DIR EN GREY released their 10th album "The Insulated World" on September 26, 2018

[geist 227]

This whole album is a massive kick in the balls. And I like it. 

[Seelentau 884]

I want to read @Zeus' full opinion, tbh.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Seelentau

[Zeus 7997]

10 minutes ago, Seelentau said:

I want to read @Zeus' full opinion, tbh.

I need to form one first.

[Egnirys cimredopyh 54]

If the whole album was like the second half, it would be a masterpiece for me.

I do enjoy some moments on the first half, but those songs are too chaotic, especially first two tracks... so yeah kinda mixed bag

[Saishu 1589]

Real talk, Devote My Life is borderline unlistenable. 

[kuyashii 124]

Spoiler

Hmmm, this is definitely not my thing. The comparisions to Marrow of a Bone are 100% justified. I was kind of expecting a punk-ish album based on the descriptions and interviews and stuff and indeed this is a very angry, aggressive, ugly, unpleasant album. The first half succeeds perfectly at conveying a sense of urgency on it, but then the way the second half (sort of) diversifies the mood rends the shift in pace too stark and actually difficult to hear. 

 

Well the production is kinda consistent with the compressed kind of stuff they've been doing since The Unraveling but has the ultra-saturated vocals from Marrow. I won't lie I liked the saturation on the vocals at first, as the in-your-face quality to them worked much better than Marrow's attempt at doing so, what I'd attribute to the comparetively better mixed instrumentation. But after a while, they made the music pretty hard-to-listen-to (there are times the rough vocals are actually singing, but the melodies disappear completely under all the distortion). Kyo doesn't really have the range he used to have but the messy sounding false chord screams he does works well with the dirty, aggressive thing going on with the music. 

 

I'm sort of torn on the retouches of the previously-released songs. I like how the harsh vocals sound on "Ningen wo Kaburu" but this new mix makes the cleans sound more strained. As bad as the single mix sound and how underwhelming the song is, Kyo's clean vocals on the single were the most interesting thing on the song (come on, dude's like on his mid 40s and considering his past of vocal abuse it was a miracle he could sing as high as that.

 

"Utafumi" seems to be completely re-recorded as opposed to "Ningen" which only got remastered? I sort of liked the original vocals because Kyo actually could hit the notes without sounding that strained. The mix on this one is... weird. The lower-tuned snare sounds kinda cool (I don't think Shinya's snare was ever tuned that low?) and I like how the bass is more prominent on this version but there are points where the guitars and the backing vocals drown the lead vocals completely. It kinda sounds like it was recorded on one-take or something.

 

I agree with the main riff of "Rubbish Heap" sounding pretty Ninth-y. The clean vocalssound pretty rough, it sounds like Kyo's throat is full of phlegm. "Aka" reminds me of "Kaishun" more than "Rinkaku" actually and I get some Sukekiyo vibes but I can't particularly pick a song (the stop-and-start thingie was present on "Zephyr" maybe?). I liked this kind of layered sound more but the pacing is too fast to give it a breather feel. 

 

"Values of Madness" is like a worse "Chain Repulsion". Kyo's rapping parts are goddawful. "Downfall" has that cool melodic part on the middle and "Follower" chorus melody is surprisingly well done but the songs don't really grabbed my attention.

 

"Kaigaku no Yoku" and "Zetsuentai" both suffer of some pretty bad-sounding clean guitars IMO (they kinda sounds like Fruity Loops synth bells). The deep distorted bass omn "KnY"  is pretty cool and the erratic structure is interesting, would kinda work well on DSS (or Macabre, for that matter). I agree it ends too abruptly. My biggest hopes for the album were on "Zetsuentai". First,  I don't really think it justifies its lenght. The ambientish instrumental parts don't really build up into anything. The heavy bit on the middle is pretty underwhelming. The clean vocals are surprisingly good.

 

"Ranunculus" is by far the best song of the album and even then it's kind of underwhelming. I still think it happens too fast. The chord progression on the chorus are the most pleasant thing going on the album though. It's like seeing the light between the clouds after a storm. I think the extended intro wasn't really necessary. The additional lines of heavy stuff on the end were pretty cool though.

 

I don't know how I'd rank this on their discography but it's definitely on the bottom tier of their discography. The heavy stuff is very unidimensional, repetitive and overall plain uninteresting . The not-heavy stuff isn't much better, fails completely at creating the huge emotional atmospheres of their previous stuff and have a bit of a mechanical feel to them which is very disheartening considering that their softer compositions were some of my favorite stuff by them. Nothing instrumentally-wise really stands-out. If there's anything impressive is that Kyo can still belt to this day at his age and  after all stuff he went through.

 

I know this was a LOT of stuff, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be judged as pretentious and stuff, but you know, it's been almost 4 years since Arche. They are my favorite band. You don't want your favorite band to release something you don't like. There's still a huge backcatalogue of stuff by them I like to keep me busy until 2022 and maybe after such a heavy, angry album they will want to make something more elaborate and atmospheric, so maybe I can still hope.

 

TL;DR I didn't really like anything but maybe the softer stuff can grow on me? 

