Unboxing #5 - the GazettE's DIVISION [Limited Edition]

Whee, this baby's been on the back burner for a while, but it's finally here!  By back burner, I mean I started this post October 14th.  Er.  Yeah, I was meaning to post this up after my last post, but I realized that I was missing a few pictures to make this unboxing post complete.  And then, hey, two months passed...but, better late than never right?  Eh heh heh?

Let's pretend this was posted when the GazettE released DIVISION (August 29th, 2012).

Anywho, moving on...

Let me tell you, when Ruki/the GazettE/the media released the proportions of this monster, my first thought was HOLY. CRAP.  This was promptly followed by HOLY. CRAP. SHIPPING. COSTS.  Just in case y'all didn't know, it was announced that the limited edition version would be 5 cm thick and would weigh 1.1 kg.  A freaking album that's about 2 inches thick and weighs 2.2 pounds.  HOW INSANE IS THAT?  The entire package was about 1.7 kg.  That's 3.7 pounds.  I'm not going to even go into how much it costs.  I purchased this baby from CDJapan, which is not known for it's cheaper shipping costs.  Let's just say the album itself (no shipping fee included) was 6349 yen.  That's about $80.95 in US dollars. ;~;

You might flip and want to question my sanity and ask who in their right minds would spend that much on an album?  I'd answer, you might be entitled to doing that.  Well, question away, because I do too!

*ahem*

Anyways, Gorgeous Monstrosity contains three discs.  The first disc is called FRAGMENT [VEIN] and contains 7 songs that embody the older GazettE sound that longtime fans may be missing.  The second disc is called BINDING SITE and contains PVs for three songs.  It's quite interesting that they made a PV for one of the instrumental tracks.  AND THEY FINALLY HAVE AN OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL WHERE THEY UPLOADED TWO OF THE THREE PVs.  FINALLY.  I've linked them in the tracklist below for the DVD, so check it out.  Now if they could upload the videos in HD...but baby steps I suppose.  Baby steps.  The third and last disc is called FRAGMENT [ARTERY] and contains 7 songs that are structured around their newer, digital/electronic sound.

Here's a quick rundown of the tracklist for the limited edition for those of you interested:

Disc 1: FRAGMENT [VEIN]
1. [Depth]
2. 歪, (IBITSU)
3. 籠の蛹, (KAGO NO SANAGI)
4. ヘドロ, (HEDORO)
5. 影踏み, (KAGEFUMI)
6. 余韻, (YOIN)
7. [Diplosomia]

Disc 2: BINDING SITE [DVD]
1. 歪, (IBITSU)
2. [Diplosomia]
3. DERANGEMENT

Disc 3: FRAGMENT [ARTERY]
1. [XI]
2. DERANGEMENT
3. REQUIRED MALFUNCTION
4. DRIPPING INSANITY
5. ATTITUDE
6. GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS
7. [Melt]

And just to be complete, the tracklist for the regular edition (features different arrangement of tracks and doesn't have two instrumentals from the first disc of the limited edition) :

1. [XI]
2. GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS
3. DERANGEMENT
4. DRIPPING INSANITY
5. 余韻, (YOIN)
6. 歪, (IBITSU)
7. 影踏み, (KAGEFUMI)
8. 籠の蛹, (KAGO NO SANAGI)
9. ヘドロ, (HEDORO)
10. ATTITUDE
11. REQUIRED MALFUNCTION
12. [Melt]

Now it's time to see why I call my package the Gorgeous Monstrosity...

Meet Gorgeous Monstrosity, who is approximately 20 inches long...(no that's what s/he said jokes, thanks.)

...and about 14 inches wide...

...and 3.5 inches tall!

The poster came in a poster tube.  All ready and waiting for me to unravel! ♥

I LOVE THIS POSTER.  My desktop at the mo'.

Ahh, peek-a-boo!  I see you! :3

Dear goodness, the album is a foot long...

...and nearly nine inches wide...

...and about 1.5 inches tall.  Meow.

The glare on this one is crazy, but the tracklist shows up very well.  The sideways tracklisting reminds me of DIM's tracklisting format.

View of the side panel.

Top view.  Notice the 'divisions' in the album itself.  (See what I did there.)  Concept art for each section proceeds the discs.

Disc 1: FRAGMENT [VEIN]

Disc 2: BINDING SITE [DVD]

Disc 3: FRAGMENT [ARTERY]

First of all, let me say.  WELCOME TO THE CURRENT AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND PROMOTION.  Their label got smart and uploaded their PVs on an official YouTube channel.  Yay! \o/  Are we ever going to see their older videos uploaded on an official channel?  Probably not, since those PVs weren't released by Sony.  Such a shame too, since they were AWESOME.  ALSO.  They jumped on the Facebook bandwagon and got themselves an official page.  Like them here if you're so inclined!  (All the romanji for the song titles I got are from here.)

Speaking of PVs...I'm glad that they decided to have a PV that showcased that good ol' GazettE charm.  As beautiful as they all look, I was getting a little tired of the PVs where they just performed the song and stitched those scenes together with random shots of each member.  It seemed they were doing that a little more than usual in recent years.  It's not really too much of a surprise though, considering the label change.  The members even stated that it's smothering having people telling them how to shape their sound and image.  Anyways, DERANGEMENT is awesome.  It reminds me a little of Filth and the beauty actually.  Ya know, the twisted, ugly side of humans and all that.  Or maybe just the overall perverseness.  Plus, that Engrish ♥.  Take your pick.

I love that this release was so meaty.  It's been a few months since they've released this album, and I'm STILL trying to get a feel for it.  Granted, I've only flipped through the artbook a total of two or three times, but I think this release and its concept was meant to be as layered as I found it to be.  Perhaps one of the reasons why is that they released two discs of music that are jarringly different from each other.  Their fourth studio album, DIM, had a more extensive tracklist, but the atmosphere of each song was pretty similar, which made the concept of the album easily digestible.  This time, they've released an album that consists of half the traditional 'GazettE' sound, and half the 'digital/electronic' sound that they've been dabbling in for their recent releases.  Just when you think the sound is flowing one way, it does a 180, smacks you in the face, and then goes about its business.  As a result, the 'flow' of the album is a little slippery to grasp, which in this case, is neither a good nor a bad thing.  It's just a statement of fact.  It's actually quite interesting, uniting the concept of 'division' by visually and sonically separating their album into distinguishable fragments.  All that combined with the Gemini twins-but-not-really women in the concept art...boy, do they make their fans work!  Exercising that green and that noggin'!

That being said, I really hope this beautiful, 100-paged album/artbook lasts for a really long time.  I'm warily eying all the separate parts within the album/artbook and handling Gorgeous Monstrosity as carefully as I can to keep it in pristine condition.  Like the limited edition for TOXIC, it comes with a fitted plastic bag.  I hope that's apparent in some of the photos I took.  I'd loathe to get that all scratched up.  Hm.  Well.  I'd loathe to get any part of it damaged, haha.  The surface of the album/artbook, glossy as it may be, is actually (quite surprisingly), fingerprint resistant.  Yay!

If y'all want the full, amazing, physical package to see for yourself what exactly I've been babbling about, get the limited edition or regular edition here or at your shop of choice if you are able~!