 The GazettE never fails to impress their worldwide fan base. They are back with an entirely new album as well as a brand new music video for their recently released song "Ugly." Being two years since their last album was released, the band is back with an in-your-face CD, including a blood drenched PV putting the seven deadly sins in a spotlight of their own. The band has also adapted a new and darker makeover along with a heavier general atmosphere thus concieving the unique new album "Dogma". "Ugly" includes heavy screams that remind the fans of the band's older music, which most of us can agree we absolutely love. It's the perfect video that surpasses our expectations. From headbanging lives to blood showers, it's all there. Expressing extremes such as gluttony, envy, and pride, the video puts these words into action. It shows a bold, but seen before, side of the band. Their talent goes a long way with this one leaving fans in shock and in love. This video quickly became one of my personal favorites, and it seems like one of the most popular among new fans and old. The tone of the song itself is angry which creates a great overall image that perfectly matches the harsh vocals blasting with emotion. The Gazette has switched over to a more Gothic vibe since their last few releases. The members have all since adopted new looks as well. Using darker makeup and clothing, they've created a more mysterious tone for themselves.  The PV expresses most of the seven deadly sins. This includes a clip of a nun committing adultery, an obese man metaphorically killing himself with food, and a young girl crying with the word "envy" written on a mirror in front of her. These are just some of the scenes featured in the video that make it well worth watching. I find these pieces add a very artistic and emotional touch to the general atmosphere.
Each scene is also throughly expressed by introducing blood as the main form of action. This makes the video violent and somewhat gory helping it become beyond interesting and dark. Overall it seems the Gazette is back and stronger than before. Their talent is truly never ending. -Kaz Since Youtube isn't allowing the video to be seen in the US, here is a convenient link to it on Facebook Gazette - Ugly PV   It is not often that foreign bands have the special opportunity to perform in America. Luckily, Japanese-rock duo VAMPS are successful enough to tour outside of their home country. VAMPS include vocalist and rhythm guitarist Hyde, who is a member of the popular rock quartet, L’arc En Ciel, and lead guitarist K.A.Z, who plays in the band Oblivion Dust. Earlier this year, the group toured with Sixx:A.M. in the United States, boosting their popularity and the demand for more shows in the country. Following these concerts, VAMPS went to perform in Latin America during September along with two more performances in the U.S., one in West Hollywood, the other in San Francisco. It would be the band’s first headliner show in almost two years. On October 5, fans were excitedly waiting for VAMPS to rock the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood. At last, the clock struck 8:00, the current music halted, and the venue began playing “Bite,” the band’s haunting yet stimulating intro song for the show. Lights flashed from red to white as the members of VAMPS and their support members entered the stage. The first to appear was the drummer, Arimatsu. He smiled and waved to the screaming crowd before sitting down to play. The next to arrive on stage were bassist Ju-Ken and Jin on keyboard. K.A.Z. walked out from the side of the stage to grab his guitar. Last but not least, Hyde appeared with his guitar in his arms and stood on a platform, gazing at the crowd.
