Visutox

Artist: MEJIBRAY Single: 盈虧 1. 盈虧 2. 人間 3. 蜈蚣
Rating: | It's more pleasant than open face surgery at least.
 
I'm legitimately disturbed by how far MEJIBRAY have fallen.

I never expected much from them, but this is yet another step down from Theatrical Blue Black, and I wonder how this band keeps fans and continues their activities. For one, the singing is enough to make anyone run for the hills. The goat bleating is such a chore to listen to, and if it's not that it's either strained falsetto or some weird demented frog guttural yoga hums. Tsuzuku's inability to sing trivializes the skills of the rest of the band to a large extent. Their unorthodox vocalist may have worked for them at one point, but that time has long since passed. Tsuzuku needs to either improve his delivery on all fronts or cede his position to someone who can actually sing, because "sounding unique" is not a good enough excuse to hide the singing inability.

盈虧 is the soundtrack that plays on loop in the room where people go to watch paint dry. The excerpt at the beginning is stupid enough, but then it feeds into this aimless and bland melody that fails at being dark and moody. The repetitive strumming does not build up a convincing enough atmosphere, and that chorus is a train wreck of massive proportions. It's the most unengaging single I've ever heard in my life and it provides nothing to hook the listener in. The band isn't compensating for Tsuzuku's shortcomings by producing catchy music, and they're definitely not playing to his strengths because he sounds out of place, so I'm not understanding how this is supposed to work. The accompanying tracks are only marginally better, but still pretty awful. 人間 is a power ballad with an awkward metalcore section in the middle. It's a bad choice to follow one slow, boring song with a gimmick that they lack the tools to execute. 蜈蚣 is the banger that probably works better live than in studio that doesn't get my blood rushing the way a good core song should. For all it's aggression, it feels just as stagnant as the first two songs. If they fail to be convincing with their mother genre, I don't see much hope for this band.

As MEJIBRAY completes their transition from boring to disappointing, I struggle to find any reason why this band should remain relevant. It's frustrating how inconsistent they are. Their last album was met with a lot of unexpected praise, but whatever inspired them then didn't now. This is beyond disappointing; this is almost insultingly bad, and when I remind myself that they pumped this crap out in three different editions my stomach churns. There are claims that MEJIBRAY have potential, but much like Tsuzuku's singing ability I hear none of it. Unharnessed potential is wasted potential and even if the members themselves are individually talented, their music does not reflect on their abilities. In all good faith, I could not recommend this single to anybody. This is by far one of their worst releases in a long time. Even if you're a diehard MEJIBRAY fan, I recommend waiting for the next single.

If you're that brave trooper who actually bought this single, ask for your money back.

This so much.
 
Most of the time people on last.fm won't bother themselves suggesting a correction and only yours will not be enough to eliminate the mistake, so that'd be great if we started posting stuff we wanna see being corrected. The thread could be renamed and that's it. 
 
Btw voted up for everything that has been posted lately. 

Same here. Brilliant piece of art. Magisterial. 

photos of ex-bandmen
 
雪音(yukine)(ex-Vidoll) (posted by Black Gene For the Next Scene Ba.ラメ(rame)):

 
 
屑希(kuzuki)(ex-Metis Gretel) (posted by VAMPIRE ROSE Vo.ROSE):

I agree. Especially the female characters, their looks and moves are so uninspired smh. 
 
Another new fighter is Kazumi Mishima, sadly she will be an unplayable character. 
 
 

Mozart's Divertimento in E-flat major, K. 563, his only completed string trio, is one of my favorite works by the composer. Divertimenti were generally regarded as beautiful pieces to be enjoyed as background music at parties and celebrations; but Mozart's is in no way a simple party piece. This is usually the work I point people towards who are looking for Mozart recommendations.
 
