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it's gonna be klaha's new band bookmark this post

its gonna be Velvet Eden somehow

i did it mama

I speak this unto the universe: it will be Hitomi's new band.

Let's all take bets on whether or not they will have "Rose" somewhere in their name.

Live filming from the 31.12.2016 countdown live at Esaka Muse Deviloof - HERO = MURDER filmed by V STAR PROMOTION

Kaya new maxi-single "夢路" (Yumeji) will be released at 2017/03/08 (2 types) Limited edition (2160 yens) will include CD (2 songs) + DVD ("夢路" (Yumeji) PV) Regular edition (1620 yens) will include CD (3 songs) only [CD tracklist] 01. 夢路 (Yumeji) 02. Frosty Rain (with 鈴木結女(Suzuki Yume)) 03. 夢路(Yumeji)-Remix- [regular edition only] He will hold his oneman live tour "Dream after Dream" since 2017/03/18 at OSAKA RUIDO since 2017/04/07 at Shinjuku ReNY

yas @ pierrot revival! un-yas @ pierrot working with that trash (yas @ lmc presumably being finally dead)

. Happy New Years, everyone! December was a super busy month for the ORZ crew, so we have a bite-sized selection of new tracks to recommend you guys this month, but rest assured, they're delectable as always! Thanks to our guest contributors @Lestat and @Ada Suilen! As usual, we apologize if some videos aren't available due to region restrictions. @CAT5's Picks "紫光 (shikou)" by 八十八ヶ所巡礼 (88kasyo Junrei) 88kasyo Junrei have released an album every year, without fail, from 2009 all the way up through 2015, usually within the month of August. Having taken their prolificness for granted, most of us had assumed that a 2016 release would be given. Sadly, that wasn't the case, but Margaret and the crew must have sensed our yearnings, as they dropped this PV out of the blue shortly into December. And while no new album has been announced yet, what they've served us here is certainly appeasing! "shikou" is somewhat different for 88kasyo. These guys don't usually make a habit of restraining themselves - often taking every opportunity to noodle our faces off and pummel us with their cacophonous insanity - so it was a bit of a shock to hear how subdued this track was at first. But it came as an even bigger surprise that this track still manages to fucking rock! It's a slower tune for them, sure, but the band's musical acumen hasn't been diminished one bit because of it. Margaret employs a squeaky, rap-like flow while providing one of the band's most memorable basslines, Kenzoooooo's drumming is as coercive as ever, and Katzuya sprinkles just enough of his psychedelic guitar work in the mix to be potent. What I thought at first was 'restraint', was actually just the band exercising their instincts with a newfound control. "shikou" isn't just the 88kasyo taking it easy, it shows a mature step forward in the band's songwriting. I can't wait for what's next! "さよーならあなた (Sayounara Anata)" by カネコアヤノ (Kaneko Ayano) The Japanese Folk/Singer-Songwriter realm has been pretty uneventful for me this year. My personally appointed 'Celestial Goddess' of modern J-folk Ichiko Aoba proved to be mundane after all, with her humdrum follow-up to 2013's masterpiece 0. And the much less renown, but equally dear to me, mmm/me-my-mo made a brief appearance early in the year with her band Maria Hato, releasing a single titled "C.P.U" (that I wrote about in February's edition of RT), which was brilliant, but only managed to whet my appetite. Enter Kaneko Ayano. While not as quirky as mmm, and certainly nowhere near Aoba's ethereal genius, Kaneko's straightforward and simple sound has been a refreshing serving of the folky tunes I've been craving from 2016. She's released two EPs this year - hug back in April, and Sayounara Anata just recently. The title track diverges from her usual, barebones acoustic approach and includes a full band backing that really vitalizes her already emotive sound. It almost sounds like risette and ミラーボールズ (mirrorballs) were smoothly merged together - the end result is the perfect blend of carefree indie-pop and adorably earnest folk-rock. "Youth" by Young Juvenile Youth Young Juvenile Youth, YJY for short, consists of vocalist Yuki and producer/beatmaker Jemapur. Having formed in 2012 and only having released their debut EP in 2015, they're relatively new to the scene, but have already carved out a bit of a niche for themselves. Their latest single "YOUTH" is a beacon of this musical alcove that they've built: sleek, minimal electronic music that you'd sooner hear out of London than Tokyo. Not exactly trip-hop, but certainly not electro-pop either, "Youth" sports a sound that would be difficult to find contemporaries for in Japan. The synths are meticulously layered and arranged, and the beat is just chill enough to garner a contemplative head-nod. There's also a certain accessibility to Yuki's vocals, but the songwriting feels really subtle in its pop aspects. "Youth" shows a lot of promise, and while YJY may not be topping the Oricon charts anytime soon, they do have the potential to expand on an international scale, while also being a singular force within Japan. @beni's Pick "The Lights" by FABLED NUMBER Another month, another random gem found. This time it's FABLED NUMBER. The little known rock band reminds me of SILHOUETTE FROM THE SKYLIGHT, but with a pop/electronic edge. This makes for a very accessible sound, and the song's energy does not let up at any point. You'll want to continuously repeat the track in no time! They instantly caught my attention with this tune, and hopefully that's the same case for others. It's a real shame that these guys are so unknown compared to other, similar bands, as they show great potential in this latest single of theirs. Here's to hoping you also check out their debut album coming out in early February entitled ILLUMINATE! @togz's Pick "埋葬 (maisou)" by RAZOR I was a little worried as to where RAZOR's line-up would take them. After their mini-album RED INVISIBLE dropped, all my worries went away. The release is a solid listen as a whole, which you can learn more about in @Zeus' review of it here. The track that really made me move was "埋葬 (maisou)". It's upbeat from the start, but fairly heavy for a visual kei composition. Ryoga's fast paced speaking along with the guitars builds into a really fun environment when the instrumentals and vocals come together. The phrasing is predictable, but that makes it easier to anticipate where the song is going and, in my opinion, makes for a damn good live song. