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saiko

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Status Updates posted by saiko

  1. Can you suggest names of VK bands that were growing up a following quite notably just before suddenly disbanding? I can think of Charlotte (しゃるろっと for the snobs).

    1. Show previous comments  10 more
    2. Rahzel

      Rahzel

      @nekkichi yea just guessing here based on that, I don't speak japanese well enough to know actual reactions to bands in Japan aside from subbed stuff so t'was kinda "ohh?" to me as I thought they were popular based on, uh, western internet (which doesn't always equal homeland Very Successful). But again lol shocked I am to know D'espairsRay only went major in 2011 (just found out they disbanded IN 2011 ?? Thats a lot.) bc they were very internet-relevant in early-mid 2000s (the fact that I wasn't In VK Fandom and remember the name says a lot.) and it's kinda how I feel about Sadie too, I think they lasted quite a bit (indeed they landed generic anime #178's ending and one of Togainu no Chi's 12 ending songs, of which even back in 2010 they were one of the few acts I had actually heard of so... typical kinda-successful late 2000s vk act?) 

    3. nekkichi

      nekkichi

      @Chell

      d'espairs ray were major since 2004, they got signed by universal before they dropped the visuals.

    4. Axius

      Axius

      @Chell Glad to help 👍

      Sadie grew in popularity at around 2008-2009 honestly. I mostly like there 2009-2010 era they reallyy came together then.

       

      I dont know much about D'espairsRay i know they were popular overall. I also like that release NUL. made. Thats D'espairsRay's vocalist's band he is in right now so i think i should check them out haha 😅Glad this was a suggestion. 

       

  2. What is "menhera kei"? And how does it 'sound' like?

    1. Show previous comments  6 more
    2. platy

      platy

      Menhera kei = yumeleep. Look at all the cute in their videos, you'd never think they were singing about dying and being fucked in the head. Also the singer loves giving the middle finger. 

    3. monkeybanana4

      monkeybanana4

      Here is more about the fashion style and culture of menhera kei that @Komorebi mentioned earlier: https://fymenhera.tumblr.com/info

       

      I think the band gozenreiji. fits the theme? The singer tends to talk about wrist cutting.

    4. Peace Heavy mk II

      Peace Heavy mk II

      AvelCain, R-shitei, Amai Bouroku, Savage, Depain, Meary, Zigzag, Gossip (both old and new, to an extent), 0.1g Gosan, Mathilda (kinda), Yumeleep, SHELLMY (probably), and probably 3-dozen other bands would fall somewhere onto that spectrum. It seems to be less of a subgenre, rather than an aesthetic, although bands that fall under it tend to sound like R-shitei or Savage.

       

      I know it's been used within the scene itself, so I don't think it's solely a web-generated term (Meary had an album named "Menheler-ism", and there was a history of vkei video the lead singer of Golden Bomber was in where they discussed how today's vkei uses "mental illness as a subject" or something to that extent). Mental illness and self-harm are definitely not new subjects in vkei, or music in general. The concept has just been more stylized and #branded than it has been in the past. Had time been rearranged, groups like Mucc or Earl Grey probably would have been considered part of that scene just based on lyrical content.

  3. What's your VK-related guilty pleasure?

     

    Mine are the first Malice Mizer songs of the Gackt era: "Ma cherie", "Après midi", and the like. 

     

    The compositions sound so amateur, the keyboards feel so overwhelmingly cheesy, and the live performances are so pointless and clumsy... they make me cringe when I think of them too seriously, like "What the fuck was Mana actually thinking" but I can't stop siging them. Damn!

    1. Show previous comments  5 more
    2. Arkady

      Arkady

      I'll post it without further comment... >__>

       

    3. CELESTIAL CIEL
    4. YuyoDrift

      YuyoDrift

      Every now and then I'll play some Antic Cafe songs like ryuusei rocket and tekesuta kousen just cuz.

      People can lie all they want but they were actually really good!

