VII-Sense

^ seconded.

The song with him singing in it sounds terrible. The vocal melody does not go well with the guitars at all (and there are 3?) honestly, it sounds like a rather lame attempt at trying to be Asagi. I mean, his falsetto broke off so abruptly at the end and

The first one is nothing new and the second one is VERY bad, ahahahah! Listening to it, I suddenly started believing in my chances at becoming a great singer, which is anything but a good sign!

I'm slowpoke-ing as always.

Musically this was better than what I was expecting. But about Juka's singing, he's using falsetto more and more everytime I listen to new stuff.
I miss his m10m/HGP/Juka voice D:, but musically it sounds pretty interesting. I'll look forward for their music.

i agree what's up with Juka trying to get into falsetto...he's always horribly off key, has he no shame?
its nice to hear him singing again though, his voice is to die for

omg the first clip the beginning sounds so Teru-Y it sounds really bright, fresh, crispy and colorful. which is what Teru's compositions remind me of...they usually have a fruity taste.

Now that the PV is up (you know where) I hope some of you will actually join me in saying it's a really nice song, and Shaura looks/sounds good.
The guitar riffs are rather nice, I enjoy the melody and I don't mind his attempting falsetto at all; in fact the very long falsetto at the end of the song must be a very hard thing to do (especially live? O_o).

And the superficial fangirl in me says he looks gorgeous. And the other members are cool too.

Okai, I'm gonna see it right now!

btw, did anyone buy his single? It was launched like three or four days ago. If yes, how was it? I'm thinking about buying it.

i just watched the Black bird video and i have to say i liked it. Mikage's drums are great! the gtrs are cool but i don't see the sense of adding 3 gtrs... i think it sounds like when using only 2 and the bass is not much hearable as well, i would love the song had a hard bass, that would make it way much better!

I watched the video, and wow.

The verses and bridges are so bad and generic and already-been-done that I actually laughed.

The chorus isn't as bad... but still this song is hilariously bad as a whole.

I assumed from the beginning that when they said they where going to have three guitarist to not even bother listening for the bass since it'll probably just be drowned out The song is okay but I can see them having some potential to do some great things if Juka doesn't decided to leave them suddenly.

I still don't like those high notes he's hitting, just doesn't do it for me

The intro is beautiful. It's better than I was expecting.

The actual song is not so inspired, but hell at least you can bang your head to it and at least the guitarists have some tricks up their sleeves. The chorus isn't integrated very well, but I like the way it opens up the song. It sounds nice. Except, they really should have been more realistic about Juka's vocal range. Meh. The song has some solid sections individually, it just doesn't really mesh. It's like it wants to be too many different things--pick headbanger or ballad and stick with it, please. Also, there's not a single hook to that song. I should at least walk away from the experience with something stuck in my head. Final verdict: Juka should keep shopping around, because I just don't see this ever getting interesting (but maybe keep one or two of those guitarists in his hip pocket, because they seemed promising).

Though I haven't heard enough mainstream VK (oxymoron?) to be able to recognize it myself, I believe Amatsu when he says the song is mostly recycled/cliché. Something I can recognize is that the guitarists seem to be trying to pull off a little bit of HIZAKI/Teru. My theory: with Versailles on the scene, it's really upped the ante. Who's going to be able to get any attention with prop guitarists anymore when Versailles' are so consistently and wickedly good? It's like they're obligated to do at least a weak imitation of the band that's currently dominating the scene.

And that last point is what I don't like about the band. It's pure formula. They're just drawing the elements that make other VK bands successful out of a hat and calling it a day. What they don't realize is that the only real formula to a great band is inspiration and chemistry.

Berserk wrote:

Though I haven't heard enough mainstream VK (oxymoron?) to be able to recognize it myself, I believe Amatsu when he says the song is mostly recycled/cliché.

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Yeaaah.
The section at 0:23-31 specifically has so been done in a number of songs. asfdojg Little filler bits like that are really annoying to me.

Also, the riffs are ridiculously bad. They're playing really simple riffs and just doing some "technical" shit over it.

Berserk wrote:

And that last point is what I don't like about the band. It's pure formula. They're just drawing the elements that make other VK bands successful out of a hat and calling it a day. What they don't realize is that the only real formula to a great band is inspiration and chemistry.