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a band and hearing them for the first time while not having to worry about whether you can follow the crowd or not. It's a song you can simply feel and really rock out to. @Zeus' Pick "drifting litter" by DECAYS It's no secret DECAYS has redeemed themselves with their transformation, and I've extolled the virtues of Baby who wanders enough in my review. What I didn't mention in the review was my favorite track on the album, and that would be "drifting litter". This hypnotic, hazy ballad is at odds with the overall direction of the album, adopting a thick, dark tone. The melody is anchored in place by the thick bass and guitar and Nakamura commands the chorus completely. The pure rock guitar solo in the middle skyrockets the song to eleven. If Baby who wanders wasn't dark or heavy enough for you, then this is what you are looking for. @Original Saku's Pick "人魚の檻 (ningyo no ori)" by 陰陽座 (Onmyo-za) Onmyo-za is a band that comes and goes for me. In that, I mean that they're a group who I enjoy a great deal when they release something, but I don't keep up with specifically, so more often than not it's like a nice little present that soon fades till the next one. "人魚の檻" from the band's newest effort Karyoubinga is just one of those aforementioned 'presents'. While being a whopping seven minutes six seconds long, it comes in as the longest song on the album and does not suffer for it. The track begins calm and serene then Kuroneko chimes in with her beautiful soft vocal technique that can only be described as 'heavenly'. It soon flows into the backing guitar riffs that thunder and transform the song into something more chaotic but, still beautiful. Shortly after the guitars kick in, Matatabi gets his turn with his trademark deep, powerful vocals that eventually lead into dual vocal excellence between the two. The track progresses into the instrumental bit where Maneki and Karukan show off their prowess and melt my face off in the process. The last minute and a half takes on a very 'haunting' aesthetic that slows down the tempo and closes out wonderfully. Guest Recommendations: @Lestat's Picks "輪舞曲 (rondo)" by 藍-AI- I wonder if I have traversed in to the mysterious universe of Konami's Castlevania, as "輪舞曲" promptly astonishes me with an enigmatic alliance of both a devout organ and a set of dungeon-crawling synthesizers. Whoever praises the unnatural and the unknown realms will likely appreciate this on short notice, as it is fully enclosed by the strange and the dark. While an engaging bass performs its own black magic and whirs away, the track sneaks along this very murky line, slowly approaching an evanescent moment of clarity; fog clears, and for a brief moment you open a dark cellar's trapdoors toward a more flitting, yet vigilant chorus, one where the opaque and ambiguous vocals of ex-DEATHGAZE's 藍-AI- take on a transparency in the wee hour's quickly fading light. "-SHAMBARA-" by R指定 (R-Shitei) All the while, R指定 have proven themselves multifaceted goliaths, able to mutate or evolve at will. The immensely popular band does not discriminate between dawn and dusk, and waltzes among both pop rock and heavy metal in swiftly taken steps. Give this ingenuous and tireless group a sound, concept or genre, and they will shape and form it into their very own inherent creation. One of those consistent transformations takes place in "-SHAMBARA-", wherein マモ (Mamo) and his gang do not shy away from channeling the obscure Dir en grey through otherworldly sonant assemblies and distressing squalls from the deep. This is where R指定 release their inner demons and convey their ghastly messages through tuned down equipment, a swarm of screams and breakdowns, and a lone guitar's eerie-sounding strum. @Ada Suilen's Picks "The Buddha" by LM.C The most freaking and colorful J-rock duo of the moment achieves the important score of ten years in the music industry, and for this occasion, they decided to make this year pretty interesting; starting from the colorful rocking "MONROEwalk" and then the nostalgic and soft dyed "Rainmaker". They released their fifth album Veda this month, where they maintained and improved their eccentric and beating sound in all the shades they know best. In this track, the duo brought something mature and innovative to their sound, along with an electro-exotic vibe which never hurts, for this is one of their best tracks for sure. "Ai to ai so nokosazu (Baby who wanders ver.)" by DECAYS When this band debuted with the song "Secret Mode", they didn't convince me at all, despite of the presence of Dir En Grey's Die and the famous singer Yusuke Kobayashi, two sure winners of the genre. With the mini-album Red or Maryam, my interest for them grew more, even if I felt that something lacked. And how, with the addition of the violinist Ayasa and the pop singer Ataru Nakamura (a pleasant discovery for me), the band found out what was lacking and this new take of the song shows it, with its energy, grace and sensuality, all filtered inside a wonderful rock theme. It's a track everyone should listen to and that is quite hard to forget. Thanks for checking out our recommendations this month! If you have any thoughts on our list or recommendations of your own, please feel free to comment below! If you're interested in being a guest contributor, contact either @CAT5 or @doombox See you all next month! ^_~

