#108: DIR EN GREY - VESTIGE OF SCRATCHES

[Zeus 7997]

4 hours ago, StriderSubzero said:

Thank you all for the fascinating history on the lyrics and taboos. First I've heard of any of this.

 

About OP's review though, I simply cannot understand why so many people hate "audrey" so much. That's one of my favorite DEG songs.

I differentiate between hating a song and realizing it has no place on a 'best-of' compilation. I don't care for 'audrey', but including that song over '[KR]cube', 'MACABRE', 'children', '24個シリンダー', or 'Zakuro' is a baffling move. The repetitive, country-styled riff sticks out MACABRE like a sore thumb and out of context it doesn't work any better. I also don't understand the logic behind including a B-side remix of your first single over the original single, unless that is their subtle way of admitting the new version is "better". I can go on and on about all the little decisions that made the first set of best-of albums not worth it for me, but the main point is that I don't hate 'audrey' - it's just B-side material at best.

[Saishu 1589]

How they figured Audrey fit Macabre but ain’t afraid to die didn’t is even more baffling. Only reason I can imagine ain’t afraid to die didn’t fit was because there were already three long ballads on there (not to mention Macabre’s 11 minute long ass). 

 

Know what? Fuck it! Ain’t afraid to die should have taken Taiyou no Ao’s place!

[Zeus 7997]

2 hours ago, Saishu said:

How they figured Audrey fit Macabre but ain’t afraid to die didn’t is even more baffling. Only reason I can imagine ain’t afraid to die didn’t fit was because there were already three long ballads on there (not to mention Macabre’s 11 minute long ass). 

 

Know what? Fuck it! Ain’t afraid to die should have taken Taiyou no Ao’s place!

"ain't afraid to die" would not have fit on MACABRE because it would be three minutes too long to press to CD. Should have taken Taiyou no Ao's place since it is a single and it would end the album on a more appropriate note, and 18 years later I still think the song is bunk. I can talk about all the insane decisions made for each post-GAUZE Dir en grey album and how five minutes of critical thinking would bump each of those albums up by two points, but this isn't the topic for it.

 

[Saishu 1589]

9 hours ago, Zeus said:

"ain't afraid to die" would not have fit on MACABRE because it would be three minutes too long to press to CD. Should have taken Taiyou no Ao's place since it is a single and it would end the album on a more appropriate note, and 18 years later I still think the song is bunk. I can talk about all the insane decisions made for each post-GAUZE Dir en grey album and how five minutes of critical thinking would bump each of those albums up by two points, but this isn't the topic for it.

 

Lol that’s literally what I said. 

 

But my understanding is that they didn’t put ain’t afraid to die on Macabre because they thought it didn’t fit thematically. Like, somehow Taiyou no Ao does with that shitty sipping-margaritas-by-the-cabana breakdown in the middle. 

 

Fuck that song. 

[Zeus 7997]

If I were to go back in time and have my way with the album, I would have convinced someone to split it into two discs. Slip "ain't afraid to die" and "children" in there, and "Jealous -Reverse" if they love it so much, and kept the album around 85 minutes. Move some tracks around to spread the ballads around and focus the themes. It was their most prolific visual period by far. An interesting thing I noticed is that the band left a lot of material on the table with their first two albums, but there were fewer tracks for the 鬼葬 era. Tracks that weren't remixes appeared on the album. When you take out the 3 filler instrumentals, the album drops to about an hour run-time. In comparison, this is the first time band has purposefully featured "I'll" on an album. "Jealous" was reworked in 2000, and that and "ain't afraid to die" were on the DECADE compilations, but the original version of "Jealous" has never been touched.

[Saishu 1589]

Don’t forget Ash

[Zeus 7997]

Technically Ash was re-recorded for the Myaku single since a different version of it was on Kaede~if trans~, but yes they pretend like that song doesn't exist anymore and it's one of their most badass visual kei tunes.

[Seelentau 884]

8 hours ago, Zeus said:

"Jealous" was reworked in 2000

nani?

[Zeus 7997]

2 hours ago, Seelentau said:

nani?

 

[Saishu 1589]

I’m trying to make sense of the remastering for this compilation, and comparing the liner notes to previous albums, it looks like they tried to get the original mixing engineers to return. Like Eric Westfall mixed Cage on Gauze and he’s listed again on VoS just for Cage. Joe Chicarelli mixed Yurameki on Gauze, but he isn’t listed on VoS. Instead it’s Stan Katayama, who originally mixed Akuro no Oka, so they had him do that in addition to Yurameki. 

 

It’s interesting to say the least, but I still think the stuff on disc 3 was barely touched. 

[Zeus 7997]

If anyone could produce scans of the liner notes that'd be dope.

[Saishu 1589]

The booklet is in typical tiny dark grey text on black background fashion, so scans would need to be really high quality. 