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I agree.
I feel like the vast majority of vk these days is mostly based the sort of formulas that exist within it. I don't like it for that reason. Some vk is really really good because those bands used their own ideas and aesthetics based on the visual aspect of vk and made whatever type of music they wanted to. Like Malice Mizer.
But most of it is not good unless you like 90% of the bands you listen to to sound exactly the same.

I listened to the whole song this afternoon and uhm... I still find pretty annoying when Shaura starts making falsetto here and there. His falsetto is not that strong on a live concert. Also I didn't think the guitar solos match the song at all, like doing a lot of random solos (like Dragonforce, lol).

I didn't like their visual art, it's like blending a lot of modern VK bands.

The only think it was impressing for me was Mikage's work in the song. Awesome as always.

I was thinking about buying it because I'm a huge Shaura/Juka fan and also I admire Mikage very much. But this was definitely not what I was expecting

the intro made me laugh my ass off.

Berserk wrote:

And that last point is what I don't like about the band. It's pure formula. They're just drawing the elements that make other VK bands successful out of a hat and calling it a day. What they don't realize is that the only real formula to a great band is inspiration and chemistry.

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c'mon, in the vk scene that never happens!

The guitarist has future, but... the rest... is horrible!

I don't know why, but lately I hate Juka/Shaura's voice... in the same way as I hate Kanon's voice

Me, hearing these voices -->

Mademoiselle Folie wrote:

Berserk wrote:

And that last point is what I don't like about the band. It's pure formula. They're just drawing the elements that make other VK bands successful out of a hat and calling it a day. What they don't realize is that the only real formula to a great band is inspiration and chemistry.

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c'mon, in the vk scene that never happens!

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This haha! Most bands are just copying and doing whatever is popular. Just doin whatever will get them the most ladies.

Off topic a little but since it was mentioned bands mimicking Versailles, this guy gave me a good laugh. I don't know if he's actually good or not because I haven't heard their music but when I saw him in Cure I thought he looked like a fugly HIZAKI clone.

Oh my god that song is horrible.

I expected worse from the comments, but it is really cookie cutter vk.
Still, above-the-average cookie cutter though.

The vocals sounds badly mixed for me.. it sounds almost seperate from the rest of the instruments, especially in the beginning.

The random guitar solo crammed in at 3.50 of the video makes the band sound desperate to show that they have skill.

Still, I enjoy the chuggy guitars.. it's been sometime since i listened to something like that. Kinda nostalgic.

Superficial:
Erina looks like a grandma/princess which is a weird combination.

Weeeell I LIKE it. My knowledge of musical theory is limited so I can't go into the composition aspects of the song, or find out how much is "borrowed" from another song/style. I'm ok with Juka's falsetto. I think it will be hard to pull it off live, that's all; he'll have to settle for a lower voice.
The PV is not impressive, it's obviously low-budget, but I still like it; I like the way everyone looks (especially Juka, he's gorgeous).
I just can't believe how much hate he's getting from overseas fans. So everyone wanted him to do something different, right? Little problem: he's doing what HE wants to; this is the band that he always wanted to have (even before he had to quit for some time; although the members have changed somewhat). I see no reason for not supporting these guys, they CAN play. And Juka can sing.

Now I want to listen to the second song of the single asap.

Ma_cherie wrote:

Little problem: he's doing what HE wants to; this is the band that he always wanted to have

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If Juka wants to do really generic J-Rock, then I respect his choice, but I think he's wasting his talent on mediocre projects.

Berserk wrote:

It's like they're obligated to do at least a weak imitation of the band that's currently dominating the scene.

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I think that would be Gazette (or Dir en grey, as much as they want to put their VK past behind them; the number of "Kyo"s you see is mind-boggling).

Lem wrote:

Off topic a little but since it was mentioned bands mimicking Versailles, this guy gave me a good laugh. I don't know if he's actually good or not because I haven't heard their music but when I saw him in Cure I thought he looked like a fugly HIZAKI clone.

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Totally. Actually, his whole band seems to be on a Versailles trip (except for the drummer who looks like "little girl" Kaya). Even the font is similar:

http://www.dear-l-novel.com/pc/

And apparently their single was produced by Emiru (ex Lareine). Not that Versailles aren't guilty of borrowing a lot themselves though.