this gotta be something beautiful, talented, one of a kind, unique like a tour of stand up episodes of Kirito laughing at his own “be careful who you call ugly during indie label era” jokes, and an embarrassed freshly head-shaved kyo selectively pigsquealing in response all funds procured go towards a time machine to 2002, thus the project title

THIS GIVES ME SO MUCH HOPE I'M SOBBING *also it IS Kamijo's label (!!!!!!)

Sui from Lin/Megaromania deleted his Twitter just a couple of days ago. his last tweet were about recording, so I really hope he's the vocalist at least. edit: oh wait is this not kamijos label? Nvm then

* Kaoru has plastic surgery to change his entire hand into a giant guitar pick

yes they will here's the announcement (no.. probably not).

Like, seriously, when I listened to the album, there was no indication that anyone in this band has a basic understanding of how music works. The band is explosive aural diarrhea and Mao constantly "singing" thru comically distorted filters is the bloody vomit on top of the shit cake. Why is this a thing? Why is it being supported enough for it to continue existing? Why did Sadie have to end for this to begin? I am baffled.

I appreciate their dedication in putting those overtime hours working as a sound excrement human farm tbh. bonus points for lifting a single title off LMC, like, literally scrapping the bottom of vk compost barrel there. that's sadie members for you, duh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

as long as it's not a goth EDM solo artist under the name Gaya/Maya/Daya/Slaya, I'm lowkey here for it

Oh, it is? Awesome!! Then I really hope it's Sui.

The addition of non-prejudiced moderators would likely be my first incentive for joining, indeed. If this turns out to be anything like the Skype chat used to be (quite hostile, a lot of member-bashing and an unmonitored environment which was a perfect place for starting fights), I think a lot of users will be greatly discouraged.

I downloaded Discord instead of using the browser version and it was much better than the browser version. Worked fairly well to be honest. Was nice.

I'm going to be very disappointed thanks to you all if it doesn't have anything to do with Hitomi or Sui.

If Sui came back I could die a happy man but I doubt it.

Yeah, so perfect for an edgy late 80's early 90's vk band in my opinion. I don't condone the serial murder of children, but I think it makes for a cool band name.

