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This is Shion with Cure Rock Radio. As stated in my CD single review, ALSDEAD has been a band that I am always impressed with and look forward to every CD they put out. I like to take some time to give my view on ALSDEAD. Again, these are my opinions and not all those at Cure will agree with me, and nor may you. And what do I say to that? PFFT. Now on with the ALSDEAD story by Shion.
I first discovered this band with a previous J-ROCK station I worked for. I received a couple of mp3’s via email from a band called Dice&Joker. Songs were Kairi and PM Insistence. It took me about a week to listen to it, just because I wasn’t too happy with previous music I was receiving from bands, and was like “aww man another one I have to bare through”. I sat back with beer in hand at the sound booth. I was a little tipsy and kicking it with another staff member. We decided to open the volume pretty high before we started. Sitting in our chairs we got prepared to crinch. First song played “Kairi”. Cranked at about volume 10, Guitar rhythm kicked in…..I almost dropped my beer….next thing heard was a brief vocal scream that matched the guitar rhythm perfect. Drums wailing on skins and bass strumming so hard would make a girl’s nipples get hard. I say that because the female co-worker sitting next to me told me “damn my nipples are hard”. I was blown away. One of the worst disappointments of a band is that the music starts out great, but the vocal comes up short making the band look bad. Not in this case. This was a perfect team like the Fantastic Four! Very happy with what we heard, we awaited the second song that we received via email from Shin (guitar player of DnJ). MY F’N GOD!!! This band rocks!!! PM Insistence rocked just as hard!! How come nobody has heard of these dudes!! My co-worker and I quickly picked up the phone since it was late at night and still early in Japan. We called Shin and said please send us the rest of your music to crank on air, plus an autograph CD for me (hehehe perks love them). I could not believe this band so far, but it is very rare for me to like an entire album. I haven’t liked a full album since X-Japan, Luna Sea “Mother”, and SEIKIMA II.
About a week later the autograph CD came in the mail from Shin. I called the same co-worker to come over and prepare for about 35 minutes of music and alcohol. From beginning to end, I finally found another album I could add to the list of “Beginning to Finish Most Excellent”. On the album contained two ballads “Eternal Insanity” & “Ash” both reaching listeners favorites and reached our Top 10 4 months in a row with “Eternal Insanity” hitting number 1 two months in a row! I introduced this CD to a friend of mine who was opening an independent U.S. label. He quickly signed this band with the re-release of Dice N Joker “Eternal Insanity” through IRONWERK Records. We then had Dice&Joker actually guest host a show on the radio and do an interview. Unfortunately the Bass player had just left the band for personal reasons, and Setsua got arrested (that’s another story all together). So just Shin and Maki showed up lol. The guest host show was our top 2 listener rated show with over 25,000 around the world tuning in to catch it.
In 2009 Dice&Joker made the announcement of changing the name to ALSDEAD after acquiring new bassist Reito. They released two promotional singles back to back “Violent of Reason” & “S.a.G.a”. Both are amazing singles, and songs still being requested frequently to this day. All tracks “V.O.R.”, “KIZU”, “S.a.G.A”, & “F-99” are amazing, and show that the first album was not a fluke, but pure talent of 4 individuals.
Shortly after all this, I got a call from A-Kon in Dallas, TX saying that they needed a band to open for Camino since LM.C backed out because of fear of the “Swine Flu” ROFL wtf?? What kind of rocker cancels a show because of a possible fear of “Swine Flu”?!?!?! Anyways won’t go into that. I took the opportunity to bring ALSDEAD. I was very nervous picking up ALSDEAD from the airport, especially after Maki got held up in customs by security (what happened behind closed doors…? Only Maki knows). It was about 11pm before they arrived at the Dallas, TX airport. I was so excited to finally meet this band that blew my socks off and got my co-workers nipples hard. Coming to Baggage claim you could spot them a mile away. You could tell there were 4 rock stars arriving. First one I noticed was Shin, VK Prince with our without make up, MAKI Rock star Vocal Supreme, Reito Pure VK in effect, Setsua the Japanese Tommy Lee. We all went quickly outside for that first cig in what 15 hours… (Maki joined us, but quit smoking and enjoyed the second hand).