  4. How many anime/dorama openings made by VK artists can you count?

    1. Show previous comments  4 more
    2. monkeybanana4

      monkeybanana4

      BUCK-TICK - Dress (Trinity Blood)

      SID - Ranbu no Melody (Bleach)

      vistlip - Yoru (Akatsuki no Yona)

    3. xriko

      xriko

      12012 - cyclone ( romeo x juliet)

      also a diru one's but I don't remember which one

    4. Lereku

      Lereku

      Nightmare : Alumina (Death Note)

      Nightmare : Raison d'être (Claymore)

      Nightmare : Lost in Blue & Naked (Mouryou no Hako)

      Nightmare : DIRTY (Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro)

      Buck-Tick : Kagerou (Kagerou)

      Buck-Tick Kuchizuke & Gekka Reijin (Shiki)

      Luna Sea : Limit (Endride)

      Luna Sea : Ran (op of the drama Toshi Densetsu no Onna 2)

      Luna Sea : I for you ( op of the drama Kamisama, Mou Sukoshi Dake)

      Megamasso : Twilight Star (Major)

      Kra : Kizuna (Yu-Gi-Oh ! 5D's !)

      ViVid : Real (Mobile Suit Gundam AGE)

      ViVid :  Hikari (Magi : The Kingdom of Magic)

      Sid : Anniversary (Magi : The Kingdom of Magic)

      Sid : V.I.P (Magi : The Labyrinth of Magic)

      Sid : ENAMEL (Kuroshitsuji : Book of Circus)

      Sid Glass no Hitomi (Kuroshitsuji Movie: Book of the Atlantic)

      Sid Rasen no Yume (Shoukoku no Altair)

      Sadie Juggernaut (Mazinkaiser SKL)

      Plastic Tree : Namida Drop (Garasu no Kantai.)

      Plastic Tree : Sink (Kindaichi Case Files)

      MUCC : Mother (Naruto Shippuden)

      MUCC : Classic (Nanatsu no Taizai : Seisen no Shirushi)

      Matenrou Opera Chimeishou (Orenchi no Furo Jijou)

      D Kaze ga Mekuru Page (Shinsengumi PEACE MAKER)

      Sug gr8 Story (Hitman Reborn)

      Sug R.P.G.~Rockin' Playing Game (Fairy Tail)

      An Cafe Kakusei Heroism ~THE HERO WITHOUT A "NAME"~ (Darker than BLACK : Kuro no Keiyakusha)

      An Cafe Ryuusei Rocket (op of the drama Fuma no Kojiro)

  5.  

    I was always curious about how come the pv for Diaura's "Lost November" got aprox 1.5 million views on Youtube around the time it was released. I mean, Diaura wasn't a bit of the huge band it is today, and even the songwriting is pretty basic in comparison to the levels of excellent Diaura achieved circa "Triangle".

     

    In fact, I remember feeling really meh at it by that time; actually got into the Diaura hype a years after when "Sirius" was released.

    1. Show previous comments  4 more
    2. Axius

      Axius

      I feel like one day they might remaster that song. It might me sick as hell if they do it right.

    3. Himeaimichu

      Himeaimichu

      @Duwang They do occasionally sometimes

      @Axius They actually rerecorded it for a best album. 

    4. Axius

      Axius

      0-0 they did now i have to look agian lol

  6. The more I dig into classic vk and pre-vk bands, the more I understand that vk is actually a scene with 3 decent artists out of 17 copy-cats. The sound, lyrics, visuals and overall aesthetics haven't really evolved in the almost 30 years it has existing. The idolized system that is actually the managment strategy of the 95% of the bands born in the last 10 years moreless came out really not surprising.

    Tbh, this makes me really, really upset, and seeing bands like Mamireta, Mathilda or Londboy being claimed as the cool novelty makes me want to die instead. 

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. CAT5

      CAT5

      Ain't nothing new under the sun, bro. Everything has an origin, but that doesn't have to negate subjective experience.

