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i hope they do this forever bc it makes americans uncomfortable

I have heard a few estimates, but it is still a little way away. (Don't worry unless something big happens, it will drop in 2017) they are working extremely hard on this album and are putting in well over 100% of effort so I can assure you it will be worth the wait. and as for the new guitarist, in my opinion he is worth the wait too.

This is the main message of the film imo, to sell them as the biggest thing in Japanese rock heading towards world domination. I think that in this aspect, X are trying to have their cake and eat it. They invented visual-kei - that's all you need to know, the pioneered a movement of sorts that sounds cool and groundbreaking, which paints them as heroes. But giving more screen time to the scene would expose them for what they are - in the end, X Japan and visual kei will always be a niche. They can fill Tokyo Dome 10 times and appear on Kohaku on New Year's Eve, but they're by no means Japan's darlings/national treasure/symbol/whatever the hell it is Yoshiki wants to portray them as, and their music might be great but it's irrelevant to what happens in the charts these days, or even to what's happening in visual kei these days. They're legends to visual kei fans but telling America/the rest of the world how legendary they are/were out of this context is dishonest at best, and I think this is one of the things that bothered me the most about this film, even though I enjoyed most of it as a fan of the band.

you always have an option of hiring a carpenter to build a dedicated shrine for this box-set!

gonna get a bass so i can smack shit like saz, toshiya and all other 5 string queens

Two DEG albums, MUCC's latest album, MERRY's 個性者ブレンド・クラッシック (picture disc, legitimacy is debated; pic discs sound like garbage), a few singles by cali≠gari, that's pretty much it. It's too bad VK doesn't embrace vinyl. With their "50 type releases" business model, I could see them doing a wide variety of different colours to go with different types. And they would most certainly do live-limited vinyl colours, just to be extra cunty.

MERRY not ever pressing anything on vinyl is criminal. This applies to pretty much every good VK band, though.

