the GazettE's DIVISION

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

I have a couple of minutes before I head down to Philly so I figured I'd write a brief review to get the ball rolling.

Personally I thought it was a good album, I mean not their best work, but definitely far from their worst. I did enjoy the concept of splitting up the more industrial rock (if that's what you'll call it. I'd even maybe say electro rock) from the ... somewhat ballad-esque songs.

The SEs were pretty well done, for what they were, but I would say my favorite tracks are Kage Fumi, Yoin, Required Malfunction and Dripping Insanity with special mentions to Derangement and Kago no Sanagi which were both really good in their own way. Ibitsu, Attitude, and Gabriel on the Gallows were all also good in their own ways but need to grow on me through more listens.

The autotune was much better placed on this album, but I think it might be trying to hide that Ruki's voice MAYBE is not as good as it used to be (just my humble musings).

The aspect I enjoyed most of this album were there were no songs on the album that I said "Oh god no, this is terrible" to, but the part I liked the least is there were no songs that totally and completely blew me away in the way that Ruthless Deed, 13 Stairs -1, and Chizuru did from the last three albums.

[Wonrei 108]

I wrote this while listening to the album, so it's most first impressions. I generally don't change opinions on albums, though.

Depth - Actually pretty beautiful. Wasn't expecting... gives this pretty depressive vibe... maybe would have worked better as a closer? Let's see. sad/10

歪 - At first I was like "this is pretty generic" but it's somewhat better than the other gazette songs from the same kind. The guitar is awesome on the verses. Full version ended being fine as I kind of expected. Damn, that solo! damn/10

籠の蛹 - What? This intro... is this Gazette? Oh, the female voices, it is. Overall it's giving me a huge DIM vibe. Also liking it. The part that led to the ending was pretty lovely. Is this reality? Am I listening to a recent Gazette album and enjoying more than 2 tracks? I missed you Dim/10

ヘドロ - Weird stuff. Somewhat straightforward rock, but I kinda liked that thing before the breakdown, whatever it was. The guitar is pretty cool too. The vocal melody is kinda weird, not sure if want. At least you're trying Gazette/10

影踏み - Gazeballad. Reminds me of Pledge. Probably will only listen to it again if I'm listening to the full album, didn't see anything that screamed originality. The solo and the guitars before it were beautiful, but I've also seen that on other ballads by them. More originality pls/10

余韻 - DIM vibes again... lol symphonic synths, that's somewhat original for gazette. Symphonic Dim. Oh god that guitar work before the chorus was fine. I felt this could be longer. Favorite on disc/10

[DIPLOSOMIA] - At first it was somewhat ambient like Depth but then the beat comes. Let's see what waits for us on disc 2. why is there a pv for this/10

Halfway comments - No WUB WUB, I'm mad. This disc was a lot better than I thought it would be - really reminiscent of DIM overall. Now let's see the rest

[XI] - Here it comes. Maybe it should have stopped before this. OH WAIT, WUB WUB/10

DERANGEMENT - Now I can actually hear the wub wub right. Oh yes this is the WUB disc, now I get the concept thing. Even the aggressive section was fine. I already thought it was going to be good though, so no surprises. I would've preferred a WUB WUB breakdown than the solo though(I just think it would be more fitting to the rest of the song, for whatever reason) DEDEDEDERANGEMENT/10

REQUIRED MALFUNCTION - This is sounding like a Gazette attempt of a Mad Capsule Markets song. The verses and chorus specially... the bridge not really. Sounds a lot like Takeshi's solo work, AA= too(guitar really reminiscent of his melodic AA= songs). I like it, what the fuck. Lots of auto tune and vocoding/10

DRIPPING INSANITY - Better than the other ballad(even if I don't know if I can classify this as a ballad specially with these harder sections), at least. Even with the hard guitars on the verses the synths and the overall vocal melody are as pop as you can get. 6/10

ATTITUDE - Somewhat reminiscent of the Dim aggressive songs, I'd say.The electronic segments do add interesting stuff to the song. I didn't like the chorus though, just thought it sounded bad. Is that someone saying bass halfway on the song? Gazette meets Skrillex/10

GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS - Somewhat good, but I didn't get putting two aggressive songs one after the other. The verse awkwardly reminds me of Ricky Martin though. Livin la vida loca/10

[MELT] - Impressive. They should actually try something like this sound. Sounds somewhat industrial metal. Awesome siren thing at the end, gave me that impression "this isn't the end" Marilyn Manson/10

So yeah. On the overall? I was actually impressed. I thought it was better than most of their albums. I was never a fan of their really old sound, and I don't even know why I always followed their news - the only Gazette release I actually really liked was Dim. The first part of the album sounds like Dim and the other one like a REALLY better Toxic. It seems they actually tried to get something different this time. Special note for the solos, almost all of them were really good. Silly ratings aside, I'll give it a 8/10 and is as high as Dim on my favorites list.

