The GazettE - NINTH [REVIEWS THREAD]

[Visutox 188]

2 hours ago, Ozileras10 said:

I wish this album had a Dogma type of production.

This. 

 

Getting back to DOGMA right away after listening NINTH hits you with such regret. It could have been so much more enjoyable but nah, they had to screw up the production. Really sucks because it's a very good album with cool details here and there to enjoy so yeah... So frustrating. 

[ghost 2687]

As a whole, the album didn't do much for me. And, I think this feeling comes from my frustration with Ruki.  I feel like since Division Ruki has lost his handle on crafting good melodies. His parts sound more like bloat and they rarely seem to enhance the song. I can hardly remember his vocals with the exception of his performances in "Falling", "Uragiru Beru", and "Abhor God". And the other problem is his execution; it lacks any impact or conviction. His voice sounds weak and strained especially when compared to the hard hitting and energetic instrumentals. He gave much much better performances in Dogma where I didn't feel like these issues were as present. 

 

The instrumentals on the other hand are super solid. Unlike Dogma, there's a wider variety of riffs and sounds and all the tracks have a different character. Sure, from time to time I can pick out some variations of classic GazettE riffs, but it's refreshing to hear they didn't rely on their usual library of sounds. 
 

It's a real shame because I really like the album for its strong song writing, but I would rather listen to it without Ruki or a different vocalist. I'm not feeling his performance here and it just doesn't stack as strongly next to the instrumentals. I'd say if rating this just by instrumentals, it'd be like a 7.5 or 8. With vocals like a 5.5.

 

+Highlights

Abhor God - This sounded like a classic gazetto song adapted to their current style. Ruki's performance is reminiscent of his vocals on something like Stacked Rubbish and the arena style clapping gets me pumped. (I keep reading the title as Arbor God).

 

On 6/12/2018 at 2:01 PM, BrenGun said:

Marlin Manson or something

Babylon's Taboo intro - I hear it too. The beginning sounds like something from Marilyn Manson's Holywood. The industrial vibe is just dripping from the guitars and drums.

Edited June 15, 2018 by ghost

[YuyoDrift 1540]

My take @ghost  would be that I think he plateau'd a long time ago. 

The way this was produced, you'd think he'd be able to sing with a wider vocal range.

Boy needs to learn to sing a bit more versatile.

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

Ruki has been on cruise control since Shiver. I still remember the time when he used to do different sounds for different tracks, like compare the vocals in the first four albums even with songs on the same album.

 

I wrote some thoughts on Word that I might eventually make into a review, but it's just so fucking hard to say anything about this album. It's not, as far as gazette goes, horrible. It's not great either. It's just them continuing from BD with the things they acquired and learned from DOGMA. It's the Gazette doing The GazettE and what can you really do with that without tearing into the entire genre as it is. How I'd describe this album is DOGMA GazettE finally committing to larping Manson's Golden Age of Grotesque 

[Saishu 1589]

Yeah, Babylon’s Taboo sounds like it could have been written by any number of western nu metal bands in the early ‘00s. 

 

Ninth is really strange. Like I said, I don’t necessarily like it more than Dogma, but I’ve listened to it more in the past two days than I did when Dogma first came out. The variety in the tracks and shorter run time are huge positives here, as Dogma being a heavy slog for 50 minutes straight didn’t always sit well. Real problem is there’s nothing on Ninth that even approaches songs like Dogma or Undying in terms of composition.  And yeah, Ruki’s lack of creativity is a downer. 

 

Nice to hear Reita again (he got buried in Dogma) and Kai is a fucking beast!

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

3 minutes ago, Saishu said:

Yeah, Babylon’s Taboo sounds like it could have been written by any number of western nu metal bands in the early ‘00s. 

 

And I wonder of Ruki is still using the Kiyoharu song title generator ironically or not

 

I pretty much agreed with everything you've posted on this album so far tl;dr: I can listen to this album even though it's a whole bunch of nothing. Everyone except Ruki performs better than last time around. The album itself is lacking in any standouts that'd make you think this is Gazette in great form ( although arguably Falling is top tier new gazette even if it is as light as a souffle. ) It does entertain a fair bit. Whether it'll have any lasting value to me personally remains to be seen

 

And i'm betting on that it won't. New GazettE just is not great metalcore, it's not great gazerock either. It's great at nothing while being ok at a few 

[ghost 2687]

1 hour ago, Disposable said:

The album itself is lacking in any standouts that'd make you think this is Gazette in great form ( although arguably Falling is top tier new gazette even if it is as light as a souffle. ) It does entertain a fair bit. Whether it'll have any lasting value to me personally remains to be seen

It's been 2 days and this albums played out for me already hah

 

2 hours ago, Disposable said:

How I'd describe this album is DOGMA GazettE finally committing to larping Manson's Golden Age of Grotesque 

10/10 description

 

 

3 hours ago, YuyoDrift said:

My take @ghost  would be that I think he plateau'd a long time ago. 

