Flash-Fab-Supernova

If they re-record things we'll end up with sixty odd minutes of urrruurgururugrhrurufuzz. I'd be content with some remastering at most.

how on earth do you manage to like it

Score: | *sigh*
 
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the most obnoxious visual kei release this year.
 
What makes Madrigal de Maria obnoxious?
Unforgivably cheap imitations of Kyo (Dir en grey) wails, shrieks, screams, coos, and gutturals for no other reason than to have wails, shrieks, screams, coos, and gutturals.
  Inconsistency of instrument quality. Compare the piano from Demons Cradle to the piano in 斑-まだら- and to the piano in 優シク殺シテ. Toy piano much?
  Very tacky use of synthesizer in some places.
  Sections of songs are ripped straight out of other Dir en grey songs. 嘘にまみれた真実の底 emulates 艶かしき安息、躊躇いに微笑み near the end. Demons Cradle's intro is reminiscent of THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB until all that MIDI garbage kicks in. 斑-まだら-'s is Vinushka x Different Sense from the backing growls during the first half of the chorus to the guitar solo right after the chorus to the gutturals lifting heavily from the Opethian passages of Vinushka. There are others scattered through the album too. I'm not one to rag on Sadie for their influences but it's so prevalent and badly incorporated that it universally detracts from my enjoyment of the album. If I really want to listen to Dir en grey, I'm just going to listen to Dir en grey, not Sadie's poor interpretation of it.
  Decadence. That song alone is bad enough to knock a star off the total score.
  A complete lack of conceptual execution. The overly Photoshopped, Cunning Killer 12012-esque album art could easily deceive a listener into expecting a brooding, darker, more mature album from Sadie. Right?

NO.

Sure, the first three tracks sound like they at least made an attempt to be DUM SPIRO SPERO Diru on a budget, but then after Decadence they decided to throw all that out the window and progress with business as usual until the end. The sad thing is, I don't think that it was a bad decision at the end of the album. Those first three tracks should have been dropped.
  No sense of flow from song to song. I've got standard Dir en grey worship, electro rock, acoustic ballads, pop-rock and bluesy leads in the first eight tracks. I like experimentation but even within experimentation I expect consistency.
  A bottom-heavy tracklist forces you to get to track seven before you actually -meet- new Sadie. Anything remotely worth listening to comes after Viper. I actually wanted to like this album too, believe it or not, but this is almost everything I hate about Sadie encapsulated in one album. I despise how much I can separate actual Sadie from their influences because when they want to be original, they can devise some great songs. They just choose not to.
 
I won't front completely because I do like a select few tracks from this album, which is the only reason why this album gets that second star.  Those tracks would be 斑-まだら-, Viper, 優シク殺シテ (somewhat), Face to Face, and 雪月花 (note how all of those tracks are at the end of the album). There's nothing as face-obliteratingly bad as BLACK STARS or GREEDY EMOTION, but everything else is not worth your time.
 
Sadie, you were not ready to release this. Try releasing an album full of music independent of Dir en grey for once. Or for once just admit that you can't do metalcore and stick to lighter, frillier music because you really do do it so much better.

never thought I would see ruki with a hookah, haha

lmao this truth

If there is a word that describes this album, it's "uneven".
Zess hit the nail right on the head in regards to the first 4 tracks: it's Dum Spiro Spero but by Sadie. USUALLY when people say things like this, it has little to no merit. It's usually just built off of fanboy/fangirl rantings to bring other bands down; but here we have legitimate examples of when a band takes a sound from a different band.
The intro to Demon's Cradle is EXACTLY LIKE THE BLOSSOMING BEEZLEBUB. Even the way the guitars enter through the distortion is disturbingly similar. Once there's a slight speed in tempo and we're back to a slow chugging pace, Sadie finds a way to take another sound from Dir en grey: Tsumi to Kisei.Just go to :42 in Demon's Cradle, and you'll hear the exact guitar phrase in Tsumi to Kisei. Never before has Sadie been so blatant with their influence from Dir en grey, other than Mao. These are the two examples in one song where they decide to go for the same exact sound as well.
The album progresses until kannou to paradox where the album COMPLETELY CHANGES TONE. It goes from Dum Spiro Spero-esque to a weird song with an intro reminiscent of Mask and then into a blues progression. What the hell are they doing? Out of nowhere the album changes sounds DRASTICALLY, and it left me shocked as I couldn't believe that the album strayed soo far from what it was originally doing.
It doesn't stop here, the album continues bouncing through different ideas: from synth-laden tracks like Viper, to a typically Sadie track like Setugekka. This album just fractures out of nowhere and goes into a bunch of different sounds. This is an album, not a compilation disc.
Despite the mess, there were a few things I really liked: even when ripping of Dir en grey, the band showed that they were able to incorporate some really awesome prog progressions in the first 4 tracks. It's interesting, even when the guitar work is generic. And damn is it generic. It's the same trick that 12012 has been using, Dir en grey has been using, and now Sadie is using. A passage that features hammer-ons and pull-offs on frets 1.5 steps away from each other, which the guitarist then slides down one fret to do the same. The best way to describe it is listen to Hageshisa to by Dir en grey. The intro with the guitars is exactly what you hear littered throughout Madrigal De Maria. It's a cheap way of trying to write a dark and metal-esque passage; but there's nothing spectacular about it when it's done over, and over again.
Overall, this album is a mess. It's better than what they've been releasing; but that means nothing than what they had been releasing up to this point was forgettable and run of the mill.
4/10