 “World’s End” was the first song that VAMPS performed. It served as an energetic start to the show. Fans cheered, waved their arms and jumped practically through every song. At the same time, several people in the audience took photos and videos of the group. However, because of the permission to use their cameras, some individuals were seen texting on their phones rather than being absorbed in the performance. Nonetheless, the active fans were closely connected with the members of VAMPS; there was no pit between the stage and audience, allowing the two groups to enjoy each other’s presence. The setlist contained songs from all of VAMPS’ albums, a majority of them being from their recent album, Bloodsuckers, released in 2014. A cover of Mötley Crüe’s “Live Wire” and “Midnight Celebration” from Hyde’s solo work were also played. With the setlist varying from heavy, upbeat tunes to melodious ballads, the band succeeded to keep the crowd entertained. After “Evil,” purple lights put Jin in the spotlight as he performed a mellow intro to the ballad “Vampire’s Love.” Following this, the band paused from playing and Hyde spoke to the fans. He yelled, “I’m so excited to see you again! Are you excited too? How bad do you want us? Let’s enjoy together!” VAMPS played five more songs before exiting the stage. In response, the audience began chanting the opening lyrics to “Revolution II,” calling for an encore. In just a few moments, the band members appeared once more to play the beloved song. Halfway through the thrilling anthem, Hyde held up a black flag with a skull and the label “VAMPS” under it. The vocalist waved the flag in pace with the song as fans sang along and swayed their arms.  As the encore continued with three more tracks, Ju-Ken threw guitar picks and water bottles toward the entranced fans. K.A.Z. became more lively, as he showed off his instrument to the fans and accompanied the fellow bassist in playing face-to-face near Arimatsu. The two also took part in giving handshakes to their audience and motioning them to keep their energy for the rest of the concert. “Sex, Blood, Rock’n Roll” gathered up the intense spirit of nearly the entire crowd for a grand finale. The band did not hesitate to release their joyful emotions with the exhilarating song. Synchronized singing and dancing created an air of pure enthusiasm that would be forever captured in the minds of those who had the special occasion of seeing VAMPS live. When the song faded in hints to that of the concert finally at its end, Hyde bid his goodbyes, claiming, “I will be back L.A.! Thank you very much!” Meanwhile, Ju-Ken and K.A.Z. did their last set of throwing souvenirs to their beloved fans, then finally followed Arimatsu and Jin backstage. The music grew dim with lights flashing various colors until it settled into darkness, marking the end of the performance. The audience wailed their final cheers of gratitude, for VAMPS put on a truly outstanding show. This powerful band is not one to miss next time they return to America. -Claudia (Natsumi)  A-To-J Connections was lucky enough to catch Salems Lott before their show opening for Loudness at the world-famous Whisky A Go Go. The show was completely sold out and the band had the crowd more than a little hyped up after their thunderous set. Are you ready for Lust, Blood, Violence and Raw Energy? Then Salems Lott is the band for you! Hailing from Hollywood, Salems Lott is bringing shock metal to you in a way you have never seen! From blistering shows that have seen them banned from the world-famous Viper Room, to opening to legends like Marty Friedman and Loudness, Salems Lott is a band you want to keep an eye on! A-To-J: Hello! Thanks for your time with this interview. Can we start with your introductions? Jett: We’re Salems Lott. I’m Jett I play Lead Guitar Kay: I’m Kay. I play Lead Bass. Monroe: I’m Monroe. Lead Vocals and Lead Guitar Tony: I'm Tony F Corpse, double bass drum extraordinaire. A-To-J: Can you describe Salems Lott’s sound to someone who has never heard it before? Monroe: It’s an amalgamation of our influences. I guess it’s basically a mix of hard rock, heavy metal, and speed metal with some classical influences thrown in as well. Jett: Aggressive metal with hard rock but still melodic at the same time. We still have that melodic approach. There isn’t any Cookie Monster style stuff. There’s actual singing and it’s fast paced. We’re just mixing everything we like and pushing it forward. A-To-J: Who are some of your favorite artists that inspire you? Monroe: Man, there’s a lot. I really hate talking about my influences because I always forget like one guy. It ranges from bands like… Monroe & Jett: Ratt, Accept, Wasp, Alice Cooper, King Diamond, KISS. Monroe: All those guys. I guess we’re taking what they did and are putting our own spin it, our own style. A lot of people view it as nostalgia, but that’s not our intent whatsoever. We’re adding our own spin and pushing the genre forward. Jett: As well, we like some of the early Japanese aggressive bands that really were kind of similar to Motley Crue and Ratt, but gave it more aggression; we like some of those bands as well. We like Loudness of course and EZO. There’s tons of bands we like; we don’t discriminate. We go from heavy to melodic, even the super poppy ones. We don’t care. Monroe: Heck, some of listen to the most extreme forms of metal all the way to country and pop to blues to classical and jazz. It’s just music, if it sounds good then it’s good. I don’t really care about genres.
