Dir en grey

[blacktooth 227]

17 minutes ago, Saishu said:

Tousei and Kaishun?

While those are my favorite tracks from Arche, they don't hit me with the same POIGNANCY. 

 

I hope I like Ranunculus too, Seelentau.

[geist 227]

Come on, Kaoru, you’ve got to do a better job on that solo. You’d think being a professional guitarist for over 20 years he would have learned how to properly bend a guitar string. 

[Rosner 35]

3 hours ago, blacktooth said:

Where are the tear-your-heart-out emotional ballads in the new material, DEG?

'Conceived Sorrow' is one of my favourite opening tracks ever, and one of my favourites by the band. I really love the piano, the smooth bassline and the dramatism. 'Ware, Yami Tote...' is like 'Conceived Sorrow' but on stereoids! I like the drumming and the crescendo in Kyo's performance (those screams at 05:20 - 05:26 are soul crushing).

 

I enjoy 'Vanitas' a lot too. The guitar solo is one of Kaoru and Die's finest moment, especially the tremolo harmonies and everything that follows that section. A moment of calmness amidst Dum Spiro Spero's bipolar violence. Regarding 'ARCHE', I love 'Kukoku no Kyon', possibly my favourite track on the whole album. They really nailed the acoustic guitar sound, and that synth (or is it an e-bowed guitar?!) creates a really melancholic atmosphere. The Utafumi version with Sugizo on violin takes the song to a whole other level: the chorus hits really hard.

 

3 hours ago, Seelentau said:

I have a feeling that you'll like Ranunculus.

Seelentau, could you describe Ranunculus? I imagine it as a mix of the dark and gloomy vibe of 'Conceived Sorrow' with the piano driven and ethereal beauty of 'Rinkaku' (without the doom and technical riffing, of course).

[rekzer 599]

I couldn't stand the crying dolphin on the version with Sugizo

[Seelentau 884]

Hmm, I can try. This is from their live at 川崎CLUB CITTA' in November 2016:
It starts very quiet, with ambient sounds (Glockenspiel or something like that?). They sounds are coming in one by one until ~0:37, when the actual band starts to play.

The song starts off rather hard until at ~01:07, it calms down and vocals begin at ~01:24.

At 01:43, there's a shift in the music and at ~01:55 something like a high-point begins that goes on until ~02:20.

Then another verse with mellow, slower music until ~02:45, where the same shift from 01:43 is repeated (same lyrics "sono toki..." - "watashi no kokoro o").

Unlike at 01:55, this time, the ambient sounds appear again in the form of a piano/keyboard(?), or at least that's what it sounds like. A piano key again and again, like "dun dundun dundun dundun".

Then at ~03:10 "Ranunculus... Ranunculus...". Still ambient and piano thingy, very very mellow, reminds me of Kukoku no Kyoon.

At ~03:29, the ~01:55 part is repeated again, with the last verse following and some more "Ranunculus". It clocks in at ~05:00 total.

 

The version from April 2018 is a little different. Same ambient intro, but vocals start at ~00:35, the band joins him at ~01:00.

"Watashi no kokoro o" at ~01:07, followed by the high-point. Second verse at ~01:35, "watashi no kokoro o" at 02:07.

Ambient sounds again with "Ranunculus... Ranunculus...". The rest is the same as the other version, but they shortened the song by almost one minute, I think. But I can't pinpoint exactly what is missing or has changed, really.

I think it can be described as a ballad, but it's actually more of ballad-rock-ballad-rock. Nothing over-the-top like DECAYED CROW, but as I said, it kinda reminds me of Kukoku no Kyoon.

Or something like that.

Edited August 21, 2018 by Seelentau

[Saishu 1589]

15 minutes ago, rekzer said:

I couldn't stand the crying dolphin on the version with Sugizo

Sugizo is a bit of a one trick pony on the violin, isn’t he?

 

I think it was lame because it was just Sugizo playing over the album track. I think an acoustic version would have been better. 

[Kelrya 145]

7 hours ago, emmny said:

i cant believe kyo went as hard as he did during the freakout section

 

mode of ___ is the best deg footage ever, there's no way they'll out-do the emotion, live sound, and visuals of the series. I wish they could re-do gauze and not look like they were in pain the whole time.

I don’t really get why Kyo hates Guaze so much, there are a lot of similarities between Guaze and Macabre/Kisou and Sukekiyo’s music.

[saiko 429]

6 hours ago, Saishu said:

They’d probably break up rather than play Garden again. 

Sadly true. But fuck them, Garden is awesome. They really made up something very genuine with one of the most cliché formula of the 90s scene.

[blacktooth 227]

1 hour ago, Seelentau said:

same lyrics "sono toki..." - "watashi no kokoro o"

Yep, it's a heartfelt Kyo ballad alright.

