cullucoo

So the vocalist of Lichium is married to Ura from ぐしゃ人間/遺伝子組換こども会
They have a baby and dress him with cute black metal onesies 
And they have a new black metal band together called BA BLACK BATTLE QUAKE https://bbbq.bandcamp.com/music
 
So pretty interesting updates about them lol

This live video is pretty funny actually, it has black metal and harsh noise parts with random grunting and some speeches that makes them sound like Dai Nippon Ishiki Kakumei Gun Kyoubou lol
 

Lichium (or リチウム in some releases) is (was?) a black metal/angura band that released their stuff under the 殺害塩化ビニール (Satsugai Enka Vinyl) label. Does anyone have any info if they're still active or if they are playing or played on other bands?
 
As an angura AND a black metal fan I'd they that their self-titled album is pretty decent (and funny at the same time), it's worth checking it out if you get the chance. They also did a collab with 無恥鞭アナゴ on a compilation.
 

I am sorry  to push this old topic, but I wanted to leave a simple "thank you". The last ten years were like full of work, school, stress, worries, typical adult responsibilities etc. Seeing this list with albums which I totally forgot, but listened a lot back in the time, gives me some great, hidden memories. I think I should have a look at my old dusty hard drive with tons of precisely sorted vk music and mention some more remarkable albums

I just dont think he should sing...

to commemorate this thread & your username, 
 
 
 

ADAPTER。 new album "虹始見。" (Niji Hajimete Arawaru) will be released at 2020/09/09 (3500yen)
 
[tracklist]
01_大義乃唄
02_残念な子
03_また咲き誇る頃に
04_みちしるべ
05_記憶桜
06_合縁奇縁
07_ご自由にどうぞ
08_超越論的主観性
09_沈黙の中の君
10_凸凹へちゃむくれ
11_奇しき運命
12_好事家な君
13_僕と君の世界で
14_僕と君の幸せ
15_四季並べ
 

This is a such an interesting topic, and many of your perspectives bring to light things I definitely agree with!
I guess I entered a frenzy and my message is pretty long, but here's my experience as someone who has kinda left the scene (but never really left, as I explain).
 
 First off, I got into vk when I was pretty young, in middle school. Metal and vk were the first genres of music I started being active in, as in, purchasing CDs, going to concerts, etc. Before that, it was all classical music (I started playing classical piano at 5 years old), and a bit of pop or rock here and there, and Gorillaz, because I always loved animation and well, all of their MVs were animated and I loved seeing them on TV. So when I got into vk, my musical horizons were quite narrow. I was basically a musical baby. I didn't know a lot of music, and my tastes were only starting to develop. As many have said in this thread, it's natural for tastes to change as you grow older, because you want to try new things, etc.
It's also worth pointing that I was really into manga (and still am lol), and branched out like many into "wow, Japanese culture is pretty cool", so it's why I was so drawn to Japanese music in general at first.
 
So at some point in high school, I wanted to broaden my horizons, and I did. I started listening to a lot of electronic music and jazz, and a wide spectrum of different genres. I was starting to figure out that I really loved music, no matter where it came from or what genre it was, and that I was fascinated with music history. But as that was happening, I also became more and more critical of vk, because I started to figure out that many younger bands I was following were pretty much doing the same gimmicks as older bands. I was also starting to learn about idol culture and how it worked. I must admit, idol culture really threw me off the more I learned about it, and it made me pretty much run away from the scene. I didn't feel so comfortable anymore in spending lots of money on merch now that I had a better understanding of the business model behind it.
 
This post really summarizes how I viewed the shift that happened towards K-pop. To me, whether it was K-pop or vk, it was ultimately the same model, but with a different aesthetic.
 
Despite this, I didn't stop listening to vk altogether, and I still loved older bands, who are still active to this day. So I couldn't part with artists like DEG, Plastic Tree, MUCC, BUCK-TICK, etc. I stopped following very actively, but I still listened to them, which is why I don't consider I moved on from vk, but rather just expanded my tastes. Which, in truth, was only natural considering vk and metal were pretty much "my introduction to any music that isn't classical".
I have also since reconcilied with idol culture, as in, I am not really shocked by it anymore. I like to understand how it works, I'm thankful I have left my "the artists I follow are perfect" naive phase, and I can still be critical of many aspects of it (selling 10 versions of the same single is still bogus to me). But let's just say I've come to accept it for what it is lol.
 
But what was the most interesting to me, is that most from my friend group from back in the day did not have the same evolution at all. I definitely do remember that what killed most people's fun was D'espairsRay's disbanding. Basically, everyone that hadn't already moved on from vk, moved on soon after that. I was also on an A9 fanforum at the time, and their releases were starting to slow down. So it all happened over time and organically.
If I look at what those friends are listening to now, it's either: they don't really listen to much music anymore save for what they were listening to at the time (so 2000s vk and other artists), or they have moved on to K-pop.
The only conclusion I can draw from that is the same that was drawn by many people here: you're either in this for the music, or it's just a fandom, and fandoms come and go.
 
