Wouldnt it be easier to buy the official song books?? I know its not gp and stopped after DSS but cant get any more accurate than that.
I have the ones for Kisou and Vulgar, but a few issues exist -
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Most scorebooks are not created by the artists, but rather are transcribed by a 3rd party who works for (or is contracted by) the publishing company of the score book. Unless we’re talking about modern guitar-music artists like Polyphia or Jason Richardson, who sell their own tabs directly. But even then, Tim from Polyphia and Jason do most of their composition in Guitar Pro to begin with, and then learn how to play the parts afterward.
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Not all the scorebooks are easily source-able at a reasonable price, at least not for me. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough though, that could be a me issue.
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The immediate feedback of hearing the playback in GP is SUPER helpful for me. I also find it’s really nice to edit fingerings on the fly, if what was originally played (or what the transcriber thought was played) isn’t the most optimal way of playing the part (for me) while keeping the same feel and tone. Basically just all the benefits of using tabs in a digital format vs. reading a piece of paper, makes a big difference for me.
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One of the first Japanese rock bands I listened. Still amazing!
Since it’s just been 12 days when I tried to come up with an order without having listened to quite some of their albums in a long time (and some never before) I quote this list.
I spent the past days listening to all of Dir en grey’s albums (because like I mentioned before I didn’t know much of the music pre-VULGAR) and noted down which songs I do like.
Basing on this combined with more points to be considered (e. g. nostalgia, prefered type of songs) I tried to get to a ranking with less guessing than before.
So I guess I can say my list definitely looks like this:
THE MARROW OF A BONE
PHALARIS
Withering to death
THE UNRAVELING
VULGAR
UROBOROS
ARCHE
UROBOROS [R & E]
The Insulated World
鬼葬
GAUZE / MACABRE
DUM SPIRO SPERO
MISSA / six Ugly / 改-KAI-
(I rank those in one line the same)
Phalaris has definitely jumped up a spot or two on my list as I’ve listened to it more. The only thing rubbing me the wrong way is Oboro’s presence. Maybe it would work better further into the track sequence, but I really just think the mood doesn’t fit the album at all.
Also, uh… funny that DEG releases a remake of Mazohyst now given the current state of certain things here in the US, huh.
Dir en grey would get so much of hate if they were an American band though (anti-abortion themes, anyone?).
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well yeah i think it’s safe to say the perception would be different if the intended audience was primarily living in an area where a decades-protected right was being systematically stripped. cultural context and such
welp, Toshiya has COVID
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Way earlier on in the pandemic, I would’ve been more concerned.
But at this point, I have to assume he’ll be ok. I’ve had it twice now, before I was vaxxed it was a horrible two weeks of the worst sickness I’ve ever had, but after being vaccinated and boosted, the second time around I felt like I just had a bad cold.
My mother, who’s a much bigger risk (in her 70’s, has major health issues), just caught it for her first time, she’s vaccinated and boosted, and then she got antibody infusions, and she was right as rain. Somebody like Toshiya, who seems to be incredibly healthy and in shape for his age, should probably be fine.
So, do we know what songs are gonna be played at the special live?
Special live?
I doubt that most people who don’t speak Japanese don’t even read/understand the lyrics. And if they do, they’re still somewhat cryptic, so most people still won’t understand even when reading English translations.
To correct your post: Dir en grey should get as much hate as any other band for these lyrics. I’d be interested about their views today, especially after completely changing the lyrics of mazohyst of decadance. But to be honest, I doubt they made a 180° turn.
Agree.
Aside from this I wonder, if this is/was their or Kyo‘s general view on the topic or just for the song, like in writing from this perspective like there also could be a song with lyrics from the perspective of a murderer or whatever. Like in not showing Kyo‘s personal opinion. I don‘t know enough about Dir en grey‘s lyrics to know about that.
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YRIDENERGYRIDENERGY — (HD scans available in larger size - contact me in... - translation notes from GIGS Kaoru’s & Shinya’s interviews
“Ain’t afraid to die was a candidate to be released with Oboro instead of T.D.F.F.”
Thank god they had brains not to do that
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This has always been hugely problematic. Dir en grey is probably one of my favourite bands, but this makes me so uncomfortable and it absolutely cannot be justified. That’s why I’m so curious about the new Mazohyst lyrics.
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Chances are if they were an American band, they wouldn’t have anti-abortion themes in a song for that very reason. Im not going to pretend to know the general mood of the topic in Japan, and I don’t particularly care.
As long as Die isn’t dressing up in Nazi garb again, I’m generally pretty chill about the artistic direction of the band, music, and its lyrics.
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Kinda makes me think of that reddit post from a couple of years ago, where someone claimed that Dir en grey has to apologize for wearing Nazi uniforms:
hOw CaN wE jUsT nOt CaRe AbOuT tHaT
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My opinions, as a Jew, regarding Die’s… costume in 1998 -
Japan has a track record of very intentionally teaching a false history with regards to it’s more difficult portions of world history. Whether it be general imperialism, the shrinking population of Ainu people (who the government did not recognize as an ethnic group within Japan until 2019), or any of the Japanese government’s other programs that place themselves as some sort of beacon. There’s actually a lot of parallels to the concept of American Exceptionalism, in terms of how both country’s governments want to promote a vision of “We’re the best!!!”
Because of the Japanese government’s intentional miseducation about Japan’s role in World War II, a LOT of Japanese people for a long time didn’t understand exactly what the Nazi party was, beyond “they were our military allies then, and Hugo Boss makes a SNAZZY uniform!!” I can’t begrudge Die for falling into the chase of the aesthetic any more than I can hate Dimedag Darrel for having a Confederate flag on his guitars in a time period where stupid easy internet access was not a thing and when he came from TEXAS, one of the BIGGEST perpetrators of the exact same form of intentionally false history classes (only a few years ago a Texas public school textbook was found describing slaves as “passengers” in reference to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - if that kind of thing is happening in the late 2010’s, you can only imagine what sort of misinformation must’ve been in those textbooks in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s).
I don’t believe Die to be a Nazi sympathizer, rather I think he just fell victim to a lack of education on the topic, and a culture around Nazi uniforms and aesthetics being allowed to grow in that vacuum of knowledge. Hell, reading the lyrics to ‘THE IIID EMPIRE,’ it seems pretty anti-authoritarian to me in many ways. While something like Kyo’s outfit for one of the days of Arche at Budokan may echo the look a little, I haven’t seen any blatant Nazi imagery or symbolism in any of the band’s aesthetics since Die’s 1998 costume.
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Now that we are talking on whether this is problematic or not:
If my rusty Japanese serves me well, later Mazohyst live versions are just Kyo impro’ing over verses about self-hatred/lament (this seemed to be much prominent a theme for TIW, e.g. “Devote My Life”) rather than about killing little babies and/or regretting over some life inside or whatever (e.g. Inconvenient Ideal).