I’ll go to bat for sustain the untruth any day. it’s a fun little song
3 Likes
I forgot about The Inferno and TDFF (Not the original). Those two are defs on my shitlist too.
2 Likes
Ah man, I actually really like Juuyoku. I find the song structure and riffs really fun. And there’s a sort of groovy flow throughout the song. What do you find unbearable about it? Is it Kyo? I have a feeling like maybe it could be
2 Likes
You know, I actually don’t mind Kyo in it! Though I am generally pretty cold on studio Kyo and prefer live stuff…but not even that saves the song for me. It’s hard to pinpoint what I don’t like about it, it feels like anti-music and it makes my brain want to scrape its way out of my skull. I guess it’s quite a repulsive song and thus it eliciting such a visceral reaction on me is a kind of success.
1 Like
Oh yeah, the single versions of Hageshisa and Lotus are far superior to the album versions. The best thing about the DSS version of Hageshisa is they made Die’s funk lick in the chorus front and center. Other than that Tue Madsen ruined it.
2 Likes
Damn, that’s a brutal reaction haha. I don’t regret asking you with that response. Well, they can’t all be winners, right? Stay in the industry long enough and you’re bound to create at least one song that makes someone want to empty their head out.
1 Like
SAME idk why Diru in particular keeps putting out tight experimental mixes on their singles and then squashing the instrumentals and vocal boosting for the albums…
It’d be one thing if the whole album was dull so they wanted to trim the singles back a bit to not stand out - but usually all the album tracks have nice mixes and then the touched up singles kinda flop their way in
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I don’t think too much about it. There are some filler songs on each album but overall a really solid discography.
Whole ARCHE and most re-recordings
1 Like
Missa-
「S」. Just can’t get into it at all.
Gauze-
Aside from the bookend tracks, Akuro no Oka gets the least amount of listens. It’s a very pretty song, but it’s longgggg, and I don’t think it truly earns the runtime the way later attempts at long-form songwriting did, in my opinion.
Macabre-
Hydra. I know, I know, it just slogs for me though. I don’t like it at all 
Kisou-
Pink Killer kills me, like what the fuck is this song. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it was mandated filler to pad the album’s runtime. It comes out of nowhere after Karasu, ruining an otherwise perfect flow from Karasu into Shinsou (3).
Vulgar-
Obscure, but not because I don’t like it, I love it and every other song on this album. But I’m the weird person who prefers the remake (BUT SPECIFICALLY LIVE VERSIONS OF IT, NOT THE STUDIO VERSION!!). So I tend to gravitate to that instead most of the time
Withering to death-
Please don’t ask me to pick a least favorite. This album is literally perfect don’t talk to me leave me alone
TMOAB-
Agitated Screams of Maggots. It’s edginess simply for the sake of edginess, doesn’t have the emotional impact for me as the rest of the record, just meh. Could do without it and be a happy bean
Uroboros-
Probably Red Soil? But again this is like, nearly a perfect album, and I don’t dislike Red Soil
DSS-
Decayed Crow, mostly for the same reasons @EvilHippy mentioned. I also think Kyo’s main vocal refrain that starts the song out is overbearing the way it’s repeated throughout the song
ARCHE-
The Inferno. Good song, but not as solid as the rest of the album, and also throws off the flow of the final moments of the record. Probably could have been released by itself as a non-album single and we would be fine
TIW-
Ningen wo Kaburu. It’s like, the distillation of the worst tendencies of the album imo, and I would rather listen to the rest of the record without it
PHALARIS-
Schadenfreude is probably the only time I agree with other people accusing a song of being a mid-tier Vinushka. The vinyl master makes it easier a bit because part of my problem is how fatiguing the CD master is to listen to (holy shiiiiiit it’s so squashed), but it’s also the weakest track on the album, imo.
