beni

What are some of the most ridiculous Jrock things you've found on the internet? 
 
I watch these videos at least once a year every year to remind myself why I love this fandom.
 

*whispers*youdon'tseemebackhereyetagain...I don't usually let my hair down like this, and definitely not without my forehead being covered. xD I would go out like this but.. people like to pick on it... D': And just a warning, it's quite big, I always forget to shrink linked images *sigh*
How can you all seriously look so fabulous!? 

*whispers*youdon'tseemebackhereyetagain...I don't usually let my hair down like this, and definitely not without my forehead being covered. xD I would go out like this but.. people like to pick on it... D': And just a warning, it's quite big, I always forget to shrink linked images *sigh*
How can you all seriously look so fabulous!? 

*whispers*youdon'tseemebackhereyetagain...I don't usually let my hair down like this, and definitely not without my forehead being covered. xD I would go out like this but.. people like to pick on it... D': And just a warning, it's quite big, I always forget to shrink linked images *sigh*
How can you all seriously look so fabulous!? 

Found old stuff...
2008? or 2009. Ex-friend said I was like a 'cool vkei guy in furs', hhah...

Went to pre-order NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST's new album this afternoon and got bored on bus on the way, so here's a selfie.
 

My friend hosted a Masquerade dance for her 23rd birthday (Not traditional sadly, just modern dance party : P). Couldn't pass an opportunity to take a photo.
 

hello again ;D
 

 
I take this pic in 6 days ago looks good!

I don't know why I always think you're a guy lol. 
 
 
Cadrboard mask? That's cute

I remember just scrolling through and watching literally any video on YouTube about misheard lyrics because I find them hilarious and pretty clever. It always makes me forget about the actual words, and most of the time, not positively ehe. The only one I can recall right now is girugamesh's 'Dirty Story,' when Satoshi says 'I wanna be a sincere man.' I was reading a translation of the song while listening and it was heard as 'I wanna be a sexual man.' xD Now I keep hearing only that.

Intriguing to be in heaven even before I've died, but I'll leave that aside for now.
 
Actually, have been lurking in the news and reviews sections even before joining up. Stumbled upon the heaven thanks to some blog mentioning it as sauce. Signed up for certain, uh, conveniences in stalking, and found out about the downloads sections which was a plus.
 
As for myself, nothing much to say. From some random shitty south asian country. Turned seventeen a couple of weeks ago.
Can be still considered a noob, since I started listening to music only since a few years ago. Took on rock in '11, and started on metal around the start of this year.
 
Since the people I dealt with till that time were anything but music enthusiasts (mostly pop listeners, and I don't remember liking pop at any age), had to look up stuff myself. Reason being why I started from anime theme performers and ended up in VK.
 
Anyways, among the artists I've checked out so far, the ones I like include Dir en grey, the GazettE, Versailles, Rin Toshite Shigure, Rentrer en Soi, Deathgaze, lynch., Plastic Tree, Awoi, Lin, girugamesh, exist trace, Luzmelt, Nocturnal Bloodlust, R-Shitei, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Diaura, D'espairsRay ect.
 
Though some artists had style changes that I dislike, would ignore that.
 
 
Well, let me conclude by saying the cliche line
"It's a pleasure to be here".
 
Being a heavenly being sounds pretty cool.

Thought I'd do something to cure boredom. For those that have iTunes or keep track of how many songs a time is played, what are your top 10 most played songs from most to least? 
If you don't feel like doing all 10 then 5 is fine.
 
1: Dark Days (Instrumental) - Dennis Winslow, Robert J Walsh & Ronn L Chick (400)
 
2: Yuiop Part 2 - Socketzero (370)
 
3: Canzel - Sekai Shuuryou Botan. -world end switch.- (300)
 
4:  UnRealistic - ETERNALLY (270)
 
5: DELUHI - Suna no Izumi (264)
 
6: Luzmelt - Eraser (235)
 
7: Luzmelt - supernova (204)
 
8: LIX - 「　　」 (188)
 
9: Deepsky - Cosmic Dancer (2002 Remix) (130)
 
10: Nightmare - Cyan (60)
 

OMG I lost it at the "scratches, scars and bruises" part
 
I want my fucking frankenbarbie, santa.

Artist: アルルカン Album: ニア・イコール Score: It's called near equal because all the songs are just as good as one another.
In life, the first impression is everything. This applies even to music, doubly so for visual kei bands. The first visual kei band in a long time able to combine metalcore with dubstep in a way that didn't make me want to smash my head against a wall, アルルカン's single 墓穴 left a good impression on me. With all their ducks in a row, the announcement of their first full album piqued my interest. I was curious to see what direction this nascent band's first full-length would go in, how many risks they would be willing to take, and how far they bend their approach to music before something gives.
 
However, the second impression is just as important. アルルカン play it safe with near equal, opting to neither amaze nor disappoint. Previously released singles 墓穴 and Eclipse hover a cut above the rest, but there's not a gulf of difference between the old tracks and the new tracks. If anything, they all sound interchangeable. This is both a good and a bad thing.

This is a good thing because it shows that the first few releases weren't a fluke. Their overall sound remains the same, borrowing elements from their peers while also excelling at what they play. 暁-aki- has nice growls with a penchant for catchy hooks and the guitarists have an ear for good riffs. Many of the songs give off the same vibe and toy with the same ideas in a different way. I understand that they are a new band still finding their way, but their bag of tricks is small. They've already recycled such ideas like the dubstep sample over a breakdown, or the overused aggressive verse/uplifting chorus dynamic. As always, the melodic parts kick ass, but it wouldn't hurt to let in a few more influences take over during those moments. The melodic bits are 90% of why this band sounds as good as it does.