    3. PIZAZ

      PIZAZ

      Try not to let it upset you so much, just enjoy what you enjoy for the reasons you deem appropriate and keep it pushing. No need to challenge people over their tastes.

    4. Takadanobabaalien

      Takadanobabaalien

      its ok to appreciate both buck-tick and mamireta

  7. Still waiting someday some mysterious user on YouTube uploads a handful full VHS recordings of Dir en grey's first concerts, where they played Zan faster than it would be recorded, and Kaoru missed almost every solo.

     

    I don't understand how this hasn't happened yet, considering it did happen with La:Sadie's and also big bands like X, Luna Sea, L'arc, D’erlanger, and many more.

     

    Tbh I got really bored of watching the 1999 Osaka Jou live over and over to have some of the most glorious 90s vk performances ever...

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. Seelentau

      Seelentau

      You knew I'd reply to this :D So:

      The La:Sadie's videos are all from DVDs that Ki$aki sold at verious live shows after the band had disbanded. They're not band-sanctioned releases.

      As for the DEG stuff, well, it's obvious that they recorded all their lives from the very beginning, considering we already saw parts of one of their 1997 shows in their Mousou Blablabla VHS. Here's my digest for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNgHcPRhNiI
      You guys probably also know about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOdKGLVZB68

      I'm not sure where it comes from, but it appears to be leaked footage of what was supposed to be their first live release (the 1998 Budokan performance). As you probably know, Kyo called this live their darkest day or something like that in the VOS documentary.

      The Tsumi to Batsu indies version (aka NS1) doesn't sound that different from the finished product. The intro is different and the lyrics, obviously. But the general song structure was there already.

    3. saiko

      saiko

      Hi Selentau!

       

      IMHO Kyo and the rest of the band need to stop being so dumbly dramatic and start taking charge on their fame and the love that feel a lot of people for whom they are very influential. So all this mysticism around their indie vk era needs to get an end soon. For god's sake.

       

      And btw, have you actually heard that NS1?

       

       

    4. Seelentau

      Seelentau

      I mean I wouldn't be opposed to finally seeing those old lives, but it would take away a lot of the mystery that surrounds their early days. Plus, they might be ashamed of their unprofessional, young selves, don't know.

       

      Yup, I have a recording of it, from October 17, 1998.

  8. The resurgence of so much hate over Mejibray made me feel like watching their 2014's performance at ShibuKo. And re-confirmed that they actually did pretty well their job honoring visual kei back in the day. 

     

    So I'm leaving this in case you get intrigued or triggered.

     

    Now you can go back and listen to Royz😉

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. platy

      platy

      It satisfies the eyes and ears, no complaints

       

       

      Edit: Koichi used to look so elegant and cool... I miss it 

    3. yomii

      yomii

      it is a stunning performance, but i am kinda underwhelmed by the fact koichi didnt use slapping there, as he did in the original recording :c

    4. nekkichi

      nekkichi

      「THE RESURGENCE OF SO MUCH HATE」highkey sounds like a fitting title for their next lineup/comeback debut single nnnn

  9. I'm playing a gig in two hours. I'm so scared, fuck! No matter how many times I played live, still can't avoid getting THE chills!😖😖😖

     

    May Toshiya be with me!💆🎸🎶

     

    Wish me luck!

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. Gesu

      Gesu

      Good luck, and have fun~! ^_^

    3. CAT5

      CAT5

      Ayyye, good luck. Hope you have a blast! :D

    4. yomii

      yomii

      sorry i am too late to the party but i hope everything went good!! what instrument do you play? considering your reference to toshiya, i assume it's bass?

  10. So, I'm planning a trip to Japan for october, for the full month, with possibilities of extending it to november as well. Yesterday I was looking at my playslist searching for names of artists I'd like to see live, and sadly realized 1) mostly of the bands I listen to are disbanded, 2) the only currently active bands I like don't seem to have any schedule listed in their OHPs for these months. The only bands that have any scheduled are Dir, R-shitei, Kiryu (a taiban)... and I have to stop counting. I'm dying to see Diaura, Kizu, Dimlim, but their live dates don't go further than september... I'm afraid that the only chance I'll have to travel to Japan in many years could be ruined by this fact...

