Review by Gardenia
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GardeniaMALICE MIZERAlmost perfect single
A half lovely and half distracting single release by Malice Mizer, consisting of 5 tracks in total. A short piano prologue "~Kaisou~" leads us to the title track, "Gardenia", a lovely song with light, almost pop-like tone and quite a magical atmosphere, similar to what Malice Mizer's music mostly was during so-called Gackt era. It is followed by what's distracting in this release to me, an electronic-industrial B-side called "Houkai Jokyoku", which is pretty much complete opposite to the title track. The rest two tracks are the instrumental versions of "Gardenia" and "Houkai Jokyoku". The release is provides very nice amount of eye candy as well. Besides the appealing covers, the insides of the booklet are beautiful too: all the members are featured in their Gardenia outfits, each one of them getting a one double page. Besides the B-side, this single release is beautiful and essential add to any Malice Mizer fan's collection. Highly recommended.
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The Marrow of a Bone [Regular Edition]Dir en greyHopefully the next album will be better
In my opinion, this is thus far the weakest album by Dir en grey. Deg used to be one of the most creative and experiencing groups of Japanese music scene, doing songs with some truly unique, mesmerizing traits, but it couldn't be believed when hearing the dull metallic tones on this CD, with only a few highlights (e.g. "Namamekashiki Ansoku, Tamerai ni Hohoemi"). The tracklisting consist almost completely of songs that have very little or almost not at all of the melody part. Besides the album itself, one thing I wasn't happy with neither was the booklet: the lyrics are printed in such a tiny font and dark silvery colour that they're impossible to read without a magnifying glass and a light coming from just the right direction, and I can't believe that I'd be the only one having problems with the printout. However, even though this album wasn't exactly a treat for me personally, I'm living in a hope of better tomorrow for Dir en grey. If they're following their concept of chancing with each album, I hope that this was only a misstep to the worse and that the next album would be gorgeous one, maybe merging together the new more metallic tune and beautiful melodies.
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GAUZEDir en greyDebut album beyond awesome
Gauze is an amazing piece of work and considering that it's Dir en grey's first full-length album makes it even more impressing in my book. Debut album can't get much better than this! The tracklisting consists almost entirely of madly brilliant songs with only few which I am not exactly fond of ("Tsumi to Batsu", "mazohyst of decadence", "MASK" and "-ZAN-") and a great deal of the wonderful ones ("Yurameki", "raison detre", "304 Goushitsu, Hakushi no Sakura", "Cage", "Yokan" and "Akuro no Oka"). The intro is the best one to date. Stylistically this album is more on the up-beat, lighter side, respectively, yet it still has that enjoyable rough edge and the pleasantly disturbing feel of darkness closing in. The whole band is doing absolutely superb job, and not a single bad thing can be said about anyone's performance. The booklet is quite plain. The background colour is white, the texts are mostly printed in black and there are some monochrome photos: one of each band member and then few others, always a one sided with each lyric. Gauze is one of my favourite albums by Dir en grey and an essential album in any rock collection.
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MISSADir en greyOnly for die-hard fans
In my opinion, Missa ain't too special, not even if viewed as an debut album. The only song I can honestly say I like is "Garden"; the others are quite so-so, even though especially Shinya and Kaoru are doing some really skilful playing all the way. I wouldn't consider this as an essential Deg item to purchase; buy this only if you're a die-hard fan who must own everything they've ever released.
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KisouDir en greyA must-own
Kisou is a very interesting, unique album with a great variety. The songs alter from fierce and heavy to tender and slow-paced, still almost always being very emotional. I pretty much love all the songs excluding "FILTH" and "Pink Killer". Naming a favourite song is a difficult task, as almost every one of them is truly fantastic work of art, but I'd say it'd be "embryo" for me. The short instrumental interludes titled "Shinsou" are really nice idea and my personal favourite of them is the last, which is a very beautiful, soothing one with piano. The entire band is doing absolutely wonderful job all the way, and I really get the impression that they're all giving the very best they can. The booklet looks very stylish in its shades of gold and it's my favourite Deg booklet after Macabre's one. The only thing which prevents me from giving this album five stars is Kyo's wide range of these unsorted, disturbing weird noises which are a bit too much all over the place for my taste (in "-kigan-", "ZOMBOID", "FILTH", "Bottom of the Death Valley", "Gyakujo Tannou Keloid Milk" and "Pink Killer"). Overall, Kisou is a downright excellent album and an essential purchase.
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six UglyDir en greyAt least definitely better than Missa
The overall sound of six Ugly can be described hard & fast with quite a non-serious, almost comical feel in there. It's technically a lot better than their previous EP Missa (for obvious reasons), and the whole gang is doing great job (especially Shinya). The songs on this album don't differ much though; rather they're all sounding pretty much the same all the way...the only song that really stood out for me was "umbrella", which is very catchy and fun one to listen to. The booklet isn't too interesting with its black & white colour scheme and some quite bad drawings inspired by American popular culture. Quite ok this is taken as a whole, but I'd recommend getting this only if you already are familiar with Dir en grey via the other albums; this is not an album to buy as your first by this band.
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Decade 1998-2002 [Limited Release]Dir en greyConsider its necessity well
I'm not too happy about buying this album. It's probably a great buy to those who haven't bought all the non-compilation albums from Dir en grey and for those who're just starting with Deg, since this compilation includes many Deg's best songs, such as "Akuro no Oka", "Cage", "Yokan", "304 Gouhitsu, Hakushi no Sakura", "JEALOUS -reverse-", "ain't afraid to die", "Bottom of the Death Valley", "embryo" and "-mushi-"...and I must say that the remastering truly can be heard, especially with the oldest songs. Though, on the other hand, there was missing many songs that I'd included without a doubt: where are songs like "I'll", "GARDEN", "raison detre" and "Wake", to mention few? The booklet is horrifying: the outlook is really chaotic and the texts are hard-to-read, plus that the art is plain strange, and not in positive way. For people like me, already having all the non-compilation albums and already being deep inside the complex world of Deg, it's not worth it to buy this album. I'd seriously recommend just buying all the original albums and singles instead of this compilation; you won't regret if you do so.
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Decade 2003-2007 [Limited Release]Dir en greyConsider its necessity well
If I wasn't really happy about having the another "Decade" compilation purchased, I'm even less satisfied with getting this one. Composed of songs from the albums "Vulgar", "Withering to death." and "The Marrow of a Bone", this compilation's overall atmosphere is very dark, loud and heavy, pretty much because the greatest deal of beautiful, more melodic songs Deg has done nowadays has been left out. Which is a pity. The booklet is just as horrific as the other "Decade's" one is: it looks very chaotic and the texts are difficult to read, plus that the art is simply odd, and not in good way. Only if you're fonder of Deg's newer music and haven't yet bought the three albums this is made of, you should get this without a doubt, since there aren't many songs not taken in from them. But, if you are more of a fan of the old school Deg, and you already have those three albums this compilation is made of, don't bother to get this, that'd be waste of money.