Traxan

Saw this discussion in the comments section for a Cyntia video. It looks like the girls are shedding any last traces of being a rock band and going straight pop. Anyway, this caught my attention and I figured this is the place to ask for how accurate their comments are. The poor spelling/grammar doesn't help in places, I realize. ---------------- Shinichi Asakura2 months ago Oh damn and i so hoped their last pop rock single is just a one time only , but it seems now it will stay this way .  rkochamp072 months ago Yeah same here. I hope they don't go down the Exist Trace route Shinichi Asakura2 months ago 1st , they are already doing this , this is their second pop rock single . 2nd Exist Trace is now better than they ever where , those pseudo goth metal songs where badly written and arranged . At least now Exist Trace sounds like some band that knows wht they do and what they play . rkochamp072 months ago This is actually their third pop/rock single. Return To Myself, Gonna Gonna Be Hot and now Kissx3 And as for Exist Trace id have to disagree with you, I think the music they did on True was amazing and I feel like had they at least continued to work on that sound they could have produced music just as good instead of selling out and trying to become mainstream for what ever reason Shinichi Asakura2 months ago +rkochamp07 Wrong , VK bands are sellouts and what Exist Trace did was to cut off their ties with the typical image of VK bands , currently if not really that mainstream VK bands are the biggest sellouts in japan . Quick example in the fact that almost 99% VK bands play mainstream genres or comercialised genres , in this day and age no VK band plays any non mainstream genre . Nocturnal Bloodlust was Deathcore before VK , after VK lost half of the members and turned to post-hardcore , arlequin made some awesom MDM on their first demo now they are like 50% of VK bands playing Alternative Metal/Metalcore , and their first full album is the second worst album of the year after Gangsta that was overkill bad . For the first time Exist Trace does something that makes tham fall outside of the typical VK sound . You dont need to like it though . Neo Fantasy2 months ago +Shinichi Asakura I dislike typical VK sound, Cyntia made me change my mind about J-Metal, I don't think this is the end to their metal genre but they did say they are a Rock Band now in one of the interview.  ginkarasu4 days ago +Shinichi Asakura I agree with what you say that VK are sellouts, but please stop comparing Cynthia to VK. I sincerely hope they go back to their metal roots. Because I don't have any interest in them anymore, if they keep going to make "cheesy" pop songs.

I did? How so?

i can understand wanting to block trolls and spammers but should your fans be shutout in the process? And I wonder if they aren't being overly driven by fear of trolls. For example, the Mary's Blood video for "Marionette" has comments, the majority of which are praising the band. Yeah, a few sexist comments but that goes with the territory. Mostly, though, the posts are positive.

I'm really surprised there have been zero tweets between her and her old bandmates. As far as I've seen, she left due to health, not bad feelings. But no one has said a word.

It's a real annoying trend among Japanese bands to disable comments. Those comment sections might help us non-Japanese speakers if someone translates the video, after all. Yet I see it all the time. The Rami video I posted is a perfect example. It's just 45 seconds of her talking nervously to the camera, this is her first public statement in 2.5 years since revealing the brain disease that forced her to quit Aldious. Yet comments are disabled. Why?

UPDATE: A statement from Rami, and my translator came through for me again. [Hi, it's been a long time. In the two years I was away, I received a lot of encouragement and well wishes from you guys, but what made me the happiest was the message "we are still waiting for you to return". The reason why I decided to come back and is standing in front of you right now is because of those messages. I have recovered both physically and mentally and is feeling great right now. From now on, I will do my best and please continue to cheer me on. Thank you]

https://twitter.com/RAMI_Vocal/status/562086653863284736 According to this tweet, her new band is called Raglaia or Raguraia. Probably something lost in translation. She also said the first single will come shortly on a new label. Kind of surprised she didn't go with her old mates on Bright Star/Spinning. Then again, I'd much rather have her back in Aldious.