 

 

 

 

Oh dear. Embarrassing

whoop whoop

Aldious announced their first single off the new album will be released in July. It was written by Toki.
 
http://ameblo.jp/tokidious/entry-12022207887.html
 
New drummer Marina Bozzio (she is the stepdaughter of American drumming legend Terry Bozzio. Terry married her mother in 2008) already has her first endorsement deal: with Vic Firth sticks.
 
http://ameblo.jp/marinadious/entry-12022231292.html?timestamp=1430669852
 

 
She also apparently speaks fluent English. I assume she sent this tweet because I've never seen English out of anyone else in the band.
 
https://twitter.com/Drums_Marina/status/595005483519324160

I have just been informed concerning this sad news... I know shit happens but this is some big shit I can't deal with it, especially when you know it's one of your fav bands. It is fucked up to announce a disband after an album that had your fans like: "Alright this is good but you guys can do better and I know it". Can't say more than that, I'm disappointed. 

From their OHP:
 
【重要なお知らせ】   FACTは、年内で解散する事になりました。   FACTを結成して16年間、関係者の方々やファンのみんなに支えられてバンドを続けてきました。   どんな形にせよ、これからメンバーは前向きに自分たちの道に進んで行くので、これからも応援してくれたら嬉しいです。   そして、ワンマン・ツアー含めライブはまだまだ続くので、最高の時間を、最後まで一緒に楽しんで欲しいです。   ありがとう！！     Hi Guys,   So, the truth is that we as a band have decided to call it a day. We'll be playing shows throughout the rest of the year but after that - well that's all.   Over the last 16 years we've had an amazing time and had a whole heap of unforgettable experiences and it's all down to you guys, supporting us and allowing us to live out our dreams.   We all plan to do our own things going forward, and I'm sure they'll be announced when the time is right - we'd love to be able to count on your support in our future projects too!   It's not all a great big downer though, we'd also like to take this opportunity to announce our final "one man" tour (that means it's only us playing, no support acts)....the dates are below. If you can make it out to any of the shows we'd love to see you and have a blast together one final time.   So long and thanks to every one of you Fact

Haven't heard the new Tribulation album and wasn't a fan of the last, but I'll try 'em both out sometime. Brilliant coverart for the new one, though. It's taken from Les Vampires, one of my all-time favourite TV-series.
 
And yes, the Gruesome album is cool. Total Leprosy worship.
 

 
I know this album (Sulphur Aeon) was talked about earlier here, I've not heard the band as far as I know but that's some artwork. Would love to have a huge picture of that up on my wall.

Day 4, the ending:
 
Started the day with egg & bacon, beer and minttu shots for breakfast. And as usual we missed out on some bands we wanted to see because they started way too early. Secrets of the Moon, Deathcult and Kampfar played while we were still drinking beer and shotting minttu. Shame, especially about Deathcult, but that's festival life for ya.
 
Slagmaur kicked off our last day at Inferno, and Slagmaur was one of the bands I had highest expectations about. It's only their third concert ever (one in 2013, one in 2014 and now one in 2015), but the band disappointed big. They started off with a way too long intro sample which was silly as fuck as well, and I had expected something weird and wicked, but this was standard shit with masks that didn't work and all that. There was nothing wicked about this at all, and it didn't sound very good either. 4/10
Dødheimsgard was one of the bands we looked forward to due to giving us a great concert some years ago, as well as a new masterpiece in their discography and original vocalist Aldrahn back in the team. But this was a disappointment. Aldrahn looked extremely uncomfortable on stage, the new songs didn't work too well, the sound was poor and bassist L.E. Måløy was acting like a moron on stage, reminding me of Robert Trujillo. Completely out of place. Yeah, no. Didn't work out. 5/10
Mortuary Drape are a band I adore more than most, and the band didn't disappoint me, which is weird because my expectations were immense... just like the band. I've seen plenty of pictures of the band live and they've done lots of different stuff from weird-as-fuck-makeup to other things, but this evening they entered the stage in robes and pretty standard corpsepain, and they looked great... but sounded even better. It was pretty untight and shabby, but it really does fit the heavy metalesque black metal of the band and things eally worked out. Among the festival's best bands if you ask me. 9/10
Bloodbath was the headliner of the evening and they really did surprise me. They delivered a great fucking gig, and with songs such as Breeding Death and Eaten you couldn't really ask for much more. Nick Holmes was a cool frontman even though he didn't know all the lyrics and had to use a lyric sheet tapes to the floor, and his vocals sounded brilliant. His vocals were powerful as fuck, just at the other end of what I had expected. I expected some cool, but weak and powerless vocals from the dude. But he's still got it. Anyway, great gig! 9/10
Sectu got to end this years Inferno and I thought they did well. Not the best, but it was a very enjoyable gig for sure. And a nice ending to a fantastic festival. 7/10
 
 
As usual a great festival. A big party with lots of great people and more than enough good bands. Satisfied? Fucking satisfied!