A-To-J: So would you guys consider yourselves a genre-less band? Monroe: You know what in all honestly a lot of bands talk about genres and stuff like that, but a lot of bands don’t won’t to be placed in one because it places you in a corner. Then right away it’s like: “Bam! You’re this genre, you can’t do anything else.” It’s the truth. Jett: You get pigeonholed. People look at us and they expect a certain sound, but we don’t really sound how we look. I think a lot of people right now are trying to fit perfectly into these pre-existing genres. It’s like: “I have to be this genre so I have to look this way, sound this way, play this way.” Monroe: If I’m a thrash metal band I have to grow a beard, get a gut, and look like a hobo. If I’m a glam band I have to play Posion-style poppy stuff and have lipstick. Jett: Exactly. So why not look glam as fuck and play really fucking heavy. It’ll have people thrown off like: “Whoa! That’s not what I’m expecting.” That’s how you do something, I hate to say “new”, but in sense that’s how you do something new. “New” is subjective, but yeah. We can be called a rip off of like a bunch of bands, but if we’re a rip off of ten bands, then we’re a new band. A-To-J: What can you tell us about your choice of name? Jett: We’re really big history buffs. A lot of people think it’s based off the Stephen King book or movie, but it’s not. It’s just based off the Salem witch trials. So if you look at the Stephen King novel or movie there is an apostrophe before the “s” because it’s short for “Jerusalem’s Lot”. So it’s was a marketing thing to call it “Salem’s Lot” to shorten it because it sounded better to audiences. So for us we just wanted to call it “Salems Lott”. It’s not supposed to be “Jerusalem’s Lot”, it’s not supposed to be a tribute to Stephen King; we’re just big history buffs of the Salem Witch Trials. It’s a group of freaks that are not necessarily from Salem, but we have that same sort of psycho mentality of burning witches and crazy shit like that. It just sort of fit in that way. It sounded cool too. A-To-J: Can you tell us something about Salems Lott’s songwriting process? Monroe: As it stands Jet and I pretty much write all of the songs and then the other guys come in and contribute as well. We bring it into rehearsal and everyone puts their spin on it and throws in their own styles and influences. That’s basically what makes us unique because everyone in the band listens to music of all types. It gives a very weird mixture and a very unique sound that I feel hasn’t been done before. Jett: Yeah, for example, Kay. He listens to everything from Morbid all the way to Vinnie Vincent, it’s completely different. People wouldn’t expect that, it’s either one or the other for a lot of them. So that’s kind of like how all of us are in this band. Every guy, Kay, Tony, me, Monroe, we all kind of bring in our own unique thing and the sound shifts. As we move forward every member puts in his own input into the songs. Basically we like to keep it heavy, aggressive, and fast, but also melodic. We really like to stress melody, because that’s the most important thing to me in a song, is melody. We’re not afraid to go poppy and we’re not afraid to go super heavy. We just don’t like to do what people expect or what was done before. It’s just how we feel.
A-To-J: Can you tell us how Salems Lott formed? Monroe: Yeah, I can. Basically I found Tony online. I put an ad out for a crazy drummer somebody who was a little off the deep end. Someone would have to be crazy to be doing what we’re doing now and have a unique vision and style while not being scared to push limits and not play within a certain mind frame, or a certain box. After I found Tony I was jamming with him for a few months and Jet came over. I knew Jett for a very long time. We had jammed before in previous bands and we had both done studio work for other bands and other albums. He’s a great guitar player and a great addition to the band. He’s also a great songwriter. Then I found Kay through a connection at the Musician’s Institute. I don’t know if people in Japan know what the Musician’s Institute is, or if there is one in Japan, but it’s a school where Paul Gilbert and a lot of great guitar players came from. I brought him over because he was a guy who could play his instrument and didn’t give a shit. He was into the band and we hit it off right away like in our first rehearsal. He came to our shithole house, the “ant farm” as we called it, with ants crawling on the walls and stuff. We jammed and we all kind of had the same vision. Jett: Plus you don’t run into guys who know who Seduce is or who Icon is and other bands like that. So when Kay came in we both started talking about these obscure bands that no one knows. It was like: “Oh shit! You know them!?” “Yeah! Holy crap, you know them too!?” because you don’t see that anymore because no one really knows those bands to be honest. It just clicked because we all wanted to do the cool, crazy image, but fast and heavy and change up how the image is supposed to be portrayed. Kay: Yeah, I was glad to make him