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am i in the masterclass rock music thread? it surely seems so fellas

I also will react to this topic. I've listened to more songs on their youtube.. and all their previous songs are just bad, shit visual kei music.. not even amazing rock quality, just typical boring visual kei, with no heart with no feelings just.... no. but the new song... The beat, the melody, the kinda vocal sound... It all mix nicely together as a perfect mix.... it really though your heart. Truly 10/10 song. And believe me it is. Lately I only listen to masterclass rock music. music who is played by bandguys who are longer in the music world as those young dudes. music of people who know what music is. I follow lot's of "legend Japanese rock stars (which most of you never did hear off tho lol)" So because of that I became very picky of what GOOD music is. However, I call this song really a master piece. it's a perfect song, easy to like, it touch your heart. vocal fits perfectly to the melody.... But by listening to their previous songs,, I kinda doubt their their album will only contain this masterclass songs. If they will release more music like this... then I surely will support them. I'm looking for this kind of visual kei bands, who really put everything into music. if you dislike this kind of sound, well then. you really don't have a good taste for music.

I am totally with you Bren, even if their earlier songs were so good, especially Aizou ni tsuki... (my favourite). First Dezert surprised me in changing their style, especially last year with Black Hole, and now Dimlim is following the same path and are doing it REALLY WELL. I don't get why people gets so pissed if a band experiments in a good manner, while there are acts that should stick to what they do best, because they do it BAD (see Initial'L, formerly Lycaon, or Mejibray's Tsuzuku and Koichi with their splendid shit-fest named 8P-SB). So I can't wait to hear what MISC will offer to my ears

Well, our passion for Dimlim made us go off-topic but... Despite being a complex matter to approach, and also the fact that there isn't analysis available on the matter (at least in English), VK actually is a genre. There being a lot of variation and diversification both sonically and visually between bands of the scene doesn't necessarily conclude into VK bands don't having a LOT of things in common to make them part of a whole 'scene', in many levels (sound and visuals, but also other aspects related to production of the artists, their promotion, fans' rituals, etc., VK culture per se). 'Genre', 'movement', 'scene', call it the way you like. 'VK', as other things, exists by virtue of patterns of key elements that repeat all over their products no matter their differences between; in the end, that is what make their producers, bands themselves, us the fans, people inside and outside the scene, pick the term 'visual kei' to describe some music projects, and not 'glam rock', 'goth', 'punk' or 'metal' instead, in the way of deciding what music to listen according to our tastes.

I can’t believe it still needs to be said that visual kei IS NOT a music genre in 2020.

hello peasants do u feel as blessed for ur faves getting noticed by the arbitrary music taste elites as you should?

tbh I'll personally consider them fully "no longer VK" once their set lists no longer include majority of their copycat d.i.d. era and they spend at least a year w/o backtracking into the scene again. if you're calling ur little personal vanity music project non-visual while still throwing ambitiosus principles as a concert ender on every gig it really doesn't feel that ReaL or AuthentiQ

These questions reminded me of this video: Some things we can take from it: 1) It’s said that Akihabara is a “very tolerant city for men in drag”. The necessity of having to say it give me the perception of being something unusual in other places, potentially weird then. 2) Mostly of their clients are woman (aha!). a) It’s more comfortable to talk with a guy in drag than with another woman. b) A guy in drag is more special than a ordinary guy and, because of it, more attractive. 3) Being in drag is fashion. It’s about clothing and looking good, not about turning into a “real woman”. Which we can relate. Hizaki it the prettiest mother fucker, but when he open his mouth he sounds like a really big dinosaur with tiny arms (just using some hyperbole, love this guy to the heart). That’s a really common thing with visual kei artists. They don’t try to fool you or modify their voice to match their drag character. 4) They keep man clothing for social stuff, like going to hospital. This one says a lot of how the japanese society functions in that matter. For me it sounds like “You can dress yourself as you want: drag, tokusatsu, baseball mascot, but when you are doing you social role, you have to be the ‘real you’ (which is the one in your ID)”. 5) Three of themselves are bi, but they don’t use sexual terms to describe it, like “I am A” or “I am B” but they say “I am attracted by X and Y”. Now, I don’t really know if this is a language thing or if japanese in general are less attached to specific terms to describe their sexuallity. One of them just do drag to get attention from woman (loved that guy). I guess that relates with point 2. With all that said, I have more questions than answers kek, but I think that these are some important lines of thinking to understand the myth of the japanese man with bra and his place in society. I also recommend a movie called “Close-Knit”. Talks a lot about point 4. The director itself is a transgender, so there is a lot of self insert in it. Really interesting to see:

