1997 to 2003 kind of early
Okay, so at least we’re both working with the same assumption then. I had no idea if you meant their visual days or their pre-UROBOROS day or something else, since lots of people start in different places.
For me, there’s a lot going on with early-era Dir en grey that’s hard to nail down succinctly. The most prominent thought I had is that Dir en grey is a band that excels because of the vocals and the rhythm. Die and Kaoru are great guitarists and composers, but what they added to the music during the visual kei days tended to be intermediate-level riffs in difficulty (for reference, I’ve been playing a year and some change and I can do a messy 2-min cover of Deity). In comparison, Toshiya’s bass licks are on another level, so much so that when I play Rasetsukoku I blend the bass and the guitar lines together for something more dynamic. Shinya’s drum lines are also important in helping the rhythm and the groove of a lot of their songs. Him and Shinya are a colossal unit.
Having said that, I don’t think it’s an unpopular opinion that the visual kei style constrained their potential. They said as much in an interview. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of 90’s visual kei tabs out there for inspection for me to be confident in this assertion, but I get the impression that the majority of music released between 1990 and 1999 was recorded in E Standard. I really do think Dir en grey were one of the earliest bands to popularize with alternative tunings in the scene, first with D Standard on Macabre/Kisou for a few tracks and then Drop D for six Ugly (I do believe D’espairsRay beat them to the punch on D Standard but I have to check). I’m taking the scenic route to say that there were certain pressures in the scene to sound a certain way, which molded the kote sound into the mental image we have now, which ran it’s course by the end of 1999 because artists did everything they could with that sound and aesthetic. Those pressures come down to not just the tuning used, but also the pickups on the guitar, the style of guitar used, any pedals, amps, or other gear required for effects, and even recording and production techniques, gear, and limitations.
I mentioned Deity and Rasetsukoku earlier for a reason - what I play sounds tonally different from what’s recorded on disc, even though I’ve got the tuning and the notes dialed in right. It’s got a lot to do with my gear because my set up is clocked with more distortion and gain than what they were using in the studio, and my Fishman pickups are ridiculously hot. It sounds more aggressive and heavy.
So yeah, by the tail end of 2002 you could sense on Kisou that they’ve burst past the boundaries of what visual kei could be at the time and it was either switch direction or disband - and I think Shinya said as much in one of their many late 2000’s interviews. When they went from reading the book to writing the book, they then popularized the heavy western metalcore sound that ended up replacing the kote sound. Then they went on to some experimental avant-garde metal and most of the scene didn’t follow because it takes certain technical chops to play that style, but we’ve had bands like NAZARE and DEVILOOF. Even in 2010, bands that heavy would have been rejected by the scene as “American metal”.
But the key word is “certain technical chops”. I have the guitar tuning to play “Different Sense”. I do not have the skills. However, I can tackle almost any early-era Dir en grey song with moderate difficulties. That’s the difference between something on their second album and something on their eighth that I’ve been clumsily communicating. When I play some riffs from their early days to my guitar teacher, he often asks me where I learned that technique or what song that was or if I realized how that tied into musical theory. I usually don’t, I’m just playing notes, but the fact that he says this all the time means that there’s something solid there buried under all the kote and dust.
I’m not agreeing or disagreeing. I’m just spouting exposition Sir Hammerlock style.
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Haha, I guess we have opposite tastes because that’s my favourite era of Dir en grey (which would probably be an unpopular opinion in some crowds 
)
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I am now going to call your taste in music “dusty-kei” and you can blame zeus for it
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i like this
@ musicians, I beg
please get better braiders/do better braiding before posting promo shots, videos, tour footage, gushing about the new hair or whatever - especially with more polished looks, or for the veterans that aren’t trying to look like some new kids on the block that couldn’t afford better.
(Unless they like/prefer/intended the look, of course) New braids and cornrows should not look like mangled wheat spikes laying out maps to Terabithia.
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I don`t know if these are really “unpopular opinions” or if I just happened by chance to be discussing with people with different opinions from mine a lot…but here are my 2 cents.