There was more WUB than on Toxic too, and I liked that. It's interesting that this was a lot more aggressive than Toxic. Now I've actually got expectatives for whatever they release from now on.

Highlights - 余韻, 籠の蛹, REQUIRED MALFUNCTION, [MELT](really)

[Zeus 7997]

DIVISION is the sign of a band fresh out of ideas clinging on to the hopes of being relevant by a single string. In case that wasn't clear, I'm going to simplify it and tell you that the GazettE is on life support. At this point, it's almost fact.

GazettE tried to retcon the failure that was TOXIC by claiming that they were forced to release it before it was ready and that this time around things were going to be done right. Putting aside notions of mine that the sound wasn't very good to begin with and no amount of refining can make it good, I expected DIVISION to not be as completely half-assed as it is.

The tracks on the first half of DIVISION are tepid. Aoi and Uruha seem to forget that they can tune their guitars and that there are two of them so they don't need to riff the same notes, which makes for a slew of formulaic songs. It's a nice mish-mash of the same pop-rock style that we've been receiving since the tail end of DIM/Before I Decay. It's nothing new and nothing revolutionary and this is totally acceptable. In fact, the only part of DISC 1 that I utterly detest are the intro and outro. I hate intros and outros on principle but especially in this case when DIVISION is supposed to be a concept album, they don't add anything to the theme. The concept would remain intact if [DEPTH] and [DIPLOSOMIA] were dropped from the tracklisting (or if they were more interesting), so all it does is add about three minutes of crappy ambient humming. My air conditioner makes more interesting noise.

I quite favor 歪 and ヘドロ. If I had to guess, it sounds like the songs they wanted to create more of, the songs that they want to be characteristic of DISC 1 and the ones they spent the most on. If I had to pick my favorites from all of DIVISION, it would be these two. 影踏み is the black sheep of this side of the record. It sounds like a song that I will find myself growing to enjoy but cannot yet see the full appeal in. 籠の蛹 is the only song I don't like. The female vocals and the chorus irritate me and there's no other point in the song that is good enough to contrast with that shortcoming. 余韻 tries to channel 千鶴 but it doesn't work. Part of what made 千鶴 such a dynamic track was that it was given time to unfold. 余韻 was not and it needed that time. In fact, all of the tracks seem to be shoved into these constraints where nothing can exceed four minutes and have to have at least two repetitions of the chorus. This does not fit with what 余韻 wants to be and thus the track flies by without ever properly becoming. That's not to mean it's a totally negative review because it's an alright track. It just could have been so much more.

Now that I've gotten all that out of my system, DISC 1 is far and away better than DISC 2.

I'll preface DISC 2 by labeling it a horrific mess of apocalyptic proportions smothered to death with autotune and random segments of electronic effects that do nothing to add to the music. DISC 2 was described as a return to "the DIM sound". It is not. It isn't even close. That was a complete, bold-faced lie. DIM was not this unorganized. DIM outside of IN THE MIDDLE OF CHAOS was not this obnoxious. DIM didn't sound like it was dumped in a vat of synth. It had SE's but as I said they served more of a purpose. For example, 「子宮」 placed after 紅蓮 symbolized the importance of children and how a baby would react mid-abortion. What does [XI] do other than sound annoying and produce spectrographs that look like a herd of elephants running away from the band?

The constant buzzing, humming and beeping in the background is used mostly to deluge five uninteresting songs and hope that you don't notice their similarities. The riffing is very rhythm based, which is fine except there's no melody. Melody is key in any song from any genre. If you have no melody, what am I listening to? As far as the GazettE is concerned, I should enjoy the sounds of a dying router alternated with the sounds that even the gabber/happycore scene deemed to obnoxious to use. It's clear that on this side, the effects are first and the band second. Just enjoy this mock conversation which should highlight exactly how I think the recording process for DISC 2 went:

Ruki: "Hey I want to make more TOXIC-like music?"

Kai: "You mean songs like RED and PLEDGE? We already have an entire disc devoted to that sound!"

Ruki: "NO GAIZ I MEAN STUFF LIKE SLUDGY CULT BUT WITHOUT ANY ACCEPTABLE SORT OF RIFFING. C LOOK I HAZ EFFECTS."

Kai: "Man, those sounds have attitude man! We should put them together on a song and call that song ATTITUDE!"

Uruha: "Cool. I'll come up with a few simple riffs to remind people that we're still a rock/metal band."

Aoi: "I'll do what he does."

Ruki: "Make it simple. I don't want any melody mucking up my effects."

Reita: "I'm still relevant?"

Kai: "And I'll try out this new 'double bass' thing to make us sound EXTRA ヘビー. I'll throw it in on REQUIRED MALFUNCTION or something."

