Shmilly

Thanks to the awesome @VkBrutaliaN I was finally able to see the lyrics for this super rare track.
Signal was one of my favourite bands so this is quite an emotional song for me. I'm still looking to buy a copy if anyone has one to sell. I'll pay big for this one.
 
Anyway, the song is about rebirth and meeting in another life, forgetting the sorrows of past lives and finding a reason to live.
Based on the lyrical content and some old comments from Yuri and Shinya on Twitter, this seems to be a culmination of the band's work and a message of thanks to the fans.
 
Original Japanese, Romaji and English translations are below.
 
 
 
Crossing fate
 
闇に抱かれ闇の中彷徨う 終わり無き道
生きてる意味 死に向かう理由を誰か教えて
出会いを知り 別れを繰り返す 輪廻の中で
胸の傷に傷を描いた過去からただ逃げてた
 
Deep sorrow
After you cry
Get over sadness
無口な君と愛し合えるの？
 
笑顔ひとつを 心に咲かせよう
幾千もの眩しい過去よ 君の未来を輝かせて
 
此処で叫ぶ理由を君が教えてくれたね
俺の生きる意味を一緒に見つけてくれた
Be living…
 
月日重ね繰り返す重みと矛盾の果てに
終わりの声 聞こえていた 心は砕かれて…
 
Deep sorrow
After you cry
Get over sadness
無口な君をそっと抱きしめ
 
涙ひとつを 心に降らせた
幾千もの悲しい過去よ 君の未来を奪わないで
 
だけど君はもう俺が側に居なくても
生きていけるから
そっと目を閉じて…
Open up your future
 
此処で叫ぶ理由は君に出会う為だから
泣き顔は似合わないよ
 
Will we ever meet again?
I'll never say goodbye…
 
===========================================
 
yami ni dakare yami no naka samayou owarinaki michi
ikiteru imi shi ni mukau riyuu wo dareka oshiete
deai wo shiri wakare wo kurikaesu rinne no naka de
mune no kizu ni kizu wo egaita kako kara tada nigeteta
 
Deep sorrow
After you cry
Get over sadness
mukuchi na kimi to aishiaeru no?
 
egao hitotsu wo kokoro ni sakaseyou
ikusen mono mabushii kako yo kimi no mirai wo kagayakasete
 
koko de sakebu riyuu wo kimi ga oshietekureta ne
ore no ikiru imi wo issho ni mitsuketekureta
Be living...
 
tsukihi kasane kurikaesu omomi to mujun no hate ni
owari no koe kikoeteita kokoro wa kudakarete
 
Deep sorrow
After you cry
Get over sadness
mukuchi na kimi wo sotto dakishime
 
namida hitotsu wo kokoro ni furaseta
ikusen mono kanashii kako yo kimi no mirai wo ubawanaide
 
dakedo kimi wa mou ore ga soba ni inakutemo
ikiteyukeru kara
sotto me wo tojite...
Open up your future
 
koko de sakebu riyuu wa kimi ni deau tame dakara
nakigao wa niawanai yo
 
Will we ever meet again?
I'll never say goodbye...
 
===========================================
 
Wandering in darkness along an endless road
Someone tell me the meaning of life and death
In endless cycles of encounters and farewells
I'm just fleeing from the past that left scars across my chest
 
Deep sorrow
After you cry
Get over sadness
Can we really love one another even though you are silent?
 
Let a single smile bloom in your heart
Let your thousands of radiant pasts illuminate your future
 
You taught me the reason why I'm shouting here
You helped me find meaning in my life
Be living...
 
At the end of countless burdens and contradiction
I heard a voice calling an ending
My heart is broken...
 
Deep sorrow
After you cry
Get over sadness
I tenderly embrace your silent form
 
A single tear fell in my heart
Don't let your thousands of sorrowful pasts take away your future
 
Now you can go on living without me by your side
Softly close your eyes...
Open up your future
 
The reason why I'm shouting here is to meet you again
That tear-stained face doesn't suit you
 
Will we ever meet again?
I'll never say goodbye...
 

Tbh I dont think I miss a vk band more than them

So to come back to this months later, I ended up using Windows' built-in screen recorder (intended for gaming) to record the live stream. Of course I had to manually start and stop the recording, but I was watching the thing anyway. Because I watched it after-the-fact I was able to cut out the unnecessary parts and just record the live itself.