The way this was produced, you'd think he'd be able to sing with a wider vocal range.

Boy needs to learn to sing a bit more versatile.

I agree on that. Although, if I'm being honest, and this might be an unpopular opinion, but I think Ruki was never really a great singer. I think he just made up for it in character and performance. 

 

*takes cover*

 

 

Edited June 15, 2018 by ghost

[Ozileras10 371]

23 minutes ago, ghost said:

I agree on that. Although, if I'm being honest, and this might be an unpopular opinion, but I think Ruki was never really a great singer. I think he just made up for it in character and performance. 

I hope you’re trolling 

[Elazmus 1873]

Anyone on what is meant by "muddy" here? Falling sounded much clearer to me now than when the MV came out really I'm impartial to the song in particular though

[BrenGun 2261]

dogma is Just not that great.

Maybe they do more different stuff, but songs aren't in harmony. 

 

Maybe this album isn't anything new.

but everything is in 100% harmony.

 

of course there are some points but its the start of finally pouring out real master songs.

 

Hopefully they keep going like this.

＼(^o^)／

 

 

[platy 3018]

Dogma is not in harmony...? The whole album sounds like one song. Everything flows together seamlessly. At first I thought it was a disadvantage but I came to like it. No idea what you meant by "not in harmony". If anything it's too "in harmony". 

 

As for NINTH, I don't see what's wrong with the production. In Traces, even a sound noob like me could tell it was bad, but with ninth I can't hear it (but like I said, sound noob).

I need to listen to it more, but I do like it so far. 

[Wakarimashita 317]

41 minutes ago, platy said:

Dogma is not in harmony...? The whole album sounds like one song. Everything flows together seamlessly. At first I thought it was a disadvantage but I came to like it. No idea what you meant by "not in harmony". If anything it's too "in harmony". 

 

As for NINTH, I don't see what's wrong with the production. In Traces, even a sound noob like me could tell it was bad, but with ninth I can't hear it (but like I said, sound noob).

I need to listen to it more, but I do like it so far. 

 

I'd say the perfect example to bring up to understand this 'muddy mess' we're all talking about is the guitar work in The Mortal: can you actually catch the beautiful guitar variations in the chorus without focusing too much on them? They almost melt together in an undefined line, there's no clear "presence", and as if it couldn't get any worse they also get overwhelmed by Ruki's voice.

[ghost 2687]

10 hours ago, Ozileras10 said:

I hope you’re trolling 

I mean, he's far from my favorite. He's got a good voice, but In the vkei scene I can think of so many stronger vocalists with better technique, range, and execution. I felt this way back in the 2000's and this feeling hasn't changed. He did manage to surprise me a bit with FALLING and ABHOR GOD. Really great vocals on those tracks.

[BrenGun 2261]

8 hours ago, platy said:

Dogma is not in harmony...? The whole album sounds like one song. Everything flows together seamlessly. At first I thought it was a disadvantage but I came to like it. No idea what you meant by "not in harmony". If anything it's too "in harmony". 

 

 

because it sound as a totally mess.

strange breaks, shit guitar play. drums and guitar don't flow with each other. melody not in harmony with vocal. just no. 

of course its in harmony because dogma is like that but its far from the perfection on song composing. so afyerall dogma is far from being in the harmony I mean.

 

compair the composing it with this album. then you might get what I mean.  its hard to explain. 

maybe I shall cut off part of songs to explain it?

 

 

[Visutox 188]

2 hours ago, BrenGun said:

because it sound as a totally mess.

strange breaks, shit guitar play. drums and guitar don't flow with each other. melody not in harmony with vocal. just no. 

... ( '-' )

[BrenGun 2261]

8 minutes ago, Visutox said:

... ( '-' )

fans don't understand (*´∀｀)

 

but if you listen to this album (Which I love) and if you listen to previews albums. you surely discover what I mean.

[Ozileras10 371]

7 hours ago, ghost said:

I mean, he's far from my favorite. He's got a good voice, but In the vkei scene I can think of so many stronger vocalists with better technique, range, and execution. I felt this way back in the 2000's and this feeling hasn't changed. He did manage to surprise me a bit with FALLING and ABHOR GOD. Really great vocals on those tracks.