    So I may ask you who know the VK scene schedule dynamics: should I assume that the schedules now available are definitive ones?

    I read you!

     

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. Duwang

      Duwang

      It's way too early for most bands to announce October lives. Wait another two months.

      Give DIMLIM a little more time than that. They often announce lives barely a month in advance unless the band that invites them tends to announce things further in advance.

    3. Duwang

      Duwang

      I can help you with DIMLIM tickets btw. I sometimes have extras.

    4. Kiryu999

      Kiryu999

      Don't worry too much about that, like said above it's a bit too early for bands to announce their schedule for October now. If you're going to Tokyo they'll be plenty of lives, I've been to Tokyo twice and there were gigs scheduled every day, you will probably have a band you like play during your stay :)

      I recommend using http://visual.eplus.jp/ they list every gigs scheduled in Japan, it's very helpful !

  11. Is anybody here interested in making a post about the 90s softvi movement? Yesterday I've got very hooked by a bunch of guys that I've never given the chance to listen to yet: Lastier, Jurassic, Close, Waive, and many more. Since they clearly don't belong to the more serious, gothic stuff that the category of visual kei calls for most of the time, I've turned my sight off them because they were mainstream appealing and blabla. But hey, they sound amazing! They bring all that 90s anime opening sound, powerful and dramatic, with that awesome chords modulations that made myself interest in J-music as a kid. So, if there's anyone here interested into giving more insight over them and/or music recomendations, here's your chance!

     

    This is what I found on a brief research over softvi. Still don't know enough Japanese to go into more insightful sites, so my information may remain very little till somebody enlightens me more lol:

     

    *They formed a large group into the 90s VK scene, and also many of them received constant attention from media (judging mostly from magazine covers);

    *They had a kind of specific aesthetics for them, both visual and sound wise;

    *Most of them (if not all of them) were signed under a label named Break out.

     

    So they were a thing back then, so I think they are a key point to anybody interested in looking for VK's history (although they've fallen into the obscure side of the Western fandom's radar even to this day).

     

     

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. robkun

      robkun

      Softkei is the best kei! Check out CHILD. My all time favs!

       

      Softkei developed in the mid 90s as kind of like an antithesis to VK. Guys like SOPHIA and CASCADE kicked down the door to make it acceptable in the mainstream, while underground guys like 16,Piano, OZWORLD and Dias Ray were pioneering it in the underground. It was such a juggernaut by 1997 that already established bands like Glay, L’arc and Luna Sea started flirting with it.

       

      Softkei reached its peak around 1999/2000 when guys like Janne Da Arc and e.mu started breaking the Oricon top 20 charts, while it took over the underground VK scene quite rapidly at around the same time with countless acts blossoming around then, some of the more noteworthy being JURASSIC, ~Akira~, Wyse and Waive, among dozens of others.

       

      Unfortunately, softkei took a strong downward dip in popularity around 2003 when more traditional VK started to become more dominant, after rivaling softkei for several years. The mainstream appeal for softkei practically vanished around this time following the split of former leading major bands like e.mu and CASCADE. The only flagship bands that were still active at this point where Janne Da Arc and SOPHIA, whose popularity was eons past the visual kei lump-in. Tie in the fact that oshare kei became a major player in the visual underground at this time as well, and softkei was all but extinct by 2005.

       

      Softkei will always be my favorite subgenre of VK. I guess I’m just a sucker for a nice hook, blonde bands and a sky blue aesthetic lol.

    3. saiko

      saiko

      @robkunwow, AWESOME! Also, very nicely written! Thank you so much!

    4. robkun

      robkun

      You’re very welcome!!