Sounds cool though. I hope the studio version can really bring out the dynamics of the song.

[saiko 429]

23 minutes ago, Kelrya said:

I don’t really get why Kyo hates Guaze so much, there are a lot of similarities between Guaze and Macabre/Kisou and Sukekiyo’s music.

Over the time I came to really think that it is not like they actually hate it, or the whole vk-era, for instance. That is easily plausible since the DSS and Arche-era tours, when they started to recover not only their theatrical and outrageous fashion, but also some of their most vk-rooted classics (like Aoi tsuki, or the classic version of Byoushin; my head almost exploded when I noticed they played the first in one of their Budokan performances).  So, rather than wanting it to "dissapear" (following what Kyo repeated in many of their first foreign interviews, when they were asked for the filliation with the term "visual-kei", once the West came to discover) I think they were actually creating what they considered a healthy distance with the vk scene concept when they started touring abroad. In fact, many of the bands that folowed that pioneering-trend back in 2007 (like Mucc, D'espairs) also understood that they needed to tone-down their image in order to get more appealing to the scenes they thought they could fit in in the West (the punk and metal scenes).
IMHO they were, and still can be considered, a "visual-kei" band in many ways, no matter how far the sound of "Ningen wo kaburu" can appear to be that distant from "Garden". 
That, and Kyo being a fucking borderline guy.

[Saishu 1589]

8 minutes ago, saiko said:

Sadly true. But fuck them, Garden is awesome. They really made up something very genuine with one of the most cliché formula of the 90s scene.

Eh, I mean I like Garden and all, but it was so typical ‘90s VK right down to the section with palm muted/delayed guitars and the PV filmed in the woods. Kiri to Mayu has always been the standout track for me on Missa. 

[Rosner 35]

1 hour ago, Seelentau said:

Hmm, I can try...

Thank you very much! I thought it was going to be a full ballad without 'rock sections', interesting. If it is similar to 'Kukoku no Kyoon', then I'm definitely going to love it! A really interesting choice for an album closer. I wonder how conceptual is the order of the songs going to be. While I loved 'Arche', sometimes it sounded more like a collection of songs due to it's weird pacing.

Edited August 21, 2018 by Rosner
Typos!

[Kelrya 145]

Arche has some great songs but it’s not very fun to listen to all the way through. There are too many songs that are neither fast and heavy nor melodic and emotional so they just end up in a really boring middle ground. I love songs like Rinkaku, Behind a Vacant Image, Kaishun and Tousei, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, songs like Midwife, Revelation of Mankind, Uroko and The Inferno. But, like, does anyone really like Soshaku that much? Or Sustain the Untruth? Some of the songs just felt like filler. 

Edited August 21, 2018 by Kelrya

[Seelentau 884]

I absolutely despise StU. It's the most overplayed, yet most boring song in their entire catalogue and for reasons beyond my understanding, they feel the need to include it on nearly every release.

It's three times on ANDROGYNOS, once on ARCHE, three times on ARCHE AT NIPPON BUDOKAN, twice on DSS AT NIPPON BUDOKAN, once on the MTV live, once on the SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH single, once on TOUR14, once on TOUR16-17 TMOAB, of course once on VESTIGE OF SCRATCHES and again on ARCHE as a remix.

I have it 15 times in my discography and 200 scrobbles on last.fm .__.

But apparently they've performed it only ~172 times, which is nothing compared to the ~535 times OBSCURE was performed.

[blacktooth 227]

To hell with Sustain the Untruth and it’s IKITSUUUITA and stupid ape man. They need to stop forcing their basic ass recent singles as encore “staples”. Oh and fuck you too Obscure 2011. 

I always rearrange the track listings on my Deg albums and swap in the single mixes. Tweak Arche a bit and it actually has somewhat of a flow. 

[Saishu 1589]

22 minutes ago, blacktooth said:

 

I always rearrange the track listings on my Deg albums and swap in the single mixes. Tweak Arche a bit and it actually has somewhat of a flow. 

Same here. I put the single versions of Lotus and Hageshisa on DSS, and the Japanese versions of Glass Skin and Dozing Green on the original release of Uroboros. They didn’t muck with Rinkaku and Sustain too much so I left them as is, but I completely rearranged the track sequence. I tried to go for an old school A and B side feel with And Zero splitting the two sides. Though lately I’m about ready to remove Midwife entirely. It’s not even heavy, it’s just goofy as fuck with all that ridiculous atonal/dissonant shit. 