I mean come on Ruki is one of the most consistent vocalists in this scene if not the most, he can deliver live just the same as in studio record. His voice is really polished  and he still can show emotions through his voice. I think people can blame him for the direction of the band but not for his singing. That's just my opinion tho.

Anyways I wanna know which vocalists are better than him by your standards, so please name a few!

 

1 hour ago, BrenGun said:

fans don't understand (*´∀｀)

 

but if you listen to this album (Which I love) and if you listen to previews albums. you surely discover what I mean.

I do understand what you're talking about. The album is more consistent compared to Dogma  and there's more variety. But as people have already mentioned, it lacks standout songs(like Dogma, Deux, Ominous)

[BrenGun 2261]

4 minutes ago, Ozileras10 said:

I do understand what you're talking about. The album is more consistent compared to Dogma  and there's more variety. But as people have already mentioned, it lacks standout songs(like Dogma, Deux, Ominous)

Yes, but well I don't mind it since only like LEECH of all previous songs. 😂

But I can understand it, well maybe their next slbum has more standout songs,. composed in the great way they put inside this album.

but Hopefully we don't need to wait another 3 years.

 

Also, yes, Ruki is a nice vocalist. not the best but his voice is listenable and that was it from the very start too.

[Saishu 1589]

Ruki is consistent and can definitely deliver live, but as I’ve said before I feel like he recycles his melodies a lot. So, I mean, he’s a great performer, but he gets a bit stale sometimes. Even his songwriting seems to repeat himself. Unfinished sounds like another version of Shiver and Ibitsu (but I’m only assuming he wrote Unfinished). 

[nick 10212]

It's a VK album in a long while that I literally like every single track. Their sound has completely moved on from the project Dark Age but still very the GazettE-ish. IMO, according to the quality, most of the songs could have even been released as a single. Hand down one of the best recent VK releases.

 

￥O$HIKI, your turn is next.

Edited June 16, 2018 by nostalgia

[Nagisa 131]

I'd like to read more track by track reviews but I guess it's too early for that?

[Ozileras10 371]

On 6/16/2018 at 2:22 PM, Nagisa said:

I'd like to read more track by track reviews but I guess it's too early for that?

I’ll write a review after more listens

[Nagisa 131]

My CD finally came today. I'll write a review later but overall I was kind of disappointed. I didn't really understand what people meant by recycled riffs before but this time I was able to recognize some. I thought it would be like BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY which I enjoyed but there wasn't as much variety as I imagined. There also weren't any stand-out tracks like DOGMA had, although The Mortal and Babylon's Taboo had some good parts. I'm not sure what to think of Unfinished since it seems like GazettE albums usually with a really strong track but while kind of different, Unfinished didn't really grab my attention.

[YuyoDrift 1540]

1 hour ago, Nagisa said:

My CD finally came today. I'll write a review later but overall I was kind of disappointed. I didn't really understand what people meant by recycled riffs before but this time I was able to recognize some. I thought it would be like BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY which I enjoyed but there wasn't as much variety as I imagined. There also weren't any stand-out tracks like DOGMA had, although The Mortal and Babylon's Taboo had some good parts. I'm not sure what to think of Unfinished since it seems like GazettE albums usually with a really strong track but while kind of different, Unfinished didn't really grab my attention.

I would give it a few more listens. 

I've grown to enjoy the album quite a bit, as you become familiar with it (and pick out your favorites). Definitely easier to swallow than DOGMA by a mile.

Still working on my review, but it's positive for sure.

 

[chemicalpictures 1888]

On 6/15/2018 at 8:03 AM, platy said:

As for NINTH, I don't see what's wrong with the production. In Traces, even a sound noob like me could tell it was bad, but with ninth I can't hear it (but like I said, sound noob).

I need to listen to it more, but I do like it so far. 

Listen to FALLING, then immediately to TWO OF A KIND. I think you'll find easier to pinpoint the "muddiness" people are talking about. I'd bet money they recorded FALLING album's mix after finishing all the other songs.

 

And few listenings after, still pretty much disappointed. it's not a bad album, I was just expecting so much more. There's absolutely NOTHING new here, which is understandable, as they said this one would be a a lookback at their career (It also explains why people seem to like it). Thing is, I'm not really fond of run of the mill gazerock. I mean c'mon, how many times they've made UNFINISHED-like songs before? And even on songs that had potential, they managed to fuck up somehow (ABHOR GOD chorus, first verse of THE MORTAL, anyone?). I wanted to further develop on why I believe this is a step back for them, but eh, whatever