For me that is two songs:
mazohyst of decadence - it just makes me so sad. I just can’t handle that. Go away, Kyo!
New age culture - this is a very silly reason. The noises at the begining are just annoying! Somehow instead of a new age they make me picture a medival feast. Love every other song on Vulgar but I skip this one.
I don’t really care for “six UGLY”, the whole ep. Does not pass the vibe check, wierd, don’t like, ew
Missa: S/Erode
GAUZE: sigh… raison d’etre/Cage/mazohyst/Akuro no Oka
MACABRE: Hotarubi/berry/Taiyou no Ao
Kisou: 24 cylinders
six Ugly: children
VULGAR: Nope. Not doing it. No skips.
Withering to death.: No skips. Incredible.
Marrow of a Bone: Lie Buried With a Vengeance/Grief/Ryoujoku no Ame/Rotting Root/Clever Sleazoid …sighhh
Uroboros: Glass Skin/Gaika/Inconvenient Ideal
MOO: jfc…DIFFERENT SENSE/AMON/Lotus/DIABOLOS/Hageshisa to…
ARCHE: eh…Sustain the Untruth.
The Insulated World: Utafumi
PHALARIS: Oboro
Yup, that’s how I’m feeling, at least.
Oboro is so out of place on Phalaris. I thought it was weird that it was the second track, but then I tried to figure out where else it could go and… nowhere! It should have been a standalone single.
Basically, their entire discography sans VULGAR and WtD! Lol j/k
I don’t care much for MISSA, Deity, Hydra and egnirys cimredopyh +)__an injection. For some reason, I used to love CHILD PREY, but not anymore, quite the opposite
I think Oboru is so beautiful, catchy chorus and the vibes are just great, also the violins at the end are sick. Maybe only me…
Not to say anything bad about it, but it just doesn’t fit anywhere thematically on PHALARIS. I like it on its own.
It’s Ranunculus once again (that didn’t have to exist at all).
However, if Ranunculus worked pretty well as an ender, Oboro just ends awkwardly…
You know, i forgot about that song.
I dont get it, I think both songs are great and I actually think Ranunculus is a really good album ending song, just something about how the atmosphere climaxes but is sombre at the same time just for me leaves the album on a high and emotional note, for me no other songs on the album suit that position better.
On Phalaris the only song that feels a bit out of place for me is ochita koto no aru sora and thats only because the production on that track sounds pretty different to the rest of the album.
Missa - S
GAUZE - 蜜と唾, easily… never really cared for the song. mazohyst of decadence is too slow for me
MACABRE - Berry. A little lackluster compared to the rest of the album.
SIX UGLY - Nothing at all.
鬼葬 - embryo
Vulgar - As much as I love it, R to the Core. Can’t take it seriously despite how much fun it is.
WtD - Nothing.
TMOAB - Agitated Screams
UROBOROS - Nothing, but I’d swap Dozing Green for the Before Construction cut any day
DSS - Diabolos, maybe? I might give it another chance since it’s been a while that I’ve listened to it.
Unraveling EP - Nothing
ARCHE - Nothing. Perfection.
This might be bad, but I kinda skipped over TIW… should I give it a shot? The production threw me off the first time I listened to it if I’m being honest
And I haven’t listened to Phalaris yet
Resident TiW lover here to siggest giving it a go. It’s my favorite and I think a lot of people might just not gave listened to it enough for it to gel. The songs are catchy and in my opinion the production is more clear than most of their other albums especially the bass. Phalaris steps away from being catchy again to being complex but is softer than DSS, Arche, or Uroboros. Personally rate this one high in their discography as well.
Alright, I’ll give it a go this weekend and get back to you. BTW, love the username, haha
Certainly an interesting choice considering what Lovecraft’s cat was named.
TIW is one of the worst mastered albums I’ve heard. Completely destroyed sound from massive over-compression leading to a stifled, non-dynamic mix in which nothing can breathe. The album itself is fairly average by DEG standards; I felt they reused too many ideas from previous albums here. But it’s not a bad album by any means.
