Album Rating: 2.0

You may be the alt-rock knight, but it looks like I'm at least the prince lol

Album Rating: 3.5

Who's the king?

Album Rating: 2.0

I've seen users with like 40% so they can have it

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah, but those don't listen to anything else.

Most might not understand all the hate surrounding this album, but just a bit of careful look upon what they did much earlier (back in their "heydays") is enough to explain such anti-bias: to quote what I said much earlier, this "back and forth" philosophy in songwriting was their trump card (albeit their repertoire having way too many incoherent moments as a whole) - condensing everything to one genre (literally) with little to no variety was way too risky for them, as it shows.

Album Rating: 2.0

As someone who's only really ever enjoyed a handful of stuff by these guys, I feel like they've either been constantly letting themselves down, or they only ever had a few hits in them anyway.

Album Rating: 2.5

Pretty much what Jas just said, this band is just a gigantic meh for me mostly. Dull and bland with little character.

PS. I don't have much hopes for their totally unnecessary (BEFORE I DECAY, anyone?) coupling single that's supposed to come out sooner or later (UGLY, was it?)...just wtf is with these "movements"?!

Album Rating: 2.5

Does anyone know where to stream or download this?

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

Incubus remains a banger. One of the stronger tracks on here tbh.

Album Rating: 3.5

@Aberf Otonomai should have it.

Album Rating: 2.5

Thanks to this band for bumping up my objectivity lol. Their discography is disappointing.

Album Rating: 2.5

i like their sound but their material is a bit insipid

Album Rating: 2.5

I'd say uninspired honestly. But that came close.

Album Rating: 3.5

I'm calling shenanigans on this review lol. It's written from the perspective of someone who has completely missed the entire point of the GazettE. Of COURSE they sound similar to *insert artist here* on *insert GazettE album here*, that's their entire concept! Take a popular/mainstream style of music, inject it with their signature twisted mixture of melodic/hard rock sound, and see what happens. It was like that on NIL with alt rock/jazz rock, Stacked Rubbish with hip hop/R&B, Dim with alt metal/progressive rock, Toxic and Divison with dubstep/electronica, and now Dogma with alt metal/gothic metal/metalcore (Beautiful Deformity was a recap of all of the previous styles leading up to Dogma). Just because the subject material is metalcore or gothic metal doesn't mean it's not a mainstream music trend that's worth them exploring.



And for the record, they sound like DEG on exactly two tracks: Grudge and Wasteland, the soft songs. Ominous has a much more modern sound to it than any comparable DEG song (industrial metal influences come to mind), the only thing it's guilty of copying is the artistic lyric PV for "Kukoku no Kyouon". And of course there are similarities between the GazettE and DEG, DEG loves to run all over the place experimenting with every form of rock/metal imaginable, yet they never successfully settle for a core sound beyond avant-garde/creepy. They may have gotten to nu-metal or metalcore or alt metal or even avant-garde metal first, but they sure as hell didn't master any of those styles. But that's where the GazettE comes in: if they find a style that works, they'll do everything they can to flesh it out and master it, and THEN they move on to the next thing. I'm not knocking DEG for trail-blazing, I just don't think it's valid to knock the GazettE for refining and defining those trails as they come across them.



There's plenty of interesting sounds coming out of the modern visual kei scene, you just have to be open to new styles that don't necessarily conform to traditional standards of rock and metal. Sure, it suffers from similar sounding songs like every other music scene, but there's plenty of variety. Just maybe not the kind of variety that a traditional rock or metal snob would be looking for. Bands like Jupiter have already proven that having talented and complex instrumentation is not enough to create good music. Open your mind to different styles of song composition, and maybe you'll be able to better appreciate what's going on in the scene currently. ;)

Album Rating: 2.0

woohoo another one of these haha ok gimme a minute.



Ok, so in your first paragraph, you evaluated exactly what's poor about this band, well done. I don't really think this band really has any particular "signature sound" they inject into these styles since they're one of literally an entire scene of bands that has been doing this in the japanese VK scene since the late 90s, so you lost me there.



Pretty much every song on this reminds me of DeG down the the production style. Regardless whether or not you believe Dir En Grey "mastered" any of those styles you mentioned after trying to say that they didn't have a core sound despite then applying them one, Dir En Grey managed to successfully execute several intriguing and engaging albums, whereas The GazettE for me have always sounded stale and uninspired trying to do the exact same thing.



