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I can totally relate to seikun with the "unique sound" thing. But we have actually talked about this already in a few threads, I stated my opinion about it earlier here. I know a lot of people (such as miyuu) will disagree with my stance on this. It is correct that old bands wanted to get their hands on girls and money too- but there is still a difference in having a vk idol who looks like a crazy fucking deliquent or idiot or having a vk idol who looks like a beautiful host boy. I am one of those people who sees old visual kei as it's very own thing, while modern visual kei has become something entirely different. Visual kei today has it's origin in the early 2000s pile of mediocre indies band thing and you can still hear a bit the influences of these band's and older visual kei, such as Luna Sea or Kuroyume, but overall the modern Vk phenomenom doesn't share that much with the older bands. Both the music and fashion were very different, let alone the concept. When in old visual kei it was more about being rebellious, punx and radical today's visual kei is more about being fashionable, beautiful or about coolness. And while older visual kei was regarded odd, strange and maybe even dangerous, modern visual kei is part of the japanese mainstream. It's still not really accepted and people dressing up visual kei are still regarded as weirdos, but there is much more acceptance and the fashion is part of japanese capitalistic fashion industry. I am not saying, that old visual kei bands really ended up being so radical and different and anti-mainstream, because they didn't. And I mostly base my argument on Kaorus and Sigizos opinion on modern visual kei-both have the same feeling about modern visual kei having a totally different "ideology" which surrounds more about fashion and clothes. And he also feels that visual kei will drastically change to a point it can't be called visual kei anymore. It's also interesting that both are indicating that modern visual kei bands don't express themselves anymore as musicians. Of course their opinion is very subjective, but they have been members of two very well known and big visual kei bands. And maybe the "being different and rebellious" is true- but obviously more for the early and first visual kei bands and not for those copycats, that followed afterwards. I personally consider old visual kei to be more creative and exciting than new visual kei. And I also consider it to be an actual genre- mainly because bands from the 80s to the mid and late 90s shared a lot of musical elments. Even when a band from the 80s would sound very different than a Matina band from 1998, you can still hear and see the connection. There have been as much terrible bands in the 90s as today- but at least I do tolerate old horrible bands more than neo Vk horrible bands. Though I think it is hard to compare their levels of terribleness because of how different the indies bands of these two eras sound. I am honest though with my "kote kei elitism". I've got into groups like Moi dix Mois, D'espairsray and Dir en grey first so I was actually more in the 2003-2005 years of visual kei. It was easy then for me to go back in time and find a liking to older bands- but I couldn't get into any new band after 2006. I was and am still too fond of the wannabe-edgy fake-goffick punk sound and look I learned to know from Mana, Kyo, Hisui and others and the mass of oshare or brightly cute and try-hard to be sexy bands just didn't appeal to me- let alone, that I can't stand Metalcore, new-modern Emo and cheesy Electro-Rock and in conclusion I have a big issue with all this "neo Visual kei" thing. There are only a few vk bands from today I like and I am not denying that I am very prejudiced about new bands. Like others have said, I miss old school's outfits (as I like their ridiculous hairstyles, the unbearable amount of make up, the cross dressing, the "edgy" clothes) and I miss especially the darker indie bands. As crappy as they have been, their mix of gothic (even though a lot of "hardcore-goffs" try hard to prove that old schhol visual kei has no goth in it), punk, metal and glam created the crazy sound of screeching, hypnotic, flanging guitars, with a prominent bass (an underrated Instrument I love but rarely plays an important role in neo vk or modern pop music in general), fast drumming and of course the out of tune singing, which pendles between (lovely) crappiness, horribleness or complete insanity. I also miss the "mental insanity" topic too. I just love when the vocalist loses his mind during a song and screams, mourns and moans like an idiot. It's super cheesy, but I like it. (seriously: neo vk is also very very cheesy. Just in different ways than the old vk bands.) I have no problem with being stuck in the past. I enjoy listening to the old bands and there have been enough artists that I can listen to and never get tired. I can understand why some old school lovers are so frustrated about modern visual kei though. I wish there would be more Kote kei bands and that it would be more known and popular. I'd wish to talk with people who like visual kei about old bands and not get a blank stare when I mention Raphael or Malice Mizer. I am afraid we will probably never come into terms. As Arithmetica said, it is hard to define old or new visual kei. We can see their differences though, but it is not easy to say that music of this era was more deep and musically better than another. Modern Vk too has surely great artists too- it is then a matter of taste what you will like or what bands you can relate to. @jduv86 I am not really good when it comes to give recommendations, but I try. Now it depends what kind of music you lean towards and what genres you would be willing to like or try out. But as you seem to like "heavier" bands I would suggest the more Metal-ish or Punk-rock bands, such as Mist of Rouge, Vasalla, Velladonna, Antique Doll, The Piass, AION (okay, they might be or not vk but I will list them though) and of course Madeth gray'll. Other bands I will recommend to check out are ROUAGE, Laputa, Luna Sea, D'erlanger, La' Mule, Aliene Ma'riage, Baiser, Deshabillz, Mirage, 90s penicillin and Pierrot.

