Dir en grey

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

Wasn't Uroboros their best selling album since Kisou too? Pretty much Dir en grey + Tokyo Dome = never.

Btw how much people did attend The Gazette's show at Dome?

[nekkichi 6043]

Wasn't Uroboros their best selling album since Kisou too? Pretty much Dir en grey + Tokyo Dome = never

nope.

http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/690 ... /cd_album/

[dannemannen 69]

Dir en Grey has gathered fans for the last 10 years, and for the last 5-6 years all their releases have gotten within the 1-5 top at the oricon top list, among with jpop artists such as AKb48 and Arashi. I'm sure there wouldnt be any probs at all for them to fill tokyo dome. Gazette, SID etc does it easily, why wouldnt they be able to?

[nekkichi 6043]

Dir en Grey has gathered fans for the last 10 years, and for the last 5-6 years all their releases have gotten within the 1-5 top at the oricon top list, among with jpop artists such as AKb48 and Arashi. I'm sure there wouldnt be any probs at all to fill tokyo dome. SID does it easily, why couldnt they?

because sid CD sales own diru and gazette combined most probably?

hikari sold 110 k back in 09, dead stock was less successful but still

http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/342 ... /cd_album/

http://oriconv.seesaa.net/article/160819665.html

I'm not sure how many paying fans diru have gathered since for the past 10 years.

They've been losing their core fanbase since 6 ugly + add shrinking japanese market and piracy. having more exposure on myspace, paying for western media coverage and getting a billion likes on facebook doesn't make their cds sell better. Touring - yes, but I have no idea idea how many new fans/out of scene fans they have really attracted too.

[DeIdeal 0]

GazettE sure as hell didn't fill the Dome, there was like 40 000 people in the audience. SID's a different thing, but they're not filling Dome easily either. Only B'z and the likes have the fanbase to actually sell out Tokyo Dome three days a row a couple of times in a year. But B'z's (lol) latest album has sold 8 times more copies in its first week than UROBOROS did. Diru just isn't able to do it, I wouldn't say it's impossible for them to play in the Dome, but it's very unlikely that they'd fill it.

[Furik 832]

Wait - since when have SID been a hit?!

news 2 me

[nekkichi 6043]

surpriiiise desu ne?

from wiki - "They (sid) got the Top Pop Artist Award from Billboard Japan Music Awards 2010 on February 6, 2011."

maybe dir en grey should sign with major sony div. and do some gararararagh openings for bleach or something. it could help.

[sai 868]

For some reason SID really deserves the honor.

[Furik 832]

what have sid become

[sai 868]

Their hikari album deserves the ratings, it's amazing. deadstock was a little less good but good nonetheless.

[LIDL 692]

I was about to spazzing when i saw Tolyo Dome,

but then corected to be Tokyo Dome City Hall.

I quicly pushed the dun dun dunn button after that

but then again DeG music isn't mainstream for the nation.

Different case with B'z, some number of old school VK acts, and couple of new ones

or J-Pop for that matter.

I suspect at least half the Dome would be filled by expats if they really ever went to Dome

[Furik 832]

i dont understand how a band like gazette could fill up the dome but deg cant.

i mean, im not saying gazette is poppy or anything but they sure aren't B'z-poppy.

[Wonrei 108]

gazette has got 1000000 fangirls though

[Number Girl 48]

I don't see why ratings, sales and such would matter to Diru (or their fans) much anymore . . . with the way they are going now with their music and image, I'd say they were just trying to appeal to Japan's smaller metal niche (and the large international one) rather than to the masses in Japan. If they are trying to chart really super duper high in Japan and sell out the Dome for two weeks in a row, they are doing a horrible, horrible job. They would just have to be so much more accessible musically. Metal in Japan (especially experimental stuff) is about as popular as homemade crap nowadays - unless Yoshiki's in your band.

I think doing Loud Park with a bunch of other really popular Western metal bands is as big as they're gonna go.

[Wonrei 108]

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2011-08-02/ this sold quite well though.

[Zeus 7997]

i dont understand how a band like gazette could fill up the dome but deg cant.

i mean, im not saying gazette is poppy or anything but they sure aren't B'z-poppy.

- Gazette is visual, Diru was visual.

- ^ because of that, Gazette has fangirls in Japan that can go to the dome and at that more fangirls than most other visual bands. Diru has worldwide fans that can't that factor into their sales too. Even though this is my interpretation, I'd like to think Gazette now is where Diru was at the Kisou era in terms of fans and popularity. If Diru hadn't dropped the visuals I bet they'd have played the Dome long ago.

- Gazette seems to focus mainly on Japan, Diru focuses on worldwide distribution. Even Kaoru said that if they didn't start looking to venues outside of Japan they would have disbanded long ago since it seems that they've hit a brick wall when it comes to new Japanese fans. I'd even wager that at this point GazettE probably has an equal standing Japanese fanbase to Diru, if not more.

- compared to Diru, Gazette sounds like H!P

- Gazette has been getting more and more poppy, especially since DIM. that appeals more to the fangirls that probably can't handle Diru's more extreme direction

- Gazette have also had more tie-ins with their releases. Diru had ZAN and WIZARDRY and that's relatively recent (besides that the only other tie-ins I know they've had would be CHILD PREY and Baki the Grappler and some movie and the entire VULGAR album, and that was so long ago). Gazette has had Before I Decay and a movie license and Shiver and an anime deal and that appeals to a wider audience than WIZARDRY does.