Inb4 rabid gyas start cutting wristbands so they can be the only audience members

Some nice tracks on this list. I'll particularly second the 八十八ヶ所巡礼 track along with the two DECAYS ones. I'll add a couple of recommendations of my own too (maybe I should stop being a lazy shit and actually write a guest contribution sometime...) dilitant by siraph I'm sure that absolutely noone who knows my music taste will be surprised about this choice. siraph's latest single is basically confirmation that this band is the real deal and that their mini album from earlier in the year wasn't just some cool one-off before fading into obscurity. Yoshimasa Terui's sole composition on the single is a testament to how well he's been able to adapt his natural writing style to fit into siraph's school food punishment-esque soundscape. Given their output this year, I really can't wait to hear more from these guys in 2017. 太陽と暮らしてきた by JYOCHO And while we're on the topic of new 2016 bands that are effectively spiritual successors of dearly missed dis-bands, 宇宙コンビニ's spiritual successor JYOCHO, lead by guitar prodigy Daijiro Nakagawa, dropped their brilliant debut mini album earlier this month and it's a real treat to listen to. 太陽と暮らしてきた serves as the mini's lead promotional track and it's not hard to understand why. All of 宇宙コンビニ's hallmarks are there, except now Daijiro is playing with people that are able to keep up with his technical wizardry and there's even a flute added in there for a nice bit of aural variety.

So maybe D'espairsRay will comeback too, few days ago they 4 were in a meeting. WELCOME 2017

These guys are grinders that have been around forever, and I can't name one song off 'm.

- The GazettE will release a 30 second teaser with no music foreshadowing a mysterious announcement for mid-2018. - Dir en grey will disband after Kaoru is diagnosed with a form of reactive arthritis that prevents him from playing guitar, thus losing the main composition inspiration for the band in its current era; Kyo will stay in sukekiyo; Die - Decays; Toshiya will start a clothing line; Shinya will fade into the distance - Akane from D.I.D, shocking the VK World, will commit suicide. - Dadaroma will release a follow up EP that is mediocre and mostly compiled pre-released A-Sides - lynch. will release an EP, after taking some time to resolve the Akinori situation, a month after they announce their new support bassit in Q3 2017, and it will be solid. - Ryo will will front a new band with Nii, Katsuya (Ex-CodeRebirth -> Misanthropist) and support members and it will be the most hype of 2017 Some of these sound very depressing, but I genuinely think they will happen.

I figured it was time to finally make a topic for these guys. The one and only most extreme and violent visual kei band! Members are, from left to right: Seiya, the guitarist (Twitter, Instagram) Daiki, the bassist (Twitter, Instagram) Keisuke, the vocalist (no social media) Hiroto, the drummer (Twitter, Instagram) (unfortunately guitarist Ryuya departed from Deviloof on October 22nd, 2016) Since debuting in 2015, Deviloof have released one single, Ruin, a live-limited single, Ishtar, and a mini-album, Purge. A full album is planned for 2017, although no details have been announced yet. \m/

Schwarz Stein new single, "Fleeting Beauty" (2 songs) will be released on February 26, 2017. [tracklist] 1. Fleeting Beauty 2. 方舟 (Hakobune) 3. Fleeting Beauty(Instrumental) 4. 方舟(Instrumental) A presale will be held at their oneman live, "Schwarz Stein der Winter" at Shibuya REX on February 24, 2017; purchase benefit will be a remix CD.

That won't happen here. I promise as long as I'm the server owner, everyone will be treated equally and hostile and malicious behavior will not be tolerated. The reason the skype chat became like that is because it was unofficial and was out of our hands, none of us had any power over it. At the moment the only people who are moderated are the staff here that have joined the server. But like I said I'm looking into giving certain members limited mod powers to help out with the server, but of course that will be in the future.

we all do ;__;

(i think we need to make an official topic for deviloof soon) but jesus. amazing as always, i'm never left disappointed!! and i especially love seeing their live clips, they look awesome live

Yesss, gurrl!

