Ito 2438 Posted December 7, 2013 Day 7 - the god and death stars - dawn of the god posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 8, 2013 Day 7 - グリーヴァ (Grieva) - 鬼ト影 posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peace Heavy mk II 7200 Posted December 9, 2013 Oni to Kage is one of my favorite albums of this year. As Champ and Zess both stated in their reviews, their mix of original ideas and blatant copy and pasting somehow comes out nostalgic, yet innovative at the same time. I was into visual-kei for about 5 years before I tried out early Dir en Grey, so I cannot say that their work has really influenced my taste in this scene tremendously like it has many others. However, I really do like their Gauze era, and seeing it revitalized and reimagined is really exciting for me.While it does seem a bit disheartening to have to play ~guess the diru cover~ for each release, Grieva's musical style and style of dress are what I personally consider to be of the best caliber this scene has to offer, and they are my favorite active visual-kei band at the moment. The album itself has a lot of variety to it that paint a pretty accurate picture of what was happening in Visual-kei in 1999. It mixes gothic rock with some black metal, throws in some poppy songs, a slow song, and then has some tracks there that mush together a combination everything prior. My personal favorite is the second track on the album: "孤独人形症候群." It reminds me a lot of the super aggressive Matina bands like Das:vasser. Second favorites are "中絶" (spin off of La:Sadie's' "setsudan" and is an obligatory song about abortion) and "Kikei" (their more psychotic / gawfy 亡骸を worship). Even if many of their songs are similar to those on Gauze (and even some of the themes in the songs are highly similar, like abortion, rape, etc), I feel Oni To Kage has enough of a personality to really stand on its own and ironically Grieva somehow have enough individuality to really stand out from other 'copy-cat' bands even though their influences are so blatant that I'm not sure how Ains hasn't gotten sued yet. 2 Ito and Champ213 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 9, 2013 Day 9 - きのこ帝国 (Kinoko Teikoku) – eureka posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aion 184 Posted December 9, 2013 oh sweet, Kinoko Teikoku. Liked their debut mini from last year more than this album though, as it had more impact on me. Still one of the bands that had such an awesome impact on me when I saw them when they opened for the cabs back in 2012. Especially how those two girls were on stage compared to the two guys =), and yeah, I still got my ava+sig set featured on them =) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DeithX252 1266 Posted December 10, 2013 aww so Cyclamen post this thread on facebook? Didn't see that LOL. And I must admit Ashura is their best release so far, I like it too! And about kinoko, I like their first album better, but their new EP is great too 1 Original Saku reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Original Saku 1593 Posted December 10, 2013 Yea I also like their mini better than their album, but eureka is still really good and like I said in my take, It's a real grower. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 10, 2013 I really need to check out Kinoko's mini-album, then...because if it is better then Eureka it should be pretty awesome. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 10, 2013 Day 10 - NICO Touches the Walls - Shout to the Walls! posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 11, 2013 Day 11 - 大橋トリオ (OhashiTrio) - plugged posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 12, 2013 Day 12 - Tam Tam - Polarize posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miasma 162 Posted December 13, 2013 So what exactly were the requirements for an album to make it on the list? Did you guy just name some personal faves, vote on them, and order them in the amount of votes they recieved? Is the list even ordered, or is it random? Just curious cause most of the albums had at least two staff members review them, but that one Nico album only has one review. If it's so liked why did only one staff member review it? Anyway I'm really happy to see Tam Tam, Kinoko Teikoku, and amber gris on the list! Tam Tam especially Polarize was such a great listening experience, and was on my fave list from the start. I love the variety in the list and I'm looking forward to the rest of it~ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeus 7997 Posted December 13, 2013 So what exactly were the requirements for an album to make it on the list? Did you guy just name some personal faves, vote on them, and order them in the amount of votes they recieved? Is the list even ordered, or is it random? Just curious cause most of the albums had at least two staff members review them, but that one Nico album only has one review. If it's so liked why did only one staff member review it? There