ChristMHas 25 Days of ChristMHas Discussion Thread - 2015

[Ito 2438]

Day 12 - COHOL - 裏現 (Rigen) posted!

 

[Chi 2624]

Nice! I did listen to COHOL's Rigen and I enjoyed it, even though it's not the kind of music I'm used to.

 

I'm bad with names but according to my lasfm I liked Chaos Ruler and Depressive lol

[The Reverend 3566]

I liked the production on the Cohol album (in general and especially compared to most black metal). Sounds great in my car... though might be dangerous because it can incite some fits of rockin' the fuck out.

 

'Infrastructure' is one of my fave songs of the year.

[CAT5 9075]

I couldn't really get into the new COHOL. Not that it was "bad" or anything, but it was missing the melodic edge of their first album imo. I love melody in general, but it's particularly important for me in heavier music.

[bonsaijodelfisch 328]

nice to see they made it onto the list

I preferred this lots over the first one, but the couple of tracks on their split with HeavenInHerArms were still better. Maybe it has to do with what @CAT5 mentions, but the tracks aren't quite as distinct from each other, as the ones on the split (don't quite remember what my main problem with their first album was, I think the production was horrendous and personally I didn't really dig the tracks on it either...)

 

speaking of production, I had quite the opposite impression than @Ito (listening on HiFiMan HE400 btw). The low-mids, high-bass/treble approach he described would be the typical "scooped" way of things, generally associated with black-metal, particularly second-wave-norwegian and the lofi-likes. This Album on the other had has, in my opinion, a much more natural sounding feel, and a much more balanced mix of the instruments, pretty much an aesthetic you would otherwise more expect from a post-rock production. As a matter of fact I am fairly certain you could, without changing anything on the recording/mixing-setup, go straight on recording a russian circles album or sth alike.

 

A prospos postrock, that's the thing anyways about this band. @Jigsaw9 once mentioned sth along the lines of "japanese extreme metal just seems to never be quite as brutal as their western comparisons". Thing is, now for cohol in particular, I don't think they really want to be. Sure on the surface there are all the bits and pieces for black-metal, but with the atmosphere and soundscapes they create in their songs (and sounds) they actually are much more of a postrock(-ish) band, simply utilizing the blackmetal vocabulary. But well, of course genres are stupid anyways, and if I knew anything, I'd have to somehow also add DIY-Hardcore to the mix and such, so this just as a thought/brainfart

[Lestat 2167]

I do enjoy Rigen far greater than their previous works, which were not as distinctly black as this album. They appear to have taken a turn toward a more traditional and rawer form of black metal rather than throwing themselves again in that vast ocean of post-metal which is currently overflowing with a countless amounts of names that share a similar edge of post-metal influences within their sound. Rigen sounds as if their sound has taken proper shape and I do sincerely hope they will continue to grow in this sentiment.

[Ito 2438]

 

speaking of production, I had quite the opposite impression than @Ito (listening on HiFiMan HE400 btw). The low-mids, high-bass/treble approach he described would be the typical "scooped" way of things, generally associated with black-metal, particularly second-wave-norwegian and the lofi-likes. This Album on the other had has, in my opinion, a much more natural sounding feel, and a much more balanced mix of the instruments, pretty much an aesthetic you would otherwise more expect from a post-rock production. As a matter of fact I am fairly certain you could, without changing anything on the recording/mixing-setup, go straight on recording a russian circles album or sth alike.

 

I wish I could feel this way - I do want to take a crack at this one with my speaker system and see if that changes my feeling about it...got to wait for a day the gf is gone since there is no way it would fly with her home lmao.

 

As far as sounding like RC in terms of production, I would have to disagree with that. As someone who has listened to all together way too much of their music and am always going back to their work, their production has never bothered me in the same was Rigen did. Well, maybe Empros a bit, but even that one I like quite a bit more.