Aldious -- I was browsing a Japanese pop culture web site and someone posted the week's upcoming releases. There was the cover of "District Zero." Well, that got my attention and drew me into all the different Jrock/AgeHa bands. Rush -- Some HS friends were gathered around a car. I came over to see what they were listening to. Instantly hooked. Nightwish -- Easily the oddest. I was reading the new issue of a British metal mag, called Terrorizer, which had an April Fool's joke story that Sarah Brightman would join Nightwish as the new singer. I fell for it and immediately went home to look up who this band was and why Brightman would join. Ok, so they picked Anette Olzon instead but what a discovery. Nevermore -- Went to see In Flames because I loved them. Had no idea who the headliner, Nevermore, was. Stayed after the IF set, was suitably impressed. In Flames -- I had drifted off from metal in the mid-90s because the scene was so bad. Got into industrial big time (KMFDM, Frontline Assembly, etc). Read a rave review for an In Flames album in an industrial mag. Go figure. Took one listen and I was hooked on melodic death metal and the Gothenburg sound. Yes, I find music in strange ways.

Rami has started tweeting again under a new name https://twitter.com/RAMI_Vocal There is a reference to surgery. If someone would be so kind as to translate?

I'd been rewatching "Space Battleship Yamato 2199," which has rapidly become my favorite anime series, and it was driving me crazy. Who did Leader Desla remind me of? Then, bingo. He's Yasutaka Nakata!

<vader>I find the lack of Gacharic Spin disturbing</vader> How can you not love them? Hyper-energetic and fronted by the drummer. Literally. her kit is in the front of the stage, and she is an awesome drummer at that. And the keyboardist looks like a real character. It's a shame what happened to their original singer. She had to bow out due to an autoimmune disease attacking her nervous system. between her and Rami of Aldious, that's two young women in the primes of their lives struck down by odd diseases, and both of them a year after the quake and Fukushima. I hope it's just a coincidence. I used to really love Aldious but they are losing me. Re:No was the wrong singer for the band. She has a beautiful voice but it's too soft for a band that can out-thrash Metallica when it wants to. I've noticed a significant softening in the band's sound with her. And the production on the last album was absolute shit. Here's hoping their new drummer is as good as Aruto, because I genuinely liked her playing.

Show-Ya have been added to the bill. http://aldious.jp/news/2015/01/201

You're bored with it? Try the American metal scene. Nothing BUT metalcore. It's mainly the reasons my tastes run to Europe for the symphonic metal and Japan for the ladymetal.

Ok, little setup for those who don't know. J-MELO is a Japanese music show on NHK World, the English-language version of Japan's NHK channel. It's on AT&T U-verse and several other cable providers in big cities around the U.S. The host is May J, a cute multi-ethnic singer who has her own healthy career in Japan and her English is flawless. In the intro to tonight's (12/23) show, she said there had been numerous requests for Visual Kei and they were going to answer the demand. The bands profiled were Jupiter, D=Out and Div. All three performed one song in between interviews with May. Unfortunately, the show really didn't get into what VK is about. Lots of dumb questions from readers like is there a bandmate you don't want to room with on the road. They also announced a VK section on the J-MELO site: http://www.nhk.or.jp/j-melo/nhkworld/english/event/20140308_visual-kei/volume/volume5/ It will repeat on NHK over the next day, so if you have the channel, try and catch it. if you want.

I would think Exist Trace could sell out that place alone, and I know Aldious has because all 3 of their live DVDs were filmed there. So you'd think they'd move to a bigger facility, but I don't know how big O-EAST is.

If someone would be so kind as to translate this: http://aldious.jp/news/2014/12/post_167 The basics that I got from Google Translate is a one-night all-girl show in Shibuya O-EAST (how big is that place anyway?) which will feature: exist † trace / Aldious / DESTROSE / Fullmoon / CherryHearts / Hurly Burly / IRIS MONDE / Luxion / RiskyMelody / G∀LMET (from Osaka) / HERe:NE (from Sendai) / WALKING AFTER U (from Korea) 4000 yen, which is a bargain for that many bands.

Shmilly, would you mind translating the relevant part of Toki's blog? She goes into detail here: http://ameblo.jp/tokidious/entry-11965136706.html

Well as I said, it seems odd since the tour ended.

What the heck does support drummer mean? Temporary? I'm surprised they would do that, given they are off the road from touring now and have time to look for a permanent member.

