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Ten years ago today, Spike760 and myself decided that we wanted to start a Japanese Rock forum. After a while of debating, we eventually settled on Tainted World (after the D’espairsRay song of the same name). Frankly, neither one of expected it to last all that long; this would hardly be the first forum that we had run together that didn’t go anywhere. But what started as a fun little project somehow blossomed into an amazing community. The fact that this site still exists after all this time has little to say about Spike and my’s original plan and everything to say about the members here. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping build this site into what it is today. While I was one of the key founders of this site, Monochrome Heaven is so much bigger than just me. That became clear to me when we went under the transition from Tainted World to our current name back in 2011. While to really understand why this is so important requires more context, I don’t want to go into a full on history lesson. But since that point, so many members have stepped up and dedicated themselves to this site, putting in the time and effort (and money) into making Monochrome Heaven as great as it possibly can be. To every member that has joined and felt like they were apart of a community over this silly niche interest we all have, I raise a glass to you. You all are what have made this place special. And to every staff member, current and past, no words can express my thanks to you - you are people that I have come to admire and consider good friends. But this post isn’t about me, but about the Monochrome Heaven! I want to hear from all of you as to why this community is special, why you’ve becoming coming back for 10 months or 10 years. Or tell us one of your favorite moments from your time coming, whether that was a release you were looking for forever or a stupid meme that took over the forum. Here’s some from other users to get things started!: @-jibakurei- @SEKHMET @Ada Suilen @Flame-X @Seiji @Platy @efuru @saishuu @Furik

I remember Monochrome Heaven as a community for pringles enthausiasts I remember Monochrome Heaven touching my forehead in a dark alley and finding a mediafire link inscribed into my skin I remember Monochrome Heaven reluctantly feeding me and raising me as its own child I remember Monochrome Heaven taking The People's Download Section away, essentially literally becoming more fascist than Hitler I remember Monochrome Heaven teaching me how writing thinkpieces about Dir en grey sometimes is okay I remember Monochrome Heaven for its secret hentai board I remember Monochrome Heaven as simultaneously being the most kawaii & unkawaii board of 2016 I remember Monochrome Heaven teaching me it's perfectlly okay to say that this time you're definitely leaving forever, and then still coming back the next day But, most importantly, I remember Monochrome Heaven becau[YOU NEED A MONOCHROME HEAVEN PREMIUM ACCOUNT TO ACCESS THIS CONTENT]

A legendary epoch for me personally, even as far as my life really, was the heyday of the chat. I think I started appearing there around late 2011 and up until late 2013. Anyone who was there at the time knows exactly what I'm talking about and how special that thing was. At one point you could rest assured that someone would be there all the time, like Yasu or slsr or somebody else who seemed to be on the computer day and night. I pretty much spend as much time there as I could myself, and I when I left the house I had chat on mobile and when I got home I logged in with the computer! People who are new to this forum cannot even begin to imagine how many classic happenings took place there from those long running gags to all the fights like the big one that eventually sounded its death knell. I try to relate a couple of favorite stories that I remember off the top of my head. I try to be as brief as possible so that people will actually read all this lol One fairly recent character was my boi Kahzooey Tunasama from Scandal Heaven, who upon introducing himself proclaimed that he was going to leave the forum in September of something. Then he kept post-poning his exit until he made the ill-fated thread He showed up to the chat a couple of times too, but wasn't all that enthralling a person. We did go trolling on scandal heaven one day, and I think at least Cat and sai took the literal piss. I haven't laughed that much too many times in my life. When raburr joined and dove-eyed and fuzzy tailed I hazed the fuck out of him in the chat. For the life of me I don't remember what he said, but I kept copypasting some nonsense supposedly under his name where he had said something to or about sai, and sai played along and pretended that what I wrote was legit. I'm surprised he even stayed after all that lolol great guy though. The ones I love I treat the worst. Back in 2012 I had to go and practice dancing for my lovely lady at the upcoming prom, and being the age of the chat as it were I was pretty much in there every chance I got. Chat when I rode the tram; chat when I waited to hit the ballroom; chat when I was at mcdonalds afterwards and before ( true og's remember I was at Mcdonald's every day, a habit I continue to this day god bless ). On one fateful day Maiku had bought a book from Barnes & Noble or some shit and had manage to get the dumb glitter ornament from the cover into his eye, and now he was going about it in the chat as I was leaving home. When I was riding the tram he was there; when I was about to start and when I stopped ceased dancing, he was there; when I went to Mcdonald's for like an hour he was still there going on about the hazards of gold dust and any possible lawsuits he might be able to undertake against barnes and noble. This might have went on for hours and hours without a pause. We don't have that shop in Finland, but if they have went bankrupt unexpectedly in recent years, now you know why. I'll write more as they come to me, and I hope some of the other OG chat members could contribute. This forum has been an instrumental part of my life ever since I joined, so like eight years. Over the years I've met like over ten yous irl as friends, enemies and even romantic liaison. I want to give a shoutout to all the original yellow name crew members. Also thank you especially to all the characters that sojourned in the chat back in the day. I'd like to thank everyone individually, and I even tried, but honestly there's just so many and it'd be a great injustice to honor one and omit the other. Even those who were only there for a couple of times but contributed to the laughs either with their wit, stupidity or both. You know who you are

