DIR EN GREY

I dont know, the feel I get from Shinya’s yt channel is that he really loves the band. I don’t really see he leaving anytime soon. Not now that he succeeded in the “DeG Visual Kei restoration project” and they dropped the track suits and are back to theatrics and make up.

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EU Tour

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Ooooh cool concept! I’m not motivated enough to travel to another country for this, but good to see.

I wish I had the money to travel to Europe, let’s pray for the americas next

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HYPED! Definitely going to have to go to both shows in London. I hope they play Vinushka :heart_eyes:

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Theyre playing the album in full on the Uroboros night so guess thats a given.

Is Toshiya considered to be a good bassist? Does he write interesting bass tabs or go pretty basic?

If you listen to their songs you 'll have your answer.

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I dont think his bass stands out much on the last album for example.

For sure. You will find much more interesting bass lines when they had a higher tuning. Like with Gauze, It’s more melodic. For the rest of his career it really depends of songs. We could go more precisely if you want. In general he is not the most technical bassist, but he got his personnality.

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I think Toshiya’s tone sounds like absolute butt. He is a great bassist, i think, but he could do better to not have his tone sound like a wet fart through a tuba.

Which albums ? It depends from album to album to me

I would absolutely say he’s a good bassist. He’s imo a great example of a bass player who can weave in between the guitar and drum parts, rather than just following one or the other, and he creates really interesting counter-rhythms between them

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I think that’s partly the fault of the mix. Phalaris sounds like I’m listening to the band thru a concrete wall.

Ware, yami tote’s still probably not going to be played at all the shows when they didn’t do that in Japan either. Vinushka on the other hand is a given.

And as far as whether Toshiya’s a good bassist, I’d say that whether he is or isn’t is ultimately a technicality that’s only interesting to other bass players, and if they were to replace him tomorrow with a fresh-faced talent who performs flips and handstands on the strings of his bass, it wouldn’t change what the band is about – or elsewise It’d be another band altogether, probably playing in a different genre.

I would, however, agree with the above. Toshiya’s bass played an unusually prominent role for a vk band especially from Gauze to Kisou and again from Uroboros to Dum Spiro Spero, but I would, like above, posit that since Arche and especially with Phalaris, he’s become near inaudible in the backseat of the kind of riffing they’ve developed in the post-Unraveling period of the band. To confirm my impressions I went on to listen to the album mix of Ningen wo kaburu, and unless you’re specifically paying attention, the only time you’re hearing the bass is at around 1.20. Whether his playing is interesting enough for the Bass Coach Reacts To x crowd, his contributions are inarguably every bit as prominent as the lead guitar on just about every song on Gauze, for example.

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Toshiya is pretty prominent on Aka, Followers, Zetsuentai, and Ranunculus from basslines I remember off the top of my head.

There’s definitely movement he’s adding on Ningen o Kaburu as well, especially in the chorus. He probably is across the whole record honestly, but his tone is very mid-focused and the whole album is sorta squashed into a very small frequency spectrum, so he’s competing REALLY hard to be heard properly

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I don’t know if he is a good bassist, but he makes me want to learn to play bass. When I watch he playing, I feel like playing bass is the coolest sexiest most stylish shit in the world

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This is the inherent problem with downtuning guitars and having deep growling vocals to boot. It’s difficult to separate those frequencies to resemble anything that doesn’t resemble a muddy, sludgy mess.

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That is it one of the reason I don’t like low tuning, I mean Drop C# and higher was great for them. I usually feel bands tends to become more lazy with low tuning. Music needs melodies.

And I think ARCHE would be a very good album to my ears, with a higher tuning.

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