2 Likes
The dirty guitar tones especially have so much more grit and aggression in the single mixes of those songs. Less a wash of white noise in the upper mids and treble, and more a classic growl in the lower mids that pushes the guitar forward
I thought most people liked ningen o kaburu, somewhat? Perfect fun stupid single song with a catchy chorus.
I think maybe I’ve just heard it too much, and it’s like I said too much of a microcosm of the record and my less-liked aspects of it
It’s not a BAD song, I just prefer everything else on the album haha
Missa - Erode. GARDEN. Long songs are fine. These ones don’t engage me.
Gauze - Mask. It’s okay, just not up to the same standard as the rest.
Macabre - audrey, and I really don’t like the people yelling at each other on Berry.
Kisou - Bottom of the death valley. I’m probably the only person alive who prefers the remake.
six Ugly - N/A; perfect.
Vulgar - I skip MARMALADE CHAINSAW sometimes, but it’s fine. CHILD PREY is horribly repetitive.
Withering to death. - Jesus Christ R 'n R. Dumb lyrics and too formulaic as a song.
MARROW - The end of DISABLED COMPLEXES is repetitive. I love the front half though. The rapey lyrics in ASOM and CLEVER SLEAZOID make me quite uncomfortable.
UROBOROS - N/A; perfect album. Original release has the godawful English versions which are 100% a skip every time.
DUM SPIRO SPERO - Hageshisa in general is so overplayed and I’d be happy to never hear it again. Plus, the album mix of the song is terrible. Otherwise, Akatsuki is so boring (I love the demo), and LOTUS feels like a failed attempt to repeat GLASS SKIN.
Bonus: The remake of Kiri to Mayu from this era is just awful.
ARCHE - Almost perfect album. Sustain the untruth is again very overplayed, but I quite like it for what it is.
THE INSULATED WORLD - The whole album is just appallingly mixed and mastered. To pick one song, it’d be Celebrate Empty Howls, which is bleak, miserable, and doesn’t go anywhere.
PHALARIS - The Perfume Of Sins is meh and somehow makes the whole front half drag for me. Otherwise, this album is decent.
5 Likes
Totally agree on Perfume of Sins. There’s almost nothing there that grabs my ear. It’s like four minutes of droning.
Not on board with that dig at the Kiri to Mayu remake though. I think it’s one of their best remakes. It’s also sort of in between DSS and Arche since it was on the Rinkaku single.
1 Like
I also prefer the remake too haha
Especially the DSS Budokan performance where Toshiya plays THE LICK before he actually starts the song’s intro
2 Likes
Oh my god he does.
I just wish the remake incorporated the original bassline more.
Edit: lol I’m dumb, this is part of the regular song. He did cover a variety of songs before Bottom~ though. In this instance, it was “kimi ga yo”, but it was cut from the release ._.
You don’t have to be on board with it. This is an opinion topic!
To me, Kiri to Mayu exemplifies everything wrong with the worst DEG remakes (that aren’t simply redundant copy/pastes [see Kasumi, ain’t afraid to die, etc]). Brainless cookie monster vocals over the tedious chug of unnecessarily downtuned guitars. Unrecognisable aside from a few seconds of the original song’s melody thrown in here and there to justify its existence.
It’d be slightly more forgivable if it were a new song, but no, they decided that this is what Kiri to Mayu should be now. I’m all for experimentation; go wild, make the song into something cool… but they took it took far, and this isn’t even the same song at this point.
In a way, I can respect them for trying something new. However, at the same time, this isn’t something I personally enjoy.
2 Likes
I can respect the experimentation, but yeah this isn’t my favorite result. It doesn’t help that the sample replacement on the drum shells is overly obvious (every hit on that snare is the same, SUPER obvious in snare rolls, it’s as if they went “it’s just a b-side, don’t worry about humanizing the sample layers” in pre-pro)
Tsumi to Batsu is the far superior attempt at a “re-arrange the fuck out of the song, make it barely recognizable” type of remake, imo. Retains just enough of the original for me, and I really really enjoyed the super sludgy doomdeath vibe it had
2 Likes