  12. If it wasn't for "Jisatsu ganbou", "Meikyou shishui", "Re:plica", "Rodeo", "-0°C", Due'le Quartz would be actually a prety shitty band. Miyavi was already a fierce player and genuine showman back then, but aside from the songs I mentioned, his compositions were very weak plagios of MISSA-era DEG songs like "Zan", "S" or classic "Byoushin". Seriously, it's very hard to listen to their discography entirely, and Sakito's voice makes it only more painful (I'm sure his voice will be remebered as one of the worst to have ever reached the scene).
    Bassist and drummer were skilled, too, but their arrangments didn't add anything interesting (Re.plica and Rodeo are the coolest ones, in this sense).
    I don't understand how they became so succesful back in the day, considering 2000-2001 was the era in which VK started to dramatically lose all the little, but overall significant, attention it got from the mainstream audicence.

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. saiko

      saiko

      It's very interesting how this awkward standards became nowadays a legitimate "aesthetic" that is seeked by many people to listen or watch to, with all this "homage-kei" stuff that emerged as a trend in the last few years...

      A few years ago I could enjoy it, but today, after realizing how lazy and bagyaish the scene became in general,  I find it untolerable. That said, for satisfying my hunger for indie kotekote stuff I have done my own selection of songs that I find actually really well-worked (pre-Gauze Dir, pre-FINALE Pierrot, some Baiser, the Due song I mentioned above, and many others).

    3. reminiscing2004

      reminiscing2004

      everyone already knew sakito was a struggling vocalist. you're missing out on mad gems like "luna e", "utakata no...yume?", "omocha shuurisha", "re:shake spear", so its hard to take this argument srsly.

    4. nekkichi

      nekkichi

      miyabussi's selling power HA IMPACT, henni! they don't make them like that anymore

       

      I still bop to シュガーレス・シャンハイ and selfish on the reg tbh

  13. After many (many) listenings to DeG's "Gauze", I could moreless figure out which are the sources of the majority of the songs in the album, in terms of styles and bands. For example, "Mitsu no tsuba", "Yurameki" and "Akuro no oka" recall Luna Sea very easily, "Cage" does for X songs like "Rusty Nail", while "304 blablabla", "Zan" and "Mazohyst" do the same for Kuroyume. 

     

    But there are still some songs whose arrangments don't fit in any "constelations" of arranagments I've heard before withing and out of the VK scene. "Yokan", "Raison detre" and "Mask"; the only word that comes to my mind while hearing them is "dance punk", but I can't tell anything else on the subject.

     

    Any ideas?

     

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Zeus

      Zeus

      for "Yokan", "Raison detre" most definitely 80s and 90s american pop and dance mixed with some (at that time) modern vk trends

    3. saiko

      saiko

      @Zeus What songs come to your mind for instance?

    4. Zeus

      Zeus

      No songs, just general trends and the types of synths and guitar tuning used

  14. So, I've suddenly remembered some names that totally fell out of my radar and that of every VK community I'm into:

     

    -Doremidan

    -Chemical pictures

    -Jinkaku radio

    -Sex android

     

    Do any of you guys recall anything about any of them? I was never enthusiast about their music tbh, except for one or two tracks by two of them. I was just so busy discovering An cafe and Ayabie, hehe. Now I've just looked up for them in Youtube and got surprised over some live videos with important amounts of crowd, which I suppose means they weren't irrelevant though they surely weren't big acts. 

     

    Btw, 'that' 2006-2009 sound... man, what a strange feeling I'm getting... Tfw some apparently innocuous thing of the past becomes suddenly relevant in the present...

     

    ... then thinking about Yumeleep or 0.1mg no gosan makes everything more confusing and embarrasing... 

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Paraph

      Paraph

      second those Doremidan recos. they're the only two i own from the band and imo are their best.

    3. Jigsaw9

      Jigsaw9

      Doremidan were great, just reading their name really takes me back! :D I've never been super into them, but I remember spinning their "Retsujou Lullaby" mini album A LOT back when I was just diving into this whole vk business.