I made an account here right around the time that Batsu was nearing the end of its peak. I would casually just lurk and maybe post here and there but nothing serious because it wasn't as lively as Batsu was. Then Batsu died and became the infamous Fukkatsu, which didnt last that long but seemed to generate a reputation here of being uber serious Dir en grey Stans haha. I then gave forums a break and for some reason i decided to poke around here years later and ran into the chat where @CAT5was very welcoming. Through chat i was able 2 reunite with my long lost fellow negro @WhirlingBlack and make new friends which I hold very dear ( @allisapp@Jigsaw9@Carmelzors@paradoxal etc.) . Posting in the forums regularly now has also introduced me to more cool people which I enjoy interacting with daily (on here or elsewhere online)/ whenever we bump into each other in a thread. I love this place. There's a legitimate effort here to keep it fresh and running smooth (despite the antics). Long live MH. Jk, my ass is just here for the downloads. Y'all ain't shit.

I would estimate I started lurking here pretty soon after things got off the ground, I remember back in the day people advertising Tainted World as a replacement for the Batsu download forum which it's now-infamous admin Kevin decided to take down after being told off by someone or just having some stroke of paranoia. Either way, as long as Batsu flourished I only used TW for downloads and once that forum started declining and I simultaneously had some harsh encounters over there I went into lurker mode for several years. I decided to make my comeback only in 2012 at the insistence of other members here ( @Biopanda and @allisapp) and started hanging out regularly in the chat primarily, which is why I'm sure I'm most familiar to the chatbox crew. All things considered, those years when the chat had it's most intense activity, were truly great. Like @Disposablesaid, it was a short (I think less than two years?) but very intense period and so many things passed by. There was the DemonAndroid drama involving his many cousins of unknown provenance who always seemed to provide "legit" (read: Youtube) rips of wanted CDs. Then in the end when his transcodes got banned all he could do was ask people to come upstairs. I remember the guy from Colombia who hung out for like two weeks and talked about trains and raping corpses. It was a strange little parenthesis but I remember it well for some reason. There was drama back and forth with Ryu/DarkWater/tons of other alt accounts, long speculations and teasing about what sai actually looks like, discussions about angura rarez in the old old Skype chat that caused Prism to ban me and a bunch of my friends... Zess and his ever shorter username. I'm sure there's more but it takes time to remember everything. There have been differences in opinion between how a forum is best run to be sure between myself and some of the staff, culminating in the revolt and finally break which I helped facilitate. But ultimately I think this forum gained a lot from that event. Just like the protestant reformation forced much needed changes to the catholic church, this place underwent a lot of changes for the better after that and I can honestly say right now that I'm quite happy with the way things are. I've met a lot of amazing people here and I can honestly say that it really has changed my life for the better. If anyone still have hard feelings from those days, I hope we can move on and hopefully face the coming years as a community.