I^ve always thought that Utafumi is an underrated gem. Like a hidden gem. Not gonna lie.
Im with you on that tbh. The first time I heard it I did find it a little underwhelming, there were a handful of songs I really liked straight away and was ok with the rest of it but it wasnt the epic follow up to ARCHE that I was expecting. That is pretty tough to top though… But yeah after more spins I actually got to really enjoy the album as a whole, but there is one riff in the album which goes down as one of the worst riffs ever in my book, but other than that we’re all good. Haha. Phalaris was instant love for me, loved the overall atmosphere and theres some really catchy and interesting stuff going on there. Absolutely love the basslines in Kamui, so good man…
Missa: Probably Garden, I like the weird tracks.
Gauze: I would pick toriko and i’ll if I could, but otherwise I guess Yokan. Learning and covering the whole album has somehow made me feel way too neutral about all of them.
Macabre: Definitely Audrey, one of the songs I will take my gloves off in -30C to skip as soon as I hear the opening chord.
Kisou: I guess Undecided if I had to choose something other than the interludes, though I have no issues with the song at all. Probably my favourite album.
Six ugly: I never got into Mr Newsman, though I don’t particularly dislike it either, I just really like the other 5 songs.
Vulgar: I’m split between child prey and kasumi; Child prey is really fun to see live though so probably Kasumi. Really solid album so it’s hard to pick anything at all.
WtD: For the longest time I would have picked machiavellism, but it grew on me finally so now it’s impossible to pick. Maybe Jesus Christ R’n’R just barely.
TMoaB: Maybe namamekashiki; the other slow songs are just so incredible imo that I forget about this track. As “generic” as the heavy songs are, I love the anger and rawness of all of them, ASOM has gotten a bit boring though.
Uroboros: Bugaboo respira probably doesn’t count, so I guess gaika, but I feel that song growing on me too, and the vocals in the chorus are pretty cool, so is the ending. Almost of the songs have some part that kind of blows my mind vocally so it’s hard to pick anything.
Dum Spiro Spero: I hated this whole album for about 12 years and now I feel like it’s incredible. I have to pick lotus because it’s the last song that hasn’t managed to massively grow on me yet.
Arche: I would have picked Un Deux until I saw the phalaris vol II performance of it. Now I think it’s gotta be The Inferno. Too repetitive and I don’t find the vocals interesting enough to make up for it. I like that riff at the end that fades out though.
TIW: The whole first 16 minutes of the album. Devote my Life is a lot cooler now that the lives are out but I would have picked that when the album came out. Empty Howls is pretty cool too. Now I suppose I would throw a dart at tracks 1 3 and 5 because I really can’t remember which one is which. I’m sure one of them will grow on me in a few years and become my favourite song for a week.
Phalaris: I don’t know if this album has really soaked in properly for me to pick one, I used to find the perfume of sins boring but after singing it I started finding it more interesting, so I’ll pick hibiki because I haven’t listened to it many times yet.
(sorry if the post/reasoning is too long.)
Edit: The remake of kigan is the worst dir en grey song, unfortunately I suddenly remembered it exists.
Everything past Gauze
I guess people really do have different opinions. To me Withering is pretty mediocre all around. It is listenable but I really don’ go back to it much. It is not complete trash like Marrow, that album does not exist has far as I am concerned.
I find this so interesting because I think of TMOAB as a near-perfect album. Aside from the unnecessary edginess in the lyrics sometimes, it’s musically excellent imo. The production is raw and ratty as hell but it’s exactly what the record needs, and the energy in the performances from every member jumps from the speakers in such an exhilarating way. The band was firing on all cylinders for that album
Uroboros is to me an obvious next step and a better record if you ask me, but the simplicity to the songwriting on Marrow combined with the sheer power in the performances makes it super effective in accomplishing what it sets out to do