       

      Jinkaku Radio was a really cool group too, very nice moody/melancholic sound. Again, I wasn't a huge fan but one song of theirs that will always remain with me is "Nejimaki dori". ♥ (the live version is amazing too)

       

      I really dug Chemical Pictures when they started out and they were truly in their prime back when Jimi was the bassist (you could tell his fine-tuning went a long way!). After he left I gradually lost interest in them... they were still okay but nowhere near as fun. Solid band overall tho, very creative!

    4. saiko

      saiko

      Thank you guys! I'll check your recos out immediately!

  15. Was/is there any bandoman who actually did/does his make-up, hair and/or costumes?

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Gesu

      Gesu

      There's a picture of Hitomi (ex-Moran) putting on his makeup but idk if that means he always/usually did it himself. Personally, if I were a celebrity, I'd always do it myself. Lol :P

    3. nekkichi

      nekkichi

      a lot of bandomen do their own makeup and hair if you watch the off-stage vids... I have no clue about costumes because that seems more or less restricted to VK brands for popular kids and h&m clearance rack for like initial l and shit, and it aint' RPDR, they can't sew????

    4. Masato

      Masato

      Well, you can usually judge it by the way it looks. Is it light and crap, usually they do it. If it's a do-minor, they do it, if they can afford staff, they have a make-san that does it for them. 

  16.  

    Another proof that even pros fail miserably sometimes.

     

    And I've always thought Kaoru's nervousness at 98' Budokan was an exception...

     

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Himeaimichu

      Himeaimichu

      Gladly it didn't fuck up the giant record deal they had at the time lol. Else they would've suffered the same fate as BODY

    3. saiko

      saiko

      What happened to Body?

    4. Himeaimichu

      Himeaimichu

      IDK exactly but something caused them to break up after like 3 concerts, even though they were supposed to make big money from their record deal lol

  17. How many VK songs/PVs with a LGBT+ story/filmed secuence within them can you count? As far as I'm concerned, there are:

     

    PVs: 

     

    Pierrot's "Yuuyami suicide";

    Kiryu's "Etsu to utsu";

    Acid Black Cherry "Chou";

    Dezert's "Ikaiyou to Rousseau no sakkaku";

    Acme's "Houkagou no shiiku".

     

    Songs:

     

    Cali gari's "Blue film".

     

     

     

     

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. nekkichi

      nekkichi

      kaya's pv for monday monday is the only one that matters x

    3. violetchain

      violetchain

      Psycho le Cemu's "Mirai Shounen x Mirai Shoujo" MV

       

       

    4. suji
  18. I can't find the songwriting credits for Phantasmagoria's and Syndrome's music. I've only found a few. Does anyone happen to have a list? At least for the singles' A-sides.

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Lestat

      Lestat

      What I can generally find from Mago at the moment. (Most of it is the same way as with Syndrome, 'all words and music arranged by Phantasmagoria'.)

       

      Vanish...

      01. Vanish... (music and lyrics by Kisaki)

       

      actuality

      01. actuality (music and lyrics by Kisaki)

      02. Lie Light&Lost Sky (music and lyrics by Kisaki)

      03. 光に降る雨 (lyrics by Riku, music by Jun)

       

      Seeds of brain

      01. Seeds of Brain (music and lyrics by Kisaki)

      02. Cry... (music and lyrics by Kisaki)

      03. Desperate Resolution for my Soul... (music and lyrics by Kisaki)

      04. My Mental State... (music and lyrics by Kisaki)

    3. Lestat

      Lestat

      For any further details, refer to @inartistic :D

    4. inartistic

      inartistic

      Like Lestat said, for KISAKI's bands, it's usually the band itself that is credited (unfortunately). Occasionally the real credits will slip through on karaoke sites or something.

       

      But 99% of the time, it's the lead guitarist of the band or KISAKI composing, with either the vocalist or KISAKI writing the lyrics. So for Phantasmagoria it was mostly JUN composing, for first period LIN it was KANATA, for Syndrome Ruiza, etc.