Ten years ago on this exact day my thirteen year old self was browsing myspace, like most kids my age back then did in their free time, when I came across a post on a Jrock group I frequented at the time. The post was by a "Jake" advertising a brand new Jrock forum that he and a friend created just earlier that day. At the time I was chomping at the bit for any new way to discover new Japanese rock music (VK in particular), I immediately registered and became the fourth member of that brand new empty forum. That forum's name was Tainted World and the Jake and friend in question were none other than Spike760 and Ito. Since that day I have had many ups and downs with this community for better and worse. I've discovered a thousand or more bands, talked with hundreds of people from all corners of the world, made dozens of friends and like minded acquaintances, and even made a few enemies as well. I have witnessed every drama thread/post/chat log that this forum has generated, participated in profound thought invoking discussions that have sprouted up in various topics over the course of a decade, and even was here to witness the almost catastrophic implosion of the site back in 2010-2011 that led to the current domain name. I became a moderator and for a time actually did my job quite well (LOL) this gave me a direct line to grow the community in other ways than just music, in those efforts I would like to believe that the anime and video game fans of the community found this place a little more accommodating and welcome. In ten years my musical taste has gone through multiple transformations that were no doubt in big part due to the people here in this community. I have grown as a person due to my time here, I've learned how to deal with life's unfortunate circumstances and how to cope when things go bad. This place has been a eternal sanctuary for me in my depressing and boredom filled times. I'm now twenty four years old and no longer the child I was when I came to this place, that in itself is a little sad, since my most fun and memorable moments were from those early years when I was still in middle and high school just trying to find a place I could fit in and kill some time. But one thing is for sure... This place is a second home for me, no matter how busy my life gets I know that I can come back here and just be myself and feel good about it. Ten years? I say that's not enough. I won't be satisfied until I can say I've been apart of this place for 20 years, what the hell fuck it. 30 years! Why not? WE CAN KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE AS LONG AS WE BELIEVE! ~ Saku

I joined TW somewhen in 2008 just for the rarez and stuff back then, and it has become a huge part of my daily life that I keep visiting since. Moreover, MH has so many veteran VK fans from various countries throughout the world, and that alone makes me think if you claim to be a VK fan but haven't heard of MH, you're probably just a n00b one. lol Well, besides MH being an international J-Rock/VK community, it's also a place where I've been learning English from interacting with both native and non-native speakers. The fact that my English has been so much improved is because of the edit button and Google Translate people here. <33 It was also an honor that the staff approached me in October 2013 inviting me to join the team as a blue mod; otherwise, I wouldn't dare to sign up myself. lol. And that was the right decision, so I can contribute something I'm capable of doing to the community. Finally, I would like to thank MH for existing all these years and all the people here for your valuable contributions. Thank you so much for a great 10 years, and let's move forward to the future together.

Dai will come back and everyone is gonna have to choose which forum we want to be apart of. IAMWILL will come back and flame anyone that says anything bad about Diru, and don't forget about KAWON either, e.t.c, I miss the drama T.T but here's to another 10 years of us BSing and going into our 30s and caring about guys dressing up and looking pretty for underage girls with their over the top host club look and more bad vocals please!?

I have been with TW/MH for almost as long as I have known Ito, and his introduction to me of J-rock(sadly he also liked a lot of j-pop back then and it stuck with me). For most of the life span of the forums that MH has become, I was pretty much a forum troll. Unlike Ramrod or Chronowarp I was basically just there to ensure Ito had a job to do, and ensure that the spam sections of these forums were up to a level of expectation that is of forum culture. There was that time I did a fake leak of Dir En Grey's Uroboros wit the help of that one Dai guy. That was a pretty memorable topic that lasted a few hours. But I digress, as this is all about you the users and should stay as thus. Keep on uploadin and downloadin stuff ladies and gents. These forums wouldn't be here without your contributions to the PBS Toasted Waffles section. Also, people still post here? That's a silly concept.

Damnit, I guess I have to write something as well. I originally joined TW years and years ago, but I have no memory when was it. I still remember my old avatar (an elephant jumping on a trampoline) and some old users who haven't been around for ages. To name a few... nah, there was this cool spanish chick who was a huge DEATHGAZE/cocklobin-fan, can't seem to remember her username though. :< Anyways, while my TW/MH history started then, I think I finally joined the community by joining MSN chat where I met some amazing people, with whom I can still talk. By becoming part of this community I even met IRL some people (and still sometimes do) and had amazing conversations with them. ( @Biopandapls, I know you love my frozen garlic bread ;)))))))) ) This forum has seen many dramas, which has been so, so enjoyable to see. I am still a bit sad though because my first (and only?) upload thread became full of trolling. </3 I have spent so many hours on MH, MH chat/MSN/Skype that it's hard to separate everything. I still miss the gaming section, where I spent way too much time playing Mahjong Connect. As there has been amazing encounters, it's always very sad to see people go. For that I want to give a shoutout to Prism, who was amazing and helped me to get through a lot, thanks to you, I had so many good memories. I could also say the same thing to WB, I am very happy that we met through here. Anyways, I am a really bad writer and can't seem to get anything proper done. Lots of stuff you guys have written has made me smile and laugh, I really want to hear more memories. There is so many stuff I have forgotten... Thank you TW/MH, mods/admins and, of course, users. You may not know me, but I know you ;))

I've been an MH member for a decade, but where is the DL section!!?