The PV looks like a SuG pv. Guess they got some of SuG's creative team in on the production. 

compared to this mini-album, all of their previous discography sounds v. neat, well done and coherent
 
★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

why is Kai (?) whipping a dude there
he's always been giving me a fem top vibe, but isn't he like married to a chick for a few years now.

Artwork's pretty cool


It'd be cool if they were distributed digitally as well, then I could just download orion.

omg I love how this flop band implies they've been ~evolving this whole time and cuts off the compilation timeline right when they've gone independent as if they have matured into anything worthy 
inb4 releasing their 2 last minis as「IMAGO」2012-2013  and disbanding for god's sake

TYPICAL VIRGO

before I decay was their last release on kind records iirc, so I v. much doubt the coming album will sound anything like this.
 
their producers are obviously very different on nil - dim and toxic - deformity.

pisces generally do well w. almost anybody, although it is a little bit more complex.
this site does a good job elaborating on lots of stuff that explains your basic personality traits for example - 
my moon in scorpio makes me a very opinionated asshole at times (omg guys that makes astrology official and the truest kind of fact!!!), but I do get a lot of scorpio attention and we generally get together beautifully.
I would love to have some cancer/taurus romance later maybe (not as perfect/flawless/fiercely divine as scorpios, but better temper overall), virgos r very nice too.

get that Oscar bb!
 
good for him tho, this has made me really curious about the film and reminds me that I have to watch that other Queen Jolie-directed movie.

http://m.deadline.com/2013/10/angelina-jolie-sets-japanese-singer-miyavi-as-brutal-wwii-pow-camp-guard-the-bird-in-unbroken/

Whoa, like an actual good movie. Not the B movie nonsense that was Gackt's film.

I hope it's a super serious gritty war movie and the theaters end up full of squealing fangirls.

To say that I am frustrated by this thread is a bit of an understatement.
 
The attitude of some of the members make me feel like you paid something to get this service and ended up not getting exactly what you want. This this is something that exists and you enjoy purely because the love and money of other people. The negativity is stifling. I kind of get the impression that a lot of people think the "staff" is kind of a faceless corporation, that we are in our positions for the power and the glory or some shit. The people on the staff are here because they love this site and the community. They volunteered their time to try and make this a better place, no matter the amount. 
 
We are in agreement that the staff isn't as active that we all once were in our prime. But neither is the community. Pointing fingers will get us no where fast. Throwing people out and reshuffling is purposeless if it is done to just appease a few people. Lets say that the staff posts a lot more...does that give us the active community that we want? Maybe yes, maybe no. And it will not happen at the flip of a switch, it will be a slow burn. The success of this forum rests on everyone here, and absolutely none of you are obligated to do anything. If the love isn't there, then MH will die.
 
Will the staff be redoubling our efforts to try and make this community better? For sure. Will we try to mix things up by adding another mod or two from the community? Most likely. But I am not so sure that this is something that can be forced. We will do the best we can to get things flow...there are still people that love this place over 6 years since Jake and I first started it, and while things may be massively different from now then, I plan on continuing to keep this place running for as long as possible. The only thing I ask is that you treat the staff like the hard working people they are. Pretty much everyone on the staff here is an incredible person outside of the forum as well and life can get in the way of this fun little place.
 
 
Side notes:
If we were judging you all on how much you care by the amount you donate to the site to keep it running, we would have closed down already
 
 
It costs $60 a month to keep the servers running. Every dollar you give goes DIRECTLY in to paying the server (as you will have noticed when you use paypal and notice who you are paying - dreamhost).
 