Directed by Stephen Kijak Starring X Japan June 30th came and went, and while we may have not gotten the album, we might have gotten something arguably more interesting. To the misfortune of the initiated non-Japanese speaking fan of visual kei, there is an inarguable drought of first hand accounts outside of the handful vague magazine articles that are passable at best; and it is to this need that a film about X Japan would seem like an heaven-sent. I still think that the most interesting aspect of the whole story of visual kei is how it exactly got started, and what the people involved were feeling at the time of its inception. "We are X" would seemingly be able to fit the bill, seemingly. I was able to see that it definitely wasn't going to live up to expectations based on its short runtime alone, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy a good A&E music documentary so either, and the X story is definitely very interesting. So how does it fare? We Are X” is a moderately entertaining and a rather brief 90 minute promotional package for Yoshiki’s upcoming world conquest ( it’s still coming you guys. ) that is simply not what it could be. The basic gist of the film is Yoshiki reminiscing about everything that happened in his life leading up to their long awaited [citation needed] debut at the Madison Square Garden, encompassing his thoughts on life, death and all things Yoshiki with bits of historical retrospective sequenced in between. You know what you’re in for right from the start, when the film opens with such grand spectacle that’s only befitting of a man of Yoshiki’s stature ( if you ask him, that is ); dramatic piano music wailing under a Yoshiki monologue lead up to the graphic designer and pyrotechnics ejaculating all over video deck all at once, and after the initial shock of the grand spectacle of it all, it becomes apparent that the film starts to work in two different ways; the slick albeit dripping with cheese rockumentary with interesting historical footage on the one end, and the absolutely stunning character worship of Yoshiki on the other. Although there’s something to be said about the devil reading the bible, I think a cynical reading of this glossy piece of PR is if not perfectly warranted, then at least an amusing exercise for the viewer. The way the story is told is through Yoshiki’s own biography and musings and, the film’s story arch spans X’s career from the beginning to the show at the MSG largely from his perspective, and from here we are beset with the greatest structural problems of the film that completely slaughters it from being of great interest. X and the other band members are established only as they come into his story and information about them is related only in a manner as it specifically relates to him. A central feature of X’s story, which is the Toshi’s cult debacle, gets so much time only because it plays a role in the breakup and reformation, and the way hide is presented is that his greatest asset along with strange magnetism and philanthropy was being Yoshiki’s “producer,” as it was told. Heath and Pata each hardly get word in; is it because they didn’t want to, or that their input is inconsequential to the narrative? Who’s narrative by the way, X’s or Yoshiki’s? Or is Yoshiki X? These characters are attached to the spine of Yoshiki’s project through which they are even allowed exist in this film. You can probably already see what’s going on here. The lost opportunity of having comprehensive member bios becomes perfectly evident when Yoshiki’s own childhood and early bijuaru years are reflected on, and what little was shown of it was easily the highlight of the film. Their lives at this point were danger, death, excessive drinking and the most thrashing cockrock around, so what caused it? What were the motivations, influences and the rest of it? Yoshiki’s dad dying and him getting a drum set. After this he conjured willing and able session members from the nether realm - & Saver Tiger - and he invented X in the vacuum of his own persona! Poor fucking Pata gets literally nothing, probably ending up sharing the same total screen time with Yoshikitty or the hide doll. A proper biography of hide is unjustly totally omitted, and while the whole Toshi cult debacle does occupy a central position the last third of the film, it is terribly vague the way it goes about; he married an unspecified woman and joined an unspecified cult that brainwashed him in a rather unspecific manner for unspecific ends. The film also goes over no songs or albums in any detail, and I mean there is hardly word said about any single note of music they’ve done in specific, nor about their influences and creative process for that matter. For a music documentary it’s exceptionally light on anything musical, except when it’s something that particularly relates to the story of the visual kei grand wizard Yoshiki. Another aspect of the story that is completely absent is a proper survey of visual kei. The culture is hardly explored in any way, nor does X get drawn into the larger context of things and is merely portrayed as a hugely popular rock band that was quite influential in the domestic market. I have a theory on why this is so: the film is aimed at an all-American market as a promotional piece: the 90-minute mark cannot be exceeded under any circumstance, and visual kei may only be brought up as an object to prop up the band. One segment of the film has a few lines by members of bands such as Dir en grey, Luna Sea, Mucc etc. and the total of what they were allowed to say was: “ekkusu kakkoi sugoi desu ne.” One might have been able to set this aside if it weren’t for the fact that a couple of minutes later Yoshiki’s American entourage gets MINUTES of screen time, including Gene Simmons who even gets to have a personal anecdote on how X would be huge in the west if it weren’t for the Anglo-centrism of the American audiences. With these direction choices in mind, I feel that X was portrayed more in the way that the American public would like to digest the band: a big insular arena rock sensation that’d be the biggest band in the world if it weren’t for unfortunate circumstance. This doesn't kill the film exactly, but it makes it of lesser importance and interest. Now why the film is like this is because all this is after all, it is a promotional package for X’s long delayed triumphant conquest of the western music market. Its structure is built around the MSG show, with the original attempt at the west sequined in the latter middle part of the run time so it could be later brought up as a setup for their return. After going through the disbandment and the tragic deaths set to an image of Yoshiki being outrageously portrayed with wings behind him, it’s right at the end of the film where he is still standing defiant and fully convinced that he still has to do it, he has to besiege the billboard and he must do it for hide and Taiji; and then cue to an awesome cringe inducing montage of weeaboos wearing bootleg shirts and an assorted collection of Yoshiki’s cool celebrity “friends,” as they were called. It depends on your point of view whether this is amusing or just simply enraging. At this point, I admit to subscribing to the former school of thought. So, for people who are interested in visual kei and X, it falls short of expectation. What does it have for the outsider? Well, it’s a mixed bag. First of all, it is a cheesy TV documentary level production made by a guy who’s previous documentary was about the hardcore musical renegades The Backstreet Boys, so the emphasis is on the word production; and still despite all this it occasionally appears to assume general knowledge from the viewer while totally catering to people who’d be exposed to X for the first time. The music isn’t spoken of and only clips of it are played, so you either must know it beforehand or take the word of everyone in the film that X is this great band from Japan you haven’t heard of. Obviously, my memory isn’t 100% but I’m fairly confident that the only song mentioned by name in the film was Art of Life. I’ll have to say that it’s not boring though, because the bare bones of the saga are interesting and all the early X stuff is awesome. So considering that anyone with the misfortune of having read this is most likely quite well versed in the bijuarus, I can say there's worse ways of spending your time. I'd watch a Japanese record store employee telling about the best selling vk records for two hours ( probably rather than this, actually ) so I'm definitely biased towards everything even remotely related to visual kei. You’re should be good as well if you go into it with the same mindset you would have watching some Vice documentary on a Sunday morning while eating breakfast.