"There's plenty of interesting sounds coming out of the modern visual kei scene, you just have to be open to new styles that don't necessarily conform to traditional standards of rock and metal. "



you are making a very base assumption about how I listen to music and my familiarity with the modern visual-kei scene.



"Sure, it suffers from similar sounding songs like every other music scene, but there's plenty of variety. "



but no more than any other modern rock or metal scene.



"Just maybe not the kind of variety that a traditional rock or metal snob would be looking for. "



another baseless, and very defensive assumption.



"Open your mind to different styles of song composition, and maybe you'll be able to better appreciate what's going on in the scene currently. ;)"



and nice way to round it off with another baseless assumption about my taste in music, the way I listen to music and my familiarity with the modern visual-kei scene

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

Umm, wowzers, a first comment that can really shock the world! Your bigness has touched us all...



And by "us", I mean those two guys who can float above a Denny's.

Album Rating: 2.5

"It's written from the perspective of someone who has completely missed the entire point of the GazettE. Of COURSE they sound similar to *insert artist here* on *insert GazettE album here*, that's their entire concept! "



So their whole purpose is to take lots of elements of other bands, water them down and call it a day? Sounds like a pretty shitty concept tbh, like the fast food equivalent of music.



"Just because the subject material is metalcore or gothic metal doesn't mean it's not a mainstream music trend that's worth them exploring."



It's worth exploring, but to put it bluntly they're not amazing at it. Find 1/3 bangers every album but as full albums they fail to inspire. If every song they've made was as inspired as Filth in the Beauty I'll be praising this band to the heavens. You can take tired tropes and make something interesting out of them.



"yet they never successfully settle for a core sound beyond avant-garde/creepy. They may have gotten to nu-metal or metalcore or alt metal or even avant-garde metal first, but they sure as hell didn't master any of those styles. But that's where the GazettE comes in: if they find a style that works, they'll do everything they can to flesh it out and master it"



I'll leave it to opinion since obviously music is subjective but the fact you said DEG hasn't mastered anything they've touched, then the Gazette have come in and 'mastered' what they've done is laughable in my eyes. DEG have much better production, stage presence, creative vision, vocals especially and nuance in their songwriting than the Gazette will ever have. Take these 2 moments for example (and fyi I like Ugly, one of their better songs definitely):



https://youtu.be/OQNikGWT7To?t=55s

https://youtu.be/TgD_gYzbuZs?t=1m51s



Both are very similar in terms of what they're supposed to do, bring the grooves and get the pit going yet every single aspect Dir does is better. The production has so much impact and weight on guitars and punch on the drums it makes the former seem softer in comparison and Ruki has a higher voice to his growls while Kyo are much more vicious and lower, he actually looks and sounds on stage that he wants to tear your limbs off while Ruki sounds like an imitation of such. While VK bands that are doing the Metalcore style can be set apart from their American counterparts, there's little to set them apart from the pack in their own portrayal of it.. Not saying they're enjoyable but it's hardly a creative renaissance.

Album Rating: 2.5

"you just have to be open to new styles that don't necessarily conform to traditional standards of rock and metal. "



Or you can stop assuming about the reviewer's experience with Metal and Visual Kei in general? Also you say that he doesn't open to the 'new style' Gazette are creating they you just said "Of COURSE they sound similar to *insert artist here* on *insert GazettE album here*, that's their entire concept!" Nice logical fallacy.



"Just maybe not the kind of variety that a traditional rock or metal snob would be looking for."



We're not 'snobs' for criticizing the Gazette, deal with it. Hell I think they're fine and they've used different sounds over the years but the high praise they have garnered in undeserving.



"Open your mind to different styles of song composition, and maybe you'll be able to better appreciate what's going on in the scene currently. ;)"



Or you can stop being a patronising shite bag who has maybe never heard of music that actually has different song composition other than Intro-Verse-Chorus-Solo-Verse-Chrous-Outro (see I said maybe, not you haven't. I don't assume your experience with things unlike yourself).

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

As far as I'm concerned, Diru at the very least have their own identity at the end of the day, which is far more than what I can say about The Gazette or a lot of neo-visual kei troupes. I still don't mind this band on the whole, it's just that I kinda understand where people like Calcium and Jas come from when they mention how the extreme praise this band gets is inflated; that, and quite frankly, their discography is real inconsistent quality-wise. For all the DIMs and NILs, Gazette also have something uneven like Division or downright miserable such as Toxic; don't care about how "cohesive" the latter is, it's the laziest thing that group dished out. Yeah, yeah, beating a dead horse.



On a side note, cool to see someone else who digs Filth in the Beauty ;)