  19. When I recall people in late 00's calling Visual Kei "dead" because hide was found dead and X and Luna Sea disbanded I think they didn't even imagined how much dead and full of absurd garbage could the scene be like it is right now lol

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Zeus

      Zeus

      vk is a phoenix. it dies and is reborn every 10ish years.

    3. nekkichi

      nekkichi

      vk died at hide's birth (cc @unpopular_opinions_thread )

    4. YuyoDrift

      YuyoDrift

      lol ouch

       

      you saying this timeline is worse than that day?

  20. Today I've found what seems to be two old web sites made by Western people that include information about J-rock/pop and/or VK, written by the owners.

     

    https://lerman.biz/asagao/

     

    http://members.tripod.com/shin_ueda/

     

    I decided to post this information via a status because I couldn't find the thread made by some user for the historical archive project. Could someone share the link for it here? 

     

    Btw, may the users interested in this matter report themselves here? Maybe we could meet to finally put our hands into some researching work. Although we all are grown-asses with their own full-dedication lives, I don't think it should take us much hardship. I mean, it shouldn't take more work than looking up for X site (perhaps we should figure out which search engine is the best; Google is not the best alliate for looking up for old web sites) and then simply save the sites' texts (downloading them as a *.pdf file is actually pretty easy, effective and tidy to archive, he).

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. chemicalpictures

      chemicalpictures

      @crucifiction biggest databases around would be grass thread, vkdb and that other one focused on live dates I completely forgot the name, but vk.gy is BY FAR the easiest to navigate/most organized out there. It just lacks the manpower to feed the data

       

      this is actually something we should incentivize as a community. I'll definitely try to help at least filling the pages of my faves

    3. crucifiction

      crucifiction

      grass thread is no longer around (and most stuff from it has already been added to vk.gy, from what I recall), vkdb lacks quite a lot of info and is a bit of a mess imho :P

       

      Imho, no other db is even close to vk.gy when it comes to the amount and quality of information, where - on top of general info, you can find HQ cover arts, flyers and such. Visunavi used to have a similar type of content but in much lower res.

    4. R/O

      R/O

      Here’s the link: 

      Thank you for pointing this out!

  21. Does anybody know how are Resistar Records bands doing? And also, is it me, or Diaura kinda flopped the non-stop rising popularity they had around 2014-2015?

    1. Takadanobabaalien

      Takadanobabaalien

      Diaura is just as popular now as they were back then, if not more. At least in Japan. They also seem to have a fairly big overseas following still so I have no idea what you're talking about tbh 

    2. Mihenno

      Mihenno

      Yeah I don't think Diaura flopped at all. I think they're doing really good for themselves right now.

    3. saiko

      saiko

      Just asking.

      They fell out of my own radar after Triangle, actually. That album was a true masterpiece, and continued the greatness of Focus. Those albums really saved visual kei. Ruin, Engima and My Resistance were very promising, but never got to reach the quality of Triangle, imho.

      I still love the band, because they are one of the very few artists of the scene that seem talented and genuine, so I try to check out every release they put out till today, but since there is nothing actually worth listening on their most recent catalog, I supposed they run out of ideas, and thus maybe started to lose fans, etc.

      I hope they reach Budokan someday. They deserved it.

  22. Recently, motivated by the sharing of a Dollis Marry's best-album a kind user did here, I have been listening to a good portion of Metis Gretel, Dollis Marry and Izabel Varosa, a group of bands that I've seen their name in every download website I visited since I started myself into vk back in 2009, but never tried. Although their sound is absolutely not a novelty, and in this sense they sound/look kind of generic, let me say that they actually did came over my expectatives, at least for a first listening, which is a really good sign. The best one was, of course, Dollis: a very decent vocalist (which it's like a miracle in this god forsaken scene; it's actually a pity there isn't any live footage available at least on Youtube, it is the only challenge it lefts to prove he is so) and very good arranged songs, some with a fresh approachs (with that I mean they take themselves off from the archetypical indie clichés), they best example being this: 

     

     

    1. Peace Heavy mk II

      Peace Heavy mk II

      I'm finding I'm going back and revisiting a lot of things I looked over a long time ago and realized that they sound a lot better than I originally thought.