From my standpoint, and considering the very small number of small vk bands who caught my attention in the recent years, I can only wonder how the scene will evolve? I kinda have the feeling, like many I suppose, that the golden age of vk is over, much like glam rock is over with its boom. I hope I'm wrong and that we will see interesting developments in the years to come.
 

I think one of the reasons VK might have such a high turn over rate is that a lot of people who listen to VK seems to listen to VK only. That's not an healthy way to approach an "hobby", and one is bound to get tired of it. It's also hard to follow bands for a long time since the lifespan of a vk band is shorter than average, so that might be turn off for people after a while. 
 
Also the way VK is "marketed" is closer to idol music than it is to """normal""" music, and just like how people stop following idols at some point, the same happens with VK. I dont consider the visual kei > kpop passage to be moving from one thing to another, but moving to a different version of the same thing. 

I think one of the reasons VK might have such a high turn over rate is that a lot of people who listen to VK seems to listen to VK only. That's not an healthy way to approach an "hobby", and one is bound to get tired of it. It's also hard to follow bands for a long time since the lifespan of a vk band is shorter than average, so that might be turn off for people after a while. 
 
Also the way VK is "marketed" is closer to idol music than it is to """normal""" music, and just like how people stop following idols at some point, the same happens with VK. I dont consider the visual kei > kpop passage to be moving from one thing to another, but moving to a different version of the same thing. 

IMAGINE KOICHI HAVING TO GET THAT FUCKING TATTOO LASERED OFF NOW LMAO

Because it's idiotic.
They could sell so much material if they wanted to, like, I would pay mad cash for some old live shows or so. Instead they do the bare minimum to get some more cash in.
I know these are dire times for bands, but it's not like DEG has nothing more to offer than one song split into 30+ parts. It's like "here, have some random track, now give us streaming income pls". It's insulting to those who actually wish to support the band and would be willing to.

I understand the sentiment, however people are dying here. It is very irresponsible to keep this going regardless. It is not worth the trouble. Proper sendoff would be nice, but to force your fans to attend for the sake of it, and most likely caused them to catch the virus in the process, since you can't expect social distancing and in a live house already with limited space, even with plastic barrier on, is very  mendokusai, irresponsible and selfish. I really hope they'd rethink this. The safety of everyone, including their fans need to be priority.

This whole donation thing is so wrong in so many ways. Firstly, why "donation" straight into Tetsu's personal bank account instead of setting up some kind of crowdfunding like Suji said? This just sounds like dodging legal and tax compliance and smacks of fraud. Secondly, the Japanese gov is offering reasonable grants for all artists whose livelihood are affected by the pandemic. At the very least, this includes millions for venues, so I don't see any reason why the band has to cover the cost of putting up a plastic screen at EACH venue. Thirdly, they say part of the donation is for admin and refunding ticket holders. I'm guessing this means they have not put them into a band collective account and bought business protection insurance but have probably spent most of their sales proceeds instead... This whole thing shows to me that they are clearly incapable of handling any large sums of money. 
 
If this is not the case then the band is just really desperate for money, even at the risk of fraud.

Me and my 15 yr old nephew (on the left) at one of my homeboy's weddings a few days ago
 

An "idol band"? At least they are honest 

@Tokage keeps sending me mercari links i think he wants me to go bankrupt 
 

 

 

YOU ALL PICKED RAMUNE YOU BUNCHA WEEBS GHHHHHH

Mountain dew never fails to satiate my sugar addiction.

I wouldn’t rank Ruki among the best vocalists, he has the same vocal tone and range than half of the scene. 

The song ''X'' is actually about how he got his tubes tied and Yoshiki insists on performing it every time just to assert his dominance

I just pretend it's not english tbh
 

vkgy latest interview, with a famous vkei writer! 
Also I worked hard on this one so it's a cross post with JROCKNROLL
 
Nagasawa Tomonori (長澤智典) is a music journalist of note, having written for most major visual kei magazines and bands. We had the chance to ask him questions over several weeks, and so we explore his career, and his decades-long view of visual kei from the inside.
 
 
 
Choose your favorite platform
 
vkgy
or
jrocknroll
 
If there are people who still have any questions about the "visual kei" history, we can do another round  
So if you do have any questions, throw them to me and I'll will ask them!
 

"I'll be a beautiful swaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan"
 

My interest in visual-kei made my friend introduce me to this place, I've never been on a forum before so I think this is very interesting...! I know it's not necessarily a genre of music, but the music of the sub-culture is what intrigued me... I discovered the stuff upon meeting a vk guy.DEG was my first proper introduction, of course, but my favorites are Malice Mizer (and members of), MUCC, the Gazzte, Velvet Eden, and that's all of what's coming to mind. I don't know what else you dandy people need to know to understand what I'm doing here(?) Well, I like art... I am pretty darn extreme about some things, too. Yes! I think that's all...??

S I K E
you just got
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