 
I hate to break it to you, but that is the way the forum has ALWAYS been. a majority of the people that visit will never post and just take the downloads. Hell, I don't even know if this forum's community would even exist if it wasn't for the download section.
 
 

We offered to make Trombe a full mod before, which they declined. We ended up giving them mod powers over the News forum though, because in the end it was the easiest way. That's why the name shows up in the staff list. They didn't want to be an "official mod" though, so to speak. (Unless that has changed by now, in which case we are happy to oblige.)
 
They do have a special rank of "News Broadcast" though.
 
 
I will add something about the other points later, I'm just home from nightshift, off to bed now.

Somewhat unrelated, but if Trombe has mod powers, why doesn't she have a special colored name? I mean, she's practically 50% of the reason why this forum is still alive.

Lately me and various other regulars ( whom I hope voice their support for immediate action and add to the discussion ) have been thinking that there's a problem, and that is the severe lack of participation in forum activities in part of some of the staff members. It's pretty much widely acknowledged all around that especially a bulk of the blue ( and the late green, whom were subsequently and justly culled ) mods are notoriously inactive when it comes to interacting with much of the community.
 
It's true that I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and what are the contributions of each one there, but I do believe that actual "moderating" is far from being the only job of a staff member. A member of the staff should have a proactive approach to the forums; interacting with the members, making topics and creating discussions as often as possible and not just once or twice a month when the mood is right. The benefits of this approach for example have been seen in the review and general sections. If Zess and CAT5 wouldn't have made all the topics and discussions there that they have I bet nobody would have and the general section would still be pretty much dead. 
 
I think the forum would benefit a lot from updating the staff roster with users who are in the loop of the current goings in the Japanese music scene, and imporantly the said users should be known by the people and the people should know them. I bet many newcomers who registered in the late 2012, early 2013 have no clue who these people are and I can't really blame them, seeing as some of the staff rarely post anything that classifies as a contribution. 
 
And I'm not trying to come off as hostile, but I really think this forum has seen a surge of activity as of late ( some people would very much disagree with me though ) and I think that we should capitalize on that with a new, active and participating staff. There should be as little inactivity as possible and most definately zero people that clearly stick around just because they're friends. A mod status should be for those who are absolutely dedicated and if the time comes when they cannot live up to their duties, they should resign without a second thought. 
 
edit: I urge everyone to say either yay or nay below. There needs to be some discussion about this because this is what people complain about all the time. 
 
Everyone, and I mean everyone has complained about the forum being dead at one point. I honestly think that a staff that is right there in the middle of everything is the best way to engage this problem. While I also realise that you might be hesitant to do a revamp after the failure of the green mods, culling the one or two that are certainly solely dead weight right now and replacing them with new ones wouldn't hurt.  
 
edit2: To address another concern that was voiced: The user and mod apathy. 
 
It may be a convenient excuse for staff members and users alike to free themselves of the burden of contributing just because "What does it matter when nobody else won't do anything either". That's reasonable, why would anyone post when nobody else does? 
 
I feel this concern can be directly addressed with a proactive, enthusiastic and most importantly of all, in the loop staff. What makes or breaks any content creator and site on the web is quality and consistency. The amount of good coming from a staff that brings life to where there isn't should be obvious for anyone. One or two mods can't do that alone, it needs to be the whole team. 
 
These changes need to be done swiftly and throughout with zero compromise or months long discussions between the administration.  I think it's necessary that the amount of new blood is large is enough to reinvigorate the staff and forum.

Perhaps DIM? It feels cohesive, at the very least.

How cute, fotzkopp. Your very first post is such a great impression. /s
 
Allow me to pass on a bit of knowledge to you: if you want to stick around this forum much longer you'll apologize and cut the shit out. Monochrome Heaven does not tolerate unprovoked attacks on other members. This is your one and only warning.

madygrain, don't even bother responding to him.

If you can not deal with other people's points of view, I suggest you don't get in the internet very often. 
 
 
Not trying to. 
 
 
I already do. Having a negative opinion about them doesn't mean not caring.
 
 
I don't have a filter for knowing wich of my comments annoy who. If you don't want to read what I have to say, don't. You can see my nickname on the left of every post i write. Maybe you can use this for living a more relaxed life here on mh.
 
 
I know, and thank god. Looking (and listening) back I really don't have any Idea why would they do music together. I gess mediocre people attract each other and like doing mediocre things together.
 
 
True. So you think some treatment will make a normal person out of me? That's actually flattering.
 
Why don't you use your regular account to post this? If you really believe what you say you shouldn't fear for your e-reputation here.