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Very early AND the latest 3/4 years Dir en grey music is overrated
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Most (tempted to say all) side projects/side bands/new projects of band members don
t lead to good results (for example I like Dir en grey but dont like Sukekiyo and Petit Brabancon) -
Most Vkei bands can make enjoyable music but are ruined by low level/generic vocalists
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Kirakira kei and such bands are dreadful and should be wiped out (ok that`s too much sorry lol)
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The majority of the most popular Vkei bands were/are generic and don`t leave any impression (e.g. Screw, D=Out, Blue Billion, Fest Vainqueur, Diaura…)
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Lynch`s Hazuki has a shitty personality, is full of himself and I would never want to meet/get to know him
No no, I totally agree with you there 
Have you met Hazuki in person? Or is this impression from his streams and such? I hear the complete opposite usually so I’m just curious.
Ahah thank you XD
No no, never met him in person. My impression comes from his MCs at lives/events, Twitter and so on...but mostly when he talks at lives. I love lynchs music so I go to their lives a lot, but every single time the MC kind of ruins the experience for me…the way he speaks, the things he says.
Call me delusional, but as a fan i had to say this:
The Gazette and by that I Mean RUKI should take a break after their tour ends.
Why? because their music is getting same-y for the past few years (Including DOGMA, because that’s where RUKI started getting lazy with his screams) now don’t get me wrong I’m myself was a fairly new fan (First song was Ugly in 2019) but even i thought that Beautiful Deformity was pretty varied composition wise. (and so does NINTH, but unfortunately it got stale after MASS) and 2014 era RUKI was better than the post-2015 RUKI. (Decent Kyo imitation In Pulse wrigling to DIM Scene which is far better than the Butchered one he did on the Spooky Box Volume 1) and he shouldn’t be allowed to write any songs at the moment. cause if the rumor that he did a dictatorial control during the production of MASS is true, then we’ll have to endure NINTH 3.0 next year. (assuming the previous release window doesn’t tell you anything) “B-but Gazette wasn’t a experimental band like Diru or Mucc, t-they rather to play it safe!” oh-no they didn’t need to be experimental but they can try a different sound, like for example let all-member Minus RUKI had side project with reita as vocals, aoi as bass, uruha as guitars and main composer and kai just doing kai things. actually, bring back yune and let kai play rhythm or bass (can he?) and give them a throwback sound to their indie era. and for RUKI. he can embrace his accoustic side. (i know that MOMENT’s accoustic wasn’t actually played by him, but since he write the songs he should have a demo for it.) or the pop-rock side of Gazette like Regret, SHIVER or Red. I know he played guitar on cassis and i don’t if he still able to play drums since he play drums pre-Gazette. by the way I don’t hate RUKI nor that i think that the rest of band is a burden (boy, imagine how boring GazettE shows wuold without the airheaded bassist and the feminime looking guitarist that always become a victim of the vocalist pervertedness)
it’s just me rambling as a burned out fan.
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Many bands I listen to refer to X Japan as their influence. Out of respect I try to listen X Japan but I just can’t get into them. Maybe it is Toshi’s singing that I can’t seem to enjoy.
Dir En Grey has some good songs but honestly I just don’t care much about them as others do.
Tbh I don’t really like the whole Bangya culture surrounding Visual Kei especially stuff like Mitsu and Tanuki.
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Mitsu are your band’s ATM.
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You gotta stick something in before you get some money out, exactly like a ATM.
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Haha, exactly!
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Kizu sucks like hard honest to God I have no clue what people see in generic ass music like this.
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I liked their first few releases, then it all kinda started to suck after 黒い雨. The song ミルク was also fun, but that’s been it.
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I agree that the albums are similar but where do people get these kind of info?
I’m on mobile so I’ll have to keep it short, but anyone who streams should expect a price hike in the near future. My immediate thoughts are that the scales are now tipping back towards piracy. In a time where everyone is being forced to tighten their belt and cut back on expenses, positioning yourself for a price hike is risky business.
Sure it’s one dollar today, but after staying steady for so long, any increase is a reason to raise an eyebrow. And who knows if YoY increases will become the norm if users tolerate it.
I was never one to dedicate myself to the streaming platforms, but I got at least one friend back into the downloading and archiving game, and ironically he’s found more new music in the last six months than with Spotify alone. But I can see those with tight budgets dropping a streaming service or two and instead reaching for those Five Finger Deals, especially when ads are being injected into your premium service.
After all, this is a value proposition where I’m handing over money for convenience of access to almost anything. The less convenient it is, the more likely I am to find alternative methods of acquiring the same thing.
And of course, the cost is passed on to the artists.
But I’m concerned about other things. There’s a constant cycle of innovation, followed by corporate abuse to see how much wealth can be extracted before customers refuse to put up with it, an alternative pops up that solves all the pain points of the previous invention and adds new features, companies trip over themselves to get a slice of the pie, innovate their products, saturate the market, and then the cycle begins all over again.
