gekiai

Wonderful news, I am curious to see what direction he will take this musical wise.

Welcome to the forum! : ) I'm sure you won't be disappointed

I definitely agree. I don't mind what people have put here because it's all a matter of opinion (I guess), but I would love to see some more pics and/or anecdotes of truly n00bish occurences.

My mouth was agape when I saw this on Twitter. They always slay me ;; I'm really looking forward to this though I do admit this kinda news needs a thread of its own.

Hi, and welcome! I'm interested in what bands you like (too) and pop artists! I assume you listen to kpop ?

Totally in love with Tetuya's look. I'm guessing those claws (razors??) will be Ryoga's norm.

I've seen this occur ever since I got into visual kei, and that wasn't long ago. I've always appreciated indie bands, but I think many people have their reasons for disliking certain vocalists, bands, etc. (me included). But I understand what you're saying. Some harsh critiques are really out of ignorance, but let's remember art and music is all subjective. I can see why some veterans have much higher standards for these newer bands, and I wish a lot of people can write the positives and negatives they see in something rather than bash, bash, and bash more. Even if bands lacks skills or have mediocre vocals (like many vk vocalists have actually....I mean. let's be real here), there is usually something good there for somebody. So those people that truly enjoy their music, despite the lack of skills that may, objectively be there, should speak up a little louder. Also I think some of this blatant bashing is just because a band does not pander to someone's taste, and unfortunately, I may fall into that pit sometimes...but I'm in no way a snob. Generally, I think with any fandom were people have been in it a long while or are super serious, as most of us are here, they tend to come off snobbyish or close minded. So I think this phenomenon is unavoidable, and people (like me) with soft hearts should endure better and still talk freely about this music. Support these musicians with your money and your comments, likes, whatever, so they are not discouraged :)))) I'm a little emo that you mentioned Jui because I've seen him bashed here a ton and I love him to pieces. By the way, who's that cutie in your sig?

OKAY. So I've been dying over this band for the past 9+ months and I'm just now posting in this thread :') With these guys I don't even know where to start. The first song I heard by them was Fiedel from their Fourth Wall album (thank to an 8tracks playlist) and I was like "holy shit who are they I have to look more into them". I then listened to Fourth Wall, Elegance, then Hallelujah (thanks to everyone's hooblah about it here) and that's when my love for this band had fully resonated. Over the months I listened through their entire discography backwards and got real, I mean real familiar with their sound.... To the point that I cannot choose a favorite album by them. Right now it may be Rhapsody in Beauty because I just love how much distortion they implement into the tracks on that album (and most of my favorite favorite tracks on it). Or Zeitgeist because that album is so perfect and concise to me. I do agree that their pre-2010 releases have not grown on me fully just yet, and to (melt) into/holy are my least favorite post 2010 releases. There's definitely gems on that album but I don't know. There's something that they've developed in the most recent years that I am utterly obsessed with. I love these guys. I have to see them live. That is my mission. I'm also going to add that I adore Yusuke. He's brilliant and I love his voice and screams. His very occasional English (loved that someone mentioned that infamous ice cream line, it gets me everytime) I enjoy too. They are simply fantastic to me. Also squeeing at those pictures of Sho and him, they have to be my favorite bromantic pair (along with Kent from LR). I think that's enough of my idiotic fangirling for now, until the next release!

Tsuzuku from Mejibray, Yuuki from Lycaon, Jin from The Black Swan, and HIME (his band name isn't coming to me at the moment). The first two I can tolerate, the latter, nope.

I second this. Aside from old school, which I have a deep appreciation for, all the popular songs now I only like because of the beat or instrumental. Not the lyrics. So if anyone knows of any newer rappers or groups out that don't just talk about hoes and more hoes, $ex, money, drugs, their illegal gang activities, etc. let me know. I've been out of this scene for years.

