Kuro

When VK still was quite a thing in Germany I also had some friends. I made the first ones when I started learning Japanese and they also did, I had seen them at lives before and remembered their faces. I do have contact with one of them still but seemingly life took its toll and they focus on other things.
 
In my recent course (which means the past three semesters and the next one, if enough sign up for it, it's the same thing about hoping for this each semester) there's one who's also interested and we just recognized that there's quite some bands we're both interested in so I'm curious on how things turn out, if we'll start seeing every now and then aside from learning Japanese. But that's it for people where I live that I regularly could meet up with.
 
It was pretty much fun in the past when bands regularly played in my city and we met up. As well as the regular meet ups in a small shop that sold quite some J-music stuff which now is more focussing on Korean stuff. Things changed and well, I guess I got used to it.

Oh that were great. I've seen Taion live back in the days but I'd be really curious on the Japanese version live.
 
Having been to both Cologne and Munich I loved the live in Cologne already a lot but Munich topped this even though it was hotter than the venue in Cologne already had been.

Haha, so seemingly I was glad. Otherwise I guess I just would have registered again.
 
Thank you. ^^
I've been looking at the News section every now and then but that's been it actually. And I've been reading through new entries for the past few weeks and leaving a like here or there but now want to participate and that's why I'm here. I already left some topics opened to contribute to. Oh yeah, we're entering old age. I was past highschool for a while already when I got into VK.
 
I'd say mainly Gazette but I keep an eye on quite some bands still. I'm pretty much into DaizyStripper, too and also immediately fell for DIMLIN even though their new single didn't get me as much as their stuff before but I didn't spent much attention to it yet due to the Gazette tour and all focus just being put on them.
The ticket sale for Dir en grey is just about to start in less than one hour and since I haven't seen them since 2011 I see how it turns out (I've heard stories of it still being a crazy run on the tickets as it was back in the days).

Haha, so seemingly I was glad. Otherwise I guess I just would have registered again.
 
Thank you. ^^
I've been looking at the News section every now and then but that's been it actually. And I've been reading through new entries for the past few weeks and leaving a like here or there but now want to participate and that's why I'm here. I already left some topics opened to contribute to. Oh yeah, we're entering old age. I was past highschool for a while already when I got into VK.
 
I'd say mainly Gazette but I keep an eye on quite some bands still. I'm pretty much into DaizyStripper, too and also immediately fell for DIMLIN even though their new single didn't get me as much as their stuff before but I didn't spent much attention to it yet due to the Gazette tour and all focus just being put on them.
The ticket sale for Dir en grey is just about to start in less than one hour and since I haven't seen them since 2011 I see how it turns out (I've heard stories of it still being a crazy run on the tickets as it was back in the days).

I'm Kuro and registered already eternities ago. I didn't sign in with this account for ages and just recently did so I thought it's about time to also say hello.
 
I got into VK back in 2006 by MUCC and met people over here (Berlin in Germany) when I started learning Japanese (I'm still not good at it). Back then there were quite some people listening to VK and bands played here a lot which's happening rarely nowadays.
 
Just have been to both German Gazette shows which have been the first lives since their tour in 2016 for me.
 
That's it for now but feel free to ask questions. ^^

I'm Kuro and registered already eternities ago. I didn't sign in with this account for ages and just recently did so I thought it's about time to also say hello.
 
I got into VK back in 2006 by MUCC and met people over here (Berlin in Germany) when I started learning Japanese (I'm still not good at it). Back then there were quite some people listening to VK and bands played here a lot which's happening rarely nowadays.
 
Just have been to both German Gazette shows which have been the first lives since their tour in 2016 for me.
 
That's it for now but feel free to ask questions. ^^

@-NOVA- Haha I love me some Mao but Yuugiri did it way better. Did you ever hear the original? I also don't like the effects they used on his voice

Quite late, but this was the setlist for 18th June, 2019 in Backstage Werk, Munich
 
99.999
Falling
NINTH ODD SMELL
GUSH
Vortex
The Suicide Circus
THE MORTAL
SONO KOE WA MOROKU
DOGMA
UNDYING
TWO OF A KIND
UGLY
ABHOR GOD
Filth in the Beauty
 
Encore:
INSIDE BEAST
Hyena
Tomorrow Never Dies
 
Probably the best one, so far...  (all thanks to Undying)

Yeah, it was wonderful and the whole atmosphere was insane. I still can't move my neck properly or even talk loudly
 
It made up for all the organizational errors.

