Seimeisen

1. Do you feel like you are entitled to free music? If you do, why? If you don't, why not?
 
No. If you decide to share something, it's great. But if you keep rubbing a rarez in my face and decide not to share it, then I'll probably feel like punching you. 
 
2. How do you feel about people refusing to share their music because they want to support the band?
 
I think it's bullshit. If no one shares their music, others will never find out about those bands. I used to leech for many years but when I finally got the funds to buy CDs, I did. I wouldn't have any CDs if someone didn't share their music in the first place.
 
And for example if Kles didn't share　アルルカン's Eclipse in January, I wouldn't have hoarded all their CDs afterwards. Of course most people who downloaded that single didn't actually buy it afterwards, but if even one of them bought that single after first downloading it, I think it's a win-win for everybody. After downloading their 1st & 2nd single I've spent 23 580 yens (~171€) on their releases (of which CDs worth of 20 000 yens were purchased new and CDs worth of 3580 yens second-hand). And that's exactly the reason why I share my stuff - so that the band would get more fans and if even one of those buy something, I feel like I've accomplished something very important.
 
 
3. In relation to the second question, what do you think of people who tell others not to share something they themselves paid money for as they think its content is exclusively for those who paid for it?
 
As others have said it before me, I think it's bullshit.
 
4. Do you think entitlement to free music is worse in visual kei than in other communities?
 
People in the VK community are used to downloading everything for free because most CDs are very hard to get and they cost you a fortune, so I think it might be worse in the VK community.
 
5. How do you feel about people who deliberately share releases in low bitrates to encourage you to buy the CD?  Do you think that if someone does decide to share, you're entitled to the highest rip?
 
If the rip is bad, I wouldn't really feel like listening to it at all and probably wouldn't listen to it enough to really like it. As long as the rip is listenable, I won't complain.
I kinda understand the thought behind sharing only low quality rips, but bad rips might also repel some potential fans.
 
6. Have you ever been approached by people, either on Monochrome Heaven or last.fm, who wanted you to share something? If you didn't want to share, how did they react? What did you think of their reaction?
 
Yes I have, because people wouldn't approach me if they could find it elsewhere. I always share when someone asks nicely about it, because I'd like people to share their releases if I ask them to. I really expect others to do nice things (=upload something they own) to me if I have done something nice to them (=uploaded something I own). I'm not sure if that makes me an asshole but I think it's pretty obnoxious and hypocritical if you download every single rarez you have but never share your own rarez.
 
Btw I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I've noticed that those people who themselves don't own any CDs always kind of expect you to upload something. They ask things very rudely and don't even think about the possibility that I might actually say no.
 
 
EDIT// Just a few thoughts that occurred to me after I finished this post.
 
The most important reason I share a lot of my stuff is because I feel I'm in a forever lasting debt to people who decided to share their stuff when I was just getting into VK. Without those people I would've never found out about VK, and I want to do the same favor to other people as well. I remember the joy I felt back in 2009 when someone had uploaded Lycaon's Cordyceps sinensis, Declaration of war and Box in a beautiful. If I could, I would have drowned those uploaders in hugs and kisses. I just can't believe the mentality of those people who find out about this genre through illegal downloads, but then never share their own stuff. Sharing is caring <3

Uuuuhhhhh... the chorus wasn't bad?
I think I'm just done with CROSSFAITH. I didn't like Apocalyze (or whatever it was called) at all, I was a little iffy about ZION. These guys are just going in a direction that's not for me.

Artwork time:
TYPE 視:

TYPE 聴:

I think you misspelled "disband DEATHGAZE". Ai IS DEATHGAZE. No Ai, no DEATHGAZE.

AMEN! I don't want buttlust rip-offs in my Lycaon. If they're gonna follow the vein of heavier bands, I'd rather they take cues from ones that are waaaayy better than NB.

Shadow is just as good as the other stuff they have released lately, so the b-sides should be up to snuff. 
I don't have any problem with them having breakdowns and shit, but gawd they should never take any cues from complete hack shite bands like NB. 

Artist: Sadie Album: GANGSTA Score:
The musical equivalent of the human centipede, where genres are held hostage and stitched together ass to mouth so shit flows in one end and out the other. Except one of the genres is emaciated, another is dressed in drag, and a third took five too many Xanax and huddles unconscious in the corner. Making heads or tails of what GANGSTA wants to be is fruitless. A convoluted mess of bad ideas, worse ideas, and terrible execution, the best thing about it is how little the name has to do with anything. If you like your clouds with silver lining, it's not the visual kei equivalent of Sasuke Uchiha's mixtape, but the turntable scratching and rapping still rears it's ugly head when Sadie is done violating all the other genres they think they can handle.
 
The beginning of the end of my expectations starts with MODE OF GANGSTA, which kickstarts this thirteen track tour de force of all the ways to not juxtapose genres. Evoking feelings of a coked out futuristic dystopian cyberpunk electro-rave punctuated with gang vocals, it's about as good as DEATHGAZE's Japanese Meliorism. And by that, I mean it's cool for eight measures and then it needs to stop. But by this point, you've already ventured into the ectosphere and are being pulled towards the gravitational singularity that is this album whether you like it or not, and the only question you should have is why.
 