Ruki: "かわいい です~ I'll meet you guys in the studio in 15 minutes to hammer out the first track. In the meantime, turn on my computer so I can record [MELT]."

There is not one song on DISC 2 that I would give a score higher than 3/10 to. Not. One. Some of the songs, like REQUIRED MALFUNCTION and ATTITUDE, are so bad it's funny. Then you're reminded that this indeed isn't a joke, that the GazettE is completely serious about this being something that they want to do and that most importantly this is what half of TOXIC was supposed to sound like. Should I start with the multitude of effects layered over the vocals, the absolutely atrocious "HOO HOO" in REQUIRED MALFUNCTION, the breakdown that doesn't fit followed by the acoustic section that also doesn't fit, the Engrish, or the electronic effects that are there just to be there? I'm even going to pretend, for the sake of my sanity, that they totally did not sample 'dubstep' in ATTITUDE.

The worst part about this side is that there are plenty of decent moments marred by the GazettE's constant insistence upon itself. This band continually tries to force itself into a mold that doesn't work for them. Most songs could start out decent enough on this disc before careening straight into a brick wall about a minute into the whole shebang and after that it devolves into a struggle where the song is trying to be too much and doesn't end up as anything. Cue DERANGEMENT and GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS.

I was expecting something decent from DIVISION. I got all I needed from the first half. The second half is a joke. It has to be. It shouldn't even exist. I'll take more of DISC 1 and none of DISC 2 thank you very much.

DIVISION

Disc 1: 7/10

Disc 2: 2.3/10

[Augie1995 325]

All right, I am not in the mood for a track review but I will give the overall opinions of both discs. The GazettE got me good!

DISC 1 is amazing! I wish there was a bit of flow between the songs but I guess there's not. This disc seemed liked their ballad disc of the album. All the songs on here had at least one thing that just pulled me into the song.

Highlights of Disc: 籠の蛹, 影踏み, and 歪

King of the disc: 余韻- this track is absolutely beautiful. It's so dark and sinister and I love it! I read in Fool's Mate interview of DIVISION that the solo was dark but it sounded so badass! The sickest part was that I replayed this song a lot, and soon enough, on this hot summer day, the sky turned dark and became covered by clouds and it rained!

Disc 2 is badass! This is their more aggressive songs if you will. It got me bumping, banging, and jumping around...and I was at school during this hahaha. I knew they were going to have some electronic stuff in here and maybe some dubstep and I was afraid that they were going to overuse but it was nicely layered around. I never felt like one of the songs had too much that it overwhelmed me.

Highlights of the disc: DERANGEMENT, REQUIRED MALFUNCTION, ATTITUDE, GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS

King of the disc: DRIPPING INSANITY

Overall, this album kicked ass, I love it! It is loads better than TOXIC but it still has not passed DIM and I don't think there ever will be an album that will. DIVISION is now my #2 GazettE album, great jobs guys!! Nice to see also that there isn't much hate here~

[NBT 5]

Waited until the 29th before I listened to the album.
 

I guess that we can all agree that this album included hellalot of hang banging parts, which means more aggresive lives and more intense too! Looking forward for another DVD release!

Edited May 5, 2021 by NBT

[saishuu 3220]

First I'd like to say that, although I'm not a fan or care that much about Gazette, I tried listening to this with an open mind. By the end of the first disc, however, all I could think about was "RENTRER EN SOI has already done this years ago, better and probably with half the production". There are some cool ideas, especially in 影踏み and 余韻, but in the end it just feels flat. The second disc is just a laughable and uninspired mess. DERANGEMENT actually is kind of cool, but the generic guitar riffing throughout the entire song just drags it down. Also how many things were they trying to put into REQUIRED MALFUCTION?

[Daisuke 20]

All right, I am not in the mood for a track review but I will give the overall opinions of both discs. The GazettE got me good!

DISC 1 is amazing! I wish there was a bit of flow between the songs but I guess there's not. This disc seemed liked their ballad disc of the album. All the songs on here had at least one thing that just pulled me into the song.

Highlights of Disc: 籠の蛹, 影踏み, and 歪

King of the disc: 余韻- this track is absolutely beautiful. It's so dark and sinister and I love it! I read in Fool's Mate interview of DIVISION that the solo was dark but it sounded so badass! The sickest part was that I replayed this song a lot, and soon enough, on this hot summer day, the sky turned dark and became covered by clouds and it rained!

Disc 2 is badass! This is their more aggressive songs if you will. It got me bumping, banging, and jumping around...and I was at school during this hahaha. I knew they were going to have some electronic stuff in here and maybe some dubstep and I was afraid that they were going to overuse but it was nicely layered around. I never felt like one of the songs had too much that it overwhelmed me.

