While I haven’t been able to see them live since the TIW cycle, hearing the live recordings of a lot of songs from PHALARIS helped contextualize them for me in a way that made me enjoy them, and thus the record, a lot more. And I’ve definitely had the same thing happen a bit with TDIM.
Still not my favorite song of theirs, but hearing the live recordings has made me enjoy it a lot more once it’s removed from what I really dislike about the mix of the studio version.
that’s what puts it over the edge for me and ranks it above utafumi, ochita and ningen wo kaburu, which are the other recent examples of the dir en grey A-side song format, which consistently rank as my least favorite songs on their recent albums. I don’t know if I’d call it generic, not just because in my mind that’s a term that doesn’t mean anything unless elaborated further, but I prefer this band in a more experimental form than what they’re doing when they’ll anchor a song with a chorus to get catchy snippets and a radio edit.
Peak Dir en grey is VULGAR & TIW. Wanna make out about it?
Well, TDIM is their usual 1st single from the upcoming album that has released so early that it doesn’t really fit in the album, so I’m expecting much more from the album in deep cut department.
That chorus is definitely the interesting part of the song (teaser did got me shook), but the rest just feels like smth they jammed for a short time and decided it’s fine. Which is not (and I still can’t unhear Unknown.Despair.Lost motive). Kyo’s vomit vocals sound ear-grating (you couldn’t do other techniques?) which is also why I don’t like live takes due to him opting them for choruses.
Gauze singles re-recordings at first felt like a nice celebration of Gauze’s anniversary, but them also putting Cage & Yokan to TDIM single makes me think that they should have just went with a complete EP instead.
Thankfully, based on descriptions of new songs, there’ll be some fun bangers at least.
At this point I have to wonder if them not having a release date for the album is because they don’t know when the AI is going to finish the songs…
Lmao AI doesn’t take longer to do something.
Not once, has anyone from DEG’s camp CONFIRMED they’re using AI to compose music. Mind you, this is a band that’s been pretty open about their creative process.
What in the hell are you talking about?
It was actually meant as a stupid joke comment
Jamirokyo! Welcome back! I haven’t seen you since the Batsu/TW days!
That being said, even i couldn’t tell you were joking.
classic.
Well, I forgot to put some smileys at the end so that’s on me guys.
This partnership will involve the analysis and utilization of DIR EN GREY’s music and visual materials using advanced AI technology to explore new forms of creative expression. Notably, this initiative is positioned not as a “replacement for human creativity” but as a tool to protect and expand the artist’s unique vision.
Regarding the collaboration, DIR EN GREY member Kaoru has commented as follows:
“The concept of AI DIR EN GREY vs. DIR EN GREY is intellectually thought-provoking."
Specifically:
“This partnership will involve the analysis and utilization of DIR EN GREY’s music… using advanced AI technology to explore new forms of creative expression.”
Kaoru even mentions an AI version of the band.
This is not 100% confirmed, but more-or-less we should expect the next phase of DEG to be very much AI in all aspects: music, artwork, lyrics, and video.
I sincerely don’t think they will release AI-generated music as a primary Dir En Grey release. Who knows what dumb stuff they’ll release as a gimmick, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to keep making their official music themselves.
SustAIn the Untruth
Damn, one of their worst songs. AI might make it better. 
This is all I needed to see. Theres some human element being used. But I also was wrong. I’ll own that.
Translation: “We’re going to feed our back catalogue into some algorithms and see what it spits out, but we’re doing it for ~artistic~ reasons, so it’s okay!”
I doubt the new album is literally just going to be a bunch of AI-generated tracks but, being totally honest, with a sufficiently competent model they could easily do that and then just touch up the imperfections themselves at the end and I doubt we’d really be able to tell.
DEG being so enthusiastic about AI has tempered my enthusiasm for DEG. ugh
Now that you mention it. Yeah, I already said my thoughts on the remake in the 19990120 review thread (Including Cage and Yokan remakes on TDIM single) but looking back at it now, even their best remake in a while is underwhelming in hindsight, as the 2024 of ZAN ended up being the version that I listen to the least.
This is the saddest and scariest thing. We won’t be able to tell, but we will know.
Since they are now using an algorithm to iterate on their past successes, it’s clear that they have no new ideas and aren’t interested in developing their sound any further.
I absolutely fucking hate this.