Giant shoutout to all of my Monochrome-Children! Here's to another 10 years of shitposts :v

I confess that i know TW/MH almost 8 years i guess. Every year i know more and more about you guys. I was a simple downloader of everything from here hehehe. Today i am uploader of my fav bands and its a pleasure share with you guys. Of course i am the Queen of Plastic Tree band here (No really lol). Was here that i did some friendships and some crushes (I love some members). MH its my House that i love and i will keep going be with you guys. of course i am already to the next 10 years Thanks for all.

Oh boy it's been awhile. I still follow the group on fb and saw this post and thought "gahdamn, has it really been 10 years?" That means I've known some of you since I was 16/17 and some of you like champ213 probably even longer than that from tonberry days and the great migration. A wave of serious nostalgia passed over me. This forum and the people on it were such an integral part of my life for so long. Fond af memories: downloads and rarez drama, Kiwamu hate, crappy indies vk thread, the mh Chat, chatting on msn messenger, chatting on soulseek lol, Jake's changing favorite bands every week, Dai/toasted waffles/the big change, being a mod and the staff dramaz (our pokemanz and mod colors too), yellow names, Fakkin' A, that dude mitsu (I think) who would randomly curse in the chat and had that terrible vk fanfiction and lyrics site, "generic" , Jake's feud with that dude that ended somehow with Cat5 and others infiltrating our ranks and then liking it here, lady revania drama, last.fm mass chart suicides and tagging dramaz, spinning on turntable.fm, when we first got emoticons and the subsequent abuse of said emoticons , demonandroid and all crappy vs. high quality rips dramaz, credit dramaz, IAMWILL, banning dramaz... okay lots of drama but ya'll get the point. Some of the best friends I've made I made on this forum and some of you I've gotten a chance to meet irl and hope to still meet others in the future. I honestly thought I would be on here until the bitter end but a year or so after I moved to Tokyo and got buckled down with school and life I slow faded and before I knew it it all seemed so distant. But every now and then I think back to this place and when I see some of you guys on fb or elsewhere the memories do come flooding back and I'm happy and proud to have been a part of this community. Some honorable mentions of some people Who've impacted my life on and off this board: Cat5, Champ213, Maiku, Prism, Zeus, Mima, Shogu, Missa, Ito, Spike760, Biopanda, Furik, Aion, Ash and more. So long and thanks for all the fish.

I became a member here around 3 years ago when I was trolling thru Visual Scandal and was still getting into the jist of j-rock. I admit, I acted like an ass in the past, but thankfully I've changed since then and I've made some amends and even made some friends. To come to this place now and have all that, plus other people to talk about my shitty faves with, means a lot to me. I'd like to thank @CAT5 for giving me a second chance. Plus, there are certain bands that I would have never discovered if it weren't for MH; I'd still be stuck reading shitty articles by a certain news site that updates a couple of weeks after a significant event/release occurs, and due to VS3's demise, I wouldn't have anywhere else to download vk rarez. Here's to another 10 years of jrawk and dramaz~🍻

How time flies! Im also one of those coming over from batsu roughly 10 years ago and visting nearly every single day since. Like some, i was actively writing here in the early days but went silent after/leeching and now just post once in a while. Im amazed some people are active here for the same time and im reading their posts since all these years like Ito or Saku. I didnt like that some guys changed their username so i forgot who they were but for me Ramrod, Trombe and Champ213 were legends here that unfortunatly seemed to go away, taking a huge part of this forum for me with them (miss you Trombe!). Shoutout to some guys i remember i havent seen active here anymore like Kagerou, Kuregu, Spike760, DeathlikeS, stylelover, Ichibayo, ed47a, etc. Some of the core members here left, but those who stayed aged mindly and have put the discussions to a more respectivly atmosphere imo. I think for many the glitter of vk crumbled when they realized how shitty and untalented 90% of all these hyped bands are, be it for live videos on youtube, a lot more people here going to actual lives in japan or just general increase in life experience. Its funny and a little annoying sometimes to read "newer" people hype those bands because of their photoshop pictures or ghost recorded CDs while you've seen how horrible musicians they are irl/at their live, but well. I've been there myself in the early days so let them be and have their fun - I remember the time when you could finally join the old VIP section and just saw an huge amount of (mostly shitty) rare stuff you could finally torture your ears with. What time to be alive. - I remember drama: Reviews of not yet shared CDs, stuff shared outside old VIP, stuff shared that someone bought at auctions, the person who thought she was robin hood sharing VIP stuff at LJ, etc. etc. - I remember the hardcore trolls but some seemed to get bored and left. A few stayed but they finally managed to become partly funny for me (or i just got used to it) - I remember shitty bands like Leviathan, unRuSt or brodiaea hyped to no end. The Death Gate CDs from brodiaea seemed like the holy grail. I feel while the amount of really bad bands and people hyping them decreased you really cant compare bad but well produced bands of these days (e.g. AvelCain) with how bad some were back in the days. Thanks to everyone who keeps this forum alive! Wishing for many more good times and good new bands. This!