Highlights of the disc: DERANGEMENT, REQUIRED MALFUNCTION, ATTITUDE, GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS

King of the disc: DRIPPING INSANITY

Overall, this album kicked ass, I love it! It is loads better than TOXIC but it still has not passed DIM and I don't think there ever will be an album that will. DIVISION is now my #2 GazettE album, great jobs guys!! Nice to see also that there isn't much hate here~

I think same,is much better than Stacked Rubbish and Toxic. 8.5/10 !.

[relentless 254]

I really don't know what to make of DIVISION. First off, why was Ruki jerking off over the production quality of this album? The production feels amateur-ish with the muddled guitars and all the different sounds they're trying to pack into each track. Ruki advocated using high-end headphones to thoroughly enjoy this album, but ironically, Toxic sounds a lot better than this.

In the case of Toxic, you have an album that though not the band's crowning achievement, it certainly had some very strong moments: RED, SUICIDE CIRCUS, PLEDGE, and RUTHLESS DEED are evidence of that. These tracks presented the bands' most creative and memorable moments of the album, something they have not repeated here.

Now, onto DIVISION:

First, the guitar work is the most glaring weakness. Aside from the poor production, the riffs are unoriginal and play off of the same vanilla formula they have been ABUSING since BEFORE I DECAY. The drop B chugging is seriously getting old, I don't know how they can do it.

Second, the album feels like a bunch of unfinished ideas. Could this be a collection of B sides? It certainly feels that way. It's hard to find an album that lacks any hook throughout the entire experience -- almost none of this is appealing. The material on here pales GREATLY in comparison to DIM and everything they did before.

Despite the overwhelming problems with this album, there were a few things I liked. I liked Ruki's growls going into the breakdown of REQUIRED MALFUNCTION. Ruki has always copped-out when it came to gutturals, but here he expresses a skill he's never really shown before. The growls in that short few seconds were the most impressive thing HE HAS EVER DONE.

I also enjoyed that there were no STRICTLY HEAVY SONGS. There's no PSYCHOPATH, or DISCHARGE, or OGRE, or anything on here. I'm glad in that regard they stopped doing the same thing over and over again.

Final thoughts? Least favorite GazettE album, but at least there are a few moments on here that it may warrant another listen in the future...but that'll probably never happen.

3/10

[dannemannen 69]

歪 - Way to start off an album with a filler. They sound so tired 4/10.

籠の蛹 - Boring and generic, nothing stands out 5/10.

ヘドロ - Fun try but just ends up sounding like another... yes... filler 4/10.

影踏み - Sounds like a ballad from a j-popish rock band like Uverworld... fill... 5/10.

余韻 - Best song so far but still sounds like a b-side 6,5/10.

DERANGEMENT - Filler 4/10.

REQUIRED MALFUNCTION - Finally a catchy chorus, not too bad. Probably best song on the album imo 7/10.

DRIPPING INSANITY - Filler 4/10.

ATTITUDE - Shitty filler 3/10.

GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS - And they managed to wrap up the album with another filler which I give 2/10. Good work!

All in all I would give this album a 4 of 10. A major disappointment.

They just sound so tired... no spark... like there is no passion for making music anymore.

Gazerock might just finally be dead.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I'm on my second listen now. So let's see what these guys came up with this time!

DISC-1

[DEPTH]: starts out real promising. I like the overall atmosphere.

Ibitsu: sounds like if they mixed two forgettable tracks from TOXIC - let's say RED and SHIVER, for example. Nothing catchy or memorable here. Boring.

Kago no sanagi: apart from the ever-irritating female backing vocals in the beginning this is an average but okay song. I particularly like the guitars in the verses. Sadly, the bland and uninspired vocals drag this one down (typical GazettE problem).

Hedoro: a more aggressive and "mechanical" sounding song. Sounds a bit like it's sewn together from past songs (looking at you, HEADACHE MAN) but it works for me: it's fun, energetic, dare I say catchy. The first track so far that's worth replaying.

Kagefumi: Regular Ordinary Gazetto Ballad Time. Bored to tears by the 2nd minute. The guitar solo gives some relief though. Next.

Yoin: at first it almost sounds like GazettE trying to copy NEGA trying to copy GazettE but thankfully that feeling quickly disappears. I really like the lingering atmospheric tone, reminds me a bit of DIM (always a good thing). A solid track. Could've been even longer.

[DIPLOSOMIA]: starts uninterestingly, then proceeds to sound like a robot being humped by something robots shouldn't be humped by. Was this really necessary?

And there we go, end of the first disc. So far it's a mixed bag for me: some good/listenable tracks, and an equal amount of forgettable filler. I'm a bit surprised even, expected more electronic influence - though I guess the outro signals that Disc-2 will provide us with that kind of sound. Anyway, so far I can say that it's kind of on the level of TOXIC; meaning that it's not bad but I'm sure I'll forget all about it in a week or two, and not listen to it ever again. I'd give DISC-1 a 5/10.