Oh Lord, please enlighten me, how do I do the visual kei?

They no longer partake in all the culture surrounding VK (marketing, livehouses, media they appear in, shops through which they distribute their music). They went full J-indie imo. They last few gya are about to quit if they didn’t already (gotta confirm that).

It's sho's voice and singing style. I was being half-facetious in what I said, because if they say they're aren't VK anymore, then who am to say otherwise? But that doesn't change the fact that that singing style is endemic to VK. What about you? Why do they no longer fit the criteria in your eyes?

I dunno guize, to me it's still the same band that just decided to go in the indie rock dezert direction but just math'd up the song structure and riffs and jammed as much material in the four odd minutes as possible. I think in this case all this talk about whether it feels like its all there or that it's a mess or whether it has soul or not is just nonsense. I understand if someone thinks all the time signature shit and transitions are in bad taste, but at least in vk that's pretty novel. The chorus still 100% carries in the entire thing and that could've been in their old songs just as well as in this one.

He announced at his oneman that he will have 6 consecutive CD releases this year and a free live on 4/24 at Urawa Narciss. 4/24 is Misery's (Megaromania, Lin) birthday if I'm not mistaken. http://sp.visunavimobile.com/news/352448/

アンフィル (Anfiel) new live DVD "anfiel 5th Anniversary LIVE 「True & feel. 」@ebisu LIQUIDROOM" will be released at 2020/04/22 (5500yen) their new maxi-single (title not yet finalized) will be released at 2020/05/27

Talking about another interest of mine, while looking up for old VK dedicated web sites, I've found a translation done for an interview with SOFT BALLET. Here's a quotation that put me into deep-thinking, in which Ken Morioka (their keyboardist/guitarist and, I suppose, their leader), when asked about his thoughts over his flamboyant looks and stage performances, talks about his interest in gender-trascending aesthetics in spite of him "not being gay". When I saw the stage I thought of how you were the weirdest one Ken. Is that because you were thinking of that visual aspect? Ken: Ah, well...(laughs). A large part of that comes from where I'm a narcissist and I'm all like "Lookie, lookie! Look at Meee!". And then there's the part of me that really loves and adores appearing to move in a state that's transcended gender, so I suppose that's where I'm coming from.... Meaning? Ken: It's that I've gotten a lot of influence from various people, but I've been like this from a long time ago. I really wanted to become a woman, and I never really thought to deny that feeling. It doesn't mean I'm gay though. There's a sense that I was building up and developing my own preferences. (If you don't know who Ken Morioka or SOFT BALLET is, next I'll leave a video of them performing live:) This quotation made me revive an old interest of mine on how gender or sexual orientation identities circulate particularly within the people of the VK scene. Till today, there's enough been written about that topic, but taking Japanese society as a whole or some of their products (as anime/manga) as the unit of analysis, but I've never came across something related to VK although I've defintely did a specific search. What always triggered me is that, if we keep in mind the obvious fact that VK aesthetics rely essentially over challenging gender/sexual orientation performances, then it can't not come weird or suspicious that 99% of band members since VK was born --that 1% goes for Kaya and Ao Sakurai- don't actually talk about the matter, while at the same time they are always straight-supposed within the logic of selling out as idols for their gya. And the few times they do so they have the urgence of make clear that they are actually "not gay" -and then in the commentary section fans support this statements by remebering the doubting fans that said bandoman actually has a kid "so he is definitely not gay!!!". Actually, I've read very, very few comments of Japanese fans supposing/acknowledging the LGBTness of their favorite bandoman and nontheless supporting them as artists, but maybe that's because I have a hard time looking up into Japanese web sites and translating. (Also, perhaps many bandoman actually talked enough about the fact in a serious way, but I still don't have the chance to read them since only 5% of the interviews made up being translated). Of course, I've been aware since the beggining of my stay in the weeb fandom that Japan, while not having serious persecussion issues towards LGBT people -at least in their last 50 years of history-, definitely don't finish to get politically open about it, and that's why society decided to treat the matter in a don't-ask-don't-tell fashion. I'm also aware that this fact takes place in a more general tendency of Japanese people to obssesively keep their lives and relationships actually very private, too. But I can't not ask myself if it isn't at least a bit fool of someone, fan or not, to assume that naturally that every bandoman is "not-gay", in a scene where artistic creativity emerges from fantasies of "men" transforming into "women", or even into un-gendered beautiful creatures, even involving into sex with/as them? (On a personal note, although I don't actually know their reasons behind, I always liked @nekkichi and other users attempt here to call every bandoman by "her"). What are your thoughts on this topics?