Super excited for this, just wish they'd hurry up and record Sayonara though! Beautiful song they always play live. 

Definitely Lustknot being on this list for probably one of the best live screams  
There is lots more but this is the only one i can thing of off the top of my head
 
 
 

I'll always love this version of Mizerable, how he holds the note at the end of the chorus is really nice.

Loved the video, didn't enjoy the song so much. It was a little too repetitive near the start and the overuse of 'motherfucker' in the rap section was a little grating (cool vocal insert between all the growling though). Mixing excellent though, despite the over-reliance on pedals the drums sounded really punchy and awesome. The video itself had some gorgeous shots and lighting and managed to tell a kind of story despite the lyrics being pretty much indecipherable.
 
Maybe I'm just not into this level of extreme deathcore, but I prefer a little more structure to my songs. The lack of any kind of clean vocals or chorus-style section makes it ultimately forgettable for me, despite the high level of execution.

GACKT's facial surgery culminates in a Michael Jackson cover album.
 
It has been foreshadowed.
 
 

I have very mixed feelings about this band. I was on board with the hype in the lead-up to their first single, but after hearing it, it was mostly forgettable other than the title track. This new preview also sounds pretty generic to me. I think the members are talented but I'm worried they won't take off because the most memorable thing about them is their outfits.
 
I think someone involved has a lot of money to throw at this project because Muku's costumes in particular are insane. And of course the 3D projection mapping at their first one-man was really cool but can't have come cheap.

GACKT's facial surgery culminates in a Michael Jackson cover album.
 
It has been foreshadowed.
 
 

GACKT's facial surgery culminates in a Michael Jackson cover album.
 
It has been foreshadowed.
 
 

Sure. Most of them are credited as 'Music: Issei' but there's a couple of exceptions. 受難 (junan) is credited to Uta, Believing to Yoh, another DAY to Mio, and 色失 (shokushitsu? iro-ushinai?) and SAD[ist.] were apparently composed by Tsubasa (ex-DIMLIM, I guess). Lyrics are all credited to Mio, and it seems Issei produced the instrumental tracks solo.

I have very mixed feelings about this band. I was on board with the hype in the lead-up to their first single, but after hearing it, it was mostly forgettable other than the title track. This new preview also sounds pretty generic to me. I think the members are talented but I'm worried they won't take off because the most memorable thing about them is their outfits.
 
I think someone involved has a lot of money to throw at this project because Muku's costumes in particular are insane. And of course the 3D projection mapping at their first one-man was really cool but can't have come cheap.

Second opinion time.
 
So I got a copy of the album, listened to it through a few times in CD quality, and it's really grown on me. There's more variety than people make out (admittedly mostly thanks to songs not written by Issei) and the mixing isn't god-awful. Agreed, it's not quite professional studio-level quality but for a first release recorded in an apartment, it's not bad at all. I would say that the second press is a good purchase since it includes most of the good tracks and leaves out the instrumental fillers. I do really like unknown though and Blink is good apart from the highs.
 
As for the whole 'Issei is a dick' conversation, all I have to say is that his personality or private life don't have any bearing on his musical talent or whether or not you can enjoy the band's music. The dude's a good drummer, has a good ear for upcoming talent, and writes decent stuff. Not condoning his attitude or behaviour in the past, but as far as the music goes it's irrelevant in my opinion.

Sure. Most of them are credited as 'Music: Issei' but there's a couple of exceptions. 受難 (junan) is credited to Uta, Believing to Yoh, another DAY to Mio, and 色失 (shokushitsu? iro-ushinai?) and SAD[ist.] were apparently composed by Tsubasa (ex-DIMLIM, I guess). Lyrics are all credited to Mio, and it seems Issei produced the instrumental tracks solo.

Second opinion time.
 
So I got a copy of the album, listened to it through a few times in CD quality, and it's really grown on me. There's more variety than people make out (admittedly mostly thanks to songs not written by Issei) and the mixing isn't god-awful. Agreed, it's not quite professional studio-level quality but for a first release recorded in an apartment, it's not bad at all. I would say that the second press is a good purchase since it includes most of the good tracks and leaves out the instrumental fillers. I do really like unknown though and Blink is good apart from the highs.
 
