Dogma, the new album by the GazettE
... and my complicated relationship with it. ;)
When I first listened to it, I didn't quite know what to think, really. It was good, I could hear that, but I'm so not used to such a heavy all through album from them, it was a bit hard to digest. They usually have a really heavy element to their music, and some songs are really dark and explosive, but they usually switch it up!
There were so many things that I missed from the "normal" GazettE songs: the elegance of songs like Kagefumi, 13 Stairs, Last Heaven, Dripping Insanity, Yoin, Suicide Circus, Nakigahara, Chizuru, Barette, To Dazzling Darkness, and Dim Scene; the playfulness of Ganges ni Akai Bara, Hyena, Shadow VI II I, Silly God Disco, Swallowtail on the Death Valley, Cockroach, My Devil on the Bed, and the Stupid Tiny Insect; the switches in tempo and/or genre right inside the same song like Headache Man and Burial Applicant; the energy of songs like Vermin, Headache Man, Sugar Pain, Agony, Vortex, Clever Monkey, Devouring One Another, Before I Decay...
I really liked the title song, Dogma, and the one they put out the lyrics PV for, Ominous. Perhaps they were the easiest to like because I had something visual to attach them to?
My initial feelings and thoughts about this album were that the GazettE used to sound like themselves, and other bands tried to incorporate their new (or old) sounds into their own music, copying them. But with Dogma, I felt like this was GazettE going into a subgenre of Visual Kei that is already covered by bands like lynch., Nocturnal Bloodlust, Nega, Crossfaith, etc. And to be honest it made me a little disappointed. We're so used to GazettE breaking new ground, and now I felt like they're following in other bands' footsteps instead.
And the album is so heavy and dark and gloomy that I had to take care so I didn't listen to it in one go when I was having a bad day, mentally/emotionally, or it would spin me off into depression. :( And that disappointed me even more, because GazettE has been a band that I go to to be cheered up when life sucks and I feel like I have nothing to live for! Now, I was afraid that I'd have to start avoiding them on those days, and then what do I have? :(
So, I took two days off listening to Dogma. Just listening to their old stuff and other bands.
But then I decided to give it another chance and listened to the whole album straight through again, trying to focus on the little melody parts that were hidden between the growls and screams and sweatdripping tempo... and I found them and they were charming and I started to recognise them the next time I listened to the songs. And little by little something changed in me, and I started to hear the layers and the melodies and harmonies...
There's definitely not the elegance of compositions that I've listed above, true. But there are things in these songs I recognise from Discharge and Ogre, and Paralysis has little bits that are very similar to Psychopath, for instance.
I've decided that Deracine is lovely, Rage has a catchy chorus, and Lucy is quite playful. Deux started growing on me after I watched the PV for it twice... so the visual does helps. It's just that the tempo for all these songs is so much faster than what I'm used to from most of their works.
But, I'm starting to really like Dogma as an album. :) It's not an easy listen and an easy love, though. It is taking time. I honestly can't understand how so many people could instantly gush over it. LOL I think a lot of these songs are going to be awesome when we finally get to see them on a tour final DVD. And then they'll be a lot easier to love!
And now I have several of these little mini-melodies from choruses stuck in my head! :)
Also. Oh dear god the packaging is fabulous!!!! The photobook is amazing! They are all so gorgeous! And I am so annoyed I still can't read Japanese because I want to read the interviews in the other book! The two DVDs in the extra exclusive expensive version I bought are awesome as well, even though I would have liked a little more of the Gazemen in the 13th Anniversary documentary, to got a little closer to them and see/hear them speak more, instead of watching them from a distance. But ah well. Pretty boys! \o/
This entry was originally posted at http://ldybastet.dreamwidth.org/646246.html.
comments there. You can comment on either site.
When I first listened to it, I didn't quite know what to think, really. It was good, I could hear that, but I'm so not used to such a heavy all through album from them, it was a bit hard to digest. They usually have a really heavy element to their music, and some songs are really dark and explosive, but they usually switch it up!
There were so many things that I missed from the "normal" GazettE songs: the elegance of songs like Kagefumi, 13 Stairs, Last Heaven, Dripping Insanity, Yoin, Suicide Circus, Nakigahara, Chizuru, Barette, To Dazzling Darkness, and Dim Scene; the playfulness of Ganges ni Akai Bara, Hyena, Shadow VI II I, Silly God Disco, Swallowtail on the Death Valley, Cockroach, My Devil on the Bed, and the Stupid Tiny Insect; the switches in tempo and/or genre right inside the same song like Headache Man and Burial Applicant; the energy of songs like Vermin, Headache Man, Sugar Pain, Agony, Vortex, Clever Monkey, Devouring One Another, Before I Decay...
I really liked the title song, Dogma, and the one they put out the lyrics PV for, Ominous. Perhaps they were the easiest to like because I had something visual to attach them to?
My initial feelings and thoughts about this album were that the GazettE used to sound like themselves, and other bands tried to incorporate their new (or old) sounds into their own music, copying them. But with Dogma, I felt like this was GazettE going into a subgenre of Visual Kei that is already covered by bands like lynch., Nocturnal Bloodlust, Nega, Crossfaith, etc. And to be honest it made me a little disappointed. We're so used to GazettE breaking new ground, and now I felt like they're following in other bands' footsteps instead.
And the album is so heavy and dark and gloomy that I had to take care so I didn't listen to it in one go when I was having a bad day, mentally/emotionally, or it would spin me off into depression. :( And that disappointed me even more, because GazettE has been a band that I go to to be cheered up when life sucks and I feel like I have nothing to live for! Now, I was afraid that I'd have to start avoiding them on those days, and then what do I have? :(
So, I took two days off listening to Dogma. Just listening to their old stuff and other bands.
But then I decided to give it another chance and listened to the whole album straight through again, trying to focus on the little melody parts that were hidden between the growls and screams and sweatdripping tempo... and I found them and they were charming and I started to recognise them the next time I listened to the songs. And little by little something changed in me, and I started to hear the layers and the melodies and harmonies...
There's definitely not the elegance of compositions that I've listed above, true. But there are things in these songs I recognise from Discharge and Ogre, and Paralysis has little bits that are very similar to Psychopath, for instance.
I've decided that Deracine is lovely, Rage has a catchy chorus, and Lucy is quite playful. Deux started growing on me after I watched the PV for it twice... so the visual does helps. It's just that the tempo for all these songs is so much faster than what I'm used to from most of their works.
But, I'm starting to really like Dogma as an album. :) It's not an easy listen and an easy love, though. It is taking time. I honestly can't understand how so many people could instantly gush over it. LOL I think a lot of these songs are going to be awesome when we finally get to see them on a tour final DVD. And then they'll be a lot easier to love!
And now I have several of these little mini-melodies from choruses stuck in my head! :)
Also. Oh dear god the packaging is fabulous!!!! The photobook is amazing! They are all so gorgeous! And I am so annoyed I still can't read Japanese because I want to read the interviews in the other book! The two DVDs in the extra exclusive expensive version I bought are awesome as well, even though I would have liked a little more of the Gazemen in the 13th Anniversary documentary, to got a little closer to them and see/hear them speak more, instead of watching them from a distance. But ah well. Pretty boys! \o/
This entry was originally posted at http://ldybastet.dreamwidth.org/646246.html.
comments there. You can comment on either site.