Thinking about getting a Takato Yamamoto tattoo, but there are just too many god like works of him.

T-shirts cost around £15-£25 Hoodies can cost up to £50

It's not a live limited release. It just says if you pre-order the hoodie you'll get the CD 月下美人 (gekka bijin) as bonus. And i wouldn't be surprised if that song will be also included in their upcoming first full length since their is no tracklist known yet. But of course that's just speculation...

Yeah, it's pretty cool, but still pretty far from their greatest achievement which is Complete and Total Fucking Midnight. It isn't anywhere near Satanic Royalty either. But it's a fun record for sure. Right now I feel like bands like Hellripper, Viölence, Bewitcher, Exorcisme, Hell Poison, Reaper, Diabolic Night, Nuctemeron, Demon Bell and more are making better black speed metal albums, although someone like Hellripper, Exorcisme, Diabolic Night, Nuctemeron, Hell Poison and more are way more furious and speedy, with and less rock 'n' roll than Midnight. This is way more rock 'n' roll and probably a bit more similar to Midnight, and I feel like they are doing Midnight better than Midnight right now. Really catchy stuff. And since I am already here: Spectral Lore / Mare Cognitum - Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine Split release between cosmic black metallers Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum, who released a split back in 2013 called Sol. Sol was 3 tracks and 69 minutes long, with both bands having one song each as well as a collaboration between them. This new split however consists of 10 songs and is no less than 2 hours long. Both bands having 4 songs each and two collaboration tracks. Really looking forward to this. Reaper - Unholy Nordic Noise These guys released a brilliant black/speed demo last year, and is already back with their debut album. Really looking forward to this. Should be good. Can't find anything off their new album, but here's the demo: https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/reaper-ravenous-storm-of-piss Hell Poison - Burn With Me This album is from last year, but seems to have gone under the radar for most people. Raw, wild black speed metal in the vein of Bathory, Hellripper, Hin Håle, old Sodom, Diabolic Night, Nuctemeron, Nocturnal and more. Superb album! Oath of Cruelty - Summary Execution at Dawn Deathrash album from last year. Mean and brutal death thrash. Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness meets Morbid Saint's Spectrum of Death. Great album.

The song feels a bit lacking for me, but I did like the beginning with that guitar riff and the melody layered on top. Anyway, not bad for a first track! Also, I see they're really going all-out on this Hitchcock concept, heh.