Day 3:
 
There wasn't to many interesting bands this day, but we planned to see 4 and ended up seeing 5, which is pretty decent.
 
Our friend left before us to see Skeletonwitch and my brother and I arrived just in time to catch the last three songs... which was not a positive experience, because it was really bad. The band looked bored as fuck as if they hated being on stage and the vocalist, Andy "Weedgrinder" Horn previously of Cannabis Corpse, came of as mentally challenged. Was shit. 2/10
Dødsengel was the first band I wanted to see, and the band did not disappoint. The band came on stage dressed in red robes and it was like a 50 minute long dark ritual, where the drummer seemed to be in trance for the ritualistic parts of the songs. He looked to be in a different place than the rest of us. Everything really worked well here, and the vocalist Kark was the most impressive aspect of the concert. I never actually expected him to be able to pull off the clean vocals live, but he proved to nail every single type of vocals and his range is just unbelieveable. I doubt there is many others involved in exteme metal that are as talented as him. Breathtaking! Brilliant concert. 9/10
My Dying Bride was next up and did not disappoint. It was the band's first concert with Calvin Robertshaw, who left the band in 99, back in the lineup and that was exciting as hell. I thought the band did really well, and it was damn cool hearing older songs like The Thrash of Naked Limbs and something I believe was God is Alone. The minus here was the sound. Mostly good, but there was some annoying feedback every now and then when the violin was played. But other than that it was all good. 8/10
Sargeist wasa band I had been looking forward to as I am a huge fan of the band, and they did not disappoint me. The sound was allright and the band did really well. Cold, grim and dark. Amazing gig! 9/10
Enslaved ended the night at Rockefeller/John Dee, and I was not looking forward to it having seeing the band twice before, where the last gig was awful. The streams I've checked out for the band in later years have been bad too, so I expected nothing. Or, I expected something bad. But was I surprised. This wasn't bad, this was super fucking bad. Almost as bad as SepticFlesh in fact. They actually played one song from Hordanes Land, one song from Frost, one song from Monumension and one song from Below the Lights, but sadly they all sounded uninspired and like shit. The rest were awful songs from Isa and onwards, which all sucks. But the band looked uninspired, Grutle had nothing to give as a frontman and it was just godawful. Really fucking shite. Also, out friend fell asleep standing during this shit gig. Heh... 1/10
Sheol ended the night at the nachspiel. I had not heard the band before, but I really looked forward to the gig anyway and I was not disappointed. They really delivered the goods and I am sue it would've been even better had I been familiar with the band. A great gig, and they ended it with a cover of Darkthrone's death metal classic Cromlech, which was awesome. Really good gig. 8/10
 
To be continued... as usual.

Day 2:
 
I was eager to see both Haemophagus and Execration, but as both played so fucking early we didn't bother going to see them. Shame, but that's life.
 
Septicflesh started off the day for us as both my brother and friend wanted to see them, and they were, as expected, a fucking disgrace. They turned to shit many, many, many years ago and live they're even worse. This might be the worst concert I've ever been at. 1/10
Antichrist was next up, and I was impressed. A bit too polished on album, but live they were very good. Thrashed out and had fun. 7/10
1349 was next and they did their usual stuff. Solid liveband, but they were the exactly same as last time I saw them, just with more boring songs to play. 6/10
Vulture Industries had a special show this evening, but they had started earlier than expected so I only catched the second half of their concert. Apart from one moment the 25 minutes I saw were amazing. Did really well on stage, and at one point the band went 100% Devil Doll and it was nothing short of brilliant! Shame I missed the first half of the concert. 8/10
Behemoth was the first headliner of the festival, a concert I had been looking forward to because of their last album, but was sceptical towards due to 10 years of shit prior to that. But god damn did they deliver the goods. Powerful, majestic, crushing and god damn awesome. Visually amazing as well as a great performance by all the members. Especially frontman Nergal was amazing and Orion looked really well on stage. The whole concert was perfect, and even shitty songs from the shitty albums Demigod, The Apostasy and Evangelion worked really well live. That's impressive, because how it is possible to make shit like that sound god is beyond me. The only thing that disappointed me here was that they didn't play a single song from their early (92-98) period. That's disappointing because they have more than enough classics to choose from that period, but apart from that I have nothing to complain about. Brilliant and the highlight of the festival for me. 10/10
Doomraiser ended the concert with a "nachspiel" concert at another location after Behemoth. It was OK. But I was too tired to focus at that point.
 