We can break up the songs on near equal into three categories. The first is the energetic metalcore numbers that form the backbone of their sound, such as opener 暁 and single 墓穴. There are some more electro rock oriented tunes such as Alive and あの窓に教わった事. Then there is アルルカン's softer side with ending track clepsydra and カレイドスコープ, where one can catch some power chords and piano on display. One look at the track list and it's clear that similar sounding tracks are close to one another. Thus, this album flows in phases instead of hopping between all the different approaches. Whether this is intentional or not I do not know, but it wouldn't be wrong of me to say they had three ideas going into this album and they made those three ideas work as best as they could.

This also leaves me with little else to say about any song in particular, as all points of praise or criticisms noted apply to most of the songs equally.

Does アルルカン miss the mark? While I would have been pleased if they had exceeded my expectations a second time, they delivered at the level I expected them to. It's an enjoyable, but forgettable album. That's not to say that near equal is bad. It's all rising action and no climax, and the abundance of familiar tracks don't help any. There are also moments in individual tracks where the transition between two phases of the music aren't as clean as they could be. There's an undeniable feeling of dissatisfaction at the end of the album, as if the blistering pace and raw energy teased at with prior singles doesn't translate well into a full album. Next time around - and there better be a second album - these rough edges should be polished up.

This is a contender for one of the top visual kei albums of the year - although that's not saying much - and アルルカン has set the bar for visual kei at a comfortable height. If this band continues activities at their current rate and find some way to make their sound more memorable, I can see them gigging at Budokan in a few years.

Three cheers to no tragedies and more music from visual kei's new poster boys.

I'm all for this creation to go against what some young girls believe to be perfect. *stares at Barbie* Bit biased since I've never been a fan of such dolls hah. Sure the scars and stretch mark choices are a bit.. out there, a rather different yet honest approach. But at least it's being realistic. Now I'm waiting on celebrities, magazines and TV to tell us being natural is the best. Even though we shouldn't have to be told. You get my point.

^ to stretch is his habit
 

dynasty warriors or samurai warriors ughh I want both!!

Totally this. That cover choice was something else. xD Liking this cover at least. It's fitting. I still can't WAIT for this release!

BOOM BOOM SATELLITES mysterious countdown has been shown in their OHP

ah nah i didn't take it that way that you meant that. It was just in reference to what you quoted. But this applies to more than just relationships. Granted it's tough to try and be the support for someone who is less confident... but they have their mind made up that they aren't good enough already, so sometimes people say things like "Maybe if you smiled more, maybe if you cared more, maybe if you loved yourself more..." I don't think it's a matter of people who dislike themselves don't deserve to be loved because they are.... but from personal experience... I think when you're so focused on yourself not being perfect you become more obsessed with the fact that you can't love yourself and you forget to LET or SEE other people love you. It's a toxic black tar that fills your veins and really blinds you from anything outside your own mind. 
 
It's hard though, to get out of that mode where you can't stand to look at yourself, you don't care if you sleep until the sun goes back down, you either hate food or love it way too much (and the outcome isn't very effective to your mood either), you feel exhausted just from talking to people so you make excuses to avoid seeing them, you get headaches literally from thinking too much and picking apart each flaw you have physically and mentally which creates a trail of thoughts reflecting on past life decisions and how you won't be able to change things. It's hard to get out of that mode where over active thinking is why you can't sleep at night and when you do sleep it's because you've been up for more than 48 hours. It's hard to find a reason to start caring about things that don't seem to matter anymore because they don't matter because they failed to get you to where you wanted to be and you're too tired to step outside and try something new today because life is a little more understandable and comfortable inside the walls you build up to block out the world.
 
There's that pretty cliche saying, "You can't love anyone until you love yourself."
 
This is true. It doesn't mean you have to be enthusiastic to the point that your ego is over 9000, no. It just means that you need to care about yourself enough to trust, compromise, understand, need, want, give, take... and most of all you need to be able to be selfish sometimes. How CAN you feel these things if you're too busy shutting the world out? 
Of course everyone deserves to be loved, but not everyone lets themselves be loved.
 
EDIT: This post got way deeper than I originally planned, and I apologize. I've personally found someone very patient with me (even during my breakdowns) and even though he doesn't know it.... has helped me accept myself in many ways. No we're not together so yes I'm still allowed to post in the singles thread D<

Welcome to MH! Lovely to have you here and to meet you. I do hope you enjoy your time here and feel free to join in the chat whenever you'd like. And also bringing up the awesome plug.dj that goes on every Sunday now. Just have fun!
You've got a friend in all of us with that awesome list I can see. Mejibray = hell to the yes. *thumbs up* I'm sure you'll get a massive new list of bands you'll be interested in thanks to everyone here. Totally recommending Lycaon over here from the top of my head just because I'm thinking of Mejibray now haha. Those two are love.
Enjoy your time here and see you around!

A surprising amount of choices right?

NBL FUCKING TOLD YOU TO BUY THEIR ALBUM YOU LITTLE SHITS NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE

Hello everyone, I literally just signed up for Monochrome Heaven and I thought I'd go ahead and introduce myself. 
I found this website by searching for J-rock communities by the way.
I'm a pretty easy going person, go with the flow, quiet most of the time but I'll give my thoughts here and there.
 
From the Japanese music scene I mainly listen to the following bands but I'm looking to widen my band list:
exist†trace, DELUHI, THE KIDDIE, UNiTE, the GazettE, girugamesh, Canzel, Golden Bomber, Gremlins, DELACROIX, SLOD, Royz and Mejibray.
 
I hope to have a great time and meet a wide variety of people to discuss and develop anything related to the Asian music culture or European even American too ╰(°ㅂ°)╯