New live-limited 3rd single, "愛 hate U" will be released at 2020/02/14.

damn you Retsu

As you so eloquently put it yourself, VK is not just a specific sound but rather a whole production Dimlim no longer has.

Some important news for Clack inc.! New songs will be released on March 24 in occasion of their live for Arma's birthday. And more importantly, +Yuu (guitar), Avel (bass) and Kenbo (drums) have been appointed as official Clack inc. members! The statement goes: "Until today, we have executed missions with numerous supporting members from time to time, and have parted ways with them. And today, the band is welcoming the supporting agents as main agents. From now on, CLACK inc. will commence missions with Takeru, ARMA, along side with +Yu, Avel and Kenbo as official agents. All agents are expected to execute further missions with CLACK inc. as always." I'm so happy that CLACK inc. has now stable members! I love the new members and I couldn't be happier that they joined properly😭 I'm expecting them to contribute with songwriting as well, so with their united talents the band can only get better and better from now on🤩

new DIMLIM is just CHON for people who watch jojo's bizarre adventure imho

Uhhh... no, they are not VK anymore. With the very first track they are the first to claim that they "changed", and that's not only about their music. You could also say that they did it to be more appealing towards western audiences - their upcoming gigs in America are pretty much the proof. Can we argue about it? Sure, the line is thin. For instance, are DEG still visual? Cause they certainly deliver a much more visual concept (from music to looks) than DIMLIM atm...

My best friend literally dislikes my music tastes more than anyone I know 99.99% of the time and I showed them the new dimlim mv and they gave it a 7/10, I'm shook

Bro I got this new DIMLIM song on repeat!!! I almost feel bad for all the shit I've talked about this upcoming album. It's still too early to tell, but these guys may have lowkey fulfilled one of my dreams of a fucking math/VK band. Crazy.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this brand of indie/math (done to this extent) unprecedented in the VK scene? The sound itself may not be inherently unique, but contextually, you gotta give these boys their props. This is just the style. I can understand how it might sound chaotic and senseless to some ppl tho...and it may be that I'm biased because my ears are just acclimated to music like this. But to me, it sounds like a glitchy/IDM-like approach to composing, and you hear this type of thing done in ling tosite/Tk's solo stuff and haisuinonasa, amongst many others. The sokoninaru comparison is especially apt because they've been REALLY hammering, and in my opinion - overdoing-, this style lately. This type of composing can get REALLY tedious if overused, but I think DIMLIM did a fine job in this song of keeping things cohesive, catchy, and interesting, and not just being flashy for the sake of it. It's not an easy balance to strike, and trust me, in comparison to a lot of the stuff out there that takes a similar approach, DIMLIM are doing this style justice. Their VK leanings just make it even more special imo. That said, we'll see how well this plays out on the album...

How come no one has mentioned the absences that 2 instruments really made in that PV? I admire their decision to move forward as 3 members, but this lacked any character and with sho being the only color to the bands sound, I can’t see myself getting into this until they manage to find replacement members. I’ll agree that it sounded just like Rijin, just missing a huge chunk of sound, almost like listening to it with only one side of a headphone lol.

Forgive me but I don't see what's so special about "What's up?". Sounds like a bunch of half realized ideas spread too thin over odd time signatures to me. The chorus is the only remotely memorable part. I've basically checked out of the scene and am coming fresh off CHE DO A RA so I'll ask one more time: which one of these members had the breakdown and decided to go j-indie?

The "deathcore" style done in a good way (emphasis on done in a good way) is what I see the majority of people want to hear (as in most oversea fans (I do know in the idk 10 years you state your dislike for it that you arent one of those ), I feel japanese fans seem not care how a band sounds as long as it sounds 'good' and focus more on the bandmember look/behavior) The harsher/darker style done in a really good way in vk (that isnt dir) seems always missing in the scene since the bands doing it well enough change to a style that is, as you already wrote, done to death. Still good music, just creating a void again and forces people to listen to those 2nd, 3rd tier shit like Nazare etc.