To be continued again...

A small Inferno Festival update. As usual there was too much good too drink and lots of great peole to hang around with. Oh, and plenty great bands.
 
Day 1:
 
I had massive expecations to the bands I was seeing this day, and I'll have to admit I was a tad disappointed by all of them. Had expected much more.
 
Misþyrming was first out and did good, but not nearly as good as I had expected. But I'm not overly familiar with their music to begin with, and that probably had much to say. 6/10
Sinmara is another band I am not too familiar with before, and I thought it all seemed way to generic both musically and visually. Not bad, but not amazing either. 5/10
Svartidauði was good, but very disappointing as I love their album and shit. Was poor visually, but musically allright. 6/10
Naglfar was a huge disappointment. Watched the first four songs before we gave up. Was shit. 2/10
Arcturus finished this evening off and was very good, but visually it was a big disappointment. Lacked the theatrics and was more or less doing exactly the same as last time I saw them, just with another setlist. Sounded good, though, and the new songs were cool. 7/10
 
This was the end of day 1, and I was drunk off my mind and had too high expectations. Probably ruined it for me, cause I've seen nothing but praise for the three icelandic bands other places.
 
 
To be continued...

Oh dear god, Behemoth was amazing. Surpased my expectations with miles, and even songs from their weaker albums worked well. The power, the atmosphere, the show. Brilliant! And Nergal is an amazing front figure.

Good

[Alexandros] new album "ALXD" will be released at 2015/06/17 (2 TYPE, 14 songs)
 
limited edition (4,104yen) will include CD+DVD (including scene of their live "This Summer Festival 2014"), and regular edition (3,240yen) will include CD only
 
[CD track list]
Run Away
Oblivion
Adventure
Droshky!
ワタリドリ(wataridori)
Dracula La
etc.

Best New Tracks: March 2015

Best New Tracks is a new series brought to you by MH's Official Reviewers (ORZ)! Every month we'll be recommending brand-new Japanese songs from the recently passed month, so stay tuned! Feel free to comment or discuss any of this month's picks and even offer your own as well!

@fitear1590's picks:
"The Crow" by a crowd of rebellion

"Eternal Dream" by CROSS VEIN

"Daze" by Cuushe

"scenes (Live, featuring NAOKI & RUPPA)" by ユナイト (UNiTE.)

"一騎討ち (ikkiuchi)" by 女王蜂 (ziyoou-vachi)

@CAT5's picks:
"はちみつ (hachimitsu)" by CHARA

"一番星 (ichiban boshi)" by DAOKO

"ブラインド (blind)" by ハイスイノナサ (haisuinonasa)

"waiting for you" by シベールの日曜日 (Sundays & Cybele)

"WINDLESS DAY" by シャムキャッツ (siamese cats)

"宙を撃て (chu wo ute)" by ヤマジカズヒデ (Yamaji Kazuhide)

's picks:
"The Way Down" by FACT

"Just Give Me The Rock 'N' Roll Music" by WHITE ASH

"煙たい" (Kemutai) by 片平里菜 (Rina Katahira)

"カオスリロン" (CHAOS RIRON) by Plastic Tree

"A Malice of Rider" by a crowd of rebellion

"INAZUMA" by ALSDEAD

"曼陀羅" (Mandara) by OZROSAURUS

"Broken faith" by waterweed

@beni's picks:
"歌謡曲 (Kayoukyoku)" by 大森靖子 & THEピンクトカレフ (Seiko Oomori & The Pink Tokarev)

"神様の悪戯 (Kamisama no Itazura)" by SuG

"Secret Garden" by Chara

"ETERNAL SLEEP" by THE BLACK SWAN

"Gimme U" by 倖田來未 (Koda Kumi)

"World is mine." by vistlip

"あらかじめ语られるロマンス (Arakajime Katarareru Romance)" by 乃木坂46 (Nogizaka46)

"シーサイドスリーピング (Seaside Sleeping)" by ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION

"My Room" by きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)

See you next month!

