reminiscing2004

This is a stacked lineup. mikage is a vk mvp at this point

excited to hear how this sounds from start to finish...

Yoooo, I love this cover colored pencil underrated. maybe im biased due to liking the music too lol

https://wallower.bandcamp.com/ ^ One of my favorite black metal inspired projects

SATSUKI PLS I WANT IT SAD :'(

This is a great thread topic for discussion. Like others have mentioned I feel pretty conflicted on the subject. When I got into Visual Kei, I was hardly savvy with internet-ing, so if I found something I liked on Youtube, I would save and order it from CDJapan or something. I didn't even know about western VK communities/download forums/file sharing/torrents whatever. But at the same time, since discovering all those things, I have been able to find so much amazing music that simply never would have been available to me. The majority of bands that never make it and had super limited run CD's are lost to the sands of time, but kept alive through some of this file sharing. On the other hand, it being seen as the norm is certainly concerning. The most important point I want to bring up about this whole topic is that this problem is not only concerning the Visual Kei industry. In the western music world, all artists are suffering from a trend over the last 15 years where people simply don't feel that they ought to pay for music. People were eased into this idea through the retiring of physical formats, introduction of illegal downloading, and finally STREAMING. The final nail in the coffin for this issue, is, now, people can pay a small subscription fee that used to be the cost of a single record, most of which won't go to the recording artist, to listen to all of their music. And they have no sense that what they're doing might be unethical. Because they are paying for a legal service, after all. Ask most people below the age of 20 who their favorite artists are? Chances are they may have gone to their show, or seen them live, but the majority of the upcoming generation simply are not buying music (this refers to digital downloads, not even including waning physical formats). I wish I knew a proper solution, but its a strange predicament for the entire industry. The previous generation went to record stores and saved for LP's or CD's. Their most devious exploitation might have been copying a friend's album to a blank cassette, so they could finally listen to an album they'd never be able hear to other wise. Simply speaking, there wasn't a choice. If you wanted to hear specific music, you had to buy the releases or go to concerts. Those were the only ways. The current generation grew up listening to their music on YouTube and Spotify, for the most part. For someone to actually pay for an album, physical or digital, they have to be a diehard non-average music fan (ppl on this forum), not know how to use YouTube/Spotify, or they are exceptionally ethically considerate. To give more of a solid response to the OP, I think promoting the purchasing of music is a good thing, but I don't know if cutting down on illegal downloading is the way to do that. Atleast in the case of the Western Visual Kei audience, there is argument to be made that much of the Western Visual Kei audience wouldn't even exist without file sharing. I may be an exception to the rule having no current bands I really care about, but I can't even financially support so many of my favorite Visual Kei (and Japanese) artists. ( ( Because I can't legally download or buy non-2nd hand cd's from due le quartz, aioria, or yarmulke, etc.) ) I know this is a sort of a wishy-washy answer, but I encourage further discussion of this topic and of buying music that rocks your world.

I think the poor reputation surrounding non-japanese vk bands is a result of a lot of those bands being musically gimmicky, poorly recorded/mixed, or just downright to be fair. However, to be fair, a lot of japanese vk bands are all of those things. Music is the bottom line. If some brand-cringy brazil kei band happens to make some really promising and exciting music, I'm all for it

+ Mouse on the Keys + Lite last year ^^, but I feel u. Part of me wants to go, but then I realize I probably don't want to see 2018 miyavi. i hope the EP's are a refreshing return to glory

H O L Y S H I T Y O S H I - T H E A B S O L U T E M A D M A N

Generally, I'm not much of a person to binge single tracks, as my tendency is to listen to albums. However, according to my iTunes, my top 5 played VK tracks are 1. DELUHI - s[K]ape:goat (103 plays) 2. Versailles - Princess (64 plays) 3. Versailles - ASCENDEAD MASTER (58 plays) 4. the GazettE - 未成年 (44 plays) 5. Rentrer en Soi - LAST SCENE (36 plays) Seems pretty accurate! These are all total classics for me, though if my library playcount included my listening pre-2011, I'm almost positive Aristocrat's Symphony, The Revenant Choir, and HYBRID TRUTH would be on this list

https://www.generasia.com/wiki/Crash!_Nightmare_Channel

This guy is a fucking GOD, hope he has the best of luck in his future endeavors... https://youtu.be/9LfBhA1Gbsk?t=130

Why the switchup? Isn't this everyone from zero mind infinity, except the other guitarist? ohwell... RIP deluhi revival