As one of the manic uploaders on here, I have to say the past two years I've been around have been a blast. Lots of cool folks, and of course the drama can be delicious, but I digress XD. A big shoutout to the main heads of MH and a very happy anniversary to the best forum dedicated to Japanese music on the web!

Ro plz

I became a member here about three years ago, I was referred to mh by someone who isn't even a member here. While I haven't really contributed anything substantial to the community as a whole, I love it here, some of the people here are really cool, plus I got interested in bands I never thought I'd listen to and grew attached to this forum as a whole. I come here just about every single day. Shouts out to @CAT5, @Zeus, @nostalgia , @YuyoDrift and @Elazmus though. They've been cool and helpful throughout my tenure here.

No idea how long I've been around under different usernames, shared accounts and whatnot, but it's been a while. Not sure why I've been here for so long as I've never been big on actually discussing (Japanese) music. But I did. And it's not because of downloads either, because I have not grabbed much from here. Probably the drama and the bans. And the film threads back when they were super active. Yeah, good job keeping it this active for so many years, though. Very impressive by both admins/mods and mortal users.

Good times. Wishing many more fun- and drama-filled years for MH~

Congratulations! *coming back sneaky* I've been with TW a year after it changed to MH and I've met so many great people since then. Always loved the daily conversations in the chats and sharing some of the VK music I own. I was happy to become a part of the staff/moderating team back then, it was a fun job and I did it with pleasure. I hope many more years to come...! and I'll try to come back from time to time to say hi haha Stay well you all~ stay genki! and don't forget to stay positive no matter what!

Cinema staff has a new album, 熱源, out on May 17th. CD: 1. 熱源 2. 返して 3. pulse 4. souvenir 5. メーヴェの帰還 6. 波動 7. el golazo 8. diggin' 9. エゴ 10. 僕たち Bonus DVD: 1. 前衛懐古主義 part1 東京編@2016.10.17 LIQUIDROOM 2. エゴ (Music Video) 3. 返して (Music Video) 4. ビハインド (Music Video) 5. Music Video Document Movie

