I would say something about V-Kei because this is fucking X JAPAN but I'll redirect you to this instead: https://vk.gy/blog/the-official-guide-to-visual-kei-by-vkgy/
Blue Blood is a pretty good speed metal album, there are even some symphonic elements here and there's also a ballad and epic! I wasn't initially sold on Toshi's vocals but they quickly grew on me.

PS: I know it's a bit old already, but Yoshiki looks like an aunt on that photo with Elon Musk holy shit.

I was supposed to check out Plastic Tree today but these guys grabbed my attention, oh well! Even tighter and even shorter (less than 20 minutes long!) than the first album. Understanding the lyrics would probably improve my enjoyment.
I should check out some live shows.

Instead of writing my Showa review I decided to listen to the Guilty Gear XX soundtrack. Daisuke cooked hard with this one, as there are plenty of heavy metal bangers here! You don't even need to play the game to enjoy the music on this. Apparently this is the first one in the series to use real instruments, cool! Need to check out the soundtracks for the other games but I have a feeling this will be my favorite.

I guess I could be listening to the OSTs for the later versions as they have ... read more

13th BIRD: CHABO / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
🎉 I HAVE LISTENED TO ALL 13 JAPANESE BIRDS ALBUMS🎉 (except Ecobags bonus disc)
Dedicated to the Japanese Bantam! Unlike any other entry in this series, Chabo contains a single, 51 minute long track titled Resurrection. Thankfully with a length like that, it's not Masami demolishing his drums on some boring noise, instead, the track goes through various stages! It sounds like the ... read more

12th BIRD: TSUBAME / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
This entry is dedicated to the Barn swallow. Destroy the Cages is quite a surprise because it almost sounds drumless but I think the drums are just so distorted that they blend in and aren't always present, might be wrong though. The noise on Burn Down Research Facilities is more "laid back", with it's droning and screeching synths. Masami takes a slower approach with the ... read more

11th BIRD: SHIRASAGI / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
Dedicated to the White egret! While Shirasagi doesn't necessarily always bring something new to this series, it at least does the existing ideas well. Dismemberment of Nature is pretty fucking crazy though, it's the glitchiest track in the entire series for sure, and it has these machine gun drum assaults, throw in some guitar too.

Masami used to be a writer and editor for books/magazines, touching on things like music, art , underground culture and sexuality (BDSM, Japanese bondage & pornography). I think it would be interesting to read those but sadly they're only in Japanese. Knowing this, it's not surprising he made music for bondage performances, kinbaku videos and hara-kiri videos. He even directed two himself: "Lost Paradise: Riding Habit Harakiri" and "Bandage Anatomy Woman" ... read more

10th BIRD: NIWATORI / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
Not exactly related to the album but imagine a world where Masami instead of putting out noise albums like crazy, he would be a drummer in plenty of places like Tatsuya Yoshida. I'm not saying that would be better, but it could be interesting. Anyway, this part is dedicated to the chicken! The first two tracks are basically the usual merzdrumming over some high-pitch synth noise. Nie ... read more

Holy shit those vocals. The attached genres of avant-garde metal and progressive metal don't really show the full picture, which might be a good thing if you like the element of surprise. A double bass is on this thing, there's some black metal elements and other stuff I'm too stupid to mention. Really cool album, deserves more ears.

Thanks to @Stupidrob for the rec! Imagine a 2003 harsh noise shitpost album. Congratulations, you probably came up with something else than Brick and Mortar. The noise here mostly has this "start/stop structure" and it makes it crazier than a solid wall of noise. It's when Kazumoto decides to bring out a sample that it starts being funny, hell, even the noise has some hilarity in it. Great stuff!

For this review I'll do something more experimental, by offering my review in visual form ... read more

9th BIRD: HIYODORI / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
Browned-ear bulbul time! I won't be really "reviewing" the rest of this series, only pointing some things out.
There are many moments on the first track where it sounds like many, many birds. Did it need to be 30 minutes long though? Across The Earth's synth sound is cool, and there's guitar playing! Only for a while, but at least there's some bass later! Purple ... read more

As usual I'm digging into a genre through the opposite of a popular entry point (it just happens I swear). 身毒丸 [Shintokumaru] is a 1978 stage play by Shuji Terayama, performed by Tenjo Sajiki, with music by J.A Ceasar. You could call it an avant-prog (maybe some zeuhl)/folk/traditional theatre rock opera. I won't be going into what it's about, because I literally found about it by proxy of this album while browsing someone's RYM profile and know jack shit.

This here ... read more

Thanks to @Echofromanywho for the rec! Damn, I really need to go through the Boredoms discog. I have heard a few albums already but I haven't rated them, and a little refresh would help.

Seadrum's tribal waves of drums are magical, you just want to dance on the beach! Of course the drums aren't the only thing here, as there's also nice piano and vocals. By the end, you're basically in space, you're now orbiting around the sun. House of Sun's sitar drone is ... read more

8th BIRD: KOKUCHOU / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
This one goes out to the black swan. Something something I'm not even gonna bother writing the review. At times it's the same shit you've heard in this series, and not even the special kind. Sometimes it does bring something interesting, like on Mesmerism, which kinda reminds me of shoegaze, or on Colored Rain, which goes more in the direction of ambient. Yadda yadda.

7th BIRD: KUJAKUBATO / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
Ah, the fantail pigeon, I'm not surprised that plenty of Merzbow releases feature this bird on the cover, it's such a beauty! We start off with Wind of Pain, the noise here is pretty subdued, the drums are either replaced by synths completely or just distorted to hell. On Pigeon Walk Part. 1 there's a more straightforward drumbeat, the pulsating buzzy noise complements them ... read more

6th BIRD: KAMO / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
Quack! Bird Killer Governor Ishihara Deserves to Die, Quack! Well, I guess Merz got what he wanted, even if a bit too late, as Shintaro Ishihara died in 2022 (he stopped being governor of Tokyo in 2012). As an ultra-nationalist, culling crows isn't the only controversy he had.
Masami's drumming is great as always here, but the noise isn't really all that special. Heresy is pretty ... read more

5th BIRD: UZURA / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
259,000 Quails were culled at a farm in Toyohashi due to detection of the H7N6 bird flu strain. This is a requiem for those. Part 1 has crazy drumming from Masami on top of a big ol' wall of noise. Part 2 is even more intense, the drums are now chopped. The third part is probably the most interesting one here as it's pretty calm compared to the other two. The drumming is kinda tribal ... read more

4th BIRD: KARASU / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/183677-13-japanese-birds-parts-1-13/
This one goes out to the crow! I think it's obvious there's gonna be drumming here at this point. Argus starts off this album harsh, Stone The Crows gets even longer and is nice at the beginning compared to the other two tracks, Morgue goes back to some really harsh business - it's the highlight for sure, cool drumming, cool noise. Overall, there are some good moments here, but ... read more

I'm sorry PHALARIS, I may have been a bit too harsh on you. Even if my opinion on this album has improved (my relationship with it had its ups and downs), I still think something here is missing; even though the band is still experimenting, this is prog Diru by the numbers. Kyo does clean singing for most of this album, which I guess is a nice change. The bookends really are the best parts here. Schadenfreude is kinda like an Un deux 2, and at this point I might as well mention that Eddie ... read more