This will be the first review I’ve written where it may not be entirley clear whether I’m a fan or not of the band in question. 1. “SLEEPER” This a song that demonstrates how hard it is to like NIGHTMARE. It’s fast, it has all the right ingredients to be a catchy single, but they’ve done these kind of songs so many times before it’s ridiculous. If it’s one thing

I meant to review this last week, but with the release of the repackage imminent, I thought it would be better to review all 17 songs at once.   SUPERMAN A hip-hop style song, highlighting how “amazing” Super Junior are. It isn’t as catchy as their songs usually are, but has a charm all of its own. The best part about this song is Kyuhyun, Ryeowook and Yesung’s vocals. A-CHA

DVD:  Live Tour 2010 → 2011 8Uppers Release Date: 2011.04.13 Discs: 3 Discs (Limited Edition) Label: Imperial Records With all popular musicians and idols in Japan, once there’s a concert… six months down the road there will be a DVD release. And in the case of the Kanjani8, this is almost a given. Every album has a tour and with each tour is a DVD at their biggest venue (with

Do As Infinity are back again w/ another single, & last time, while they didn’t exactly impress, they gave their fans just enough to tide them over, at the time, until their next single finally dropped a few days ago (September 7th, 2011). Let’s see how they fair out this time… 1. ” Ariadne no Ito” THIS was the type of single I wanted to hear from these guys, &

Single: Cyclone Release Date: 2003.06.11 Length: 31:01 Label: Warner Music Japan Every once a while there’s an album you stumble across, either out of curiosity or a random encounter, and it becomes a timeless gem. This maxi album is one of those albums. Hailing from Kagoshima, Hirotaka Mori made his name in the late 90s and early 00s as a demo songwriter before scoring his own record contract with Warner Music Japan.

Only MUCC could provide an unwieldy paradox like Akatsuki

I have loved Taru ever since she collaborated with Epik High on 1 minute 1 second.  I did have reservations before listening to this album and it actually took me 2 months before I ran out of other things to try.  I couldn’t have regretted it more. Moment in Love This is the instrumental intro to the album, and is actually a shortened violin intrumental version of the title track 여기서

Artist OHP: DRCORE911.CO.KR / MANIADB profile Release Date/Label: 2009 / KT Music Purchase: YESASIA Dr.Core 911 is a Korean rap-core/nu-metal band hailing from South Korea. While they don’t bring anything original to the genre they do sound good overall. There is only so much you can do with this genre unless your the originator and try to infuse more styles into it like KoRn will be doing with their next

Resuming the recent Diru coverage, the band has recently released Y.A.R. (Yet Another Remake), this time in the form of “Tsumi to kisei”, a remake of previous GAUZE staple “Tsumi to batsu”: I’ll be blunt here: it sounds exactly like all their other remakes, which all sounds as if they were made in the studio during the DSS or UROBOROS sessions. The vocals are awfully muddled, deathcore like screaming again,

Single: Tsubusa ni Koi Release Date: 2011.08.17 Length: 32:09 Label: Imperial Records Tsubusa ni Koi is Kanjani8′s 19th single release, 4th of 2011, and the ending theme for the drama Zenkai Girl, staring the group’s Nishikido Ryo. An usual release, in my opinion, this single contains 8 tracks; 4 original songs and their instrumentals. The regular edition has a photocard set as an added bonus while the limited edition only

How’s this for a hypothetical: what if Dio era Black Sabbath (Heaven & Hell) covered Nobuo Uematsu? Wonder no more: the debut release from the virtuosos that comprise Earthbound Papas, OCTAVE THEORY, gives video game fans a healthy dose of prog rock / metal exploit in a resounding celebration of all that is the RPG theme. This will be a rather brief review as, to be honest, more instrumental albums

She’s Gone (feat. Steel Heart) She’s Gone Norazo’s ‘serious’ singer, Lee Hyuk, is back with a cover of Steel Heart’s “She’s Gone”. It is one of those songs I actually didn’t come across until Korea, because either it just wasn’t big in the UK or because really random songs become big in Korea. This is a song a lot of people like to attempt at Noraebang (Karaoke). Sadly, it’s only

Back again with DBSK (Dong Bang Shin Ki), I wanted to review their newest single Superstar since I’ve been listening to it a lot lately. It’s their latest foray into the Japanese music market, respectively dominating charts as everything else they have released with 5 members or not. ( It peaked at #1 on release day, and held within the top 10 for over two months, as expected from DBSK)

A fter my last foray into more esoteric pop, today’s entry is bit more in-line w/ my usual tastes. Exist†Trace, one of the more prolific & successful all female vk-groups, finally makes the major label leap w/ their latest release, TRUE. Further, this release features all new material (a feat in of itself). They’re usually well known by now to re-release & re-re-release previous songs in different versions on different

I’ve been wanting to talk about this album for a long time, since it’s the comeback of my favorite Kpop group after/during their court battle, their subsequent split into two separate groups ( Sadly, I cannot get into JYJ, it’s their choice of songs I suppose). They are still five in my mind, one day they will re-unite, but it will have to be on a new label and probably