One of the few constants within this album is how any attempts to extinguish the flaming wreckage only makes things worse. Lead single DEAD END's intro may give you hope - as a formulaic Sadie rock number they're in familiar territory - but even here there are signs that things are going to go wrong fast. Not only do I feel like I've heard this song before - probably because I have - but the song feels like a disjointed collage of half-executed ideas that don't play well together. There's some sugar, some spice, a funky guitar line or two, a chorus with complex delivery, token heavy sections, and harsh vocals that feel like an after thought, thrown about to take up eight measures worth of time. There's some good and some bad, but it's the most consistent track on here.
 
Differences in opinion over the first two tracks can be summed up into "at least they're trying!" and "diversity!", so I can't knock this band for having no ideas. But at the end of the day, the inability to execute a vision even with a multitude of ideas is not a matter of opinion. It's a fatal shortcoming that births tracks like WELCOME TO THE UNDERGROUND, which is the most clumsy jazz-kei attempt of the last decade. It also marks the point where the album crosses the event horizon and there's no coming back. They keep up their cabaret pretenses for three minutes before sliding back into their trademark metalcore sound so they don't feel too out of their comfort zone, but the awkward focus on English lyrics and inappropriate guitar tuning betrays the band's intentions. The left-field metalcore section sports harsh vocals poor even by Mao's standards, and the aggression displayed near the end is at odds with the rhythm in the beginning. If they had held consistent, it would have been an amusing LIPHLICH imitation at best. Instead, this is a muddled mess.
 
But it's not just WELCOME TO THE UNDERGROUND that sounds like a spiked cocktail of ill-executed concepts. The second constant of GANGSTA is that Sadie doesn't know what it wants to play. A puree of shit banded together by interludes forms whenever Sadie tries to coax ideas into places they don't fit, and a majority of the album falls into this category. Whenever they stumble onto an idea that might work, they suddenly switch gears before it can get going. It would be more prudent to highlight all the songs that stay the course - wherever that course may be headed - from beginning to end. For that, I give props to Tokyo Gypsy, MESSAGE FROM HERE, and the piano outro PHRASE OF LIFE. I would never say any of these three tracks are "good". Singling one out as the best song is deceptive; it's like comparing a turd to twelve less smelly turds. What we have here are three tracks that didn't elevate my blood pressure, and thus I'll take the road less traveled and talk about the few positive aspects of this album.
 
Tokyo Gypsy is a slower rock song, which in the hands of a different band could have worked a lot better. It's the first song on the album that isn't a total disaster, but the band refuses to let it's hair down and get into the groove. This creates unneeded apprehension in the atmosphere. Nothing about this song screams "Listen to me again!", but the greasy back alley male strip club vibe I get from listening to it gives it a place of distinction in my mind. MESSAGE FROM HERE is a six minute ballad driven by a piano where only the rightmost five keys work. There's a feeling of the piano sitting on top of the music instead of integrating itself to it, and feels at odds with the prominent bass line. It deserves brownie points because it doesn't have a section of asinine songwriting to ruin the flow, but it doesn't captivate me either. It's far too long for what little ideas they're toying with, and could have been four minutes and delivered the same impact. The fact that it follows another ballad and leads into a piano outro means that while the album takes a sonic detour into consistency near the end, it's sinks into obscurity in a sea of similarity.
 
I won't mention much of PHRASE OF LIFE, except it's a nod to Kisou and STACKED RUBBISH - a disjointed album ending on a pleasant note.
 
Once the piano from PHRASE OF LIFE twinkles it's way to an understated ending, my hopes are crushed. I've listened to the entire album but I don't know what the purpose was. How can GANGSTA be justified as the product of hard work and musical creativity, when corners were cut and questionable choices were made at every turn? When the band wants to play metalcore, I'm bombarded with rave synth, embarrassing gang vocals, bars of absolute shit songwriting, demented gerbil sounds that are supposed to pass for harsh vocals all held together with derivative pop hooks so recycled the logo is visible. How can one rectify the disparate influences that pull tracks apart rather than brings them together? Take bleach as a four minute excursion into all the things wrong with this album. There's prominent DJ scratching, more bad gang vocals, random unexplored changes in riffage, and melodic metalcore over a house beat held up by Sadie's favorite musical crutches. None of these things go together either on paper or in practice, but the band insists that they do. I can't find any redeeming qualities in this album, and additional listens of GANGSTA reveal more flaws and no hidden gems. If there are any in the music, it's hidden deeper than it's worth to find them.
 
There's trying, trying too hard, and then having no idea what you're doing anymore. Sadie has always been a straightforward metalcore band. The contention with their sound in the last few years is that they're using the same formula to come up with their tracks and they need a way to distinguish them. Thinking outside the box, gathering all of these ideas, and then leaving them outside the box defeats the purpose of gathering those ideas in the first place! If these ideas can't be used, they should be discarded. Instead, the box is as empty as it was before, the ideas are neglected like a child whose mother doesn't love them, the presentation is messy, and it's left to the listener to puzzle out what the band's true intentions were.
 