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DISC-2

[XI]: energy-filled electronic intro, and yep, we're in wub-wub-wub territory now.

DERANGEMENT: actually starts out pretty fun with the beefy guitars and random retarded electronic effects. A bit all over the place, and the "usual" chorus isn't helping either. At 2:40 I'm looking at my player and thinking "oh god 2 minutes more of this??"

REQUIRED MALFUNCTION: another electronic-tinged "kinda aggressive" song. Feels like something these guys could write in 10 minutes but it's not bad. And finally, a somewhat memorable (if simple) chorus. A nicely built-up song in my opinion.

DRIPPING INSANITY: unremarkable start, overall a forgettable song. If they made DISTRESS AND COMA a boring track, this would be it.

ATTITUDE: ...let's just say I didn't think there could be lower than the previous track. The only redeeming/interesting part is the breakdown with the high-pitched electronics. Otherwise a total mess.

GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS: at this point if they substituted a random B-side from their pre-TOXIC singles for this song I wouldn't even notice. This is Every Angsty Gazetto Song Ever. Thank god this is the last one.

[MELT]: after the previous ordeals this sounds pretty nice. The overall sound and beat reminds me of industrial rock, kinda like Nine Inch Nails. Not bad but seems to go on forever.

It's over. Finally. I'm tired to write anything substantial in conclusion but I guess you know my opinion/feelings after reading the track-by-track. DISC-2 = 4/10.

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I'd rate this album, as a whole, 4.5/10: below average, with 2-3 enjoyable songs and let's not mention the rest. After listening I'm actually kinda looking forward to their next offering - since it surely can't be worse than this.

[sai 868]

After listening through the whole thing twice (which wasn't as easy as it sounds, but I will get to that later) I decided I'd drop a review here as well. All GazettE fans beware, this is not going to be pretty.

DISC 1

Disc 1 actually started with a really good SE. It had a kind of dark atmosphere that reminded me of DIM's SE's and I suppose that's a good sign. Unfortunately the rest of the disc fell in its vain. Most tracks sound very similar to eachother, and it doesn't really help that you have two guitarists playing the exact same riffs which hardly creates a good melody. Hedoro had its moments (as a blatant HEADACHE MAN rip-off, that is) but the rest was forgettable. Still, it was nothing horrible on a TOXIC level and for that I have to somehow praise them, even though it's obvious they have no ideas left whatsoever. The bass and drums that should be carrying the rhythm don't do their job, as Reita is hardly audible on this entire album. Kai's drumming doesn't add much either. Also guys, there is something that you call "guitar tuning". Use it.

6/10

DISC 2

The main problem with this disc was me not being able to get through it twice. On an initial listen I thought some parts sounded cool, but when giving it my full attention I realized how incredibly bad this is. Reita skipped the recording sessions, there is no melody whatsoever because you have the two guitarists once again play the same riffs and the synth that could also help with the melody is just making random bleeps here and there. Add some autotune with that and you have yourselves something that was so bad that it didn't even make TOXIC. No matter how much they call this a DIM inspired disc, I don't hear it apart from the obnoxious heavy songs that have stolen parts from songs like OGRE and HEADACHE MAN (one of these tracks had the exact same breakdown as HEADACHE MAN had). The electronics do nothing to the songs but annoy me either and the autotune is just not well placed and very disturbing.

3/10

Overall: 4.5/10. I said everything there needs to be said. So that's why I'm now going to do a track-by-track review in gifs. Because I am bored like that and I have already given a long and plausible reason why I think this album was pretty damn bad.

DISC 1

DEPTH

歪

籠の蛹

ヘドロ

影踏み

余韻

[DIPLOSOMIA]

DISC 2

[XI]

DERANGEMENT

REQUIRED MALFUNCTION

DRIPPING INSANITY

ATTITUDE

GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS

[MELT]

[morbiusss 10]

DISC 1

DEPTH

歪

籠の蛹

ヘドロ

影踏み

余韻

[DIPLOSOMIA]

DISC 2

[XI]

DERANGEMENT

REQUIRED MALFUNCTION

DRIPPING INSANITY

ATTITUDE

GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS

[MELT]

BURNER!!! me and my mom laughed so damn hard ))

[Yasupon 18]

sai wins review of the year.

[Furik 832]

sai wins review of the year.

omg yes qft

[jduv86 224]

Well I'm totally a Gaze-fanboy...but even I must admit that they have been lackluster for quite awhile now. Still I hang onto every hope that each new release will be an eargasm...so let's see what this did for me:

[DISC 1]

01.[DEPTH] - Very nice atmosphere set. Simply beautiful. I'm totally ready for some sick new music! 5/5

02.歪 - If you think of a perfected Shiver, this would be it. Saying that...Shiver was my least favorite song on Toxic so that's not really a good thing. The only part of this song I like are the pre chorus parts. Something about that instrumentation I really fall for. 2/5 Fitting PV...very boring as well...