I'll be leaving for Oslo with the night train tonight. I am ready for another year of Inferno festival (the bands in () are maybe's, the rest I will see for sure):
 
Wednsday:
 
Misþyrming
Sinmara
Svartidauði
Arcturus
 
Thursday:
(Haemophagus)
(Execration)
(Antichrist)
(1349)
Vulture Industries
Behemoth
(Doomraiser)
 
Friday:
 
Dødsengel
My Dying Bride
Sargeist
(Sectu)
 
Saturday:
 
(Secrets of the Moon)
Deathcult
(Kampfar)
Slagmaur
Dødheimsgard
Mortuary Drape
Bloodbath
(שְׁאוֹל / Sheol)
 
 
Looks pretty nice! It's gonna be a blast as always.
 
 
 
Haven't checked for a place to stay yet, though. We'll go to our buddy who we'll spend time with anyway and see if we can crash there, like last year. It's such a small apartment, though. It means 4 nights on the fucking floor. That'll do my already back good, just like last year. Heh.

After well over a year's worth of work, I'd like to present to you all: RarezHut! This is one of the first international store for used visual kei music. Myself, along with my two associates, have been working hard to deliver a store to meet the needs of the international visual kei community, offering a wide selection of products at a reasonable cost. At the moment, RarezHut has over 600 items for sale, each of which includes a listenable/watchable sample! We've got a total inventory of well over 2000 items and will be working hard over the coming months to deliver updates(at least once a month) with as many items as we can stuff in there. Currently available are a multitude of CDs, DVDs, cassette tapes and VHS spanning over 200 bands.
 
Features of the store include:
"Fuzzy search" system: when you search for a band, it'll pull up any other items available by bands with members from the band you searched for in addition. Listenable/watchable samples for every item to give you a little idea of what to look forward to. Newsletter: If you create an account, you can opt-in for our newsletter which details all of the recent additions and will be sent out the moment they're added to the site, allowing you to get first dibs on any new goodies! Remember: once they're gone, they're gone for good~ Digital copies: along with any cassette/VHS purchases, we offer high-quality digital copies free-of-charge. We realize that not everyone has the means to play these aging formats, but we aim not to let that get in the way of you being able to enjoy them! In an effort to make sure that buying goes smoothly, all items added will have the digital copies ready before addition so that packages can be shipped out on the next business day.  
Thanks for taking the time to look at this and we sincerely hope you enjoy the store(and whatever goodies you buy from it )! Given the small nature of the visual kei community, we rely on word-of-mouth for most of our advertising, so any friends you can tell about the store will help us immensely <3
 
If you've got any questions/comments/feedback, feel free to post them here or send me a PM and I'll try to reply ASAP~
 
Update 3/13/2015
So we've finally joined the 21st century and started a facebook and tumblr! You can follow us on either(or both if you really love us <3) for product spotlights, updates, corgi pictures and more! To celebrate this, we're running a special 10% off sale from now(3/13) until next week Friday(3/20). To get in on this sale, just enter the code SOCIALSALE10 at checkout and you'll be on your way to (even) cheaper rarez in no time!
 
In addition, I'd like to welcome Rob(robkun) to the RarezHut team! He's been a huge supporter of our store since the very beginning and we're honored to have him as part of the staff! He'll be writing the product spotlights on both our facebook and tumblr pages, so definitely go check them out because they're really awesome

I don't have a preference and don't give a fuck. I prefer fitting vocals. Doesn't matter if they're male, female, can sing or can't sing for shit. It just have to fit the music.

Suddenly back on a symphonic black metal kick. Proper, dark symphonic black metal the way it was supossed to be. It's nice alright.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxWrKa8vC10


 
They don't make 'em like this anymore. Symphonic black metal is like a forgotten art nowadays.