I guess I’ll report back in late May to verify if Dezert are truly dead or not.
I was thinking about getting tickets for one of their shows but all dates I could have made are already sold out and a lot of other bands who have concerts around the same time did not sell out that fast. 
You were lucky enough to get a ticket?
I actually fucked with REDEEMER and preferred it to MIRROR, but MONSTER was a complete no-go for me.
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Happy they bounced back from it and yes certain songs have grown on me…
But holy FUCK The GazettE’s TOXIC is their worst album to date.
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Not sure what you mean by this, all the homies be rollin’ round the hood blastin’ Gangsta by Sadie even still to this day, a certified hood classic up there with the likes of “You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack” by Viper.
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Imma have to hard disagree on that. Hardly their best work but I think it’s fun. The songs at least feel fully written and have a good flow. And the b-sides from the singles leading up to it are some of their best work.
For me Division is their weakest album. The compositions feel incomplete, lack focus and Ruki’s singing for me was at a low point. His lines lack his usual conviction and his melodies are either lackluster, meander, or are kinda just weird (ATTITUDE comes to mind). I think he may have had voice troubles around this time though? I remember their song “pledge” being about that or something.
Don’t get me wrong though, I think some excellent work is still present. If they spent a little more time finessing it, it could’ve been something incredible. In its current state it feels like a second or third draft though. Those electronic tracks are also some of the worst use of electronics I’ve ever heard in music.
I still prefer Mirror but Redeemer is so underated. It gets more hate than it deserves.
I tried to convince myself that monsters was good because I spent money pre-ordering a physical edition. But I just couldn’t keep up the illusion. It’s the only main D’espa album I don’r own a physical copy of anymore.
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Same for me. REDEEMER is still pretty good to me too. After listening to Monsters for a few times, I found it pretty solid too but there were some songs that I cannot bring myself to listen to from start to finish, even today. It just somehow didn’t work for me.
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Yeah, going to Okayama for their show, because it lined up with my itinerary pretty well.
But yes, career ending albums. Misc is the most obvious, even though that album wasn’t even all bad.
I’d also have to go with Laugh Song by An Cafe. They had been going into plain J-pop territory for a while, but Laugh Song was both overly poppy and boring. Not surprised at the long hiatus after that.
I think MIRROR was foundational to me because it was the first album they released after I had gotten into them, and I was very into them when it came out. Today I still love it for sentimental value and think it holds up.
REDEEMER wasn’t bad by any means, but just didn’t have the edge the first two albums had (imo) and there was considerably less screaming (understandable considering Hizumi’s health issues). There were some great songs on it though.
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I actually really liked this turn in direction from DIV. I don’t even typically like music like that, but it was just so catchy and fun.
Totally agree. I can’t listen to a full sitting of TOXIC without getting bored. All the electronic effects just piss me off. Love every other album from them though.
Man… I will like that album more if they didn’t release it along with the SE track titled
-we’ve changed. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN NEXT- as if they were telling us that we are cringe for ever liking their previous work. It’s also pretty confusing as their previous 2 releases, Rijin and Emotions, is a pretty good follow up to CHEDOARA. I know they were in their hate VK phase at the time but that doesn’t explain their sudden shift in sound, I mean Emotions and MISC was released on the same year ffs.
That, and the fact that they disbanded afterwards. MISC definitely wasn’t perfect but there’s a room for improvement for sure, and i like some of the songs on this album particularly on the second half, like -For the Future- and -Before it’s too Late- but to leave this underwhelming thing as a last hurrah is really sad
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Can I give a prediction that Songs for the Weak could kill Deviloof?
It’s so uninspired, Keisuke’s vocals are as weak as his lyrics on this release, and it’s just so… bad…
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No cap, but honestly everything after Mar Maroon (excluding the self-titled album in 2012) have been particularly memorable for me. XII is my favorite release from them out of their entire discography.
Vicious of Absolution, Aqua & The Red are on constant rotation lol
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6 posts were merged into an existing topic: the GazettE
i feep trying to listen to this album and understand why people don’t like it but i keep failing to get myself to dislike it lol
i mean the intro SE is trash, worth deleting off my itunes, and the guitars sound honestly close to The Insulated World - mid-heavy, grindy, boxy. i get why that might not be someone’s favourite. Eh, some of the clean guitars are scratchy too in a clipped-the-limiter kinda way. The master rides the compressor pretty hard too; overall it’s a very unclean sound.
But the worst i can say about it is that it’s very similar in sound to TIW - and i love that album & its sound lol
The songwriting really doesn’t feel ‘off’ from Sadie’s though, this seems pretty consistent for them - esp considering ways they’ve gone in The Thirteen.
If anyone’s not heard this album in a minute, i’d recommend giving it another listen - i’m playing it rn typing this - it’s really not a bad Sadie album compositionally, just produced w/ strange mix decisions, in a way chasing the TIW sound before that album came out.
Master of Romance is still gonna be my favourite release by them, but this album heads more towards that direction than Madrigal, which i personally enjoy
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Not sure if they did a full album or mini or what but I’m a call out newly named bands that were just old bands san a member or two.: I feel like Kyokuto Romance was just a disgrace to Anli Pollicino fans as was with Initial to Lycaon fans. I don’t know how many albums they did but it didn’t feel like them at all, felt like someone mocking them 
That may be why I’m not a fan of Gangsta. I’m pretty vocal about my distaste for the sound on TIW. I think you’re right though in saying the compositions aren’t necessarily all that derivative of Sadie’s typical output. But it certainly was a hard pivot from Madrigal de Maria.
Master of Romance is also my favorite full length by them. It showcases their best strengths I think. Which, to me, are slick and simple guitar lines, choruses that hit hard, and a good mix of energetic tracks and slower tracks with more emotional performances, and an overall darker sound.
Gangsta for me didn’t have all that. I haven’t listened through its entirety since it released, but I mostly recall it leaning heavily into a more upbeat sound. Which is why I think I just forgot it. It didn’t really stick out from what other bands were putting out at the time or what the band put out throughout their history. Even poppier songs like meteor or toge had some pretty catchy melodies that I think Gangsta was lean on. But again, haven’t listened to it in awhile. I should give it another listen and see if my impressions of it have changed.
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It was a jarring shift in tone and concept. I wonder if it really killed their career since they barely had one at that point
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