[Kelrya 145]

Lol I can see how someone might not like Midwife but it’s actually one of my favorite songs of theirs post-DSS. I like how the first half is clean vocals and the second is harsh vocals, but it doesn’t feel disjointed. I like the mathcore-ish dissonant chords that give it that sense of anxiety. It sounds like a way better version of what they tried to do on some WTD tracks.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Kelrya

[Rosner 35]

I agree with most of what Kelrya said! 'Arche' is a difficult album to listen to. In fact, songs like 'Kaishun' only clicked for me after a couple of years of listening to the album, because I would always be too tired when listening to it when I played 'Arche' as a whole. 'Tousei', 'Magayasou', 'Kaishun' and 'Behind a Vacant Image' where for me the same song (...), until I started to listen to each one of them individually. Regarding 'Soshaku', I love it! I had trouble at first with how lackluster the verses are, but one the chorus kicks in, it really shines. That also may be because it's the second song on the album, so it's easier to like when listening to the whole thing.

 

Regarding 'Midwife', I only started to appreciate it a couple of months ago! I love the dissonances and the goth-rock-esque arpeggios and melodies it has. Now, it is one of my favourite ones on the album. That's what I love about this band: I always keep coming to the records and I keep finding new things when re-listening to them. With the announcement of the re-recording of 'The Deeper Vileness' for the new album, I went back to 'The Marrow of a Bone' and payed more attention to that song. To be honest, I kind of despise the nu-metal/core tracks of that album, especially 'Lie Buried with a Vengeance', but I kind of enjoy 'The Deeper Vileness' more now. There are some really good ideas amidst the mallcore riffing and the goofy lyrics.

 

About 'Sustain the Untruth' (or 'Sustain the WahWah', as I like to call it), I think it is a fun song, but as Seelentau said, it is so overplayed that I don't want to hear it anymore. I also think it has no place on 'Arche': a dated nu-metal song on an otherwise original and progressive album? Not even the the solo and Die's awesome leads save it from being a low-tier song. As blacktooth says, it's silly how they force them on their setlists.; feels like they are trying to write a couple of catchy and simple songs that work well live. I cannot believe how Kaoru enjoys playing it! He always looks so happy and does that 'wah wah' motion with his mouth...  I would love if some of the early singles would stay out of the album's final cut: 'Hageshisa...', 'Lotus' and 'Rinkaku' worked really well, but I feel like 'Utafumi' and 'Ningen...' are going to be the new 'Sustain the Untruth's of the new album. Wish 'Arche' had 'Tefu Tefu' instead of 'Sustain the Untruth'...

Edited August 22, 2018 by Rosner
I forgot about 'Soshaku'!

[blacktooth 227]

Midwife is alright but I’m not into the guitar tones in the intro. Hageshisa to had the best mix of any of their songs on the single version. 

Marrow as a whole is very fond to me but that might be nostalgia getting the best of me. I haven’t listened much recently, but I’ve always liked the rough around the edges and the audible frustration. 

Dozing Green I think will always be my favorite song of theirs and I like any song that shares its songwriting “DNA”.

The cool thing to me about Arche is that Un deux and Beyond a Vacant Image can both either be opener or closer and feel right. I personally like Beyond a Vacant Image at the end. It’s so satisfying. 

[Saishu 1589]

I put Vacant Image in front and Un Deux at the end. I like ending Arche with a positive song, and the final chords ringing and fading out are perfect. 

 

 

[Ro plz 1290]

Idk man....

 

like maybe its the production, maybe its the fact that Kaoru's Guitar tone sounds like a horrid clone copy of Die's cuz he's no longer using EMG pickups...idk...

 

Like these old songs sound uncomfortably too refined and they lack that UMPH that the older live versions do. I can still listen to em but man, the change in quality sticks out like a sore thumb. 

 

Maybe im just trippin.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Ro plz

[Rosner 35]

Official artworks unveiled, one for each edition:

 

 

Wasn't expecting this... I thought they were going for a different art style, similar to the one hinted at the lastest promotional band photoshoot (white, pure and kind of ethereal, with some sort of a 'traditional asian' vibe -at least that was what Kaoru, Toshiya and Die's clothes seemed to hint for me). This looks like a mix between Tool and Björk. I really like it, but it seems weird! I give a lot of importance to an album's artwork, and it changes how I perceive its music. The only thing I do not like is the deathcore-ish font. On a second thought, it looks like a similar font to In Flames' 'A Sense of Purpose'...

 

[Kelrya 145]

I knew I recognized that font somewhere lol, it does look like that In Flames font. Their recent merch has also had a sort of deathcore circa 2009 look too although I don’t mind it, it seems like a tasteful homage to that aesthetic.

Edited August 23, 2018 by Kelrya

[nullmoon 784]

Had anyone noticed that the Utafumi on Spotify is the preview version? I was surprised at its brevity compared to the single version but found that it flowed much better? 

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

I miss their awful deathcore logo from 2010. I couldn't even find it on google anymore ( can someone else try ), but it was definitely on shirts and stuff when I saw them live around that time. Even if it was fucking bad it was still appropriate, because I remember a lot of scenekids at that show with people playing metalcore from their phone speakers etc. Good times