Except this time I’m left wondering if these companies are so powerful that they’ll pay their way into passing laws that prohibit the free exchange of some types of data across the internet in order to protect corporate profits. If this sounds absolutely insane to you, then know it’s well within the realm of possibility now.
My advice? Beef up your collections now.
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I disagree. Aside for a carefully produced title track to break another (artificial) streaming record, Kmusic and especially kpop is equally, if not more, stale and repetitive garbage, imo.
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Here’s another fresh hot take, steaming right out the oven as I do a long distance listening party to Dir en grey’s UROBOROS LP with @ghost. This is my first listen to it on wax after listening to this for a decade, so I have a good “mental map” of how this album sounds.
My unpopular opinion is that all versions of UROBOROS suck for different reasons and you have to stitch together the perfect experience of the album. This is what you do.
- Take the Remastered and Expanded Edition of UROBOROS and throw it in a fire. The LP gods require a sacrifice.
- Take the Japanese Deluxe edition of UROBOROS as your base.
- Throw out the Glass Skin and Dozing Green English versions and replace them with the Japanese remasters.
- Take the remaining ballads from the LP (namely 蜷局, Inconvenient Ideal, and 我、闇とて･･･) and replace the CD versions with these. The LP versions of these specific songs are vastly superior to the CD versions. The separation and clarity in the tone has to be experienced to be believed.
- Tack on HYDRA -666- from Dozing Green single after 我、闇とて･･･. R&E version doesn’t fit sonically IMO, but season to taste.
So it should look like this:
- Sa Bir (you can use R&E version if you want, but I prefer the conciseness of the original. Also, if you were wondering, it doesn’t really sound “better” on wax).
- Vinushka (CD; they sound the same IMO)
- Red Soil (CD packs a better punch)
- 慟哭と去りぬ (CD version is better; vinyl has some bad inner groove distortion. This is UROBOROS at it’s most unlistenable and unfortunately it’s not an exaggeration. I don’t even recognize the song at the halfway mark…)
- 蜷局 (LP version is the best thing to live that you’re getting!)
- Glass Skin (CD Japanese Remaster; The single so forgettable I forgot I listened to it on wax, even if the separation is unmatched!)
- STUCK MAN (CD; both versions are equal)
- 冷血なりせば (I’m going to give it to the LP version here for the separation during the quiet part, but either is good)
- 我、闇とて･･･ (Never cared for the congested atmosphere on CD, but this is much better on wax)
- Bugaboo (CD; both are about equal)
- HYDRA -666- (Dozing Green version for me, but you do you)
I want to take a divergence here and say FUCK BUGABOO RESPIRA IT’S 2:19 OF ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHICH LEADS TO…
- 凱歌、沈黙が眠る頃 (CD CD CD! The LP version sounds deep fried in agony and despair in the most unpleasant fashion possible, made worse by the knowledge of inner groove distortion - basically the more you shove on one side the worse the parts closer to the inside sound because there’s less material for the needle to ride on, which means that this song sounds even worse than it should because Side C of this LP is 2:19 longer than it needs to be. 凱歌、沈黙が眠る頃 needed those two minutes like you don’t understand. You would think it starts out equal until the chorus where it descends into every multisyllabic variety of hell fucking no that you can describe)
- Dozing Green (CD Japanese Remaster please and thanks)
- Inconvenient Ideal (LP sounds absolutely fantastic!)
- Undecided (remake)
- 我、闇とて･･･ (unplugged)
- Red Soil (unplugged)
- Inconvenient Ideal (unplugged)
I know absolutely no one asked but there ya go. In general, my personal conclusion is that the heavier tracks slap harder on CD and the ballads are better on LP, but this is 100% subjective.
My other unpopular opinion is that this should have been a 4x LP with the tracks arranged across them much as I have displayed above.
side A1: sa bir, vinushka, red soil
side A2: 慟哭と去りぬ, 蜷局, glass skin
side B1: stuck man, 冷血なりせば
side B2: 我、闇とて･･･, HYDRA -666-, bugaboo
side C1: 凱歌、沈黙が眠る頃, Dozing Green
side C2: Inconvenient Ideal, undecided
side D1: 我、闇とて･･･ unplugged, red soil unplugged, inconvenient ideal unplugged
side D2: picture disc (not playable)
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