Seimeisen

There's a special place in hell for people who ditch J-rock for K-Pop...like, bitch, really?!

Impressive preview! I also like the artwork.

Impressive preview! I also like the artwork.

Impressive preview! I also like the artwork.

Album previews: http://www.di-aura.com/mobile/disco_album.html

Impressive preview! I also like the artwork.

Oh this topic has been dead for a month! Well, time to revitalize it.
 


Visual kei fans are paradoxically some of the most open-minded and some of the most close-minded music lovers on the planet.
Now why are we open-minded? Take a look at your average visual kei band.
 
 


  There's no way in hell that shit would fly in any other country but Japan. One band could do it and it would be seen as a gimmick. But an entire scene revolving around that concept died out in the 80's with glam metal and there's still a bad taste in everyone's mouth about bands that don't prescribe to some pre-approved dress codes. I still live in a country with a split personality; one half wants to accept and embrace diversity. The other thinks that being gay is some unhealthy sin because you happen to like the parts you came equipped with. How many of us on this forum don't talk about visual kei to our real-life friends because they "wouldn't get it"? Are you afraid of being judged for listening to your "tranny metal"? How many of us are here because this is the only place on the internet where we can talk with other people that do "get it"? The fact that we're able to look past the visuals enough to give the music a try says a lot. There are a lot of fans of Japanese music who look down on visual kei because they think all the fans are horny teenage girls and all the music sucks.  We gave it a shot and all discovered something to love here, and that's why you're reading this post, right?
This is where the paradox comes in. Visual kei fans can be the most irritating, closed-minded individuals you will find on the Internet. We rival black metal fans in how obnoxious we are in claiming what is and isn't visual kei, and there's no consensus on what "it" actually is. What's worse is that we have some preconceived definition of what "real visual kei" ought to be. If you don't look a certain way or if you don't play "the right kind of music", it's much harder to keep anyone's attention. You could play the exact same music as a visual kei band and get no attention just because of that. When a session or band member leaves the visual kei scene to go play in another band very few fans will actually follow them to see where they end up - simply because they aren't in a visual band anymore. Bands that straddle the line between visual kei and something else get universally ignored no matter how amazing their music is.
Most notably, we've given off the impression that a band can pull a NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST and do nothing but add visual kei hooks and ugly costumes and they'll get tons of fans simply because they have visual kei hooks and ugly costumes. What the fuck guys? I thought we were supposed to be open-minded and about the music.
But of course, it was never about the music. It's about the looks. It's always been about the looks long before most of us got here and it will be long after we leave. If you're the kind of person who says that you listen to all sorts of visual kei and you go on to name 30 of the same band, 28 of which are recently started indies bands please be honest with yourself. You like the way the bands look and that's why you listen to visual kei, and that's fine. Just don't lie to yourself and say it's about the music when the bands you listen to range from average to absolute garbage. I honestly feel like if I hadn't thrown my administrator weight around earlier this year and exposed I.T.G for the lazy, cheap sacks of shit that they are someone on this forum would be hyping them all crazy.
Oddly enough, the reasons why we don't give chances to fringe visual kei is the same thing other people to do us if we try to expose them to visual kei. How open-minded can we actually be about visual kei if we ourselves don't give all of it a chance?
Take this not as a rant from someone who thinks he's got better musical taste than you. Take it from someone who was where you were quite some time ago (if said rant applies to you), who has some regrets about his visual kei phase, and wished he looked beyond the borders of visual kei to find other types of music sooner. There is some irrational fear in the back of many fans minds where they think if they start listening to other types of music that they will be "less" of a visual kei fan. I was one of those people once. That's false. None of us here believe that. Monochrome Heaven won't blow up because you decided to listen to something else. Visual kei isn't going anywhere either and you'll discover that all types of music can coexist peacefully on your MP3 player. So if you have some sort of irrational fear about trying out something new, the only person that's stopping you is you.
After all, the worst thing that could happen is that you discover you don't like something and that visual kei music is the only type of music you enjoy. But I can assure you, with all the blatant stealing and "inspiration" vk bands themselves find outside of visual kei, there's something out there that you will like. It might not even be metalcore.

Do I like the rain? I love the rain!
Are you happy? With life in general?

Someone needs to take Comcast out back and shoot them.

I probably use around 5gb a day, I can't imagine ever being limited to that.

Preview part 1.
3rd song is the best. IDC if its a preview. Screw you all.

I like the previews for tracks 2, 4, 6 and 8. Count me as excited too.

The atmosphere of this song is just perfect!

They sort of remind me of Marilyn Manson's "Smells like Children" ... especially the second one.

Would be awesome if they were gonna play a VK interpretation of stoner rock

I've answered a similar question before. I just buy the music. That's all!
When I was a teenager though, I was super into merch; every shirt I had was a band shirt. I also used to have band posters all over my walls until I was 20. There was a brief period of time when I would have been interested in getting a band phone charm when I was 18.
Nowadays, I do not like the idea of having "band merch" - I don't care for over-branding.
And I would never waste my money on a fucking polaroid.

Kids that cute make me wanna have children even though I'm way too selfish and awful to care for them. Haha.

NBL FUCKING TOLD YOU TO BUY THEIR ALBUM YOU LITTLE SHITS NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE

Hello, new lock screen.

I was quite bored several months ago and made a collage cover for the band's self-titled album:

Not sure why I waited so long to upload it...
I was gonna re-do it, get more pictures and make sure there was an even amount for each member, but that was around the time that karma cut himself and I though, "...yeah, I don't wanna scroll past that image again."

I was quite bored several months ago and made a collage cover for the band's self-titled album:

Not sure why I waited so long to upload it...
I was gonna re-do it, get more pictures and make sure there was an even amount for each member, but that was around the time that karma cut himself and I though, "...yeah, I don't wanna scroll past that image again."

I was quite bored several months ago and made a collage cover for the band's self-titled album:

Not sure why I waited so long to upload it...
I was gonna re-do it, get more pictures and make sure there was an even amount for each member, but that was around the time that karma cut himself and I though, "...yeah, I don't wanna scroll past that image again."