       

      Glad you're liking Metis Gretel too: they're one of the first vkei bands I got into and are still a favorite of mine.

    2. Biopanda

      Biopanda

      Just gonna drop this here to spread the dollis love. AFAIK it's the only live footage that exists

       

    3. saiko

      saiko

      Quote

      I'm finding I'm going back and revisiting a lot of things I looked over a long time ago and realized that they sound a lot better than I originally thought.

       

      Glad you're liking Metis Gretel too: they're one of the first vkei bands I got into and are still a favorite of mine.

      I'm glad you are doing it!
       

      My process is generally the opposite: revisiting a a lot of things I looked up a long time ago and realize that they sound a worst than I originally thought. Next year I enter my second decade being a vk listener realizing that vk is in fact (and kinda was in its beggining) a scene filled with a bunch of boys in their early twe

      nties trying to mimic the big acts with none to zero creative spirit. Thus we have the increasing amount not only of plagio (the most incredible and yet dramatic case of it is bands like Kiryu, that literally copy themselves over and over with no signs of going to stop it someday) but of an idolized conception over bands, their formation, music, looks, selling strategies, etc. A very big dissapointement, if you aks me. 

       

      So, being into this process of grieving the ideal VK was for me a a musician, finding that there actually is/was listeneable music and cool looks within the scene is a caress to the wounded heart!

  23. I showed Dir's "Cage" to a friend to isn't remotely aware of VK or even J-rock, and he said "Wow, this sounds like Iron Maiden".

     

    VK always sounded very unique to my ear. But in the last year, since

    I was not very fond of the (Western) classics of punk, grunge, gothic, metal, and their respective subgenres and "post" scenes, although I always knew that theorically VK made itself over Western artist, the gap between VK and Western artists came up as much shorter than I tought, with only few elements of it (musical, visual, lyrical, performatic) keeping actually "unique".

     

    In the case of "Cage", since I haven't heard much from Iron Maiden, what can you say about what my friend said? Are you agree with him?

     

     

     

    1. Himeaimichu

      Himeaimichu

      Most of Iron Maiden's stuff is Metal, so maybe Cage sounds like some of their softer stuff?

      Even then, Dir en Grey's early heavy stuff sound less like Iron Maiden, and more like Metallica or Megadeth (and even then, still sound more like Kuroyume, Luna Sea and all the other early 90's bands they took inspiration from). 

      And their later heavy stuff more resembles Korn. 

      I think something like Vasalla more resembles Iron Maiden. 

      In my opinion, while a lot of Visual Kei does resemble western bands, there is so much common threads of influence in Visual Kei that some how, some way, Vkei still sounds different than the rest of mainstream J-Rock. 

    2. Jigsaw9

      Jigsaw9

      That is a pretty silly comparison imo. Now, if you showed him some GLAY, I would understand.... :D 

    3. Bear

      Bear

      I'm pretty sure your friend is deaf.

  24. Are there any musician fellows here on MH?

     

    I've been playing bass for almost ten years to date. 

    1. RaeDesu

      RaeDesu

      I sing, and I've played Violin for almost 20 years. 

    2. nekkichi

      nekkichi

      check the dir en grey thread x

    3. Jigsaw9

      Jigsaw9

      Been failing at guitar for 12+ years, also amateurishly dabbling in weird ambient shit currently.

  25. With this issue of Diaura switching labels, I got curious about the topic. How many labels of the VK scene can you count? If you can, add information on year of starting and closing; owner (and bands he/she got involved); at least three names of the most famous bands they have worked with; overall reputation.

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