THIS IS FUCKING GREAT Samples sound good too!

Not really sure how y'all could enjoy tracks like Rijin and Vanitas but somehow hate this. Sure they're emphasising the mathy elements more while downplaying the heavier side somewhat, but it's hardly a complete 180 from their last couple of releases or anything. Anyway I'm basically a math slut so I'll let this song have its way with me. All hail visual math kei etcetc.

i'd much, MUCH rather take this noodly math rock stuff over deathcore any day of the week for sure, so from that POV i'm definitely not as disappointed with the samples as I could've been (plus I'm somewhat glad we didnt get any xXx_sadboigoth_xXx shit thrown at us, as unintentionally hilarious as that would've been).. At the same time, anyone who's ever listened to even a bit of non-vk j-indie probably knows this particular brand of pop math rock sound has already been done to death in that scene to about the same extent the nu-VK scene's dredged the swamp of mediocre xxxcore-influenced sounds, so I can't really see this ending up being anything other than yet another album to add to the ''vaguely sounds like cinema staff/sokoninaru/the cabs/tricot'' pile based on the samples.

https://fnd.io/#/us/album/1495498241-misc-by-dimlim

Well still buying the album so the boys can eat

I like it. It's more like vanitas or Rijin. The chorus is powerful as usual.

A easy example about how the looks don't necessarily reflect the person of a visual kei artist is the usage of the hakenkreuz by the earliests bands. We don’t see as much nowadays, but the SS caps always appears, sooner or later. Of course that there was some classic japanese punk nationalism in some bands here and there, but core of V系 was about shocking after all. So, the imaginary of the nazism is aesthetic, therefore should be used. As @薔薇の末裔 pointed out, understanding Kabuki is a good way to understand this theatrical musical scene. Kabuki in its first days was a female theater, a more accessible branch of Noh. But it was just too sexy for that confucian society. “A woman's place is in the kitchen”, said the Shogun (or it was my dad last night?). And then, the boys took the place of the woman, doing woman roles. But the boys turned out into fuckboys. “Notto disu shitto agen”, said the Shogun. And then, old man were doing woman roles. “Hmm”, long and deeply said the Shogun. Keep in mind that everyone was killing everyone in the past sengoku century, so the Shoguns could not fuck around (ha). “Ok, ok, And so what?”. Well, since being really sexy was not an option, the onnagata dudes started doing their own shit to emulate the woman sexyness. First come the fancy wig, then they started showing some little skin and so on. Little by little there was no more “man” or “woman”, but onnagata. A woman that no other woman could be. At that point, Kabuki without man doing female roles is not Kabuki. Visual kei without man doing female roles is not visual kei? I don’t think so, exist†trace showed their shit and we digged it hard. But I would say that is highly expected to see a man doing female roles in the visual rock scene. D’s “Ouka saki some ni keri” is my pick for today. The contrast of Asagi manly vocals with his woman clothing is a perfectly example of why we love it the way it is. They do it with passion (or for money), and we love them for it, not because their sexual preference. The whole pv setting is a love letter for their culture. And it is just one example, there is so many other bands with pvs with that scenary (and probably there is a “something-kei” for it too). The pompous and bold Glam Rock found it’s home in the japanese costumes and evolved into the coolest thing. To be deeper into to sexuallity stuff we could talk about how Japan society potentially repress the sexual preference of their people in order to have things working “in the right way” and how the west really needs to “talk about it” and not let the individuals be themselves without pushing some agenda into your fuckin throat so it’s fuckin hard to understand these japs using lipsticks just because they like it, but that stress me too much so fuck it.