The Google translation isn't very good,except for her name being NANA-A, so I'm not sure if she is full time or a fill-in. But she's full time, then these girls don't fuck around. Rami was replaced in a month and so has Aruto, it seems. Does anyone recognize her? She's a cutie. https://twitter.com/aldioustoki/status/544170855777857536 And the girls are sporting some ridonkulous outfits these days.

Last purchase was VERY non-VK. Sanctuary - The Year the Sun Died Sanctuary was a late 1980s progressive metal band from Seattle, a darker, heavier version of Queensryche. They split in 1991 when the label tried to pressure them to turn grunge, since every other band in Seattle was. The band said screw that. The singer and bassist formed Nevermore, which was was even heavier and thrashier thanks to a brilliant new guitarist named Jeff Loomis. When Nevermore disintegrated in 2011, the singer and bassist decided to get back with their old Sanctuary buddies for another run. It's like they never quit.

Well this sucks... not just that she's not marrying me, either. Aruto is an excellent drummer and I've always felt if you change the drummer, you change the band. Look how Rush and Slayer and The Who changed when they changed drummers. Here is the statement I found. Odd that the band is based in Tokyo. I thought they were from Osaka. ---------- Aruto, the drummer of all-woman power metallers Aldious, has announced she'll be retiring from all musical activity this November. In a statement on the band's website, she explains that her forthcoming marriage will see her move away from Tokyo, where Aldious are currently based, and has therefore decided to withdraw from the band so as not to disrupt their activities. Aruto has been in Aldious for almost four years, having joined in January 2010.

I got crap for this before but I'll say it again: the new Aldious album is a tragedy. The sound, in particular the drumming, is reminiscent to "St. Anger," and that is not a compliment. The first two albums were perfect. This one is awful, and it's got some interesting music, although I am still very much biased toward the thrashy early albums with Rami. On the non-Japanese side, the last two Nightwish albums have been poster children from the Loudness Wars (and I don't mean the band. Google the term if you don't know). Symphonic metal requires extra care and those albums are bombastic travesties with all of the subtleties blown out and all of the gain cranked to 10. I have to get the vinyl versions because they will sound better. To this day, Rush's "Vapor Trails" remains the biggest fark up I've ever heard. They recently remastered it after years of protests from fans and it's vastly improved. But the original release was painful. Here was Rush, known for making great sounding records, making their big comeback following Neil's tragedies and the band breaking up and fans were gagging.

Babymetal is popular because they represent something different. Metal has gotten boring and repetitive. Every new band is either mallcore or a bunch of hairy dudes who look like heavily tattooed Robertson brothers, playing open Eb djent or worse, Bb on a seven string, while the singer howls unintelligibly. Musically, BM is not shockingly original, but the girls add the cuteness factor. All the musicians who have met them have said the same thing, they find the girls adorable. Also, remember that most prominent metal bands in the US are in their 40s and 50s and have daughters that age. It's a novelty that will wear off in a year or two, especially when the girls mature. Not sure what will become of the little ones, but Su-metal, though, has a great career ahead of her. She has a fine voice and good stage presence.

It tends to be within fields. Here's one example I recently read about: Subaru is very popular in the U.S. and has a backlog. But the executives won't expand their factory here because they don't believe they are popular. So while Toyota does well, Subaru is screwing up. Videogame fans have constantly complained about the great games they never get from Japan, but I can't comment too much because I'm not a console gamer. All I know is I hear the bitching about great games in Japan that are never released here. Also, look up a company called ABI, which makes freezers call C.A.S. technology. It has been lauded in trade journals for being able to freeze food and not have it lose taste or texture. You can even freeze fruit. And yet they are virtually unknown outside Japan when every restaurant should beat a path to their door. As for music, look at the discussion we are having. Foreign fans are interested in the music and how do they react? Partial PVs on YouTube and taking down full length videos. The fact is, you have to work hard to be a fan of a Japanese artist because they don't make much effort for international fans. KPP and Babymetal are an aberration in that regard. And you can't say it's the language barrier. Rammstein did a full arena tour in 2011 and they sold out everywhere, including Madison Square Garden. If it's good, fans will be drawn to it. I was wrong to use the word "notorious." But I've seen a ton of examples of Japan not bothering to sell something, whether it's electronics or pop stars, beyond its shores.