the interviews post MASS were like “Ruki arrived with all the demos done and did everything and the others were also there”
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DOGMA is easily the band’s best work, and it’s not even close.
When DIM came out, I remember being very high on the album because it came after UROBOROS by Dir en grey and the similarities were obvious. You could tell the GazettE were impressed by it, it’s all over DIM.
Going back and listening to it now, DIM is awful. Easily one of their worst albums and the heavy songs have aged horribly. They’re juvenile, even cringe-worthy at times (Headache Man).
I think from DIM to Beautiful Deformity, the band was in the process of reinventing itself and trying to find themselves.
For me, that’s what makes DOGMA so impressive. It came out of nowhere. And while it contains all the signature sounds you expect of the GazettE, they did something more. I don’t know if they’ll ever be able to replicate that.
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The no english threw me for a bit. But it sounds cool
DISORDER,NIL,STACKED RUBBISH,DIM >>> DOGMA.
Their PsC era is their peak . DOGMA album is like from gothic metal western band which I hate.
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First of all, I respect your opinion, however lets digest your point one-by-one shall we?
If you’re talking about the lyrics then yeah.
RUKI’s english was one of the worst part of his singing. To the point where every heavy songs suffer because of it. Even two of the best Heavy songs in this album in my opinion, The Invisible Wall and 13 Stairs is flawed because of it.
Quite the contrary. DIM was an evolution of Stacked Rubbish, and every album since DIM has been following the same formula… Until DOGMA.
This Album is where they seem to reinvent themselves. (keyword: seem) And they did quite well imo despite me not liking the album very much due to many reasons that i’ll mention later, but basically, this album sees a very radical evolution of RUKI, his cleans on Beautiful Deformity is being perfected here, and other than being emotionless during some ballads or being accused of oversinging, i rarely see people complaining about his cleans nowadays like with people did during Toxic or Division days.
And he could do a proper guttural now, definitely sound safer than before.
But Unfortunately the middle half of the album is very weak imo. Incubus was a weaker version of Utsusemi, Wasteland was a slog to get through, Paralysis, Lucy, and Blemish were meh. The rest of the album is is indeed very good but Ninth is more consistent. The only underwhelming song i could find on this album is Unfinished. Atleast both album had more to offer compared to MASS.
Maybe impressed but similar? Hakuri could be it but if we gonna talk about Uroboros, DOGMA is the one, due to its slower approach. DIM is much more comparable to Vulgar, with a little bit of Marrow in it.
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I love the sound production of DIM. It’s the perfect example of an album with personality. There are no album which sound like that. They build on atmosphere around it. Also, let’s not forget that this album contain the masterpiece " Nakigahara ".
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Disorder is my favourite album from the Gazette, it gave that punk vibe filled in perfectly with 00’s VKei tropes that give the album such great character and defines their sound from that era. DIM is better than DOGMA for me simply due to the theatrics and the flow of the album. Whilst I really do like DOGMA, I feel like DIM has the edge over it because DOGMA, as a concept album, stayed on one path and the sounds lacked variation. To me, DIM builds a brilliant dark, murky atmosphere and is filled with light moments in the ballad tracks, it’s pieced together perfectly imo.
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I always saw DOGMA as gazette’s answer to dum spiro spero
I never wanted to see one and the same vision or sound, aka - keep repeating their best moments. But since life change - you change too. Moreover, music scene, especially rock and japanese, is about showing strong and unseen thing, it is not pop to look pretty and meow in front of the microphone with every next song that will be forgotten at the moment you finish your coffee.
Gazetter guys are not that old to perform in wheel chairs. Hyde is over 50 and he is making amazing show all the time. Don’t make me start with some other bands that quit only when their bodies are so broken and their health is so bad that they need rest or a coffin.
If you get yourself into the game, play it or leave.
Those are the rules and this game is cruel, believe me, I know, it’s not only the talent and the good look.
The hard work, the unfair contracts where recording companies and labels force you to change your own music, the expectations, the traveling, the money, the personal life… Not everyone can live that life, many musicians quit, or get sick and lose it all.
But if you want something you need to pay the prize for it. And the reward isn’t that bad.
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I love the way Dim was mixed, and I also like a vast majority of the songs. Problem is the track list doesn’t flow very well, so the album sounds very disjointed. I think having two interludes so close together in the latter half was supposed to help alleviate that problem, but if anything it makes it sound even messier.
Maybe I have weird tastes but Dogma is one of my favourite releases of theirs. Haha
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I like to take Dogma, and add in all of the singles’ B-sides – UNDYING included.