So I mean...yeah I kinda get it. Diru is more popular overseas than Gazette are but in their own country Gazette either matches them or beats them. I don't really think they care too much though - if playing the Dome was a goal of theirs they'd probably find some way to do it.

[nekkichi 6043]

- Gazette has been getting more and more poppy, especially since DIM. that appeals more to the fangirls that probably can't handle Diru's more extreme direction

they have been doing that from the very beginning thou - wakeremichi + bunch of shitty punk dualism of sorts on matina, than PSC enforced and level-upped them as a band who milks two sorts of fangirls, zetsu/miseinen for one kind, no666/mad marble for others, and they leaned towards heavy/heavy melodic band closer to nil, ditching genki part at the same time.

diru have been pulling something similar with both kisou and vulgar, where a heavy album was preceded by softer singles (jessica, drain away, embryo, kasumi), but than turned all durrrk and fataleestic (the final, saku, dead tree, DS, etc)

gazette don't usually forcefeed their fans with ugly looks and dickish attitude, what diru have been exposing in 03-04 and still do now and than (bald Kyo, half-shaved toshiya, kaoru's mustache of doom, "japan doesn't need us anymore hepr derp", "fans hu don't support us will leave, others will cum!11 - surprise-surprise dudes!)

not to mention crappy production and firewall's lazyness about marketing/promo - sometimes it feels like they're a bit delusional about their own success.

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2011-08-02/ this sold quite well though.

nice, I wonder how long it's gonna be in charts, and how much they will sell in the first month for example.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Sorry to detract from the current conversation, but: DUM SPIRO SPERO limited site has opened!

It needs a password to unlock all the goodies (I guess you get that with the album? or just the limited edition one?), but anyway, here's the directory for the photo library (wasn't too hard to guess the address xD), enjoy exploring!

Lots of cool behind-the-scenes stuff about the singles and the album (PV shoots, zombie makeup, location shots, sculptures, sketches, concept art, alternate covers, etc).

- "600" = bigger size pics concerning DSS

- "ds", "hg" and "lotus" are obvious

[nekkichi 6043]

^ THANKS!

cover art prototyping is really interesting

[LIDL 692]

nice find!

considering the prototyping, looks like they have chosen the best image of all

for being the MOO cover art. I hated some of them.

[bonsaijodelfisch 328]

nice pictures, also i found this on kerrang website, actually don't really know what to think about that. serious or marketing strategy by management?

full text in spoiler-box

Japanese rockers DIR EN GREY have issued an open letter to fans.

The band address the this year's tragedy in Japan and have spoken about their new album.

"The earthquake this March took the lives of many people, including many DIR EN GREY supporters. Now, in many places throughout the country, high radiation levels have been detected; everyone including ourselves has been exposed to the radiation and there are even some who say the contamination is so bad we are at risk to not be able to travel to the USA and other countries in the future."

"On March 11th, the band was in the studio in Tokyo working on the new album when the earthquake hit. Afterwards the power shortages and transportation chaos caused further complications, and our many thoughts crossed our mind: 'will this album really be completed?'; 'will we ourselves be able to continue working towards the completion?"; and "is it right to continue making this album?'"

"August 3rd 2011 is the release date of our new album DUM SPIRO SPERO. This normally would have been a wonderful day where our work was to be released out into the world. However, there are still many people in Japan suffering from the disaster and so with the intention of self-restraint, we will to refrain from words of joy on this occasion."

"But we cannot stop moving forward due to this. We are currently in Japan now; however it is unclear to what extent the government's statements are correct, and to be honest, no one really knows what is going on in Japan right now. The safety regulations for safe level of radiation exposure keep getting increased higher and higher, yet the only official announcement is that "there is no effect on health." We can no longer tell whether we are a democratic nation. Unless you are careful with your words, you will be taken down with significant force. At this point we do not have the ability to truly find out what is occurring in our own country."

"However, we want to know the truth. People are able to overcome huge obstacles and problems if they know the truth."

"In the album title While I Breath I Hope, and our music video Different Sense that we released just prior to the album, our sense of wanting to take action that will lead to a breakthrough in the current situation is reflected."

"The beginnings of something as significant as the velvet revolution are said to have been in the Prague Spring which was started by a rallying of people of culture."

"

For all of you who have read this, we ask that you do what you can to support us in our search for the truth."

[Pretsy 1343]

For some reason SID really deserves the honor.

Not even knowing that how is that relevant to the topic but I must say that their early stuff deserves the honor, not all those cosmetichellwuttopchart-songs

(> to the topic:)

Yes, an open letter - I respect them for caring but how is "Prague Spring" relevant to the Fukushima case? Guys, this ain't some Rage Against the Machine - manifest!

[Furik 832]

Oh god, I really like the prototype covers for DSS. A LOT.

[Menzo 6]

http://www.ndr.de/unterhaltung/musik_ko ... index.html

Dir en grey online stream wacken show.

[Des 289]

"Unless you are careful with your words, you will be taken down with significant force."

What, since when is Japan part of North-Korea?

They're being dramatic.