r...

This year is really sucks one side I'm glad to know that Kei still continues to do music but I'm sad for Ryo,  I hope doesn't suffer from severe depression and adjustment disorder like happenned to him in 2008.
I wish him the best  for fight this trials and many succes for his new life

I'll be spinning Sug Life today and thinking about the good times.

my heart skipped a bit at first, but when you follow those guys for almost 20 fuckin years, there's certain things your gut tells you
 
Ryo has always dealt with mental health problems, kei first solo act was born after Ryo's biggest breakdowns. I mean, the dude has written a book on the matter
 
Cancelling tours and suddenly suspending activities points me to another one of those. Kei has been working on solo stuff for a while, so I'm sure he was somewhat prepared for something like this
 
This saddens me AF, but I'm pretty sure we'll hear more from Ryo in due time.
 
Hope he rests, get well, and make a comeback ASAP. If not, we just lost one of the most influential acts of 00's VK. Cheers to a legendary one!

http://pigmy.jp/news/997/
 
Ryo is retiring from music. So, Kei has decided to suspend the band activities. They are cancelling all remaining dates of their 「BAROQUE TOUR SAINTS OR SINNERS」 tour. There's a lengthy message from Ryo detailing his reasons for retiring. It seems to be that he's both tired physically and mentally of performing. If someone wants to get into more detail go ahead.
 
This is a major bummer as he's become one of my favorite vocalists since giving BAROQUE a shot a few years ago. I've loved their music.
 
In other news, Kei announced a new solo album last week so he'll be continuing as a musician.
 
 

The Nostradamnz will perform on 3/14!
 
 

Acabei de criar cadastro neste fórum (com o mesmo nick que usava na época, inclusive), só pra quotar esse texto recheado de nostalgia. Se rolar um papo desses que você diz que atualmente não cabe, pelo menos terá mais um pra bater papo, hahaha!

Ninguém pegou a época do Yokan, não? Jesus do céu, estou velho... Rast, nem você?
 
Bons tempos de iori, KENJI, Scarlett, YUKI, Kreuz, Mo-chan, hideKO, Yumi, Gaga-kun, RIKA, Sucrilhos, o Rafa de Brasília (cujo nick eu esqueci), Uka, Carol fãzaça do KISAKI e Syndrome, pinku, a galera do sul, jtotoro, xper, a galera do rio em geral, Bia. Porra, muita gente. A época do D:vd talvez, TALVEZ, tenha sido a mais legal de todas, porque juntou o aumento de fãs, junto com a melhora na velocidade de internet de muita gente e a vontade absurda de ir atrás de bandas underground. Época muito maneira. Hoje é melhor pela facilidade, mas sinto falta de trocar ideia com gente que gosta das bandas. VK tem um certo charme que nenhuma outra cena tem.
 
Aqui no fórum eu já acho ruim de participar, porque a grande maioria das bandas mais faladas aqui eu acho horrorosas de ruim. E não sou maluco de ficar puxando assunto de como o LUNA SEA até o STYLE era sensacional, ou porque Lamiel era excelente, porque eu vou ficar falando sozinho. Não cabe.

10 was 10 years ago. I'm still trying to process that.

The new look:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
They'll also hold a 47-prefecture tour to promote the single, and the tour final will happen at Ryogoku kokugikan, December 29.
 

 
 
And they opened their official fanclub, named Official golden members. It can be accessed ony through cellphones.
 

I've been trying to wrap my head around that for quite a few minutes now lol
 
Ao looks fabulous, as always!

they don't really tour that much, so it's not like they are being overworked by their label. a single every 3 months is ok, it's important to keep a steady flow of releases in this scene to keep the fans engaged. i just think they have what it takes to come up with a nice album. OR, a concise killer mini. i'll take that.

it's really impressive how cool and clear-cut their art direction is.
just give us an album already, you cowards!
 
and tour during the fall, pls.

Every-single-fxxking-time that きょうのすけ nailed the unique beauty of Authentic Japanese Visual-kei !!!!!



I am also satisfied with 来夢's DARK A F make up !!!!!

If you ask me this looks a whole lot like ka-yu wanted a definition on reforming or new concerts or something like that and the other guys were like "eeeeeh, I dunno, not now I'm still rich", and he got pissed off and left the band
 
In any case, this sucks. They were my first real addiction in VK, my first real "disbandment" heartbreak since I started hardcore listening to japanese music almost 18 years ago. Gaia blew my mind in such a way I'll never forget.
 
still, we are Janne!

Oh, I like where this is going. I have a ton, but here a couple of really safe picks that I need to name:
 
the GOAT
X has a ton of really, really memorable solos, but this is my favorite.
 
X - Silent Jealousy
 
 
One of my all time favorites. Kouichi is a GOD. Don't ever forget it.
 
Laputa - Breath
 
PIMP SUGIZO THE GAWD
 
SUGIZO - SUPER LOVE
 
and lastly (oooooh, I should have included LASTLY...)
 
 
華月 gives us a solo to remember in lost graduation
 

ugh, this is amazing! his first solo album is one of my favorites records from '09.

Kei just announced a new album, ten years after 『silk tree』, called 『4 deus.』
 
more details will be announced at a later date.
 