As for the whole 'Issei is a dick' conversation, all I have to say is that his personality or private life don't have any bearing on his musical talent or whether or not you can enjoy the band's music. The dude's a good drummer, has a good ear for upcoming talent, and writes decent stuff. Not condoning his attitude or behaviour in the past, but as far as the music goes it's irrelevant in my opinion.

Second opinion time.
 
So I got a copy of the album, listened to it through a few times in CD quality, and it's really grown on me. There's more variety than people make out (admittedly mostly thanks to songs not written by Issei) and the mixing isn't god-awful. Agreed, it's not quite professional studio-level quality but for a first release recorded in an apartment, it's not bad at all. I would say that the second press is a good purchase since it includes most of the good tracks and leaves out the instrumental fillers. I do really like unknown though and Blink is good apart from the highs.
 
As for the whole 'Issei is a dick' conversation, all I have to say is that his personality or private life don't have any bearing on his musical talent or whether or not you can enjoy the band's music. The dude's a good drummer, has a good ear for upcoming talent, and writes decent stuff. Not condoning his attitude or behaviour in the past, but as far as the music goes it's irrelevant in my opinion.

Mixed feelings... this album is looong. Definitely carried by the vocals but I like their vibe. The deathcore tracks get intense and the poppier ones have surprisingly catchy choruses - 受難 in particular caught my attention on YouTube because of that after the initial impression that this was just another dark screamy band. It's nice to see another vocalist on the scene with solid gutturals and cleans though, a lot of the really intense metalcore-kei bands suffer from poor or repetitive cleans imo. (Highs are a little nasal though XD) Instrumentation is nice if a little messy composition-wise at times and with occasional unnecessary elements, but a very solid and surprisingly dense release for a new band, especially considering they managed to record a whole album's worth of songs just for a run of 250 copies. Just trying to get one for myself now, it's so damn expensive lol.

btw I have the setlist for the last 2days if anyone's interested but it'll take some time to type out bc they played OVER 50 SONGS

Hi-res sounds better than iTunes, using Audio Technica studio headphones, a Dragonfly DAC and correct playback settings.
 
24-bit does not sound any different to 16-bit.
 
This is because 24 or 16 bits refers to the bit depth, not the bit rate, and on the vast majority of recordings (excluding perhaps orchestral music) the only difference is 8 bits of noise. There is no way we could truly take in the full audio range of 24-bit music without turning up the volume so high it would essentially be fatal (because of course decibels refers to pressure). That's why when making CDs, the remaining bit depth is simply filled out with inaudible noise frequencies. And this is even before all kinds of filtering and editing that go on in the studio.
 
Simply, there is no such thing as a perfect digital representation of music recorded in analogue sound, which is why even the studio files will probably sound no different to the CD itself. So those extra 8 bits of depth are incomprehensible to the listener.
 
For recording music, go 24-bit. For listening, 16-bit is more than enough for 99.9% of listeners.

Another live-distributed release, another pain

Sad but not unexpected. She's still so young (they all are really considering how long they've been in the industry... well, that's the idol business I guess). I wish her all the best for the future.
 
I'm excited for the next phase of BABYMETAL though. The two recent singles and new song 'Tattoo' which they've been playing live sound great; I think they'll announce a new album at the end of this tour. From the live footage I've seen recently the remaining girls have really matured as the BABYMETAL mythos is beginning to develop into something quite unique.

http://www.nocturnalbloodlust.com/news/0/43463/
 
Cazqui and Daichi will leave Nocturnal Bloodlust as of their 12/16 performance at Shibuya STREAM HALL.

The reason behind their departure is due to financial issues between Cazqui & Daichi and two employees of their label, as described here.
"Two individuals involved in the financial management of Nocturnal Bloodlust's label (henceforth A & B), were previously negligent in the disclosure of income & expenditure pertaining to Cazqui & Daichi. With a growing sense of distrust, both parties requested disclosure of income & expenditure from A & B through a lawyer, where personal usage of money and large amounts of unaccounted-for expenditures by A came to light.
 
In addition to the unacceptable behavior within the label mentioned above, Cazqui and Daichi have not yet been paid song production fees and merch design fees, and on the basis that they feel that can no longer continue NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST's activities in such an environment, nor provide high-quality music or performances to fans, they will be leaving the band as of the end of their scheduled activities within the year."

btw I have the setlist for the last 2days if anyone's interested but it'll take some time to type out bc they played OVER 50 SONGS

How did you call that?!