[The Great Album Debate] the GazettE: Nil vs DIM

[doombox 4421]

 

the GazettE have a large enough catalog of music that they appeal to a large number of people with equally vast musical tastes.
Finding out which album is their "best" album has always been a source of heated discussion in the past. But for this new thread series I'd like MH fans to explore just what makes one album better? Why does this album appeal to your more than the other? Pitting their first and last albums against each other seemed a tad too unfair to both sides, so we'll be starting this discussion somewhere in the middle. The challengers:

 

 NIL vs DIM 

Each album represents a specific style "era" for the band, and each one welcomed a new wave of fans in its own right.

Which one do you prefer and why?

 

Feel free to give an overall opinion, a track by track breakdown and rating, or anything else you feel is relevant to this discussion.

Just be respectful of each other, please.

[kyoselflove 2680]

NIL because I am in forever in love with Silly God Disco, Taion, Cassis, and okay basically the whole album. But then I also like DIM as well but I guess I just love the nostalgic sound of NIL more. Arg, it's really hard to decide, I love The Invisible Wall and LEECH on DIM though. Going with NIL, lol. I suck at these things, maybe I will edit and add more depth, but I'm too tired right now. Can I pick both? xP

[eiheartx 1310]

Taion is a monument lol but I think (imo) that DIM is better in everything (I feel like NIL was...easy). Better concept album, much darker, it's a whole.

[evilcoconut 109]

Tbh, I'm not much of a Gazette fan anymore, but I loved NIL when it came out. Listening to it now though and damn it sounds dated. DIM, on the other hand, is the only Gazette album I even enjoy now, so however that shakes out lol

[Augie1995 325]

I'd have to say DIM. NIL had some good ideas and a lot of the songs were fun or very energetic but DIM just has this aura about it that carries on throughout the whole album. Shiroki Yuu Utsu over the ballad on NIL, Nakigahara over any song on NIL and DIM SCENE has to be their best closer in my mind, no matter how strong of a tribute Taion carries in its lyrics.

[nullmoon 784]

Nil is really samey and doesn't have enough heavier tracks. I used to hate Dim in my foolish youth but now I see it as their best album by far. There's so much variety and yet it flows incredibly well.

Plus, Headache Man and Ogre

[Sakura Seven 593]

DIM is a lot more atmospheric and coherent throughout - something I like to see in albums, so that's my vote. NIL has some good songs, but it's a lot more disjointed and doesn't seem to have any sort of guiding concept behind it. DIM appeals to me more on this basis.

I really think DIVISION is stronger than both.

[Bear 1817]

This was easy.

NIL is a pretty poor album, and the only good song on the album is Taion which are among the best songs the band ever wrote. The rest ranges from meh to awful, and songs like Shadow VI II I, Silly God Disco and (especially) Cassis are bloody fucking bad. Just really, really, really bad.

Dim was fantastic when it came, but it haven't stood the test of time very well. The interludes are good (even though they don't do much for me now as I don't like the whole album), and songs such as Nakigahara, Headache Man, Distress and Coma and Dim Scene are very, verry good, but the rest are boring as fuck and Guren are most likely the worst song ever written by a human being, something I also meant back in the day the album still was good.

So Dim are obviously the the one I'll go with, despite not even being close to being a good album.

[Mr Bacon 106]

I'll have to go with NIL. I might be biased because it was one if the first VK albums I heard, but still.

DIM is a strong album overall. NIL, however, has some of the band's best songs(Taion, Baretta, Nausea&Shudder) and some other good songs(Bathroom, DLN, Cassis). I just love the compositions on NIL.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

DIM all the way, baby~

It's one of the band's most consistent and well-put-together albums with some great songs to boot, not to mention the atmosphere. I couldn't get into NIL when it was released, didn't see what the big deal was. Some good songs on there but nothing special. Nowadays I appreciate it more but DIM is just in a whole other league.

[Kaye 296]

The only two Gazette albums I can still care for, but DIM wins the top spot in the end. Why? Despite NIL having been my real introduction to the band, DIM is an album I loved from start to finish, and has some kind of mysterious flow through the tracks. I doubt they'll ever be able to upstage that.

[indigo 389]

NIL has some stuff I like but DIM is just more consistent and the songs are much better so DIM it is.