Since the girl wrote "I don't remember" on the second day image of Kaoru... He was dressed in (what appeared to be) all black and had this skull make-up going on across the mouth. Possibly the first day, as well, but I wasn't close enough to see and the screen didn't pan on him a ton. THIS. I imagine it (at least the special vers) will be some honker box like the Pierrot Dictator's Circus Final one from SSA came in. Less fancy boxes, more DVD/photo extras. D: The latter, except the fan club is paid yearly instead of by month, and it will end at the end of January 2018. Basically they only re-open to offer ticket and other pre-orders, special events (like fan viewing parties or something), and news/fan club e-zine. Or in other words, it's all to get that coin. TBH there's no real point in joining it unless you want better/good tix that come printed on fancy paper. Ah, but VK girls in Japan will spend an endless amount of money on their honmei. I saw multiple girls dropping 20,000 - 50,000 yen on these Pierrot lottery stickers in hopes of getting the random, special signed ones. They sold out both days. Hell, Pierrot was selling a diamond necklace as tour goods for 50,000 yen and I imagine quite a few girls bought one, or begged their b/fs or husbands to.

The Develop One's Faculties drummer's new look is LITERALLY sex kei, wtflmao

gotta say their previous released stuff didn't get me at all, however these two previews sound fantastic!!

great gowns, beautiful gowns, excellent looks, they could've pushed it further tho, i.e.: POST YOUR OWN CREATIVE IDEATIONS BELOW, XOXO

If this film was centrally focused on their MSG performance, that means @ShanethVarosa and I are technically featured in it. AMA I'm both disappointed and not really surprised that all the juicy bits (the cult, impact on the visual-kei scene as a whole, anything about any members other than Yoshiki and hide tbh) are glossed over or omitted. I'm hoping this sparks enough of a KAKUMEI to inspire some insider-tell-all from someone disgruntled version, á la "Mommy Dearest," in the somewhat near future.

Seeing UNiTE. , Pentagon, D=OUT, R-Shitei and DIAURA today. Excitingggg

I was thinking about this the other day. I don't think I have almost ever seen a vk band press anything on vinyl.

RarezHut unboxing straight out of Japan

lowkey living for this mess. come through, americaboo!

classic gif time this is so expectedly Ai I don't have a clue how first sample managed to trick me into thinking something new had a chance to arise from the deathwig ashes w. a same frontman

I'm the same position. My library is 70% game OST's. I have a ton of new bands I have downloaded in hopes of adding something fresh and interesting to my list of favorites but I haven't got around to it yet. I got a spotify account in the hopes that it would help me expand my western repertoire but I don't even know where to begin with this. There's some experimental Pop artists that I enjoy, but in terms of rock bands I'm clueless. I also find myself listening more to audiobooks than music lol

DEZERT - 君の子宮を触る DADAROMA - ルシッド・ドリーム JILUKA - ZONE ALSDEAD - FLASH BACK アヴァンチック - 他人の不幸は蜜の味 黒百合と影 - 浴槽 SCAPEGOAT - 眠れない僕の趣味 ザアザア - 雨に殺される ザアザア - 大雨警報発令 少年記 - bloom beautifully 少年記 - BANG ME Plastic Tree - Ghost BORN - RADICAL HYSTERIA Dir en grey's GAUZE album

I don't understand why everyone always hates what AI does so much. lol

Yeah it feels like every band I start to like ends up disbanding too T_T I'm glad you like them! And yes! You should def keep listening to them even after they disband!

Yes! In my opinion, his best work with Bambi! (Btw, he's a nice guy too!)

I hope they make a song about Pearl Harbor

I will! And I bet it's gonna come in a box that is a pain in the ass to find a shelf for it too. Oh well, at least it comes with a photobook to at least justify the possible weird-ass box dimensions for the swaggeriffic deluxe set.