[Saishu 1589]

I’m cracking up right now because I dropped $60 on this damn thing and I ended up making my own “best of” anyway. 

[Zeus 7997]

It's been a little over 3 months since I originally  published this review, and the poll results are interesting. The most liked tracks of course seem to be the reworks of Fukai and THE IIID EMPIRE, which I don't find surprising. The more interesting thing to me is that Taiyou no Ao, Un Deux, MAGGOTS, and OBSCURE 2011 have no votes. This is precisely the fat I think Dir en grey can always trim from their albums. I still kind of agree with my review, but I think y'all are sleeping on Riyuu for realz >:|

[Kr_kohaku 7]

All I have to say is Im glad I didn't buy this album. Fukai remake was the only good song on there. 

[Bear 1817]

I think Audrey is one of Dir en grey's best songs, and I feel it's placed perfectly on Macabre. One of the 2-3 furst songs I'd make sure to include on a best of album.

[Seelentau 884]

On 3/23/2018 at 1:14 AM, Zeus said:

I think y'all are sleeping on Riyuu for realz >:|

 

 

[saiko 429]

On 1/19/2018 at 12:18 AM, Zeus said:

"ain't afraid to die" would not have fit on MACABRE because it would be three minutes too long to press to CD. Should have taken Taiyou no Ao's place since it is a single and it would end the album on a more appropriate note, and 18 years later I still think the song is bunk. I can talk about all the insane decisions made for each post-GAUZE Dir en grey album and how five minutes of critical thinking would bump each of those albums up by two points, but this isn't the topic for it.

 

Please, do it!😍

[Zeus 7997]

10 hours ago, saiko said:

Please, do it!😍

This is not an exhaustive list of grievances, but it should do.

MACABRE
 

• Why release one of the best ballads of your career in Ain't Afraid to Die, and then not include it on the album?
• Why does the album end with Zakuro and Taiyou no Ao, two of the most resident sleeper songs on the whole album?
• Wake is basically Luna Sea's Hurt.
• Why does the country bop Audrey get sandwiched between the prog behemoth of MACABRE and the thrash Rasetsukoku?
• Why is Deity four minutes long, and why does that minute and a half intro mean that Myaku has no intro or outro?
• Hotarubi is just boring.
• Where is children and why is it nowhere to be found on the album when that deep cut is better than most of the tracks I've mentioned?

 

KISOU

 

• Why is the production paper thin?
• THREE instrumentals? Really? It's there to hide how disjointed the whole album feels and it doesn't do a good job.
• PINK KILLER is a terrible way to end the album. And it's not even the song that's bad, just the shoddy execution of it.
• tfw Zomboid's remix is better than whatever shit stain placed second on the album. 
• embryo is snoozeville. I don't care how egregious the lyrics are, the rest of it is about as exciting as sleeping in a broken washing machine.
• Why are the best non-single tracks on the album not called Bottom of the death valley (24 Cylinders, Gyakujoutannou Keloid Milk) B-sides of the previously released singles?
• JESSICA comes out of nowhere and doesn't belong on an album so vulgar.
• The Domestic Fucker Family is just foochin' terrible and I don't think a re-recording could save that song, even if they went all in on the doom direction.

 

I can go on and on with some other albums, but I think you get the idea.

[Saishu 1589]

It’s interesting that Deity is on the Decade collection. Even more interesting that they cut out the intro. 

 

Take back what you said about Hotarubi. 

 

Kisou is definitely problematic in many ways despite all the love it gets. It sounds absolutely awful. No mids and barely any lows. Most of the fast heavy tracks sound like someone flushing static down the toilet. Jessica probably belongs at the very end of the album if it needs to be there at all. 

[Seelentau 884]

4 hours ago, Zeus said:

I can go on and on with some other albums, but I think you get the idea.

 

Go on, if you want. Love to read other people's opinions on Deg, especially since I don't have much clue about music myself.

[Zeus 7997]

1 hour ago, Saishu said:

It’s interesting that Deity is on the Decade collection. Even more interesting that they cut out the intro. 

 

Because even they realized that the first minute and a half is excessive. The cut down version lacks a lot of the atmosphere of the original, which I've come to enjoy, but I don't think the song needs 90 seconds to get started. A 30 second introduction would do just fine, I think. And I also don't think that the 90 second introduction of Deity makes up for the bits that were cut from Myaku (both could have been included because there is barely enough room for it).

 

1 hour ago, Saishu said:

Take back what you said about Hotarubi. 

It's a fine song, just boring. And considering how long MACABRE is, sometimes it's the first road bump in the album when listening to the whole album in one sit. For the record, I'd take Hotarubi over the last two tracks any day of the week.

[Saishu 1589]

First major bump in Macabre is Hydra. That song should have been three minutes long tops. Basic, repetitive, boring, dumb lyrics. Ugh