^Cannot unsee, omfg

Since it's finally the new year, and the holidays are over, I'm looking to grow the server. We already have a little group of active people in the chat and that's great that people have taken a liken to the service but I think it could stand to be a little more lively at times. To do this we need to find new ways to encourage members to give it a try, and also to give them reasons to stick around. So basically we need to get the word out in the community. We have a banner and this thread, but these things can be easily missed. So let you're friends know about the discord server and encourage them to stop by for a friendly chat when they're bored. On the other ticket, we need to make the server more inviting and piratical. At this moment in time there are only two channels within the server #General and #Random. these were just placeholder channels that I made when I originally created the server. If anyone has ideas for more specific channels let me know and I can add more to the server, both text and voice channels. Which brings me to another matter of contention, is anybody interested in voice chat? I know that some people can be a little shy, so no pressure on them to use voice. but I also know that there are others who are not so timid. I personally would love to talk to some of you fine people over mic. Let me know. And now the final piece of business. Mods. if you're interested in being a mod on the server let me know. Of course you will have to prove yourself by being active in the chat and having a good track record here on the forum, but I have no problem relinquishing some of that power to you lesser chatters

their first album "PANDEMIC" sounds like a blender making a cover of dir en grey

@-NOVA-reminds me of Temari's fan from Naruto lol

Mao's vocals are so damn good,but he is being wasted in this shitty band

now all arlequin has to do is open a fanclub named PIERROT and we'll go full circle

who the hell is PIERROT?

PRAISE THE LORDT 💦💦💦 edit: wait what's Frosty Rain doing there again?

I should clarify that I don't want any of these bands to return. I want new bands to pick up the slack and start taking notes from good bands of yore. There's so much untapped creative potential left in the five bands I highlighted and I would love for the scene to make a resurgence by emulating the sounds of the boom days. This new stuff isn't doing it for the old heads or the new and it needs to change sooner rather than later. In the case of D'espairsRay, RES, and A things wouldn't be the same no matter how much they forced it to. I don't think HIZUMI will ever recover from his vocal condition enough to sing like he used to. Also their direction post-MIRRORS lacked serious focus and if they can't be dark anymore I'd rather they not force it. Rentrer en Soi just...quit? They mumbled excuses about reaching their creative apex but I think the real reason was that Satsuki thought he could do better with a solo career. They can stay dead since sukekiyo is a very interesting project I wouldn't want sacrificed for a reunion that's not going to target their earlier sound. No shade to anything post Sphire-Croid, but it's the run-of-the-mill 2008 JAY-RAWK sound every other band and their grandmother was pounding out riffs for in the basement. They did it a little better than their competition, but Satsuki's harsh vocals ruins a lot of THE BOTTOM OF CHAOS for me (still a good album). Also, MEGIDDO is a very unsatisfying send-off and years later I still can't shake the feeling the band never reached the new incarnation of their sound before calling it quits. Something similar happened with A; if I recall it was the violinist Rookie Fiddler who composed the majority of the tunes for the band and when he walked away the band was done. With all the member difficulties and low funds I don't see this band coming back, but they were very much loved and I don't know why other bands haven't been leaning on cultures for ideas. I loved what Royz did with Vishnu on their latest album. More bands need to do that. Kagrra, will never come back for obvious reasons but there's a dearth of visual kei bands using specifically Japanese elements in their rock and metal. Wagakki-Band comes close but it's not the same. Unforgivable, really.