I find myself with a lot of time to think about the state of Japanese music and how things have changed since I first became a fan. I'm sure you guys have these thoughts as well. For the 10th anniversary, I'm going to publish some random musings I've had about the scene. They'll just be bullet points from one sentence to a few sentences about anything related to visual kei or J-rock. If you guys want to join in just leave your bullet points below and I'll be posting them sometime soon. Thoughts from @Zeus: the GazettE We always had a dream of getting together a J-Rock Wikipedia of sorts to catalog our history. That idea is all but dead in the water. Last.fm is the closest we have to that and it's very decentralized. The day those servers go down is the day an entire epoch of international visual kei ends. From the perspective of an international fan, live distributed releases suck ass. It sucks more when the song in question is not put on another purchasable release, rendering that song out of reach for people like me unless we fork over tons of money to a third party reseller, so it's not like we could benefit the band if we tried. It really sucks when it was given away at a band's last gig, because the fans of that band will only dwindle from that moment on and the release will become even rarer until it reaches a tipping point where no one cares anymore. Then, you might get it if someone feels kind and doesn't purge it from their hard drives. An entire era of Japanese history was lost when Mega Upload went down. Many places exclusively used that website for all their deeds. It's said that 4% of all the traffic in the internet flowed through their servers at their peak. I say this because there are lots of releases that you just can't find anymore because links are dead and the fans have left. I've learned a valuable lesson about the permanence of data. I used to hate collection albums and viewed them as a quick way to make a buck. But after some stellar recent releases and faves of mine that broke up and left a collection album behind before they broke up, they are very useful for both sharing a blast from the past and for making mix tapes. Most blogspots have always seemed like a futile attempt to mimic what we do here for some bored teenagers 15 seconds of fame. I used to expend my energy trying to stamp them out, but that's just as futile. There were a select few that actually served as an archival device and were lit. Places like Byouto and Evil en lucifer existed with a plan and a demographic in mind and actually bothered with mirroring their own links and getting their own CDs. Re-recordings are almost always better than remasters for me. At least with the former it feels like the band put some effort into it. Speaking of which, the re-recordings on Lycaon's second album aren't that bad. I still don't like EROS or Aventure though. I've never listened to an X JAPAN song and I don't understand all of the hate Yoshiki gets sometimes. I like poking fun at Japanese Democracy, but other than that I'm from a different era than original X fans (are there even any left) so I can't cash in on nostalgia. I'm so far divorced from their music I have no feelings one way or another and if it ever does get released, I plan on buying, listening, and reviewing the new album fairly as if we haven't been waiting forever to hear it. THE PIASS Never thought I would see a scene without UNDERCODE. Then again, there was a time I thought there would never be a scene without Matina and these days few people remember that label. Does YOHIO hang around here? He must visit every now and again - this place is too addictive and centralizing not to. Is there even anywhere else to go? Where do all the n00bs come from? I haven't heard anyone refer to anything as "too American" in years. We successfully stamped that ignorance out of the scene! I remember when XodiacK was first formed, their partnership with HearJapan, and their subsequent financial failure with their first single. They were a joke back then. Now they are considered a cult classic. It's crazy how malleable opinions are. BORN and Lycaon are two bands I waited forever for their disbandment, and when it happened I wasn't happy. Visual kei is making a third shift in sound away from the millenial-kei tunes into the unknown. This is a great time to be a fan! Thoughts from @fitear1590: the fin. I need more VK bands with technical guitar work that aren't necessarily tied to some offshoot of metal (Aicle was a perfect example) The lines between VK and certain brands of indie are getting more porous; a very exciting combination of worlds! Honestly, what happened to Shiina Ringo? She was such a prominent figure in my music taste at one point, but she fizzled out... Please. End. The. Treble. Synth. Fad. Long live "art kei". May the patron saints (ex-members of bands like Moran, yazzmad, amber gris, etc.) keep the style going! Thoughts from @emmny: DIV amber gris saved visual kei after Buglug tried to destroy it and before issei literally almost destroyed himself falling off a balcony meto style Few things were more depressing than seeing Yuuki ruin UnsraW and then flop into infinity with DOAK "Lost november" by Diaura is the most iconic vk song released in...ever Revival kei was the only thing that saved vk past 2012 DIR EN GREY's career trajectory has been amazing and no I don't care what you have to say about DSS No, i'm not EVER getting over D'espairsray so can it. Can bands stop acting like visual kei is still popular, trying to play massive