Newer bands who started with high hopes, but are now on a decline

[Haruto 60]

 

 

Also off topic, isn't NB's singer from Seattle or something? Man, I wonder if he was in any bands when he was state side and I might have actually seen him at some dive bar show hahaha.

 

He's from Japan but lived a while in Seattle. He was in a band called 'Point Blank Range'. Haven't found any music yet, but pictures exist! His English is pretty decent, he's also very talkative during instores, like starting with "Heeeelloooooo" before even giving us the chance to talk Japanese, haha.

My friend and I were wondering if he might be half American or something because he also has a pretty distinctive face... but after seeing him in person, I'm positive he's not. 

 

/off topic

[AlienX 1]

I disagree with quite a few people here. For example, when it comes to gazette, I find them mildly entertaining at this point when the old material just leaves me in utter disgust. Alice Nine has certainly improved over the years and much more polished. Yeah, there's a few classic hits like Shunkashuutou in their old material, but generally their new stuff blows old music out of the water (I haven't kept up with anything post-9 though). Also, 9mm Parabellum Bullet has always remained solid to me. Discommunication probably has it best when it comes to immediately memorable and catchy songs, but The Revolutionary is still their greatest achievement and Movement was pleasant as well. Besides, the new album sounds interesting from the snippets I've heard.

 

But when it comes to bands dropping the ball over time, there's nothing quite like girugamesh. I don't really have a beef with their choice to go for a poppier sound, but it just such a shabby effort on their part. While I am (was) a big fan of them, I realize that as songwriters they are pretty bland. Most of their former sound was carried by Satoshi's vocals (at least to me, they've always stood above the typical pretentious vk vocals) and the youthful energy they displayed. They have definitely improved as individual musicians , but the energy has been lost and the new material is weak even by poppy J-rock standards (I'd take UVERworld over GO any day). To me, the downhill started with the release of COLOR, with NOW being a pretty good record (except for one particular HUGE stinker). According to Satoshi, they went for a more light-hearted sound because they wanted to perform encouraging and happier tunes to their fans. I don't see it as a problem. I mean, at some point, unless you're completely absorbed in some nihilism, you simply grow out of all the angsty songs. I just wish they wrote better songs now that they've gone poppy. I don't need them to write hardcore (lol) songs if they're personally not feeling it.

 

Other than girugamesh, there's not really another Japanese band that has been on a steady road of decline for me. I am, however, quite displeased with the sound of a Thai band called No More Tear. While their lyrical content has always been sappy romance, their new stuff is excruciatingly bland. Yellow Light remains their only album worth listening in my eyes.

[PumpkinPatches 48]

I didn't have the balls to ask Hiro if he was a half (or even a quarter) because it would be kind of rude.... but honestly, he has a very strange bone structure for a full-blooded Japanese man, particularly his nose. And I take him as a huge nerd, so I don't actually think he'd be vain enough for a nose job.  Then again, I have a friend who I never would have believed to have gotten a nose job until he actually told me. His English is great, though. There's really only a little of an accent when he talks. Then again, Masa knows English as well... So.

 

Diaura's new stuff has been diappointing. They started off really exciting, as I really loved Valluna and their darkness, but... Diaura's different. Not sure I'm a fan anymore.

[miyuu 40]

thanx for the answer in the NB singer
that doesn't seem like a nose job.
he does have a more european /american body/face characteristics. but he seems very japanese also. so much you can't really be sure

 

 

I

 According to Satoshi, they went for a more light-hearted sound because they wanted to perform encouraging and happier tunes to their fans. I don't see it as a problem. I mean, at some point, unless you're completely absorbed in some nihilism, you simply grow out of all the angsty songs. I just wish they wrote better songs now that they've gone poppy. I don't need them to write hardcore (lol) songs if they're personally not feeling it.

 

This!

 

i have been thinking this for a long time.most of the more popular  vkei sad song writers at some point changed.

i mean you can't  expect them to be sad if they are more happy in their personal life.it would be fake songs. if the music expresses your thoughts.
examples satsuki and girugamesh and mucc
kyo and deg became more complex but never had happier songs. just changed the subject and style.
maybe that's why fans have no problem.
becoming less sad doesn't have to mean that you have no talend. and suddenly you write shit.
but apparentrly the most good songs come from pain to them
(daisuke never stop with the completely sad songs and somehow end up dead..)

i think girugamesh wanted out of vkei and try to be more like green day. pop punk something
to have more audience.also i don't think you can encourage someone with songs like these

[seikun 317]

176biz. In my opinion they started as an interesting band, but then their music style became kind of unstable (as if they were looking for the right style suitable for them while on the process) and many of their songs just got me bored and I lost interest in the band.