The gig in Munich has been amazing!!! The crowd was wild and the setlist was very good! I loved how Kai apologized for the little hiccup made by him during 'Ugly' ("Sorry, my mistake!"), made my entire week! 😂
 
(Even TOMORROW NEVER DIES is enjoyable live!)

Adding that I also identify as genderqueer (more specifically, agender) but still go with female pronouns because I'm not really open/comfortable about this yet and because that's just the most comfortable thing for me. I'm usually not too comfortable talking about this, but it looks like a lot of people here feel similarly, so I'm glad this is sort of a safe place. I don't really identify as female or male, but it's more of a "neither" instead of "both" sort of thing. I do have dysphoria because I have a VERY feminine body (this is basically my body type), so it makes it very hard to be the kind of androgynous I'd be comfortable presenting like.
 
I discovered visual kei when I was about 15 or so. It was a really big deal to me. Before then, I had that weird lurking feeling of not wanting to be female or male, but I didn't know how to present in a way that was comfortable for me. I did have an interest in fashion and makeup and I wanted to be attractive and beautiful, but I didn't really know how to put all of that together in a way that wasn't specifically female. So of course, the initial allure of visual kei was that it was all of those things. Really enjoying the music solidified my interest in it. I had always been very skinny, which was awesome for my situation. Unfortunately, I rapidly put on a lot of  weight when I was 19 and that caused a lot of changes to my body shape. It was a huge blow because at that point, I had found the thing that finally made me comfortable in my own skin and it was being taken away from me again. I also didn't know that identifying as non-binary was a thing until I was like 25, so the feelings I was struggling against were very private and alienating. I haven't been able to lose and keep off the weight, so I'm still EXTREMELY uncomfortable with myself and most of the time I feel like I have no business in a style meant for skinny attractive men, but I don't really know what else to do with myself. 
 
I'm also often very afraid to be open about my identity and have it misunderstood as "taking my visual kei obsession too far" because that's not true at all. I already felt like that for a long time before I knew anything about being genderqueer or even what being trans was. The previous talk of visual kei fans "faking it" to be cool is exactly what I'm talking about here. Also, it's possible to come out and take steps towards exploring your identity within a particular group or scene, but still not be out with your family, work/school, and friends outside of that group/scene. Many people don't realize that you don't just come out all at once. You come out over and over and over again to different people. You come out in different ways and at different times based on a lot of situation factors. I don't think it's fake at all to present as male and ask for male pronouns within a group, but still be in the closet in other parts of your life where coming out could be a very dangerous or complicated struggle that you're not ready for. 

Thank you @Himeaimichu for linking me to this purchase! I’m actually in love this, now to get a VHS player and equipment to rip it to my laptop and I can share it with you all! 

I'd like to keep the door to my balcony open so I could get some fresh air into my apartment but I'm pretty sure there's a spider living on my balcony and I don't want to take any risks of it getting inside my apartment. It would also be nice to sometimes go sit on the balcony and enjoy the summer but no way can I do that if the spider's there.
Damn thing should at least pay a part of my rent for taking my balcony like that.

I'm pretty bad at introducing myself, so here goes nothing.
 
I'm 19 years old, live in a tiny, very rural village in the middle-west of Germany, and English is my second language (excuse any mistakes, pls). I've been into VK for like 5 years now, if I remember it correctly. What got me into it was Kiryu's MV for Oirantan and from there I just went down the rabbit hole and have no intentions of leaving.
I've also been a guest on the news board for over a year.
 