Overrated: Tsuzuku Yuuki Kamijo Gackt Kyo Karma Underrated: Jui yo-ka L I'm actually surprised that L hasn't been mentioned here yet! Or maybe I just have strange taste lol. I had to mention 2/3 of the Tohoku brothers since I am on the rocks about Asagi. He definitely has some nice/unique vocals but I feel a good amount of people who have listened to D recognize that. However, no one really cares about D anymore it seems so I had no idea where to place him in these categories. I think my overrated section is quite predictable. Some of the people I mention have awful vocals to me or I can't bear to listen to them for an extended amount of time.

I think I'll like the songs more once I listen through them a couple times. TRIGGER is decent though.

I was just saying how momentous of a day it was and now seeing this I'm like "how awful of a day it is :'(((( " I really liked them.

About time. Everything after 420 did not interest me, and seemed to be rapid fire releases in order to keep their popularity up and running. I do believe this is the break they truly deserve. I have hope that whenever they do come back, it'll be something great and different.

I have entire playlists resorted to specific times of the year or day, so I'll just share a few of my favorites

I really like this idea. I'm too unsure of my Japanese skills to actually be able to actively contribute to this from the start; however, I'm always so fascinated with lyrics and also constantly searching for them. As a novice translator, I think this can help me greatly too. So yes, I am really for this idea.

now my heart is gonna hurt every time I look at their flyer on my wall..

Do you ever get the feeling that some things that seem to be essentials in life just aren't for you? For me it's meaningful relations of any kind. I just suck at making friends in all arenas, whether someone has similar interests or none at all. If I do get someone to become interested in me, they often seem to lose interest or become friends with someone else 'nearby' in said circle. Perhaps it's attributed to my social awkwardness or introvertedness or I just have really bad luck. And when I do try to be social, most times I'm shot down in some form or fashion. Sobby random thought (there's probably a thread for these kinda things), but it's just been on my mind the past few days. I'm really starting to think I won't be able to truly connect with anyone.

I, accidentally, followed a western visual kei group on FB and I came across a gem of a quote "if you judge Western vkei, then you're directly judging the work of Japanese visual kei musicians" or something like that and I had a good laugh. That's not how it works, buddy. Like many have already said here, many of the western bands I've listened to are like sad rip offs of the real thing. Saying what you do is exactly like the Japanese visual kei bands is arrogant af. I don't have anything against Westerners attempting to make a visual kei band, but honestly, all the stuff I've seen has been haughty white dudes who think they're really going to be the ones that'll make visual kei big in the West. Sorry, dude, you're not. It was never big over here, or in Japan, in the first place. Do holler at me if anyone finds a Western visual kei group with some diversity tho.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a mention of Jui (ex-Vidoll) here yet. He had a really good range and multi-faceted voice to me, and admittingly so, I believe that he sounds a little different and more limited now after his throat surgery in 2010. Overall, he still has a unique voice. I have yet to find anyone that sounds even remotely similar to him.

They sound pretty cool!

Just going to push this thread up again because I'm a very recent listener to PLASTICZOOMS and I love them! unfortunately, I have a pretty bad crush on Sho too, oops. I always saw Sho in photos with Kobayashi-san and I figured, why not check out PLASTICZOOMS. So I did...bouncing from video to video on YouTube, but I wasn't too into them at first. I think the only songs I really felt were memorable were Highway and P A R A D E. Then for some strange reason, I felt the urge to listen through PLASTICZOOMS and Critical Factor because I wasn't gonna give up on them so easily! After a couple listens, I reviewed PLASTICZOOMS (found here) and I regret that I did so...early on. After just 2 listens! From then, I have grown very attached to that album, along with Critical Factor, and have, overall, fallen in love with PLASTICZOOMS. I appreciate how versatile their style is, and I feel like even if something I hear from them doesn't pull me in initially, I will find myself rocking to it on the second listen...it's weird. Well that's my mini journey of how I came to love PLASTICZOOMS, and I hope there are many more years to come. (Now come to America purease)