[Zeus 7997]

I wish I could feel this way - I do want to take a crack at this one with my speaker system and see if that changes my feeling about it...got to wait for a day the gf is gone since there is no way it would fly with her home lmao.

 

As far as sounding like RC in terms of production, I would have to disagree with that. As someone who has listened to all together way too much of their music and am always going back to their work, their production has never bothered me in the same was Rigen did. Well, maybe Empros a bit, but even that one I like quite a bit more.

COHOL is one of the few modern bands playing a second-wave style of black metal that's not totally obsessed with sounding like crap. It's a large part of the reason why I like them so much. If I were to describe the production of Rigen in one word, I would say "careful". The more I listen, the more I realize that the production quirks are conscious choices made to evoke some feeling in the listener (what they intended versus what we get is a different convo though). They aren't always the best choices - Endless Ember was an example I gave in my Featured Review where the contrast between crisp, clear mellow parts and muddy metal turned me off - but in some cases it works.

 

I am enraptured with the tremolo-picked, double bass opening of Infrastructure for example, which is so damn heavy and brutal everything goes to shit in the best way possible for 10-15 seconds. Yeah it sounds like a muddy mess, but that mess captures an emotion that wouldn't be there if the riffs were cleaner. Then like a minute later there's a curious interlude which is much clearer than the whirlwind of metal before it - and there are one or two more examples of this contrast occurring elsewhere on Rigen - so I think they chose to record the metal sections the way they are. Or maybe they paid extra attention to those slower parts for maximum impact. IDK.

In some way I'm willing to overlook the flaws of Rigen due to the genre we're talking about. As far as other BM albums goes this sounds pretty good. But if comparisons to anything is free game then there is room for improvement. I also don't think RC's production sounds similar to this because the way they mix post-rock and metal is completely different to the way COHOL does. RC is more post-rock then metal and COHOL is more metal than post rock. The way the two bands choose to balance their instruments in the mix reflects that (for example bass guitar is more prominent of an instrument in RC, while it merely supports the rhythm in COHOL). If 309 from Empros were to be produced the way any of the tracks on Rigen were, the entire middle section of that song would be a fuzzed out mess. If Infrastructure were recorded with RC quality, it would sound sterile and lack impact...I can't really compare the two too deeply.

[Ito 2438]

Day 13 - The fin. - Days With Uncertainty posted!

 

[doombox 4421]

I adore this band, and this album. So much. They're just perfect when you need something to mellow out to. <3

[beni 2149]

^ I love you, I love this band, and I love that album. God bless fitz for bringing them up this year. [2] Simply can't get enough of 'Night Time'. The perfection is out of this world.

[Original Saku 1593]

Absolutely love the fin. they're so mellow and just perfect for when I need something to just chill to.

 

Haven't checked out Cohol's album yet, but I'll get to it soon.

[saishuu 3220]

I have The fin.'s album sitting here for ages and never gave it a spin. I remember watching a PV of theirs and being thrown off from the Engrish a little bit, but the song was rather nice. Time to get on to it I think!

[Ito 2438]

Day 14 - SEKAI NO OWARI - TREE posted!
 

[yakihiko 1480]

Really really nice to see this here! <3 thank you for your reviews girls.

"...when it comes to TREE, they managed to plant a good seed in my books." by @beni

Best sentence about the release xD but I have to say, from the really new songs, I only like PLAY and broke bone.

"...the fiery flamenco dance rhythms in "Death Disco". Though, the clap-along, marching drum driven melody of "RPG" remains to be one of their biggest crowd-pleasers..." by @doombox

Death Disco is a piece of art on music scene, this need to reach more people, and I would definitively go to a marching with this guys with RPG.

My favorite on this release are Death Disco, RPG, ピエロ, Dragon Night, and PLAY.

[doombox 4421]

<3

 

It's a great album, and I agree, everyone should give it a chance! It's got so many amazing songs!

[Ito 2438]

Day 15 - BRADIO - Power of Life posted!
 