[CAT5 9075]

I'm nostalgically attached to NIL, but my taste appreciates DIM more. But both albums have their pros and cons, and are still strong releases in the band's discography.

 

NIL feels a bit more organic overall since it's not constrained to a specific aesthetic like DIM - basically, there's more variety. DIM on the hand seems to have a clear-cut vision (from the highly stylized PVs, to the artwork, to the incessant use of SE tracks in an attempt to guide you through that vision), and as such, the songs on the album don't step too far out of line from that vision. They managed to achieve an amazing sense of cohesion with DIM - almost as if the album tells a story. Personally, I think that ambiguous, yet palpable "story" of DIM is what draws listeners to this album over NIL - which I think was also a good effort, but feels more just like "another VK album", ya know?

 

That's not to say NIL isn't worthwhile. With the atmosphere of DIM being so thick, it's easy for that album to feel oppressive, while NIL has a kind of levity permeating throughout it. Another thing I enjoy about NIL is the fact that there are more solos and much more going on guitar-wise, while DIM is riddled with breakdowns and mirrored-chugging (which gets old fast especially when there are 2 guitarists). The guys of gazette may not be super-technical guitar/drum-gods, but they can rock out with their instruments when they want to and I would have liked to hear more of that in DIM. In that sense, many of the songs on DIM felt a bit sterile. Tracks like "13STAIRS[-]1" and "Nakigahara" - while great, presented a slew of musical opportunities for the gazette that they failed to capitalize on. "Nakigahara" was begging for a solo or some sort of instrumental fuckery, but instead drug on for like 3 minutes too long. "13STAIRS[-]1" was something new and fresh for the gazette, and still stands out in their discography today, so they really could have experimented a bit more if they wanted to. And the gazette doesn't have to get all progressive or anything - even if one song on DIM had an instrumental section on it like NIL's "baretta", I would have been more satisfied!

 

But with everything said, I still prefer DIM overall. Despite it's flaws, the album and everything surrounding it were curated so fantastically, and that's not always an easy feat achieve - in vk or anywhere else.

[togz 2004]

Having been a solid gazette fan for most of their career (until recently) from my opinion and understanding, both of these albums were very huge indications of change and growth with in their musical career. NIL I believe was the album that really gave a hint of change from their releases prior to that. It was a solid transitional album, though they had a short hiccup with stacked rubbish i think. NIL is the album I feel that really pulled in the mass amounts of fans. That's when i remember them blowing up. DIM is also a hint of change for them. I admire this album over NIL not because it's better, I just feel it was a lot more experimental. DIM was that one album I could tell all the members were really in sync and this was a sound that they spent all their time and energy and passion trying to create. I feel that DIM flows extremely well and conveys a lot of different settings and emotions in a story like manner. The transitional tracks add a nice touch. While some people thought those to be annoying and a rip off because they weren't actual songs, I found them to be very artistic and enhancing. Those tracks were like bread crumbs, giving an offsetting preview/intro to the next phrase of the album as a whole. I don't particularly have an opinion on what that album led them in to in regards to their current works, but DIM as a whole was a piece of artwork in my wholeheartedly honest opinion.

[kurenaishineek 646]

If i have to pick any of those two i would say NIL , at this point it was still somehow listenable , but on the other hand it was the album that started to kill this band and DIM was the finishing blow . Altough i still try all their new releases i have a hard time finding anything that would pull me in , and when i find it , it turns out its the only song in the whole album . Thats why from those two i have to say NIL cause there where 2 or 3 songs i liked on it where DIM had none . Altough my taste in music changed a lot from the time DIM was released so i check it out one more time and will see if something changed here .

Positive changes for DIM , at my current taste DIM sounds much better than NIL and is more listenable , and this album has a good chance to stay a little longer on my HDD .

[Gaz 1097]

DISORDER ofc.

though if to choose from these two i would go with NIL. it was their last release where they actually looked like they were trying to make music. everything that comes afterwards was just an utter bullshit. "hey guys seems like our fans dont care about our music so why should we care? lets just release some shit without making efforts and they will keep buying it nonetheless!" or something like that. but among their post-NIL period DIM was more or less bearable, it has like 2-3 tracks which were alright.