic for what comes next, especially with tour titles like those.

Commenting just to +1 this. It is one of few albums that I can still say with confidence that I enjoy every track enough to listen to the entire thing without hitting the skip button (well, at least up to the final lengthy instrumental track). In addition a.b.s was the very first band that I ever saw live, so it's fair to say that they had a big impression on high school me. Still hoping for a comeback...

I think people are misunderstanding this - look at the price tag! 10,000 yen for some intros and an unreleased song? It's going to be two full live recordings by the look of it.

Late to the party b/c I was out of the country but KIDS WAR!! x9999

This really sucks, I had hopes for these guys to break out a little more. At least I'm glad I was able to see them once. Hopefully some of the members will return next year in different projects.

- the GazettE's new album will divide the fan base, as usual. - RAZOR will release a full album at last, or at least record all the songs they've been playing for months already. - MEIDARA will find a new bassist and continue to make awesome music, or disband, which would suck. - L from T3B/BALALAIKA will make another unsuccessful band. - ex-Grieva members will return to the scene in some form or other. - dadaism#4. - Kizu will continue to release singles with split tracks rather than just making an EP/album. - DELUHI will have a one-off revival live. (Juri and Aggy's project vanished without any releases, and FED's new single B-side is called 'farewell'...?) - GACKT will release one single to remind everyone that he still does music. - ex-CodeRebirth Katsuya will find a vocalist and his new band will slay. - llll-Ligro- will quietly release a phenomenal album that no-one listens to. - ONE OK ROCK will release another album all in English. (Or surprise hiatus since two of their members got married this year/are starting families). - LOVEBITES will tour Europe. (They already played two shows in London last month).

Needs a longer preview to distinguish them, but worth keeping an eye on at least until there's a full song out (especially the guy on the right).

The creepy thing is her Twitter profile that states 'I wish to be reborn and marry Keisuke in my next life'. I wonder if that has implications. It seems from some of the pictures on Twitter that they were in a relationship of some kind, there's Disney pictures and all. Maybe she wanted a more serious relationship but he wasn't ready for it, so she decided to kill herself?

I love that the guitarist's picture is basically his profile selfie from Facebook

Finally some good news after all the disbandments this year!

Is there any reason for me to pick this up? Coming from someone who owns all their past releases

This. They have enough unreleased songs as is to make another mini.

One of the things I really enjoy about RAZOR is their ability to combine hard-hitting djent-inspired riffs with catchy melodies and electronic elements. Despite the occasional chaotic composition on RAZOR's work the members' individual talent and catchy vocals gets their songs stuck in my head. In contrast to @BrenGun's comment, I would say that Ryoga actually has a pretty recognizable voice in the VK scene - especially when it comes to his range of growls and shouts that find themselves halfway between clean vocals and full-on screaming. As for this mini, I wasn't as taken with ROAD as others seem to be, and the ballad was too long to earn many listens from me, but I really enjoyed all of the other tracks. 消えない痛み is a solid RAZOR track, and I can see why it earned a PV - despite sticking fairly closely to standard territory a la DNA or LIQUID VAIN, the chorus is memorable and gets stuck in your head, and it's a decent showcase for the sound RAZOR are becoming known for. イノセンス is definitely a standout with that oppressive atmosphere in the chorus, and quite experimental for what the band has put out so far. Labyrinth also has that catchy chorus that immediately hooked me (perhaps because it reminds me of one of the songs Ryoga performed with the all-star PSC session band WK on their live-dist release). Finally, I think その後の世界 would be great live and could fit in well at either the beginning or the end of the set. All in all, I think the CORE is a really solid release and showcases more diversity than their first mini, which served instead to define their sound. It'll be difficult to top RED INVISIBLE for the sheer surprise factor and consistency (it blew my expectations for this lineup out of the water) but it's great to see RAZOR expanding their sound and retaining the quality in both composition and production that they led with from the start.

WTF they didn't even release anything. What have they been playing all this time?

Yeah, I was able to get my hands on all those a while ago. I wonder if パニッシュ！！ became パナシェ since the titles are so similar? It's a while since I've watched any live footage so I can't remember if any of the other unreleased songs sounded alike.