I think the reason the musicians don't talk about it much is because they're not thinking about their sexuality. Their look is a costume, just like other performance arts have costumes. Through western perspective it's easy to analyse and put gender roles and other analytical concepts to it, but I don't think the majority of vk performers thinks about what wearing make up and feminine clothes means to them on a gender transgression level/ as an extension of their sexuality. It's simple as "as a chef I put on my white apron" "and as a member of kiryu I wear full make up and sometimes a skirt. " of course there are queer members out there who probably enjoy the freedom of visual expression in the scene but we don't know for a fact who and how many, after all, sexuality in Japan is a taboo subject that can only be broken for the sake of fanservice bucks, horny fujoshi and temporary high school exploration storylines (hello shoujo ai).

アンスリウム (Anthurium) Gu.亜門 (Amon) and Ba.悠也 (Yuya) have departed at 2020/1/23.

It might sound weird from a western perspective, but visual kei is like the straightest and most homophobic music scene in Japan. We tend to look at visual kei with western eyes and mix its cultural aspects with things that belong to the western culture. Fanservice and provocations used for shock value put aside, the androgynous aesthetics of visual kei band rarely expressed anything related to gender identity and especially sexual orientation. After all, it started with people like X Japan who admittedly were inspired by glam rock bands and way of life, which I would find hard to connect to sexual orientation. Visual kei early bandomen were mostly chinpiras, bosozokus (bikers) and the likes. They really incarnated the somewhat glamrock aesthetic of riding bikes getting drunk, banging girls, etc. Of course X had their own decadent/romantic taste that made them different, and a lot of influences changed the scene over time. However, visual kei is still remains 99% driven by social outcasts looking for pussy and very rarely by something else. In Japan we also have onnagatas, who are kabuki actors specialized in female roles that are again 99% straight. Bandoman with feminine looks call themselves onnagata, not josou (crossdresser), implying that the cultural source behind their looks is not connected with crossdressing but just playing a female role in a band, but again this something that might be hard to completely understand it taken outside of Japanese culture. For example Izam, the king of all onnagatas, married more than once and has more tha one child, and outside of his role in Shazna he rarely did anything ambiguous, just like the kabuki onnagatas out of stage. Both media and fans are everything but respectful of privacy, but I've rarely seen Japanese articles or message board questioning bandomen sexual orientation. That's because the number 1 reason people do visual kei is because the girls like it (well, liked it, I am not sure this is the trend with young girls anymore). Soft Ballet/Ken Morioka are closer to Soft Cell/Marc Almond so I would not even count them as visual kei even though they had some influence on it. And of course, there are exceptions as you mentioned. The chinpira bandomen of the 90's almost extincted and younger generations bandomans are usually anime/game otakus. They grew up with different influences and values, and it would make sense if the current incarnation of visual kei instinctively appealed to more people with sexual orientation/gender identity concerns, especially after Japan started talking about these issues in a less obsolete viewpoint.

RESULTS! On to the Results! ______________________________________________________________ Best Overall Artist/Band Best Album Best Single/Maxi-Single/EP Best Cover Art Best Look Best Newcomer Best Veteran Best PV Saddest Disbandment Most Overhyped Band Most Overhyped Release Most Underhyped Band Most Anticipated Release Band that Changed their Sound for the Best Band that Changed their Sound for the Worse Band that you spent most of your money on in 2019 What the hell were they thinking!? Award Best Revival/Returns Now I know what you're thinking: 2019 sucked for VK 😅. I agree lol but thank you to those who voted this year! Let's hope this new decade will be a return to form for the scene!

The time I kinda dressed as "Casual" Sasuke to play with my band xD

...which led me to the original song... The first video surprised me b/c I swore up and down it sounded like a vk song. Turns out Asaki was the vocalist+guitarist of the band Blanc Neige before doing Beatmania stuff w/ Konami. I need to spend some time sifting through his discog, since I'm not willing to shell out $15/month for beatmania IIDX INFINITAS (to play on PC.) I think I've played at least one of his tracks on Pop'n for PSP, so I need to pick that game up again.

DID YOU SHOOT YOUR SHOT THO 😛 ahaha, I dig your shoes btw, bruh. Nice! 👌👌👌