Once we got to the hotel and everyone was checked in, we had about an hour to party before bars closed. We got a stretched SUV limo and prepared to party. Maki showed up in a traditional Japanese robe lol. With an hour left before last call, we headed to a very awesome lounge bar and ordered up the yin yang with shots galore. Setsua broke down in tears, and when I asked Shin if he was alright, Shin said that those are tears of happiness and that he cannot believe he is here in the U.S. to perform. I looked back at Setsua and watched him take a shot of kamikaze then a shot of white milk…..hmmm (apparently Setsua loves milk with his shots). Shin called his mother at that time and let her know how excited he was.
Performance Day at A-Kon:
In the morning everyone got ready for a most excellent day. A-Kon staff set us up a booth for the live promotions. All the A-Kon staff was top notch and I look forward to every year for a chance to work with them. We laid out ALSDEAD merchandise and had a 10 foot ALSDEAD Logo banner. A friend of ours Rei-San brought over a mixer and some huge speakers to crank ALSDEAD on. All day we busted Videos and Music from ALSDEAD, shouting on the Mic “AAAAHHHAAA this is your 24/7 Pure JROCK Station! ALSDEAD TONIGHT DON’T MISS IT!”
Before the show started I peeked in to see how many showed up. The room was crammed packed with 3000. I ran out to tell Shin. Then Reito got lost lol. But no worries the show started on time with the crowd chanting “ALSDEAD ALSDEAD ALSDEAD”. This is the first time I got to see this band perform live. It was a most excellent moment. After the autograph session we all went upstairs to party with A-Kon staff members and other A-Kon guest. Apparently 3000 filled the concert venue, about 1000 could not see the live because it was packed. Also FYI, when ALSDEAD finished, half the venue left to get autographs and left Camino with a not so filled concert hall. Best part, The CD’s that we brought (roughly 400 Eternal Insanity, 200 V.O.R, & 200 S.a.G.a) were all sold out as well as T-Shirts and photo sets by the end of the event.
Many things happened that first U.S. performance from ALSDEAD, including Shin almost burning his hands, flaming plastic cups of alcohol, and much more.
AKon helped the recognition of ALSDEAD, and they were quickly invited that same year to Anime Vegas in Las Vegas with Satsuki of Rentrer En Soi opening for them. After that ALSDEAD released their 3rd single “PARADOX”. I was very excited about this single since I got the chance to hear demos and work with Maki on English lyrics. When I heard “A Dust” for the first time it brought back memories of the original DiceNJoker album. They mixed in more electronic sounds, but of course keeping the main ALSDEAD hard rock’n sound as the main focus. They then had an amazing 3 man live in Japan presented by Cure with Born, & Velbet. They also unleashed their new look during the 3 Man live. I wasn’t very happy with the white costumes, although Setsua makes it work. They went back in the studio and did a re-recording of DiceNJoker “Kairi” for a Heretic Sound Music compilation album. I personally liked the original, but still not bad at all. As of date they just finished releasing their 5th single “Distrust” and did a live distribution of the PV as well. Check out the PV on our homepage at www.curemediausa.com. I recently did a review on this album that you can see on our blog giving it 5 of 5 stars. There is a full album due out in June and am very excited for it. This band is one to keep watching and will be in the states soon again. And last but not least, each member of ALDEAD is very genuine and just good people. It was an honor being able to bring them to the U.S. for the awesome U.S. fan base that in my opinion are the best rock fans out there! Be sure not to miss one of the most exciting and talented bands of today’s Visual Kei scene. Until ALSDEAD’s next U.S. tour, we will keep Crank’n them on Cure Rock Radio.
Shion
Cure Rock Radio
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