talk. We were talking about Seduce and I was like “Oh shit!” it’s the same style that I like. So that’s why I’m here. A-To-J: Can you tell us something about the theme of your self-titled debut EP? Jett: I don’t think there’s really an underlying theme. It’s more of a philosophy instead of themes. Monroe: Yeah, we write about our philosophies. Thing we’ve experienced and how we feel about them. It’s a philosophy about being truthful and letting out your anger and honesty and that’s pretty much it. I mean there’s not really a typical theme it’s just pure honesty wrapped out in a pissed off package. Jett: Yeah. It’s just being out there, not giving a shit, doing whatever you want to do not being afraid of pretensions, genres, whatever people may think of you, or preconceived notions, it’s just completely out there. There’s no other way to say it. It’s not trying to be pretentious or super deep, but at the same time it’s not just fluff and stupid. It’s a ballsy record. It’s what we wanted to do and that’s how it came out. Organic and natural. A-To-J: Do you have a favorite song from the album? Monroe: They’re all unique in their own way and I can’t choose one personally Jett: Yeah, I don’t really have a favorite. It shifts for me from time to time. Kay, what do you think? Kay: I recommend that you listen to “S.S” (Sonic Shock) A-To-J: You guys have amassed a huge following locally and have opened for some big groups and have filled some nice venues. Do you think your sound is one that can be marketable worldwide? Monroe: I think anything is marketable you just have to throw it out there with enough advertising and promotion behind it. Nowadays there are so many bands and so many artists. Personally, in my view, some of them have no business being in the music industry, they can’t even play their instruments. Some of these guys with beards, playing three chords, think they’re all deep and thoughtful, but no they’re not. They suck. Jett: Sorry, letting out some anger. Monroe: No, I’m sorry, but I’m saying the blunt truth. People who spent hours and years practicing their instruments and crafting songs, that’s the most important thing: crafting songs, can be crazy on their instruments and get the shaft. In all honesty I think anything can be marketable, it’s all in how you advertise it. You can advertise a pile of crap as the next cool thing and people will get into it. Jett: Yeah for God’s sake look at a lot of the rap artists today. I don’t want to be the stereotypical person who rags on rap artists, but there are a lot of them nowadays who really just are just bad. We’re just doing our own thing. There are some bands that can’t play their stuff live even. Everyone is just concerned with fitting into their sub-genres and everything is very tame. We just want to be the complete opposite. I think that’s what rock and roll needs: people rebelling and doing the complete opposite of what everyone is used to. That’s just rock and roll and heavy metal is to me, rebelling against the current trends. It’s trendy to be safe and tame and everyone is afraid to be made fun of. If you’re not made fun of how in the hell will you ever respected?
A-To-J: What are you plans for the next year? Monroe: Play as many gigs as possible. Get the band’s name out there as much as possible. We’d like to go on tour, but that’s something that needs to be funded. We also want to attack the online market. The music industry is just so different than what it was ten years ago let alone thirty years ago. Yeah, we have a lot of plans. A-To-J: Where can people go to find out more about you? Monroe: Pretty much our Facebook page and our website. (salemslott.com) We also have a twitter and all that stuff. Jet: Yeah we’re on Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. Go to Youtube there is going to be a lot of interesting stuff on there soon. A-To-J: Do you have any closing words for your fans? Monroe: Thank you! Jett: Thank you! Tony: Sorry I wasn’t too vocal in the interview! Jett: Rock on and keep supporting Salems Lott! Monroe: Keep buying CDs! Kay: I would be happy if I got into Burrn! Magazine! (In Japanese) Salems Lott Is: Monroe Black: Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar Jett Black: Lead Guitar, Vocals Kay: Lead Bass, Vocals Tony F. Corpse: Drums, Vocals For more information on Salems Lott: Website: salemslott.com Facebook: facebook.com/salemslottband Youtube: youtube.com/user/salemslottofficial Twitter: twitter.com/SalemsLottBand Instagram: instagram.com/salemslottband S. S. (Sonic Shock) No Choice To Love  Well-known Japanese Rock Band "Dir en grey" will have a live at the Mayan Theater on November 5th 2015. The band has also collaborated with the Japanesque Shibuya Fashion store XENON to provide exclusive merchandise for all the fans! Check the website with the link below and see what they have in store for you all! Remember to click Brand - > Deadly Claris for even more Dir En Grey merchandise as well! Xenon x Dir En Grey Collab Merchandise:http://xenon-la.com/dir-en-grey-limited-2015/ |
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