ex-OUTЯAGE Vo.咲(saki) & Gt.銀示(ginji) new non-visual-kei band "hauL" has formed at their event "Silverfest2013" at Birth SHINJUKU at 2013/05/06 "hauL" members: Vo.咲(saki) (ex-Ruinous-->Parasite Lucia-->L'ie:Chris-->Kar+te=zyAnose-->コロシ(koroshi)-->Cuartet-->Ivys-->ActLess TheAteR-->OUTЯAGE) Gt.銀示(ginji) (ex-Ladifere-->Demaria-->テロル倶楽部(terror club)-->バックドロップ零式(backdrop zero-shiki)-->OUTЯAGE-->eAt) support Ba.一粋心(hitosui sin) (ex-ボクラノ(bokurano)) support Dr.キモトマサヤ(kimoto masaya) (ex-Tabula rasa, now in naxat) TRIPLEガウガウAXE(TRIPLE gaugau AXE) SET-LIST at Shinjuku ACB HALL at 2013/05/06: 01.Endless sorrow (HEY-SMITH) 02.FLY AGAIN (MAN WITH A MISSION) 03.DRUG FREE JAPAN (HEY-SMITH) 04.JACK.B (SiM) 05.Final destination (coldrain) 06.I HATE U(It's Not A Play On Words) (SiM) TRIPLEガウガウAXE(TRIPLE gaugau AXE) SET-LIST at Birth SHINJUKU at 2013/05/06: 01.AMY (SiM) 02.Evolution is Solution (SiM) 03.distance (MAN WITH A MISSION) 04.[hauL song] 05.[hauL song] 06.D.A.N.C.E (ROTTENGRAFFTY) 07.金色グラフティー(konjiki graffty) (ROTTENGRAFFTY) 08.Paralyzed ocean (Pay money To my Pain) 09.KiLLiNG ME (SiM) 10.Omen (Crossfaith) 11.KiLLiNG ME (SiM)

GYZE new album "Fascinating Violence" will be released at 2013/06/04 [track list] 01.Desire 02.Desperately 03.Fascinating Violence 04.Regain 05.Trash My Enemy 06.A Dynasty 07.Final Revenge 08.Trigger Of The Anger 09.Day Of The Funeral 10.Midnight Darkness 11.The Black Era Ryoji live-distributed single "BlackShadow" will be released at GYZE live at Shibuya CYCLONE at 2013/07/26, at which SUICIDE HEAVEN demo CD-R "…future ages" will be re-released (500yen) http://www.gyze.jp/

it is announced at TRIGGAH Gt.TOMOZO session "KT-NHK" live at Shibuya RUIDO K2 at 2013/05/09 that TRIGGAH new one-coin single "Cross over" will be released at 2013/07/27 (500yen, limited 300) [track list] 01.Cross over two silence btw TRIGGAH will perform at event "DUAL CORE SUMMIT 2013" at Meguro Rock May Kan at 2013/07/27, at which gengah. & session band "GATE'[sZ]" will also perform TRIGGAH line-up at 2013/07/27: Vo.壱-hajime- Gt.TOMOZO support Gt.erina (ex-VII-Sense, now in Lucifer's underground) support Ba.迅-jin- (ex-UnsraW) support Dr.燵-tatsu- (ex-ハルシオン(halsion)-->ダウナー(downer)(support)) gengah. line-up at 2013/07/27 and at Shinjuku LOFT at 2013/08/21: Vo.壱-hajime- Gt.KAZ (ex-VII-Sense) Gt.AIKA (ex-TRIGGAH) Ba.たつほわ(tatsuhowa) (ex-時空海賊SEVEN SEAS(jikuukaizoku SEVEN SEAS)-->Levia) Dr.KAI (ex-シリアル⇔NUMBER(serial NUMBER)) "GATE'[sZ]" members: Vo.壱-ichi- (GHOSE) Gt.直人(naoto) (ex-DEATHGAZE) Gt.TOMOZO (TRIGGAH) Ba.HISAYOSHI (ex-ClearVeil, now in Fuel Pumps) Dr.竜之介(ryuunosuke) (CodeRebirth)

君は鋭く。(kimi wa surudoku) live-limited one-coin single "流線形に咲く(ryuusenkei ni saku)" will be released at their live since Meguro Rock May Kan at 2013/08/01 (1 song, 500yen)

Obviously MEJIBRAY! I can't stand DIAURRHEA, everything I tried from them was completely boring and lame, so... yeah. Whereas MEJI' has kickass vocals, awesome guitars and solid catchy songs.

"空色レター(sorairo letter)" PV spot could be watched through YouTube since 2013/05/08

"turnaround" CM could be watched through YouTube since 2013/05/08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKYopD3NqB8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-5eVTNsC_4

i would want to see that poll too xD. i wish someone made more polls. i can't think of bands i want to compare but is so fun when others ask

This song has been stuck in my head lately http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARv9zoNl2po

They have announced that new mini-album will be released at their upcoming one-man on 2013.08.15 "ハイフォネーションseason2", though details have yet to be announced.