[CAT5 9075]

Bradio isn't quite my cup of tea, but after watching 'Death Parade', the OP song they did for it became ironically charming. Plus I know a certain blue mod (*cough*@beni*cough*) who loves to spam that song to death, haha.

[beni 2149]

^ me whenever that PV plays

[Ito 2438]

Day 16 - BLU-SWING - FLASH posted!

 

[Zeus 7997]

"FLASH" is one seriously catchy album. I hope more people take a leap of faith on this one and check them out, because they're pretty tight and overall a very accessible, smooth sound. I might even consider this their best album yet - their next most popular album "Revision" didn't resonate with me as much as "FLASH" did.

[DeithX252 1266]

*Very late reply to this thread*

 

Nice to see coldrain, FACT, and BLU-SWING! For a people who occasionally like jazz (hit & miss) for me, I highly recommend FLASH from BLU-SWING, it is one of the great album in this year. Sure you should try listening to it. I watched their live last year ( butonly vocalist and keyboardist, not full band), but it was great experience!

 

And I surprised the album list is not dominated with VK band

[Lestat 2167]

 

And I surprised the album list is not dominated with VK band

 

Surprised? I have seen this coming from miles away, haha. Most of the staff members enjoy indie-bands and metalcore groups over Visual Kei, as far as I know. Not to mention that Visual Kei has severely been lacking great releases this year, at least for me it was rather disappointing. 

 

For me personally, this list has been — nothing worthwhile, actually. There are three names on there so far that are worth mentioning for me and I wonder if it'll increase its luck for me towards the end of the tally. But I think not. As I said, a disappointing year, unfortunately. Can't do anything about that.

[Ito 2438]

 

And I surprised the album list is not dominated with VK band

 

Well, let's look at our history lol

 

The only thing I should not first staff list was 20 releases and not the 25 format we have been using for the past 3 years. Format has always involved voting from all of the staff members and it has staid roughly the same over the last 3 years - though as of 2014 we added the ORZ group to the voting process. Since we are a pretty varied group, VK has never been the dominating factor in our best of's. I think if that is more of what you are looking for, you will have to wait for individual lists lol.

 

Ok, so let's do a bit of a stat breakdown:

2012 - 50% VK releases*

2013 - 36% VK releases*

2014 - 28% VK releases*

 

Obviously this is a downward trend. I'm not so sure that this says anything about the recent quality of VK and has more to do with the diversity of the staff's listening habits. One person had 9 of the albums they voted for make it in to the final list and others only had 2...In a way a lot of this depends on the staff's commonality to what rises to the top. And frankly, I just don't think enough of us are listening mostly exclusively to VK so that these list could be a majority VK.

 

What I can say (without spoiling too much) is that this year is ending that downward trend. I won't say the percentage or even if it is a small or large jump upwards, but it is upwards.

 

 

 

*I use the term VK loosely here. Some of the bands like the god and death stars and lynch can be argued either not to be VK or no longer are, but I don't want to jump down that rabbit hole.

[CAT5 9075]

Most of the staff members enjoy indie-bands and metalcore groups over Visual Kei, as far as I know.

In conjunction with @Ito's post, I'd also like to point out that while the staff/ORZ has a few users who specialize solely in VK, most of the staff takes an open-minded approach to J-rock and Japanese music as a whole. Meaning that most of us make an attempt to stay abreast of several scenes (including VK), and we don't necessarily make it a habit to distinguish between VK and non-VK. We even take Jpop and many other areas of J-music into account as well. VK represents just a tiny pocket of Japanese music as a whole, so proportionately speaking, it would only be natural for VK not to dominate the list. Even the term "indie" is hugely ambiguous - Japan doesn't have a singular "indie" scene and the term could refer to any number of genres or scenes from your typical, straightforward rock stuff, to psych-rock, noise-rock, emo, post-hardcore, post-punk, math and post-rock, folk, punk, and all types of hybrid bands that A&R's couldn't slap a label on.