is an order but it's complex to explain coherently. First, we independently assembled a list of albums we liked from this year. Each album counted as one vote, and we could each pick a handful of albums to have two votes if we really liked it and thought it deserved a place here. We tallied them up, and after some fudging and cleverness the 25 albums with the most weight made it onto the list. The albums are being reviewed in numerical order from least to most votes, and albums that have the same number of votes are reviewed in alphabetical order. The reviews are written by the staff member(s) that voted for them to be on the list (I just happen to write extra reviews if the mood strikes me). If only one staff member reviewed an album, that's because only one staff member voted for the album and it made it. So yes, this is in order. It's just transparent to you guys. 3 Original Saku, Miasma and Ito reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DeithX252 1266 Posted December 13, 2013 yeah Tam Tam - Polarize is great album! It is in my list too! Never imagine that reggae can be combined with electronic dub, and went well. Looking forward to their major debut! 2 Original Saku and Ito reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 13, 2013 Day 13 - the unknown forecast - オークション (Auction) posted! Were's now just over halfway through the list! What does everyone think of it so far? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 14, 2013 Day 14 - 妖精帝國 (Yōsei Teikoku) - PAX VESANIA posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DeithX252 1266 Posted December 15, 2013 I will comment what I've listened in the list so far ALSDEAD - Separator I think it is a good album, but the sound production is kinda meh. Overall I can not take this album into my AOTY list Dir En Grey - THE UNRAVELING well, I kinda like Diru long time ago, but this mini album kinda ruined the old song, I have imagined the old song will be more cool with their recent style, but...... that doesn't work I will try Ohashi trio and yousei teikoku later, but as far I remember I didn't like yui's voice, the music itself is good, but didn't fit for the voice Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 15, 2013 Day 15 - 惑星アブノーマル (WAKUSEI ABNORMAL) - 何でも無い凶器 (nandemonai kyouki) posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bonsaijodelfisch 328 Posted December 16, 2013 jesus, totally forgot about wakusei! i actually downloaded it and put it on my ipod when it came out, but then it completely left my brainworks this shit is seriously cool, very tokyo jihen-ish, in a good way! thanks for pointing them out again (over the winter-holidays i will be hanging at my parents place and be very very bored, ideal for listening this whole list through and maybe reviewing the stuff that caught my attention ) 3 Ito, Original Saku and CAT5 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 16, 2013 Day 16 - アルカラ (Arukara) - むにむにの樹 (Munimuni no Ki) posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pretsy 1343 Posted December 16, 2013 Late post, but I dig that Wakusei record too - is sorta reminiscent to older Shiina Ringo material (might call it "Muzai Moratorium-lite", if you will), which I don't mind at all! 2 Ito and CAT5 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pandabear 414 Posted December 16, 2013 Checked out Div and I was highly impressed. Finally a VK band that does the electronic thing right! Not only is the production great but so is the music. I really enjoyed their rock style and the electronic flourishes. The vocalist actually knows how to sing and the guitar riffs and drumming is great. You can tell the effort that went into this release. If only other vk bands could strive and achieve this level of quality. 2nd best vk album of the year behind Jupiter imo. My 2 other discoveries from this list was Kinoko Teikoku and Tam Tam. Loved eureka by Kinoko Teiku. That release is just amazing and so is this band. I have to go check out there other releases now. Also really enjoyed the eccentric sound of Tam Tam. I'm glad Yōsei Teikoku's PAX VESANIA was included on this list. It's the best album they've done so far. I need to check out the other releases but there's lots of quality awesome stuff here. 1 CAT5 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 16, 2013 Really glad you are liking some of the stuff on this list! I am pretty happy with how it had turned out so far and we still have a lot of great stuff coming. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DeithX252 1266 Posted December 17, 2013 Oh wakusei abnormal, I just realized that I have the album but forget about it, re-listening again yesterday The album is a bit weird at the beginning, but after listening it at the right time, I found the album is pretty great Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ito 2438 Posted December 17, 2013 Day 17 - Boris – Präparat posted! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
