What Sucks About This Artist?: Dir En Grey
 

If I was gonna make one of these threads, then of course it would have to be for my favorite band - namely the weird and wonderful japanese metal/rock group Dir En Grey.

Since I doubt most have even heard a full album of their music, here's spotify links to what I'd call their four most essential albums:

Withering to Death

Uroboros

Dum Spiro Spero

Arche

https://media.giphy.com/media/uXVEhtcVDD7q0/giphy.gif

They’re boring.

That is the last word in the dictionary I'd use to describe this band.

Too many grey areas. :laughing:

Seriously, I'm listening to that album you asked me to, and it absolutely varies between terrible and quite sublime. Once or twice I almost stopped it because I couldn't get into it, then a good song (imo) would come on and I gave it another chance. I'll have a review soon.

If I had to make a very uninformed comment about them, based pretty much only on that album (but you recommended it so I have to believe it's the high point of their career/typical of their output) it would be that they are kind of all over the place. One minute they're something like black metal, then what sounds like post-hardcore, then AOR, then hard rock, then .... it just goes on and it's too confusing. They don't seem to settle. Plus that guy's voice freaks me out, if it's him doing all those different styles and vocals. To my mind, they're trying to be all things to all men, and failing most of the time.

They’re plain.

That all over the place quality of much of their music is one of my favorite things about the band. I think it's fine to stick to the confines of a genre, but genre boundaries are pretty damn arbitrary when you think about it and I often find myself attracted to bands that throw the rule book in the trash can.

If I look across all of my favorite bands/artists, there's not really any clear leaning in any particular direction, which supports the idea that I apparently don't really think of music in terms of genres.

I did throw one of my favorite Dir En Grey albums your way, but I spared you by intentionally picking one of their least aggressive and all over the palce albums. I think you would absolutely hate the Dum Spiro Spero album, for example.

Looking forward to the review, even if I've got a feeling it won't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :mad:

They’re SikTh wannabes.

The guy in Sikth is a fan. It's the other way around.

Allthough seriously, they're not very similar bands.

The both do the branch into everything thing, don’t they?

They're both similar in that sense, but the end results are wildly different more often than not. Not to mention all musicians and singers across the two bands have completely different styles from each other.

I don't think I've ever even heard a Sikth song that I'd agree sounds like Dir En Grey.