venues (which would have been considered average size 10 years ago) and then flopping intensely? Miztavlah YOU'RE NEXT...300/1200 O-West wait on it DADAROMA and Mejibray have the biggest followings in the western fandoms since vk died and its actually kinda adorable...won't save vk tho Ikenai Kiss by DIV was both the peak and death of EDM kei...RIP Thoughts from @doombox: CROSSFAITH I still don't know how baby VK bands manage to pay for their costumes and make up artists when they can't get 100 people in a venue. MIYAVI proved you can survive after VK, have a public marriage and family, be covered in tattoos, and still be wildly popular. These days it's getting plain to see VK has gone down like the Titanic and we're all waiting in tiny lifeboats, clinging to each other and hoping another big ship will eventually come to save us. I'm still not over K (Pay money To my Pain), Shunsuke (Eldorado, bis), or Jasmine You (Versailles). ONE OK ROCK took over the world. I'm still in shock. Japanese electro-core burnt out way too fast but man it was fun while it lasted. Thoughts from @tetsu_sama69: BAISER When will people realize that most VK bands are just homage of older previous groups and THIS WILL ALWAYS BE A THING?!!? Most VK singers are just massive fanboys of Kiyoharu/Kyo/Hyde/Ruki even if it doesn't seem like they are there always SOMETHING that gives it away and trust me even your vk daddies had people they were fanboys of as well. "Musical differences" is just an excuse for you ran out of mommy/daddy's money for your costumes/recordings OR you just don't get along To survive in this fandom you either have to be extremely open-minded or stick to what you know you like but trust me... not everyone is going to like what you like and you have to accept that Accept it, we're all weeaboos. Thoughts from @Ito: Sel'm Not only has aie somehow managed tostill be sticking around, he is almost seemingly trying to single handedly save VK...and somehow suceeding? It took nearly the full span of 10 years, but every one of my favorite VK bands from 2007 has disbanded I am not sure if VK has gotten worse or if I've just gotten older and grumpier Yoshiki has transitioned from a legend to a laughingstock in the community It surprises me when I meet someone IRL and they tell me they are a big VK fan...and then I find out they haven't heard of MH. Like where the hell else are you going? I wish I was more inclined to go back and check out older work. I know I have missed out on plenty of wonderful Jrock, but I am just so keen on keeping with what it current. I really need to fix that. Are we ever going to get any VK bands to come to the States again, outside of the biggest of names? While I listen to far less VK now than I used to (read that as my musical tastes have broadened), it still holds an incredibly special place in my heart. Thoughts from @CAT5: 八十八ヶ所巡礼 International Visual Kei fans are some of the craziest, most irritating, and deranged people that I've come across. They're also some of the most passionate, interesting, fun-loving, and generous music fans that I've had the pleasure of knowing. There's always been a stigma surrounding the community, but in my experience, there's more good to be said than bad. Monochrome-Heaven is one of the most slept-on forums of all time. We've been around for a decade and the community is still thriving despite the fact that forums are continually slipping into obsolescence. The world of J-rock is vast and infinite, and there's always something new and different to try if you look for it or ask the right people. Trying to convince VK fans that music outside of VK is somehow "better" or more worthwhile is an exercise in futility. Condescending or scoffing at VK fans is also equally idiotic. I've done both. Don't do it. You'll just come off as an absolute dick who's insecure in his own tastes and interests. VK marketing ploys are still pretty fucking hilarious and ridiculous. Speaking of which, most of us have, at one point, gone broke for Visual Kei and Japanese music in general. It's expensive and wallet-crippling, yet glorious all the same. I still can't wrap my head around cheki or conditional disbandments. DIR EN GREY have never NOT been relevant. Phantasmagoria MH and VK fans at large love themselves a good drama/scandal. From what i've seen, it's usually best to just have a sense of humor about these things. J-rock changes over time. Your favorite era may have been five, ten, or even fifteen years ago. Hell, it might even be NOW. Whatever the case, accept that the musical landscape is constantly changing. I think it's more effective to cherish your favs. and continuously sing their praises than it is to bitch and moan about bygone styles and eras, and how all new music sucks. Sharing keeps the J-rock community alive. It's what's kept us going this long. And not just the sharing of the music itself, but the sharing of news, lyrics/translations, scans, review, live reports, images...even something as simple as sharing your own, unique thoughts about a band or a release. It all counts. Every little piece contributes to keeping the scene alive at large. MH has truly been blessed in this regard, as so many of our members have come here to share openly and freely all out of love for VK, J-rock, and Japanese music as a whole. It's a beautiful thing and I thank everyone for every penny spent, every CD ripped, every mb uploaded, every post typed, and every general ounce of energy poured into our common love for Japanese music. Thanks for reading!