[DogManX 179]

I think Byakura started off pretty interesting, but the records after their 2009 album (don't know the name) became sort of meh. The neo-traditional parts couldn't save it either.

 

Deathgaze were great until bliss out came out (except for the bliss out bonus cd). The newer sound is so uninspiring, and there are no songs aside from "the end" which are worth listening to in particular, imho. They had interesting ideas in the beginnig, but now they just try to copy BFMV.

 

And well, exist trace. Since they became major, they became shit. It was almost like some nightmare reminiscence, except for the fact that nightmare still managed to pull of decent records ~4 years later or so...

 

 

Though, the band with the highest hopes from my side was XodiacK. But they disbanded, so no discussion.

[Augie1995 325]

Royz! They were awesome but sounds soooo boring now

Is there anyone else here who actually seconds this? I mean, I honestly feel like they were awesome, then released that Revolution to New Age which just blew (only like one song from their that wasn't previously released), and since then, have been getting WAY better, even now delving into heavy sounds constantly. 

[Augie1995 325]

That's why I said this is subjective. It is all a matter of personal taste when it comes to music. As for me Alice Nine has gone downhill for years. I just don't like their pop style. Although I liked Senkou I forgot about it after a short time.

Right, which is why I gave my thoughts, although unnecessary. Music is and will always be subjective. I can bet you that with every single band in the world, there will always be a person with a though opposite to yours. I seem to be that person to you when talking about Alice Nine

 

PS. I apologize for the double post

[Number Girl 48]

As much as I hate to say it, Vola & the Oriental Machine (while they aren't technically a "newer" band, they've been around since '05) did very poorly these past two albums when compared with what they started with. They were never exactly original, but they had this bizarre, edgy charm to them that was strangely sexy and addicting despite the fact that Inazawa had a horrible singing voice. Then they lost the downy guitarist, who was really their biggest saving grace and actually gave their music some dimension, and got this new guy who isn't really that special at all. Second, they decided to go major with Universal and Inazawa started getting into the club/dance music craze and they basically turned into Polysics II: Electric Boogaloo. Of course that doesn't mean I don't still enjoy them but that "charm" is completely gone . . . which is incredibly disappointing. 

 

I would comment on some of the others like The Cabs and Caroline Rocks who I felt were also going downhill in their later releases but they already disbanded so I guess they were losing the feeling too, haha?

[Lestat 2167]

I'm pretty disappointed in everything Mejibray did after their first three releases. Especially with the re-recordings the mixing sounds just so off and it seems like the instruments are just thrown in randomly since nothing actually lines up with each other. I think their image is the biggest thing that does it now with Tsuzuku's stage antics and whatsoever but overall they sound very, very weak to me now. 

[Pandabear 414]

I'm probably sure this has happened to everybody at some point. You were expecting a release you were looking forward to only to be disappointment by the material when it was actually released. Or a band catches your attention and you wait and wait and wait for that amazing release but they're never able to produce anything actually astounding or brilliant. I've had both of these happen to me. 

 

 

For bands I feel that never were able to produce anything amazing but got/are stuck or went downhill;

 

Jewelduel - They have good singles, but I feel they're always stuck in mediocrity with their albums. They don't stand out for me or push the envelope.

 

Vamps - Again they put out good singles but their albums are filled with way too much filler. I was actually looking forward for their album after they released Ahead/Replay, but the album proved to be another letdown. : ( 

 

Lycaon - Got into these guys because of their Red Rum mini. Great release.  I checked out their next release after release after release, year after year and was always disappointed. Everything else that followed was sub par. I eventually gave up on them and stopped following them.

 

Deluhi - I was always hearing people talk/rave about this band. Still do. Never got the hype around them. They had amazing players but only ok songs with only a few songs I would actually call great. 

 

Cyntia - Pretty cool all girl power metal band. Their debut was decent but they total went downhill on their 2nd album

 

Scandal - Really dug their brand of rock-pop, but the same fate befall on them as above.

 

 

As for albums

 

That weird girgumesh 2 album phase were they did a complete 180 and tried to be j-pop Oricon chart hipsters.

 

Kyary Pamyu - Pamyu Pamyu Revolution. Wasn't as catchy or cohesive of an album as her debut. Although I will say a lot of the songs on this album are 10x better live.  

 

Perfume - Delta. Had some strong and ok songs but as whole was a weak album.  (defaq is up with nakata and his sophomoric releases?)

 

Crossfaith - Apocalyze. The music on this was actual decent, although it could have been better. But what really let me down was the production on this album. So god aweful. Goes to show production can still fuck up albums, seen it happen to A list bands as well. 

 

 

I'm drawing a blank now. Have been out of the Japanese music scene for a while so perhaps I don't have as many examples. 

