CDs tend to come to shops in Japan a day or two before the official release day. Not sure why, but that’s how it goes. When I was living there way back, I always picked up new releases early. They even had a stand at the Shibuya Crossing for the release of DIM a couple of days before it was meant to come out. That’s where I got my copy.
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I hope to have my copy this week … hopefully there are no delays
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This is actually true for albums by Japanese artists as well as Japanese editions of Western albums. And the latter ones often come out even a month earlier. When I travelled to Japan in 2014, I did not buy Loudness’ “The Sun Will Rise Again” before the release date, but I’ve already seen the news of it being available two or three days prior.
Yeah as the others already mentioned, stores in Japan will do “furage” which is setting out the CDs a day in advance prior to the release date for purchase. I think bands can opt out of it if they don’t want that happening but for the most part it’s normal to do.
Besides that, I really enjoyed hearing FRENZY and BARBARIAN. I listened to the album with my friends so I need to properly listen to it again tomorrow with no distractions. The ballads were nice but I’m a fan of the heavier songs in general. Overall I wasn’t disappointed tho. Definitely looking forward to hearing these live once that’s possible again!
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It’s a nice attempt at keeping CDs alive
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First listening and first impressions :
Without surprise with them, my favorites tracks are the previews i liked the most :
- DAKU is fantastic, love the rythm and little “voices” in the background.
- THE PALE same, awesome instrumentals, nothing to say, i feel like they never used electronic sound as good as in this one before.
- LAST SONG as i said previously, love the “hymn” feeling even if it’s repetitive.
- BLINDING HOPE no problem, a solid leading song, i put it with the best songs from this album.
For the rest, well, same phenomenon with recent lynch albums : i tend to prefer softer songs with atmosphere and variations than the “urduuuuurrr” ones… The fact is when i launch an heavier banging track iam like “oh well same gimic again and again” and i want to skip because nothing is new, generic and well… boring. I assume it’s made for live but how much 2/3min headbangs songs they have in stock ?
That being said, HOLD was still a pleasure to listen and enjoyable (very NINTH’ish) the frenetic rythmn is catchy. Others (BARBARIAN, FRENZY, ROLLIN) are not really bad but, hey, classic and far to be unforgettable. NOX isn’t that heavy but i already said i don’t really like it, the worst from this album i would say.
To finish MOMENT is a pleasant ballad to listen, i don’t already really know what to think cause it’s very generic in this genre too, but it’s well made and i enjoyed it !
(COUNT 10 is… an intro)
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HOLD is an awesome banger, 10/10. It even has pretty good melodic/calm part, wow. Kinda glad its teaser was the shortest, not a lot was spoilered.
Daku is pure darkness. Y’know, it fits Dogma pretty well, at some moments even reminded me of OMINOUS.
MOMENT… welp, I was expecting something more, but still. Full-blown acoustic song, huh. For some reason I was thinking about Beautiful Deformity with this one. That solo/middle part is still the best thing.
ROLLIN’ and FRENZY were pretty fun, wasn’t expecting to like them. Still, if I would only leave 1 heavy song, it would be HOLD.
BLINDING HOPE is fine, but I won’t listen it that much.
NOX, THE PALE and LAST SONG are not my thing. Especially LAST SONG. Like, if you repeat chorus too many times, then there are problems with your song, sorry.
Now BARBARIAN… BARBARIAN is a mess, I’m sorry. Intro riff reminded me of Maximum the Hormone - Maximum the Hormone. And then it awkwardly copies that Keigaku no Yoku heavy part’s drum line, huh. Then, that 1:29 melody sounds so re-used (reminds me of Diru I’ll chorus, Fire Man’s theme from Mega Man and something else…) Then we have either female vocal/Ruki’s high singing which feels awkwardly tacked on… AND this song also has some piano. WHY!? I can’t get this song at all.
Oh yeah, COUNT-10 is a very boring intro, yep.
…
Oh yeah, LAST SONG ends like UNFINISHED. This is lazy.
It feels like just some random songs tacked together, IMO.
But overall? Nice to have new Gazette songs.
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Is anyone going to make a review thread for MASS? I would but I haven’t received my CD yet.
Went through it 3 times (not possible to do more at the time 
) and, yeah, I love it. Very, very The Gazette, but I didn’t expect anything else, would be nice if they did something more experimental and out there next, but this was damn good and worth the wait. The middle of the album from HOLD to MOMENT is easily the strongest, lovely tracks.
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what a tiring album jfc, it sounds more or less like division #2 with a less catchy promo track (derangement outsold), except they had a whole ass year off touring and any other stuff to focus.
all of this is so disappointing for the most part.
the heavy tracks are probably the worst part of it all, it really sounds like 3 sony era single tracks (last song, nox, the pale) diluted with the most dire filler they could create.
moment sucks too tbh.
I hope they release a mini or a single next, I can’t really handle that much stale shit at once.
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After finishing it the whole album it feels kinda meh, like mixing Ninth with ~2010 western boomer metal from Nuclear Blast.
Also, you could take any track and put it on Ninth and wouldn’t notice that it was made years later, so it’s a big 0 from point of progress.
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Is there credits available anywhere? Kinda curious what Aoi wrote this time.
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Legitimately all the differences are just in the production and that woo-woo synthesizer. That’s a remarkable lack of growth for a band that used to change it up quite radically from release-to-release.
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Juuust in time for the last event, I just found out about this.
MASS - I’ve listened 3 times. Well, it’s gazette at it’s most mellow point. The heavy songs are actually pretty boring, but I liked it overall. 6th track is my favorite.
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on my first play-through and i like it but it does seem like they’re playing it very safe these days. BLINDING HOPE, DAKU, NOX, THE PALE, LAST SONG are the standouts. MOMENT is nice but they do have better ballads in their discog.
i think BARBARIAN is one of their better heavy tracks tbh
at this point they have 3 songs that sound like the beginning of UGLY.
Mixed reactions on here.
After listen to the album multiple times, my favourite 3 songs of the album definitely are ROLLIN’, LAST SONG, BLINDING HOPE, on another note, their headbanging songs : HOLD, BARBARIAN are solid, FRENZY is the best out of these heavier tracks.
This album is just another generic Gazette music-art, nothing outstanding, nothing bad either IMO.
I hate Ruki’s vibrato. Why can I only hear Reita when there are no guitars?
Rollin’ sounds like a different version of Uragiru Bero.
Hold is playing right now. I can’t tell if I’m bored or annoyed. Probably both. This album is only 40 minutes long. I’m halfway thru and it feels like it’s already been like half an hour.
Back then at least they did different visuals but now even that’s almost the same
Last Song was okay until that heavy riff came in. How many times have they used that?
Aoi, Uruha, Reita, Kai…
If Ruki is in the house just blink twice to let us know you’re okay.
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At first listen (yesterday), i’m pretty disappointed. It’s a step-up from NINTH but, while listening to it while working, nothing is really memorable on the album (imho). All the tracks just go into each other and no track really grabbed my attention. It’s a shame. I love the band with all my heart and will always follow them in their musical endeavors (no matter the release) but I just wish this album has more strong tracks and catchy melodies. At least with releases like UGLY, UNDYING and DOGMA I can distinguish certain songs and remember their choruses, etc.
Basically the album came off under the same impression of how I felt with NINTH. I didn’t care for NINTH (and still don’t no matter how hard I try). It just seems bland and weak. Now this is all coming off after just one listen of MASS. I’ll of course give it a couple more listens to see if my opinion changes but seeing as how I feel the same about NINTH, I don’t really see it changing much.
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