"She's a dude?!"

I don't have much to say other than that I've been here since pretty much the beginning so it's obviously been a while. Even though I'm not much of a poster these days and haven't ever really been, I remember a lot of random and fun conversations, and of course a whole lot of (unnecessary) ridiculous drama. But I guess MH wouldn't be what it is now if it hadn't gone through all of that. Also never thought a VK forum would end up giving me one of my closest irl friends who I've now known for a little less than 10 years as well. But hey, adventures I guess. I rolled into this place thanks to VK back then but thank you for feeding my messy interest in Japanese music of all kinds. On to a lot more years?

Hi everyone, nice to meet you. A bit about me if you're interested: currently a student in the UK studying Japanese at university and also working as a writer/translator for a Japanese company. I've been learning the language for 7 or 8 years now. Although I'd consider myself still relatively new to visual kei, I'm a huge lover of music from Japan and I'm always happy to find new music. I can't count how many favourite artists I have, and they all range from different genres. Some of my favourites include Aimer, WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA, Soutaiseiriron, Fujiwara Sakura, DIR EN GREY & sukekiyo, Nujabes, BiSH, Capsule, and so on. I'm currently enjoying Xaa Xaa's new album, they're really awesome. Anyway, don't wanna make this too long. Looking forward to getting involved. See you out there!

"brutal"

mods pls restore my true name "FAT GIRL PARTY" asap

Reading all of these has been way too much fun. I love hearing about everyone stories. I want to reply to like all of you, but I don't want to clog up the thread with that (at least not yet lol). I'm surprised no one has brought up Spike760's band's "fake rarez" demos or gay Egyptians.

I'm embarrassed with myself because I can't remember how i find this glorious community. I know i joined here since TW day, but until now I still don't contribute much. Without you guys, I don't know how to live my life. Yeah, I'm ready to next 10th anniversary and hoping that I can contribute more.

Don't take it wrong, I am not making fun of people who lisp with ill itend, I think it is kind of cute, especially when you're a vocalist and it is clearly audible. One of my favourite is and will always be Schwardix Mavally's vocalist Hisui in Heaven's Terroritory. Listen to it here It's just awesome.

Ten years... damn. I've been here since 2008 I believe. At that time I got all my DL's from a friend who was very into VK, until of course I came to old TW. I think I stumbled upon the forum while searching for releases by Deathgaze and/or Thomas, if my mind doesn't trick me. I remember not posting a lot back in the days, at TW I probably had less than 100 posts during my 2~ years there, so I started being active first when Toasted Waffles/MH came around. In all honesty, I've been one of the members who's been here for quite some time, has left several times without saying a word... But in the end I'll always end up here again. Due to my sudden retirements (specifically during 2011-2014, during which I visited MH about once every other week) I feel I have missed out on some of the stuff that has been going on, particularly the lit chat-era. I remember visiting the chat several times, but I never really participated in your sheningans. I also remember when the FB-group and Skype-chat was started, however I personally choose to not use them. I do have some fun memories from my time here though! I remember all the demon android drama, Sparklies, Toasted Waffles, the drama between the former staff (dai?) and him wanting people to join his new forum, ppl faking 90's vk rares, the epic kiwamu topic, slsk hoarders finally joining MH and sharing rares, the secret VIP-forum (which I think I was allowed into for sharing a NEGA single lmao), the girl who tried to get Kiwamu to sign her even though she publically humiliated him on his FB etcetc. Shit, I probably stired up a lot of shit myself back in the days, I was a stupid teenager. In the end, I have had a lot of fun here and this is undoubtedly the place (online) that I spent most of my teenage years at. It is only in recent years that I started socializing with people here through other social medias (exception for lastfm), but most of you are great. Here's to ten more years, cheers!

I forgot but I have to add: Getting free gift cards (was it at CDJapan?) for joining Tainted World 2.0, Dai and Jake version. Did anyone ever get any? I legit want to know if this business strategy worked out for them during the ten days or so their forum was actually almost active.

imagine a vk band covering this song

Still amazed how Kiryu could make a straightforward metal song so awesome like Kyousei, but flop so hard at Irodori and Gekka Bijin :/

It actually really sucks when you listen through an album and you don't like a single song on it....especially if it's by a group you actually really like

New stuffs! Wow Bread Wolf, so soon? Yeah, these aren't hard to make. And I also enjoy making them. Today's emotion... enjoyment. Damn this was kinda hard, and the paws and arms still aren't exactly how I'd want, but... ehh. I also have the lineart ready for the next one. Bear in mind this is incomplete and will be coloured and cleaned at a later date. Incomplete emotion: anger/irritation. Again, replies are appreciated and greatly valued.

Leaving for Japan tonight! Oh my goshhhh

"Is anyone else getting tired of VK? I've been listening to it for the past six months and two days, so I've been into the scene for awhile, and all these bands just sound the same now. Thoughts?"

D'espa on the banner... OH MY HEART

tanuki is fake

Any insinuation that MALICE MIZER were in some way a metal band.

Inb4 lynch. Goes all electro rock now I hope Ryo doesnt just tell them to go with the heavy electro thing girugamesh was on. Ryo: this is the future *plays evolution* Hazuki: .... Ryo: wub wub wub chuga chug chug Hazuki: what the hell? We are behind schedule

You have to remember, everyone is a noob to me