 

What are everyone else's musical disappointments/letdowns? Band wise or album wise?

[Seimeisen 4406]

One particular band I can think of that went downhill is アヤビエ! I don't think that 涼平 leaving is what made the band go downhill; they created "virgin snow colour" without him and it was phenomenal. I think 夢人 joining the band took things into a direction that I just do not like. Then they disbanded and formed AYABIE without 葵, and the stuff this ALLCAPSYABIE did was still just not great at all. I do like the DEATHBIE single that they made, and I wish the members would reunite and make more releases under that band/name/concept; gothic metal really suited these guys, and 夢人's deeper voice sounded great. But now, AYABIE, whatever it is now with pretty much all of the members leaving, is a complete embarrassment.

darkest hour: Not sure if anyone here knows/gives a shit about this band, but I fucking love them... well... everything they did before 2011. "undoing ruin" is one of my favourite albums OF ALL TIME, and their other albums were also very impressive, particularly their debut album "the mark of the judas" which was re-released last month. Their 2011 album "THE HUMAN ROMANCE" was underwhelming, and their self-titled album from last year was pretty damn bad; I think the bonus tracks are the only good songs on those two.

There are some other bands that I've listened to in the past that I think have completely gone downhill, but I would need to go back to those bands (front to back) before I can really say anything...

Disappointing albums

Alice Nine - Supernova: the songwriting is sub-par, the electronica infusion is god-awful (go look for my review of it), I can't even listen to the b-sides SCARLET or 秘密 (or whatever it is), and shooting star is probably their worst song they have ever done. They dropped this below-average album after releasing their best album.

DIAURA - REBORN: 2013 was an interesting year for DIAURA; they released the best visual kei album of the year (FOCUS), and they also released the worst visual kei mini album of the year (REBORN). 胎動 is a great song and got me looking forward to the mini album, but then I heard the previews for the other four tracks, and oh god they all sounded horrible and boring.

12012 - mar maroon: I don't even have this album on my computer. I still have the singles and b-sides, but I removed the album itself, it's gone, don't want it, goodbye! I imagine DIAMOND will sound good, it's only a little softer, but mar maroon is just way too soft and watered down for this band, and the album tracks were the most underwhelming. For the most part the singles are alright, and the b-sides are enjoyable, though. I just can't with the album tracks.

SCREW - SCREW: It's so awkward when a band releases a sub-par album and gives it an eponymous title... I had hope for this album. The band left PSC Indie, their vocalist wasn't hiding his screams with a fucking vocoder anymore, and maybe they'd be louder and heavier. Well, this album is just about as heavy as their previous stuff, but it's very quiet, as a result of the production, the guitars sound too quiet. Also, a lot of the tracks on this album are just average, and "enduring memories" is terribly cringeworthy. I think what's most disappointing about this album is that the first track is such an awesome track, and went on my "Best songs of 2013" list. Everything else is kind of plain.

[Deathtopi4 428]

I was pretty disappointed with Sadie's Gangsta... I still liked it but it was pretty lame at the same time. 

Fear From the Hate's 1961 was also super disappointing, but luckily they're releases since then have been good again. 

I really couldn't get into Gotcharocka's Crisis.

Dazzle Vision's album Final Attack was not nearly as good as I expected it to be, and I had really high hopes for it too. 

BLACK LINE and Mikaru's other project thing he did got kind of boring after a while of listening to them, which was a bummer because I like Mikaru and I liked Dio a lot. 

Silent Difference's song Cleavage on Barrage Am Ring 3 arrange/side was not as fun as I was hoping it would be.

The Barrage Am Ring's have been kind of boring in general lately...

And the song Today Is Due Date For Payment by My Eggplant Died Yesterday from Brat Pack 2013 was also pretty disappointing, especially since they have only a few other songs.

And even though they're not Japanese, Emigrate's Silent So Long and TillLindemann's new project hurt my soul deeply.

[Des 289]

Psysalia Psysalis Psyche was shaping up to become one of the better Japanese bands but their only full length record was very disappointing and then they called it quits.

MUCC was at the top of their game with Shion and Kyutai and then, with no warning at all, or at least I didn't see it coming, it all went to oblivion with the next releases and they never recovered.

 

Blondie's "second comeback" with the album Panic of Girls in 2011 was completely forgettable. I expected more because it would've been the second time they came back from the dead to write new music (and you don't do that if you don't have confidence!) but it was a lot worse than the 1999 and 2003 albums. And the Ghosts of Download album in 2014 can hardly be called a disappointment because who expected anything good after Panic of Girls anyway?

 

DIR EN GREY's Arche is, after initial excitement, hollow and tame. At first I was excited to hear a couple of great songs but after several more listens the other songs became dragging snoozefests to fill up the void between the few good songs.