I'd rather vomit on tinfoil and eat it than listen to this again.

I'll be watching this topic like a hawk and swooping down to assault unsuspecting customers with deals.

Artwork for 言の葉. Not too elaborate, but still very nice.

Lycaon doing NB Oh jesus please no...
Lycaon let's just do Lycaon<3

Artwork for 言の葉. Not too elaborate, but still very nice.

"Shadow" [CD track list]
01.Shadow
02.anima
03.赤い林檎(akai ringo) (included in regular edition)

yeah i'm aware of that. but it matters for fans who would like to collect their entire discography including the live-limited stuff for memory's sake x.x

I want so bad, why GHOSE?

The comment about "better selection" was in direct relation to CD Japan. CDJ didn't used to have as many non-visual rock artists, but they seem to have improved over the years. And like sweetholm mentioned, they have a multibuy discount for large orders. I also like the fact that they are fast and extremely reliable so I just stay with them.

when I have ordered from them they had deals at the time where depending on how the CDs are marked you get certain discounts according to how many you buy, but that was only good for larger orders. I also feel like at the time they had a larger selection, but since then cd japan has definitely surprised me with the selection they carry. Also I noticed when ordering CDs that have been out for a while through hmv were more or less likely to still be first press. Cd japan always runs out fast

So, there's a few people here who have selected HMV as a favourite. What's so great about it? What separates it from Amazon JP? Or CDJapan? Do they just have a better selection?

That really depends on location. To Germany Registered Airmail is pretty much always cheaper, while EMS and FedEx are very close together. But FedEx may charge you extra for doing the customs work from what I heard from a friend. Again, this will probably be different from countrry to country.

Fedex is always a good choice unless you live in one of those countries that tax a ridiculous amount on Fedex parcels.
 
Closetchild has a lot of rare stuff; unfortunately like what ryuuji has also said they charge at least 3800 or 4800 yen for almost all the live-limited or live-distros. I suspect they buy at a higher price from the bangyas to try and monopolize the live-limited market so they can profit more off it lol.

To be honest, most of the vk stuff that isn't fairly old or super-rarez can be bought from CD Japan. I'm often surprised how many lesser known bands they carry. I do suspect them to overcharge on shipping though. Recently they wanted almost 4000 Yen for 5 CDs with EMS. I never payed more than 2000 Yen on Closetchild, even for more than 5 CDs!
 
That being said, I really like Closetchild, made some nice finds there. I just wish they would stop stocking all those Golden Bomber chekis. WHO IS ACTUALLY BUYING ALL OF THOSE!?!
 
 
Other than that it's Adumaya, Puresound and Yahoo Auctions for me, but 80% of what I buy is probably from Closetchild and CD Japan.

Technically, I hate having to deal with all of these sites at some capacity, since there's always some inconvenience... except for Bandcamp, that site is wonderful; and I'm sure RarezHut would be very convenient too, since they don't operate in Japan.
Agreeing that あづまや本舗 has a nice selection, though some of their things can be freakishly expensive. However, before they started shipping overseas, I placed orders on that site through FROM JAPAN, and shipping to the warehouse was always free. Haven't tried ordering from them since they started shipping overseas.
I like ClosetChild and PureSound, because they have a nice selection, but they ONLY let you use EMS. Also, PureSound makes you e-mail them an order form, which is fucking weird.
CDJapan can be a pain in the ass from time to time (especially with pre-orders), but they have multiple shipping options, so it can be more affordable in many cases.
FROM JAPAN used to be my all-time favourite thing ever, but now I feel a bit resentful. It's perfect for buying multiple things from several different stores, but buying only two CDs from a different store... not so much, but sometimes it's the only option. Also, it seems that they go to great lengths to make sure that customers spend the most money (e.g: putting two CDs in a GIANT BOX so you can pay more for shipping but charging you to make them put the items in a smaller packet).
With my financial situation, I will only, ONLY purchase through FROM JAPAN if it is my last resort, or it is (by some freakish circumstance) the cheapest option.

I like the title under your name, lol.

Just post 158 things and your name will become yellow.

To me it seems as if its MONSTER part two but more ballsy. The guitar work is what really draws me to it and GO AHEAD is hauntingly scary and is the best song on the track because its raw and that breakdown is nuts. As far as the rest of the songs go, I will admit that I do see some repetitiveness going on but I can deal for the most part. My hope is the same hope that I have for the GazettE's upcoming releases (which Ruki did speak on recently btw) and that is that they grow and build up from what they are doing. This current era of GIRUGAMESH shows that they actually do know how to write music again and is pretty much done with all that poppy nonsense. I wanna see where it goes from here.

The Single kicked ass that's all i have too say i love all the songs
and it's a 10 star for me (again)
 
i suck at giving reviews...