Musically, this is probably a bit soft(?) for my usual tastes, but I really really love the sound of the recording so I thought I'd mention it. This is free from so many of the recording/mixing techniques commonly expected with 2010's VK that I generally just find uninteresting and emotionally flat. I really liked this song because the drums sounded natural and roomy. They aren't triggering synthetic feeling kick and snare samples and it hasn't been compressed to shit. The mix in general just sounds super pleasant, in part because it hasn't been squashed in a number of ways for teh loudness!!! Production wise, I find this waaaay more similar to how late 90s emo and post-rock sounded then anything visual kei in the last decade and I really love that. It's really cool to see a band going in this direction with their recordings. Because it's something most people don't really consider, most bands just feel pressure to bandwagon on the trend of what everyone else's records sound like and hire the same engineers because its safe and lazy. I like the falsetto vocals and the instrumental breaks, so I'm excited to see what else this band can do. And as mentioned, I hope their recordings continue to glisten with beauty...

So who is gonna mention that the DVDs from this are up for preorder now for 22,000 fucking yen?

I'm always late to the party! Every time I get interested in a band, I find out they're disbanding. I just got the Resistar Chigaihouken 2017 DVD and while normally I never pay much attention to the Riostar bands, I noticed when watching it that Dangan and LEZARD were both sounding really good. It's great to hear how well loved they are. I guess I'll have to listen to them in retrospect.

THIS is what y'all stan?

My June obsessions: I love this song so much and the visuals in this video are incredible. Aside from the chorus, this song (and theme) is pure perfection. The choreo is bomb af too. The song is somewhat generic, but it's still catchy somehow. And Lisa's rap is pretty nice (besides the misused AAVE).

Dir en grey - 304号室、白死の桜 Dir en grey - Cage Dir en grey - THE FINAL アヲイ - 哀しい歌 アヲイ - 生キル為ノ歌 アヲイ - 終夜灯 D.I.D - A forlorn hope D.I.D - BLEADEAR AvelCain - 片想い グリーヴァ - Bondage グリーヴァ - Wish グリーヴァ - Diary Due le quartz - 自殺願望 Dio - Distraught Overlord - Haunting 愛狂います。 - トウメイニンゲン 愛狂います。 - ネクロノミコン 愛狂います。 - スターマイン 愛狂います。 - オカルト・キラー

Same!!!

Dead Inside sounds good, Scarred Die sounds okay, and I literally can't believe the third song is actually for real a Deathgaze cover.

Shibuya REX SET-LIST at 2017/07/09: 1.蓮華 2.凶夢 3.お人形遊び 4.恨ミ言 5.紅いドレス 6.ボクノ悪イ癖 7.暁 8.ユートピア 9.二枚舌

I'm not much of a singer and I don't go to karaoke often, but I did okay with L'Arc~en~Ciel's "Blurry Eyes" once. I sang along to it so many times in my teens that the words are firmly embedded in my mind, so it didn't really matter that I couldn't read the kanji on the screen. I also sang ELLEGARDEN's "Jamie" that time, but it's not VK and it's in English, so I guess that doesn't really count.

Zin...I mean ZAKK...has confirmed that the other two guys are from CROSS VEIN. serving guns 'n roses cover band realness

Last week during Otafest !

Yeah, I think there's also something to be said about frontman magnetism, something both Yasu and Kirito have (Yasu even more, I think). They are both well known personalities that stand out among mainstream, I've heard stories of their success with older woman an such. Maybe because Dir en Grey took the opposite path, going more metal over the years, there was never a chance for them to stabilish themselves with the regular listener (I don't even think they'd want that, tho.) Would really like to see PIERROT releasing something with this reunion, neither Angelo or LM.C recent stuff appeals to me.

Tried wearing lenses for the first time, I look like a doll. And the silly piggynose pose.

Yeah, I am dissapointed with this documentary. I actually read Yoshiki's biography (released in 2009), and, oh boy, was it interesting. How much he trained, situations when he was hospitilized and had around 5% of fat due to his constant training, the way they refused Sony in the beginning and so many other stories, the way they performed, drank and were touring in Japan - that was powerful, that was interesting to read. This documentary - meh. There was NOTHING epic. It was absolutely plain.

someone call yukika right now and turn them into the old kagerou spin off copy band we need and DESERVE in 2017

me and @K8A05.30 in central stockholm after attending a vk party at @WhirlingBlack's place was lit af