[CAT5 9075]

Psysalia Psysalis Psyche was shaping up to become one of the better Japanese bands but their only full length record was very disappointing and then they called it quits.

They had two full-lengths, 'matin brun' and '#7'. I thought the former was fantastic and showed a lot of promise and maturity, but the latter seemed like they scraped together some throwaway tracks as a last ditch offering before they bid us farewell.

Shame they're no longer around. I could imagine them and THE NOVEMBERS doing quite well together.

[violetchain 912]

 

Jewelduel

Is this supposed to be DuelJewel, or is there actually another band in the world that chose to combine those two words for some odd reason?

[yakihiko 1480]

DADAROMA,

I was having really high expectations because was the new band from Yoshiatsu (ex.Crazy Shampoo) and Shiki and JoL (ex.NAINE).

Members from my second and third favorites bands were making a new one.

But it really disappointed me, The sound of DADAROMA, is way too heavy from what Yoshiatsu had on Crazy Shampoo.

Till the moment, I only really enjoyed モルヒネ1, モルヒネ2, and MONEY.

Hope he can do Crazy Shampoo songs styles, with out trying to sound like metal bands >.>

[emmny 4139]

satsuki's entire solo career

[Zeus 7997]

satsuki's entire solo career

 

This is so true it hurts. Satsuki's solo career at his best can't compare to Rentrer en Soi at their best, although at his best he's much better than whatever the self-titled is.

[emmny 4139]

This is so true it hurts. Satsuki's solo career at his best can't compare to Rentrer en Soi at their best, although at his best he's much better than whatever the self-titled is.

yeah i hate to admit it but he has some [very sparse] good moments and i also despise the S/T

 

add the S/T rentrer en soi album to the disappointing albums list, i can barely listen to it minus a few songs without wanting to bash my head in. it also doesnt help that its in between 2 AMAZING albums.

[eiheartx 1310]

Yes for Satsuki, even if I think he's really good when he does experiments, like Veil of Maria (the UPPER REGION ver is so delightful) or In a Lucid Dream.
He has such a beautiful tone that he should explore me that way (and not with ""screams"", like he did on the end of RES; because he can't scream for shit xD that was so painful to hear xDD).

[Ro plz 1290]

Dir en grey's KISOU: If there's one album in the entirety of their discography that I simply can't stomach its that one. It has like....one good track on it and its Keloid Milk. The rest of the songs on there for the most part, especially Embryo (which idk why its such a favorite), are snoozefest material. 

 

The GazettE's TOXIC: This album is the epitome of let down. But seeing as though the singles before were copy and paste and the b-sides were pretty iffy, it was kind of expected...? Many of the songs had lil to no real drive or umph to em. And the songs that i did enjoy, they probably would've done better in a mini album. Too bad, they got clumped up with the rest of em so they're easily over shadowed. 

 

Girugamesh's MONSTER: For a comeback album, for the most part...it was very dull. Dull to the point where Drain is the only song that I can listen to. Once again, this is an album that would've done better as a mini. Way too many boring tracks. 

[Guest lynchisizer]

^ Finally someone who didn't liked Girugamesh's MONSTER like me o= for me, it was just very mediocre, it sounded way too much like the most generic chug chug-core bands nowadays...

[Traxan 148]

I'm probably sure this has happened to everybody at some point. You were expecting a release you were looking forward to only to be disappointment by the material when it was actually released. Or a band catches your attention and you wait and wait and wait for that amazing release but they're never able to produce anything actually astounding or brilliant. I've had both of these happen to me. 

 

...

 

Kyary Pamyu - Pamyu Pamyu Revolution. Wasn't as catchy or cohesive of an album as her debut. Although I will say a lot of the songs on this album are 10x better live.  

 

 

I was much more disappointed by "Pikapika Fantajin." For starters, 4 of its songs had already been released as singles. The rest were meh.

 

As for other disappointments, do I even need to mention Cyntia's latest or Aldious post-Rami? Nah, I think the latter is well known.

[Pandabear 414]

Is this supposed to be DuelJewel, or is there actually another band in the world that chose to combine those two words for some odd reason?

 

Ha you're right. Guess I just mixed up those combination of words.

 

 

I was much more disappointed by "Pikapika Fantajin." For starters, 4 of its songs had already been released as singles. The rest were meh.

 

This is why I only listen to 2 singles off of any upcoming album. 4 to 5 singles for an album is crazy. That's like 1/3 to 1/2 the album already. It's ridiculous. Talk about milking the cash cow.

 

Also agree with deathopia about Dazzle Visons Final Attack. Up until then I really liked all of their albums. I read they were planning to breakup up way before and weren't even planning on releasing any more albums. I think they just might have not been into it so that album turned out really subpar.