03.籠の蛹 - Like how it starts up and the women are back. I know there are lots of haters of the women vocals, but I like them. I've always loved Ruki's vocals, but he sounds really bored in this song to me. There are some really exciting instrumentation in this song too, but he just sounds so bored with it. 2/5

04.ヘドロ - Cool intro. Really enjoyed that. During the verses, I feel like I'm surfing lol. Love the song outside of the chorus. Thought the chorus was blah and the breakdown after was blah...the rest of the song is cool to me. Finally a song to raise my eyebrow. 3.5/5

05.影踏み - reminds me of Calm Envy without women. Sounds nice, but still boring. 2.5/5

06.余韻 - This is actually one the slower songs of the Gazette that I enjoy. Kind of reminds me of something like 13 Stairs -1. Now I see some of the DIM coming out of it. And the subtle women vocals in the chorus are just right. Probably my favorite song on this disc. 4/5

07.[DIPLOSOMIA] - Waste of disc space. Sorry I didn't enjoy this at all. 0/5

>>Overall DISC 1: 2/5 - I was bored most of the time. I actually was contemplating just getting to disc 2 already.

[DISC 2]

01.[XI] - Think you went a little too crazy with this instrumental. Just sounds thrown together and blah 0/5

02.DERANGEMENT - Head bang to this song all the time. I'm a fan of weird high pitched synths anyway so my attention was grabbed from the start. I love the instrumentation on the first verse. When I first heard it, I replayed it like 20X. Not anything difficult to pull off just really interesting to hear. Everything fits well but the part in the chorus where he goes "d-d-d-derangement" I thought the instrumentation was odd. Rubs me the wrong way, but overall doesn't take away from the awesomeness of this song. 4/5 Awesome PV.

03.REQUIRED MALFUNCTION - Lots going on in this. Headache Man with more variety. For some reason, in the beginning that "whoo hoo! Uh huh!" lol. I laughed but I liked it a lot. Chorus took me by surprise. Really upbeat and poppy. Sometimes its good to have at least one song where things are just all over the place. The thrown togetherness of this song is what makes me like it. Lots of random. This'll probably be a fun live song. 4/5

04.DRIPPING INSANITY - Really well constructed without being boring like the first album. I feel like this would have actually been a great song to shoot a video to (instead of Ibitsu though I understand thay had to choose a song from each disc). 3.5/5

05.ATTITUDE - Don't like Ruki's vocals too much in this song except the growls. Like the breakdown with the crazy bleeps and such and near the end, that bleepy section around 2:15. This song is kind of forgettable though. 2.5/5

06.GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS - Like the chorus part. 2:40 - 2:46 "SMACK MY BITCH UP"...lol. It just made me think of it. I like this song's prechorus and chorus. The verses are kinda blah. not bad, not really great. 3/5

07.[MELT] - Let me just say I'm highly disappointed that this is a 3 minute instrumental. Totally was hoping for another song. This would be an awesome song and like stated before, I would love Gazette to try a song like this. But I can only take a instrumental for like a min and half so....2.5/5

>>OVERALL DISC 2: Gazette brought some energy to their party. Ruki actually changes his tonality on this disc and has different levels of singing. Lots of autotune, but I'm not one to hate too much on it. If given the choice, I would take this disc over the first one any day.

>>DIVISION OVERALL<< 3/5

Probably falls in line as my 3rd or 4th favorite Gazette album. I think the regular addition would be better to get. I don't think the songs are too bad, but the splitting of these disc just makes it that way. You got all the ballads on one disc so naturally it'll get boring at a point. Then you got all the spastic heaviness on another disc which I can also see getting really annoying. The bad thing about this album though is their is not one STAND OUT song. They all are just constructed well songs, but nothing mindblowing like Invisible Wall (my fave Gazette song of all time), Filth in The Beauty (when I first heard this I was like is this even the same band? It was a song like I've never heard before), or like anata no tame no kono inochi (the song that actually pushed me into loving visual kei). It's an ok sounding and I'm still a huge Gaze-nut. But I think the Division concept works against them with this.

[Augie1995 325]

All right, after honestly blasting this album for the past 3 days, I would like to change what I said about DIVISION being my 2nd best The GazettE album, It is now on a first place tie with DIM but DIM is still leading the pack. Every song grabs me instantly, I love it, and all the ballads are simply amazing, they can all be heard whenever. Listen to Yoin at night, Kago no Sanagi during the day time.