 

I put my thoughs inside a spoiler box because it's A LOT of stuff. 

 

inb4 this is my "forum-suicide"

Edited September 25, 2018 by kuyashii

[Kelrya 145]

2 hours ago, Saishu said:

Mah boys that heavy chunky ass riff in 谿壑の欲 is the SHIT!

This was the song I was least looking forward to based on the samples but it actually turned out to be great. This song was definitely the biggest surprise for me. That and now heavy the first two songs were. And how beautiful Aka is.

 

2 hours ago, Saishu said:

Real talk, Devote My Life is borderline unlistenable. 

Lol you would hate mathcore then (Converge, Botch, Vein, early Norma Jean, etc.) Personally I love it when it’s done well but it’s not for everyone.

[dannemannen 69]

First half is almost unlistenable to me, what were they thinking? Second half is a bit better but there are no real 10/10 songs, I guess the best song is Ranuculus..?

 

I dont think I have been this underwhelmed by a DeG album before.  Compared to Arche it feels like they didnt even try with this one. 

[Saishu 1589]

41 minutes ago, Kelrya said:

Lol you would hate mathcore then (Converge, Botch, Vein, early Norma Jean, etc.) Personally I love it when it’s done well but it’s not for everyone.

I don’t. I listen to Converge quite often. But “done well” is the key phrase here. Listen, I’m exaggerating, but I mostly hate Shinya’s knee slappin’ ho down drum pattern and I’m getting tired of Kyo’s chaotic everything-but-the-kitchen-sink vocal freak outs. There are great elements in the song, but there are just as many bad ones. 

 

Also, just like I thought, Followers is my jam. 

[mopkins 42]

man the first half of this album is, like, exhausting

 

(I'll probably start loving it after four or five listens like I did with DSS)

[blacktooth 227]

The vocal melody in the chorus of Followers gives me STRONG 90s j-pop vibes.

[geist 227]

2 hours ago, Saishu said:

Mah boys that heavy chunky ass riff in 谿壑の欲 is the SHIT!

That fucking riff. The whole song is a major highlight for me. 

[EzraEroguro 174]

We went from "WTF THIS ALBUM" to being severely underwhelmed.

[blacktooth 227]

I think it’s pretty cool. 

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

In defence of deg and this album in particular, I always seem to go back and forth with them throughout the years. Even on this forum everyone lists their favourite songs and the ones they dislike with the tone that as if it were the general opinion, and that's the sort of strong opinion they get out of people. It's early, but I think this is going to be one in that line of work; today I think of one thing and three weeks another and in two years something else. Applies to many bands surely, yet not this strongly.

[Kelrya 145]

1 hour ago, Saishu said:

I don’t. I listen to Converge quite often. But “done well” is the key phrase here. Listen, I’m exaggerating, but I mostly hate Shinya’s knee slappin’ ho down drum pattern and I’m getting tired of Kyo’s chaotic everything-but-the-kitchen-sink vocal freak outs. There are great elements in the song, but there are just as many bad ones. 

 

Also, just like I thought, Followers is my jam. 

That’s fair. I assumed you were taking about the dissonant chords since you had similar criticisms of midwife and some WtD songs iirc. The drum beat at the beginning is a bit goofy I’ll give you that, but at least he’s trying new stuff.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Kelrya

[Wicked Teletubby 528]

I just love the way Diru threads always dramatically escalade from "fuck these guys" to "OMG I love it."

 

truly the most hated and loved bands ever.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Wicked Teletubby

[blacktooth 227]

If you truly love Deg, you hate Deg. 

[geist 227]

40 minutes ago, EzraEroguro said:

We went from "WTF THIS ALBUM" to being severely underwhelmed.

Man, this album is great. After a few listens have your thoughts changed or updated? After two full listens and relistens to several tracks, I’m obsessed with it. There is still so much to process; but overall I’ve been tremendously pleased and can’t wait to hear those re-recordings on disc 2. 

[LIDL 692]

The album actually pretty solid. This is not an album you can judge by the first listen. DEG not doing that kind of album for awhile now.

[Kelrya 145]

It sounds like a more mature MOAB.

[crossingsinmist 3]

16 minutes ago, Kelrya said:

It sounds like a more mature MOAB.

For me it sounds like DSS's aggressive darkness filtered through the style of Arche. 

 

I couldn't pick up much on my first two listens this afternoon, but it has begun to fully click tonight, especially after reading the lyric translations. 

[Tokage 5930]

anyway, CHE DO A RA vs NINTH vs THE INSULATED WORLD - ultimate 2018 hypebeast album free for all, who winnin here?????

[Kelrya 145]

Idk I like Chedoara a lot, it has a lot of great moments (especially Grotesque omg) but that band needs to work on integrating its heavy and melodic parts a little better so that the transitions aren’t so goofy. Other than that it’s great. Haven’t really listened to Ninth. 

[Spectralion 394]

54 minutes ago, Tokage said:

anyway, CHE DO A RA vs NINTH vs THE INSULATED WORLD - ultimate 2018 hypebeast album free for all, who winnin here?????

I need more listen to the three of them 😕

 

But I think TWI is still winning for me