Time moves on and irrelevant art forms and their instruments get thrown into the very crowded dustbin of history. If you have any doubt about this, I'd like to ask you to name the top 10 premier bebop musicians today, or how about something that sounds like it was from the paradise garage? how about poodle rock? is anyone playing like Weber lately while painting like Monet and catching the salon by storm? They're all gone from the popular consciousness and live as mere perverse retro curiosities ( new post-punk and goth rock fucking eww ) for a handful of people. Scenes, genres and movements always come, go and never come back in the same form. If you ask an enthusiast he'll no doubt tell you about all the killer up and comers, but that's all bunk and they know it too. Nobody's touching Billie Holliday, there's not going to be a new Beatles, nobody's turning back the clock and doing nu-Bach in a manner that won't be scoffed upon by anyone who's serious and in the know. Visual kei in that regard is, to be quite honest, finished. I'd say its creative, artistic peak ended right when the turn of the millenia labels dissolved, and the European boom was caused both by the hot air from that period and the aptness of visual kei musicians to appropriate the emo/scene stylings as mentioned before (see the mallgoth act D'espairsray and nu metal Girugamesh for proof of this ). Visual kei's adaptability has given it such a lifeline for sure. There's not a whole lot of genres that can keep moving the needle and making money both domestically and internationally the way that it has. We've literally outlived and survived the deaths of hair metal, goth and mallcore. Probably only the general metal subculture can boast such a staying power, and they too have been struggling to stay on the surface since all that Anthrax skate metal and the alt-rock Metallica boom faded away. Now even big names can't sell out in fucking _Finland_ and underground classics struggle to pull. In my pessimistic thinking we are at the tail end of this rock guitar saga, and it's due to the gradual withering away of rock music's cultural and demographic base. I have my own fantasies about the evolution of visual kei as an active counterculture as opposed to a dull consumer culture. Agendered danger lurking in the metro stations near you; they'll know us by the trail of blood and the smell of hairspray. It's all complete fantasy however that I entertain with like three people max. In reality I know we're over and done with as a seismic cultural force. This however doesn't mean that everything is lost. While I don't think MH contributed to the fad beginning or ending, I certainly think MH has contributed massively to the staying power of visual kei on the internet in an age where everything else is disappearing. That Japanese indie analogy is an apt to make, because there's no reason why we shouldn't be in that same position had there not been these stalwarts of vk culture like MH have withstood the storms of the passing time. This was achieved by the unending dedication and efforts of the core-group that keep coming here year after year after year. If there were double the people with as much heart, perseverance and ability, who knows where we would be. Could the boom period had been extended by the valiant and most importantly of all, smart and applicable endeavors of a few dozen dedicated enthusiasts? I don't know. Bless this website either way and all you people who keep coming and contributing. I won't dare to wager ( but i'll haughtily speculate ) why the laptop took over rock 'n roll, but stuff like the global demographic shifts were just too much for it overcome. The popular sphere has drastically diversified both nationally and racially. The stuffy dadrock crowd is losing their death grip on the entertainment zeigeist and big festival lineups are a testament to this. The rock bands pulling the big crowds are really fucking old, and the audience is only a notch younger. Sure the vk bands can draw a garage-full of people and enjoy the company of a few snappy young women — that's it though, no one else cares. The faucet has dwindled down to a point where it is increasingly harder for bands to sustain themselves. It just happens to be a form of music that doesn't speak to the majority of people anymore, not to the young person in school or the higher cultural crowd either for that matter. Electronic music is thriving both commercially and artistically, even hip hop is still doing a fabulous job of innovating itself; all the while one of our biggest newcomers ripped off a decade old deathcore album just last year. Even selling CD's in this day and age is dated, and labels are dying to adjust before the inevitable fall. The electronic underground, even hip hop has managed to adjust and evolve to a degree in the way music is released and spread ( a lot of the big names aren't even releasing full LP's anymore. Just songs, for free on youtube and whatever ). I'd honestly like to know what kind of social factors contributed to the rise of scene culture. Remember those bands like BrokeNCYDE, BOTDF and etc.? Where were we at the time, as a culture, that stuff like that was tapping into our consciousness. Nothing happens in a vacuum and people don't just decide what to think, feel or do out of the blue. There are reasons for everything in the social and economic fabric of societies and It's an interesting question fo' sure. I know my way enough that if I want to make an impression, I wouldn't go telling a cool stranger by four euro latte's that my taste in music is essentially the Japanese Poison and Coal Chamber. I'd embarrass myself either way if I left it at that or started nervously flinging my hands and explaining how deep down this culture is really gr8 and transgressive art. My heart stays true to bijuaru kei either way. I'm going down with the ship and I'll keep on making-a-fool of myself on a daily basis. So that's why this is my favorite thread, because I have a hard time of letting go of the glory days of my youth and its music, endlessly try to rationalise it by intellectual gymnastics. While my death slowly approaches and even the last patches of grey hair are falling out, in my mind I'm still young and full of cum, ready for adventure.