I just walked back home from a football game, no lights illuminating the road ahead of me, just the moonlight from the full moon to guide me, while listening to Kagefumi...I was honestly in another world, every part of the song just got to me in that scenario. DISC 1 is the scenario mini, by that I mean, each song is good but they become so much better if you are in the perfect scenario for it. DISC 2 is that "jam out whenever you feel like it" mini.

GazettE!!! I will never stop loving you! Each song honestly has over 40 plays.

[Spectralion 394]

sai wins review of the year.

This!

[The Libertine 2]

Don't like this album. Even though TOXIC was a bunch of unrelated songs and as an album uncohesive, TOXIC was much better. On DIVISION 余韻, 影踏み, required malfuction are fairly good songs. Rest are boring or terrible.

[LIDL 692]

Well, i find the album so uninspiring and weak.

The only song i can bare with was [XI] and that is an interlude. SMH.

I am not sure what happening with these guys, but they better wake up and smell the coffee.

If they're trying to be Rihanna of the VK, by releasing album each year,

at least do it with more variety and get dozens of ghost writers just like she did.

So the album wouldn't sounds so dull.

It's pretty disappointing, really.

[LIDL 692]

Please refrain from being off topic with non review material posts, 2 posts deleted.

[ghost 2686]

DEPTH

I love this track. It's calming and gives one a sense of soaring or floating. The atmosphere created by the song is strong and I can imagine what Ruki meant about an image of the sea.

10/10

Ibitsu

I don't like that Ibitsu is placed right after the intro: there's too much contrast between the songs.

It's kind of like slowly laying down on your bed to rest and then someone jumping on you.

As a track though, I like Ibitsu. It takes the typical visual kei GazettE song and puts some harder and more complex elements in. I like Ruki's soft vocals and they contrast nicely with the harder guitars. The whoa's were a nice touch too. Overall, it has a sound that a lot of people can enjoy but still has a serious tone.

8/10

Kago no Sanagi

Yes! I was waiting for a track like this. It's reminiscent of songs like [bathroom] with the gliding guitar reverberations, and songs on [sTACKED RUBBISH] with the female vocals. I like the composition for the most part. The part where the guitars pass the melody back and forth are smooth and create a nice fluid sound. I also love the soft break in the middle of the song. (I assume) Aoi plays the acoustic part with such a sweet noise and gentle plucks and i can't help but to be reminded of songs like [Cassis] where he used to do it a lot.

I can't say I'm as crazy about the chorus though. I feel like Ruki played it safe and stuck to something a bit more commercial and so the song doesn't sound too special because of it.

7/10

Hedoro

This track is aight. I like the jazz elements mixed in with the heavy, and even the elctronic sounds.

But, the vocals bore me. Overall, it's an okay song that's fine to listen to on the album, but I wouldn't put it on repeat.

6/10

Kagefumi

I love the ballad on this disc. The guitars are really fluid and glide around the song. I really like the chorus too. A part I want to praise is how before the guitar solo (which is really great btw) Ruki kind of passes the melody on to the guitar. The song does get a bit long with the same chorus being repeated with not much variation near the end. And the abrupt ending is kind of...

But the melody is very sweet and the guitars are like drops of dew gently falling off a leaf, which have me listening to the song over and over again.

8/10

Yoin

The song is so intense, almost reminds me of Dir en Grey's [Vinushka]. I like the dark and foreboding atmosphere of the song and the Dim revival. The lyrics and vocals are so perfect and add to the emotion in the song. I just don't like that it's so short. I wish it was longer to really build up more intensity.

10/10

DIPLOSOMIA

It seems wierd to me that they would keep this song on such a high position and have it as a Limited Edition exclusive. It's not too captivating and isn't as good as the other SE in my opinion. But, it does a great job in linking the 2 discs, and [XI], together. I get a sense from the track that something is evolving, awakening, and it gets me excited for the second disc.

6/10

XI

I like that [XI] is a continuation of [DIPLOSOMIA] and in that the transition between the 2 discs is fluid. It's fast, it's furious, and has that electric sound we were all expecting. It's not that exciting though and the song gets really repetitive. I do get an idea of what the disc is about though, so as an SE it does its job.

5/10

DERANGEMENT

This was kind of the one song I felt like people were anticipating the most. It was sort of the moment of truth on whether or not the GazettE could do a dubstep, rock infusion.

I personally like it a lot and feel like it's a strong track that incorporates both well. The use of the high pitched sequences add a nice contrast to the guitars heavy riffing, and the use of autotune adds a different nuance to Ruki's vocals that would be absent otherwise. I felt the ending could have been a bit stronger in melody and in vocals. The energy that's in the chorus is gone by the end and it sounds like Ruki is falling asleep to an extent.