Some of favorite bands are
• the GazettE (all time favorite and I'm gonna see them in Cologne in a few days and I'm already bouncing off the walls with excitement 💜💜)
• DEXCORE
• DIMLIM
• DEVILOOF
• JILUKA
• Kiryu
• Royz
• Zero[Hz]
 
99.9% of the music I listen to is VK, the remaining 0.1% are bands/artists like Nightwish, MCR, Linkin Park and Marilyn Manson. I'm always open for suggestions, tho! Both VK and non-VK.

Me.

The Gazette's Toxic album. Everyone hates on it but I think it's one of their better ones XD 

Yeah I don't like the effects on World End. Shame they had to sort of ruin the song because they wanted to experiment so much. 

I don't care really to be honest, haha. Just happy to help spread it to those who haven't got it. The whole live only thing is a bit of a rip off and there's only the most miniscule chances of people outside of Japan even being able to buy it at all (though if you can it's second hand for a ridiculous amount of money) so yeah, happy to send it to other people if they want it. + Other users here have uploaded plenty of other stuff for everyone to download which I've taken advantage of, so would be shit of me to not share anything if people want it and I can offer it.
 
But yeah here is the link, only active for 7 days apparently so don't hang around too long.  

https://we.tl/t-5N1DJ70LBs

This is something I've been thinking about the past few days.
 
There are so many iconic bands in the scene, many who are no longer active (or perhaps just much different from their best-remembered eras), but we often discuss offhandedly bands or musicians who feel heavily inspired by or give a "similar feeling" as another band or musician. 
 
I'm not talking about "homage-kei," (this isn't a thread about グリーヴァ's GAUZE-era Diru covers) rather bands that seem to fill a certain niche within the context of the modern scene that perhaps another band did in their heyday.
 
I guess the best way to say it is...which bands do you think have the "same energy?" (keep in mind this is just for fun, really - not trying to say any singular band is the same as, as good as, as profound as, etc. as any other band)
 
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I'll start with one of the most obvious...
 
DIMLIM and Dir en grey
 
It's rare to hear mention of DIMLIM without mention of vocalist Sho's many "Kyo-isms," though I rarely feel those statements are made in a negative way. I mean, it's true -- he is the rare VK vocalist who manages to mimic not just the mannerisms of Kyo, but much of the range, tone, melody, and "noise" that Kyo has become known for. Maybe not with the same level of finesse or control, of course, but for a young musician in a new band, it's pretty impressive.
 
With that being said, I think DIMLIM as a whole fills a certain particular niche in the scene that Vulgar/WTD-era Dir en grey did, taking heavy and chaotic song structures and injecting them with flourishes of melody. There is a certain atmosphere on both CHEDOARA and Vulgar/WTD (most specifically) that feels unlike other bands that may be doing something similar at face value. I know a ton of people who have been fans of Dir en grey for at least a period of time and I always recommend DIMLIM as "Dir en grey with their proggy nu-metal elements replaced with proggy metalcore elements." I don't think that's perfectly accurate, but at least a decent way to get new fans through the door.
 
Both bands also have a ton of crossover potential, Dir en grey's already realized as they've become more and more well-known in western and European metal scenes, DIMLIM's found in the fact that they appear to be one of relatively few VK acts that play strictly VK shows as well as non-VK shows. 
 
For an audible example of why I feel this way, I'd personally put "...物狂ひ...なりて" and "朔-saku" side-by-side.
 
 
 
Both tracks, in my opinion, manage to transition from fury to melody seamlessly without ever really sacrificing the "edge" of the song itself. The listener gets just enough "relief" from the chaos to get them ready to get tossed right back into it. The whole "heavy verse, poppy chorus" thing is done to death in modern metal, especially with many of the more popular metalcore bands of the early-mid 2010s, but the way it's handled here is notably different in that the mood of the song never feels lost to me - the atmosphere remains the same from beginning to end, it's just that the way it's expressed has changed.
 
Place this all in the context of modern VK and I feel DIMLIM is "carrying the torch" in a way. Their style, at base level, is quite unlike that of Dir en grey (even now), but the threads that connect their sounds and the type of presence they have feels very similar to me. Hardly the same band, but much of the same energy.
 
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That ended up much longer than anticipated, so I'll hold my other thoughts for a later post, but I'd really like to see what others think on this topic. I'm excited to see some fun comparisons.