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Not a popular take, but the GazettE have been all style no substance to me for a long time. Their production has gotten better over the years but ,overall, their songwriting hasn’t really shaken things up too much. Not much from Beautiful Deformity and onwards has really stayed in my memory. But they’re also, what, like 20+ years or something into their career and 10 albums in? They’re not doing so bad and you could definitely have a worse output in content that far into your career. I think the last thing I really wholeheartedly liked by them though is their Before I Decay single.
I’m of the same opinion as @TheZigzagoon that Disorder is their best album. Short and sweet, has an identity, and nearly each track is a certified GazettE classic. There’s essentially no fat to trim. It’s the one I think of most and is the height of their PSC days for me.
I think Dogma gets a lot of undeserved praise. It set the band on the right direction after their meandering phase between Division and Beautiful Deformity, but it’s very one note. I’ve probably listened to it more than the latter two albums, but I can barely remember a song from it now. In my opinion they traded away memorable song writing and diversity with better sound direction. With the previous two albums, even if they were messy and lacked focus, they were fun and had a lot of good stuff sprinkled in between whether it was a track or two or some riffs. Mind you, I don’t think it really came together and they both leaved a lot to be desired, but you could at least poke fun.
NINTH was a great and more textured evolution of this sound, but the song writing didn’t stick with me. Except Falling, which is such a strong track, and Abhor God which surprised me with how much the chorus seemed to channel the energy of an early days Gazette song. There’s a little perk to Ruki’s vocals that just feels like something from their PSC and early King Records era.
I think my last favorite era was their Toxic phase. It was still before Ruki really changed his singing style and it felt like a pretty solid album from front to back. And the B-sides from the singles are some of my favorites. Toxic era GazettE is so underappreciated.
What it is for me is that The GazettE used to have this playful and kinetic energy with their music. They wrote songs like Taion, but they also threw out something like Silly God Disco. You got a song like Yoin, but then Inside Beast is waiting around the corner. They don’t really do that now. That might be unfair to say since other legacy bands have evolved and aged as well, but I think the GazettE for me just haven’t evolved in way that interests me now. To put it broadly, I think the main thing they got going for them is that they’re heavier and darker than they used to be.
That is, until Mass came out. They brought back some of that playfullness that the last two albums seems to have ditched in favor of a more serious tone. And for me at least, I’m more interested in the band now (even if I thought the album itself was as lukewarm as a plate of mozerlla sticks that had been left out on a serving tray forgotten to actually get served.) I think we could see something special with their next album if they keep evolving in this direction. It took 4 albums to get DIM, which many deemed as the best GazettE album. And now we’ve hit that cycle again since their reset with Dogma.
Think about it
Disorder > Nil (darker) > Stacked Rubbish (more experimental) > Dim
Dogma > Ninth (darker) > Mass (more experimental) > Dim 2?
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I’ve always hated their omnipresent drive to record radio-friendly songs that almost always ranged from formulaic to blatantly ripped off luna sea, the # 1 go to source to copy for anyone fancying themselves a major contract, when their actual talent always lied in nihilistic, abstract, emotionless stuff that went on b-sides:
I like some of their softer songs, the OG reila is a beautiful piece of work without falling into straight sentimental cringe, and their looks of that era were out of this world, but they’ll never be the band to break out of the VK shoebox by appealing to radio trends.
I also hate that ever since they went single-less, any experiments with sound they could do once in a while w/o committing to an album concept went out as well; with no side-projects from all 5 members, it doesn’t help with their lack of variety at all.
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There is one album by GazettE that I hated when it came out. Funnily I don’t remember which one it was. Looking at the track lists now I either think: “no, this can’t be the one I disliked. There are some bangers on this one.” Or “I have no memory of this place. Did I sleep on that release???”
But I think it’s either DIM or Dogma. But they seem to be very beloved by everyone else. lol
Guess my top 3 is: NIL, Stacked Rubbish and Toxic
Precisely this, and Aoi expressed some frustration in the past in some interviews about the fact Ruki takes over the writing process. I remember talking to someone in JRO about how cool it would be to get an album written by other members, Aoi specifically, and how it might be what we need to get some fresh gazette.
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I think Ruki is a good capitain, a great tone-setter. The direction he gives to them is generally good, but his songwriting has become stale. If he let go of the composition steering wheel and focus in keeping the sound tight and the vision clear, the band could shine again
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If lynch. could do it with Reborn, then maybe Gazette should do it as well.
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They’re releasing the Budokan live
https://twitter.com/theGazettESTAFF/status/1739273409211859135?t=6MCZ4UxBdjT7Z30xm8zE7Q&s=19
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Of course they’re going to release it. I was expecting for them to announce this much earlier.
I guess, they gonna announce new album & single/title song somewhere in February (and that single/title song gonna release on March 10th).
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