8/10

REQUIRED MALFUNCTION

The intro is awesome! The drums and robot Ruki. It's is nice and aggressive and the rapping brings me back to their sound in [DISORDER] like in songs like [sOCIAL RIOT MACHINES]. It seems like people HATE the female vocals, but I Looove them! I adds a playful attitude to the song. The chorus is nice and optimistic and very energetic. It's like [TOMORROW NEVER DIES] part 2.

The multiple personality disorder this song has is quite staggering. There are so many different things going on, and yet, they work pretty well. It doesn't sound like 5 different songs, but more like variations or different takes all crammed into one. I guess that would make sense with the whole malfunction thing.

8/10

DRIPPING INSANITY

This is my favorite track on disc 2. It's a nice blend of TOXIC (electronics), DIM/NIL(distress/bathroom melody), AND STACKED RUBBISH(female vocals). It's a sweet ballad with moments of sad repose, infected by a little chaos and touched by nostalgia.

10/10

ATTITUDE

I had my doubts with this track. The segment used for the TV spot excited more than anything in my life, but I knew I shouldn't build expectations. Still, when I heard the amazon preview I was a bit disappointed. It sounds like a [PSYCOPATH] part 2 with the vomiting, back up vomiting, and chug-a-chug-a. The vocals are wonky and the chorus isn't that captivating. The song does rock hard and add in the elements of dubstep really well IMO, although it get's a bit old by the songs end.

The track IS growing on me and I like it much better than on my initial listen.

I ESPECIALLY enjoy the break with the almost 8-bit sounding background, and it was something fresh from the GazettE. Still, it's not the song that I hoped it would be.

6/10

GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS

The guitars after the intro kind of bother me. It sounds like a speedy version of their typical heavy riffs. But after that the song gets much better. Ruki's vocals rock in the track and there's some awesome screaming. The noise-filtered vocals in the back remind me a little bit of [DISORDER] and I really like the way they used the electronics in the song. The chorus is pretty boss too.

What I really wish they did a little differently is the ending. I feel like the gaps in between the breaks are too empty.

9/10

MELT

This is one of the most ambitious ending SE the GazettE have ever done. The heavy drums and strong bass create a driving force and different sound effects layer on and build the song up, only for it to all fade away into the sky. For me, this is kind of what [OMEGA] should have been (it was a let down). I really like it and feel that it's the perfect end to the album. For me it's like something came into being (DEPTH), then was transformed into a new form (DIPLOSOMIA/XI), and then ended up dying and going to the great pie in the sky (MELT)

8/10

The more I listen to this album, the more I love and understand it.

Yeah it's wierd in some parts and maybe not as enticing as past albums, but for a release that was worked on for perhaps a little over a year, it's pretty good. The only thing that really bothers me in ALL the songs is the abrupt ends. In some songs they work, but they ALL stop so suddenly.

The concept is very clear and explained, IMO, very nicely and artisticly through the CDs, DVD, and booklet. It's obvious they put a lot of thought into it.

I've listened to the song orders on both the Limited and Regular editions, and as an album listening experience I like the regular better. I like Gabriel better as an intro to the album and [REQUIRED MALFUNCTION] better as a close to the album. Although, having 2 songs like [TOMORROW NEVER DIES] for an album's final statement is kinda meh.

One thing I know people aren't really fond of are instrumentals, but I feel like they add a beginning and end to an album, or in this case (and DIM), transitions as well. It's kind of like an essay and without an intro or conclusion the main idea is not clearly portrayed.

Now, I know an album is not an essay but I say all this to mean that instrumentals, when used effectively, do a lot more than add ambient noises. They add to the meaning of the album.

This is not the GazettE's finest work. But, it shows that the band is willing to take risks while remembering the qualities of their music that fans have come to love and cherish.

7/10

[driyshiro 2]

I'm totally disappointed with this album, when I heard this album, I was boring till all songs played.

I just interest when DERANGEMENT was playing.

hmm I give 3/10 for this album.

[Pretsy 1343]

Seems like this topic needs my take too:

It was fun to listen throughout at the first time, but days passed by and dear god how much BOREDOM this induces...

Out of all the songs - only these had decent performances/ interesting moments:

Depth - Just an intro but hey, best SE they've done ever since Stacked Rubbish-era. Also: digging the ambience!

Ibitsu - I dig those occasional "whammy rape" riffs which remind me of something LS could have done back in '95-'96 (a la "Desire")

Yoin - Almost like "Chizuru" but now with DIM-ish charm

Derangement - Despite lacking the "signature riff" but having "signature bleeps", I adore the massive amounts of pop in this piece.

Gabriel on the Gallows - ...now add some ultra-sweet, catchy choruses from GAMA and blend them with DERANGEMENT, voila!

Melt - Best outro they've done ever since...Disorder? More of this please, Uruha.

and as the band itself said - most of this material was based on Toxic leftovers, wow.

Would've been a good EP, but two EPs with bland structure? No 6/10 (just 'cause of songs above)