Having been around and about in the scene back in the day, having talking to people left, right and center: I have this feeling that most of those people didn't download a thing from blogspots and messageboards. In fact the people I introduced to visual kei blogspots were absolutely mind blown that such a places existed, because it wasn't common knowledge. The average people, ie. the paying public who actually did the needle moving in 2006-2009 made due with services ingrained in the culture at large at the time: winmx, limewire and the others, most importantly of all Youtube. It is staggering that there still exists a considerable segment of people who consume visual kei by Youtube or EU-editions only. This is anecdotal on my part obviously, but I'm confident that anyone who actively took part in the fad in Europe wouldn't outright disagree with the observation. One should never forget that most of the people are pretty dumb, and back in 2006-2009 not everyone was as internet savvy as today either. I legitimately think that those who actually were the monetarily contributing members of the swell in popularity hardly made themselves a presence on the messageboards, livejournals and etc. They just went to shows, bought EU-presses and lived out their bum lives in peace until kpop or adulthood came knocking. I think this is the biggest contributing factor to the divisions within the existing hardcore community. Message board culture isn't what it used to be in general ( In vk I think that lj -> tumblr migration is one cause of this. ain't no1 got time 2 write ), and a majority people prefer to spam pictures and communicate with a character limit. A lot of folk aren't cut for that message board life either, and this place especially I can imagine freaks out A LOT of people. As far as message boards go MH has been the premier destination for a long time, but there are people even in my circle who don't like to read or post here due to the perceived "hostile" atmosphere ( well... they're not exactly wrong on that count). So those at least in the anglosphere prefer Twitter and Tumblr, which is where you definitely have to go these days if you want to make friends. What this sort of reminds me of is a group of activists spreading leaflets and their bi-monthly journals on the street and wondering why no one cares. They're not losing heart though, because back in the 60's their predecessors were a force, so naturally history should just be cyclical and one day we'll be back in the mix doing what we've always done! Organise those fucking SANA and Satsuki concerts until not even the bouncers show up: then blame the fans and the bands for being lazy and greedy. A good allegory is that there's no party without a base and there's no base without a party. It's a puzzle that we most likely will never be able to solve and in a good 30-50 years when rock music is completely irrelevant and faded under the wave of flying cars and synthesiser music, we'll be right there with 'm. Like @TheStoicsaid the winds of popular culture are so against us that it's an uphill struggle to gain any notice in the wider world, and in addition we as the underground fucked up on the organisational front to even grant ourselves the whatever few shows we did used to get annually.

ROTTENGRAFFTY presents “ポルノ超特急2016” 2016/12/25 Kyoto Pulse Plaza 01. G.D.S. 02. 詩踏み / Utafumi 03. Sustain The Untruth 04. Chain Repulsion 05. THE FINAL 06. OBSCURE 07. Revelation Of Mankind 08. Un Deux 09. 激しさと、この胸の中で絡み付いた灼熱の闇 / Hageshisa... thanks everyone who came in to comment or just take a look at what's happening on DIR's stage. I wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. hope 2017 goes much much much easier on all of us. see you all on a start of UROBOROS tour on Jan. 13th!

Allllll the single ladies (and men), put yo' hands up. I've been in a fair few relationships and I've had my share of regrettable one night stands. In my opinion, relationships are not all they're cracked up to be and for several years now I haven't been interested in them. My last two were the final straw, really. My ex was controlling, patronising and... to be frank, she was everything I do not find attractive in a person. She would flip her shit if we didn't speak every hour of every day, would accuse me of thinking and feeling things I wasn't, of not being devoted enough and would go on and on about how she couldn't love someone who didn't love her explicitly. If I so much as expressed affection for a friend, she would be furious and I ended up resenting her. Eventually, she had the gaul to cheat on me when she was drunk and I told her I didn't have the physical or mental energy to put up with her. This was a catalyst, combined with past abusive and destructive relationships, my friends attitude toward promiscuity and fidelity, my parents divorce and other personal matters. It's safe to say I'm turned off relationships for life. That said, I find it disconcerting how much young girls rely on relationships. All I hear them talk about is boys, as if they're the be all and end all. The amount of girls wanting to have boyfriends, husbands, babies so young is appalling to me. One of my sister's friends is fifteen and pregnant, she wants to be a full-time mother and have as many kids as possible. It's all everyone, especially girls, seem to care about. To be honest I have never been so content as I am focused on myself and my happiness. I work, I study, I socialise with friends and I don't need a significant other to validate me. I've been called pathetic for it a couple of times and my grandmother believes I should be married and settled down by now (at twenty-two!) but I have a hard enough time dealing with my own idiocy and over sensitivity, I don't want anyone else's baggage. I don't want to get married and I don't want to have children (later in life I might adopt). I want to live, travel and be happy.