It's After Eden in the 2nd thead of Kalafina!

[mellody]

I watched Vol. 9!
I think it's as great as Vol. 2, I loooove the setlist, and Hanae sings Let the stars fall down

[Echiko]

The song Consolation is leaked!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47776109/Consolation.mp3 )

[Chiharo]

I decided not to listen to leaks until I receive the album, but I'd love to hear what you people think about "Consolation".

[adantatu2]

I like it a lot !!
It's like a mix between Magia and to the beginning IMO.
I thought it would be a boring ballad, but i'm wrong !!!

[milky_way]

To listen or not to listen...

[Damita]

I couldn't help but listen, I was too excited to hear it! I listened to it once yesterday and once today (and I'm going to try not to listen to again until my copy comes, we'll see how that goes). It's absolutely fantastic, though I definitely applaud those who are waiting to listen to it, because it will be SO much better in HQ than it sounds right now, I can tell.

I only have one complaint about it: 1) It's a lot like their past songs (so far every title track has had its own identity: Eden, Seventh Heaven, and Red Moon are all special and unique in Kalafina's catalog. However, Consolation is not that unique I feel, though listening in HQ may change my opinion. In fact, now that I state that, I feel that may be true.

Also @mellody, thanks again for your recommendations, I'm still enjoying them I tried listening to fate to zero while doing my homework and I enjoyed it very much! There's so much music I can hardly handle myself hahaha. I am also trying her SAO soundtrack since I really enjoyed the music I've heard before from it, namely "Crossing Field by LiSA. Coincidentally. LiSA also did the opening for fate/zero, "Oath Sign", but I don't think Kajiura was involved with either.

[Midori-chan]

New album! Ahhhhhh~~
I can't wait!

The covers are very pretty, but what else is new?! I adore ALL Kalafina-covers so far!

[*hearT_Place*]

Consolation is intense! I can't wait to get the full album!

[milky_way]

Where are the album previews?

[Damita]

Finally it leaked!! I'm trying not to listen to everything but I've listened to Consolation/Door/the intro on HQ and they're all fantastic!

I love their ballads so I was really pleased that Door resembles Hikari Furu in a way, but I think some people won't like it.

This may just end up being their best album, it's already better than Eden/Red Moon at this point, as long as the rest of the tracks aren't bad.

I love "al fine" so much, I kinda wish it was a full song, it has so much sorrow in it, it's really beautiful and like a sorrowful version of "Seventh Heaven" (in fact it's just like that intro except sad).

[adantatu2]

^I can wait to hear the album ^_^

[Chiharo]

Opinions on this album seem to be very positive. Now I really hope I will receive this album just one day after the release date (as I somehow magically did with After Eden), otherwise I'm not sure how much longer I can wait without listening to the leak.

[Yoake]

Thanks Damita. I saw your post this morning before to go to Lyon. I listend to it in the train. I like it but I think it's not as good as RED MOON and Seventh Heaven. The strongest songs are the singles one.
My favouite are Consolation & Door

[Damita]

^ Haha it's so funny you say that, I was about to post in your graphic shop but then I saw you were going to Lyon! Please have a nice trip!

What I love about this album is it has so many fantastic ballads, which IMO they don't have enough in their catalog. Also I love/like every track so far (even moonfesta now). I think Seventh Heaven is too epic to ever surpass in greatness, it's actually one of my favorite albums EVER, but this one does a good job competing with it.

[mellody]

LiSA is not related to Kajiura at all, but she has the same genre, Anison I guess.
Glad if you're enjoying my recommendation then

Anyway, probably I'm the one here that have different opinion about new album, I put under spoiler in case if it would decrease your excitement for those who haven't listened to the album.

Spoiler:

So I finally listened to consolation and I gotta say:
What's wrong with Kajiura? Where is your direction for this group now?

At first when listening to the whole album, I like it, so exciting.
Second attempt, feels like the songs fade away easily, not very memorable.

I remember the first time when listening to After Eden, I'm easily amazed by most of the album tracks like sandpiper, destination unknown, and symphonia even from Red Moon, like fantasia, Kyrie, Yami no Uta, I have a dream, and most of seventh heaven tracks, they bring the epicness of Kajiura "utahime", but in this album, I feel like "not anymore."

Compared to 3 previous albums, this album kinda lost the "Kalafina's identity."
Maybe they are trying to become more mainstream? I don't know.
Or maybe I'm still not used to their new direction, I can be wrong.
Either a step up from Kara no Kyoukai series or step down to mainstream road.

The flow of this album is somewhat like Red Moon, many twist, up and downs.
Most of the album tracks are nice, I love consolation and Signal the most, but it's rather standard and weak.
I feel like something is missing from Kalafina ever since to the beginning, that's why this album is kinda off or 'powerless' for me.
Even though consolation itself is fierce and intense.
But I'm still not sure actually, like I said before maybe I'm still not used to their new direction. Probably I only need to listen more.

Even if consolation sounds different from 3 previous albums, this album has something that other 3 albums don't have, I'm not sure what is that, but this album is very strong on the theme itself. Musical wise, maybe not really entertaining, but really, there's something on this album that makes me want to listen again and again. Even I appreciate Hikari Furu more now.

So overall, this is actually not a bad album because this album has one strong point.

It's just a mere opinion though

[milky_way]

This is probably their weakest album tbh

[Zahara]

This is almost up there with Seventh Heaven for me. The mood is pretty heavy in some of the songs, a bit uncomfortable in their tone, so it's something a lot different compared to how After Eden was light and nostalgic.

Lyrically, I ain't got a clue what they are saying, so for all I know they are singing about riding sharks and blowing up Antarctica, but Wakana's voice sounds much better on this album than AE. She sounds like has finally gotten used to her new voice technique.

I like the presence of the drums and bass guitar, and some new instruments as well, it's a sign Yuki Kajiura is experimenting a bit more in her music.

This album was perfect to listen to on my way home tonight. It was snowing pretty heavily when the song Door started to play.

Also, Hanae and Yuriko ftw! So glad to hear their voices in some of the tracks!

[CHE.R.RY]

Originally Posted by milky_way

This is probably their weakest album tbh

I agree...maybe I just need to listen to it some more, but I wasn't really feeling it all . The only song that totally blew my socks off was Door. That song had me completely subdued for a little bit there.

[mellody]

I wonder if anyone realize about this...

The opening track al fine, consist lyrics and messages referencing another song from the album:

Originally Posted by Lord Starfish @ cpme.net

"hikari ga furu" (Should go without saying.)
"hajimari e to" (To the beginning)
"DOA ga hiraku" (Door)
"GARASU no hana" (Hanataba)
"tsuki no matsuri" (Moonfesta)
"ten no *can't make this line out entirely*" (Manten)
"sora no ao to" (Signal)
"natsu no hikari" (Kiichigo no Shigemi ni)
"*Not sure what they're saying here*"
"hitori janai kokoro-tachi ga" (Mirai)
"tsunagu MELODY" (Not sure EDIT: Wait. Yume no Daichi. Obviously. Excuse me while I go punch myself in the face for missing the reference to the one new song I've heard the most times already.)
"kimi no tame no CONSOLATION" (Should go without saying)

This is why this album packed beautifully with a strong theme.

[Tomoyo]

In my personal opinion, After Eden was their weakest album. They did redeem themselves with this new album. i do enjoy it a lot more than i did After Eden, with the exception of Magia, Destination Unknown and Magnolia. those are really the only songs i liked off of that album. to me the best album was probably their first one, although i did enjoy Red Moon a lot too. I still think Seventh heaven was the best. I have uploaded Consolation in the Downloads section if anyone wants it ^.^