 

 
He also announced a 10th anniversary live, 『beautiful emotional picture.』, on 2019.03.30.
 
Support members:
 
Bass: 高松浩史 (THE NOVEMBERS)
Drums: 秋山タカヒコ (downy, THE MORTAL)
Keyboard: 中村圭作
 
Guests:
 
Ken（L'Arc〜en〜Ciel）
DURAN
怜（BAROQUE)
 

 

Oh, I like where this is going. I have a ton, but here a couple of really safe picks that I need to name:
 
the GOAT
X has a ton of really, really memorable solos, but this is my favorite.
 
X - Silent Jealousy
 
 
One of my all time favorites. Kouichi is a GOD. Don't ever forget it.
 
Laputa - Breath
 
PIMP SUGIZO THE GAWD
 
SUGIZO - SUPER LOVE
 
and lastly (oooooh, I should have included LASTLY...)
 
 
華月 gives us a solo to remember in lost graduation
 

Oh, I like where this is going. I have a ton, but here a couple of really safe picks that I need to name:
 
the GOAT
X has a ton of really, really memorable solos, but this is my favorite.
 
X - Silent Jealousy
 
 
One of my all time favorites. Kouichi is a GOD. Don't ever forget it.
 
Laputa - Breath
 
PIMP SUGIZO THE GAWD
 
SUGIZO - SUPER LOVE
 
and lastly (oooooh, I should have included LASTLY...)
 
 
華月 gives us a solo to remember in lost graduation
 

I'll have to update with more but for now this one stands out to me from Sugar. The guitar was super addictive to me when I first discovered this track.

Sugar - あるいは裏切りという名の愛
 

A few more favorites:
 
88kasyo is known for sick guitar antics, but this have to be one THEIR best solos ever! You can tell Katzuya is just jamming out here, but it's still badass.
 
八十八ヶ所巡礼 - 惡闇霧島 (2:40 -ish)
 
 
 
One of my favorite AYA songs...the solo here isn't anything outlandish, but the melody has always been super catchy and memorable to me.
 
亜矢 - 禁じられた歌 (3:20-ish)
 
 
 
Another one of my favorite songs, this time by Tokyo Jihen. The solos during the outro/fade-out just completely pushed this song over the top for me!
 
東京事変 - 遭難 (2:24-ish)
 
 

Oh, I like where this is going. I have a ton, but here a couple of really safe picks that I need to name:
 
the GOAT
X has a ton of really, really memorable solos, but this is my favorite.
 
X - Silent Jealousy
 
 
One of my all time favorites. Kouichi is a GOD. Don't ever forget it.
 
Laputa - Breath
 
PIMP SUGIZO THE GAWD
 
SUGIZO - SUPER LOVE
 
and lastly (oooooh, I should have included LASTLY...)
 
 
華月 gives us a solo to remember in lost graduation
 

hide - Dice
This was my first hide song ever and this solo has always stuck with me.
 
Versailles - Love from a Dead Orchestra
This has always been my favorite Versailles song, and the solo has a lot to do with that. Perhaps a touch "noodley," but not enough to make it feel like just pure fast guitar wankery, and there is enough substance here that I find it incredibly memorable.
 
Dir en grey - Cage
I'll be the first one to admit that this one is over rated as heck...though perhaps not any more (do people even talk about early era diru anymore? lol). That said, it's still quite catchy and a bass solo still is something you hardly hear. When I thought of guitar solos in Jrock, this is one of the first ones that jumped in to my mind.
 
NoGod - Guren
Perhaps this would be in the "runner up" category for me in terms of solos, but I still enjoy this one a fair bit. It also reminds me of how much I miss early NoGod.
 
 
I know I am missing one major one for myself here. When I first saw this thread, I knew exactly what song I needed to include. But for the love of god I can't remember what that song is anymore.

Oh boy, I'm hyped up just searching for and re-listening to these.  Here it goes.
 
BOØWY - DRAMATIC? DRASTIC! ~ from 1:48-ish
I love Hotei so much. This solo is very much him: fun, melodic, sprinkled with technique and memorability too.
CLICK HERE to watch cuz embedding is disabled for this vid
 
BOØWY - CLOUDY HEART ~ from 2:24-ish
GodDAMMIT, I love Hotei SO much. One of his simpler ones, but DAT FEELING, MAN (couldn't find my fav performance but this will do).
CLICK HERE to watch cuz embedding is disabled for this vid
 
LUNA SEA - STORM ~ from 2:29-ish
YOU. CAN. NOT. TELL. ME. THAT. THIS. IS. NOT. THE. BEST.
 
BUCK-TICK - 細胞具ドリー:ソラミミ:PHANTOM ~ from 2:10-ish
Imai is one of my top fave musicians but he's pretty shit at guitar solos and goes off on random tangents most of the time live after the first few bars (kinda feeling like "ok, let's get this over with" xD), but occasionally he does something unexpectedly hilarious/brilliant like here. The studio version of this solo is pretty meh but I love how he goes into the "Mary had a little lamb" melody here, which is especially clever seeing how the song is about cloning, cyborgs and questions of identity.
 
BUCK-TICK - NATIONAL MEDIA BOYS ~ from 2:37-ish
Again, a case of the live rendition of the solo being more random and fun (but the studio ver. is good too imo).