desparejo86

Well said. Yoshiki spent the week or so just chilling at Sundance for promotions for the doc schmoozing with random celebs. He hardly looked like a guy trying to make an album deadline. Considering his supposed perfectionist qualities, you think he'd be behind the mixing desk everyday for the last few months stressing about their first album in 20 years!
But any X fan who's been following the band knows this is what happens time and again. So while unfortunate for Pata, you damn well know the delays they use in his name have nothing to do with him really. They could've still released the album if it existed but as most of us said above, it mostly was never close to being done.
And it's long been said that Yoshiki burned alot of bridges when he forcible broke out of the Sony contact. You member how they went major with a big splash with blue blood? Well most bands sign a record contact for multiple albums. How many did X release with Sony? Just two. Blue blood and jealousy. Of course he tried to sell art of life as an whole album of music but sony wouldn't accept that. Then yoshiki and x had dreams of being international or breaking into America with art of life, remember the Rockefeller center NY press conference, so they forcibly got out of the Sony contact and switched labels to go to Atlantic. Since then they've been somewhat blacklisted and known for being a difficult band. Rock music doesn't sell that much in Japan anymore, physical album sales are a fraction of what they were, so it didn't surprise me that they haven't found a label for all of these reasons. Who wants to sign a contract for what every music company knows will only be for one album with a difficult diva-musician?

Signing a deal would also mean signing a contract agreeing to actually turn in an album by a set deadline. Yoshiki hasn't done that in twenty years.
 
 
It's not about just the UK show. A lot of fans are being hostile towards Yoshiki because, regardless of Pata's condition, they've known for months, well before Pata took ill in January, that the album wasn't coming out. The album doesn't even have a title, which means it doesn't have artwork, Yoshiki was still mixing it a few weeks ago, and above all they don't even have a record deal. It was never coming out in March.    No one is saying Pata didn't take ill. But even the official announcement says that he's on the mend, just isn't ready to fly yet per doctors orders. This begs the question, had Pata been able to play the gig, were they really going to do this X Day event and alleged world tour (that they coincidentally hadn't got around to even booking yet) promoting the album without the album being ready? Come on.
 
If Pata is actually seriously ill, why is the show already rescheduled? If he died or was left impaired from his illness, wouldn't they need to cancel the gig again and disband? They're full of shit, and pushed it back a year because they have no album finished and no tour booked. It's the same old song and dance from Yoshiki going back 20 years.

Signing a deal would also mean signing a contract agreeing to actually turn in an album by a set deadline. Yoshiki hasn't done that in twenty years.
 
 
It's not about just the UK show. A lot of fans are being hostile towards Yoshiki because, regardless of Pata's condition, they've known for months, well before Pata took ill in January, that the album wasn't coming out. The album doesn't even have a title, which means it doesn't have artwork, Yoshiki was still mixing it a few weeks ago, and above all they don't even have a record deal. It was never coming out in March.    No one is saying Pata didn't take ill. But even the official announcement says that he's on the mend, just isn't ready to fly yet per doctors orders. This begs the question, had Pata been able to play the gig, were they really going to do this X Day event and alleged world tour (that they coincidentally hadn't got around to even booking yet) promoting the album without the album being ready? Come on.
 
If Pata is actually seriously ill, why is the show already rescheduled? If he died or was left impaired from his illness, wouldn't they need to cancel the gig again and disband? They're full of shit, and pushed it back a year because they have no album finished and no tour booked. It's the same old song and dance from Yoshiki going back 20 years.

Hello Everyone!
I'm Lucas, from Argentina. Here comes a little introduction.
 
I'm 26 years and I play the violín in a band named "Mandoble"
Some of my favorite bands are Malice Mizer, X-Japan, Versailles and Sound Horizonm
 
I'm glad for finding a forum on this days hehe, i missed joined one
 
See you around!

Second part
W 2015-2016
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Signing a deal would also mean signing a contract agreeing to actually turn in an album by a set deadline. Yoshiki hasn't done that in twenty years.
 
 
It's not about just the UK show. A lot of fans are being hostile towards Yoshiki because, regardless of Pata's condition, they've known for months, well before Pata took ill in January, that the album wasn't coming out. The album doesn't even have a title, which means it doesn't have artwork, Yoshiki was still mixing it a few weeks ago, and above all they don't even have a record deal. It was never coming out in March.    No one is saying Pata didn't take ill. But even the official announcement says that he's on the mend, just isn't ready to fly yet per doctors orders. This begs the question, had Pata been able to play the gig, were they really going to do this X Day event and alleged world tour (that they coincidentally hadn't got around to even booking yet) promoting the album without the album being ready? Come on.
 
If Pata is actually seriously ill, why is the show already rescheduled? If he died or was left impaired from his illness, wouldn't they need to cancel the gig again and disband? They're full of shit, and pushed it back a year because they have no album finished and no tour booked. It's the same old song and dance from Yoshiki going back 20 years.

1975 Matsumoku Lawsuit Les Paul. It's a beast.
 

 
Some of my other children.

1975 Matsumoku Lawsuit Les Paul. It's a beast.
 

 
Some of my other children.

Reviving old topics here. But I just have to say that Claustrofobia is my favourite LUNA SEA song, it just takes me elsewhere. I used to listen to it with the lights out, just to really feel it. I can't really put it into words. I just love that song so much.

Well, even though SHINE is the album of theirs that I like the least, I still think it's a great album. But then again they are pretty damn awesome. Songs like SHINE, STORM andTIME HAS COME are beyond amazing.
My personal ranking of their album would be:
 
1. EDEN
2. IMAGE
3. MOTHER
4. LUNA SEA
5. STYLE
6. A WILL
7. Lunacy
8. SHINE
 
1-4 are all masterpieces. 

I don't like WISH.

Signing a deal would also mean signing a contract agreeing to actually turn in an album by a set deadline. Yoshiki hasn't done that in twenty years.
 
 
It's not about just the UK show. A lot of fans are being hostile towards Yoshiki because, regardless of Pata's condition, they've known for months, well before Pata took ill in January, that the album wasn't coming out. The album doesn't even have a title, which means it doesn't have artwork, Yoshiki was still mixing it a few weeks ago, and above all they don't even have a record deal. It was never coming out in March.    No one is saying Pata didn't take ill. But even the official announcement says that he's on the mend, just isn't ready to fly yet per doctors orders. This begs the question, had Pata been able to play the gig, were they really going to do this X Day event and alleged world tour (that they coincidentally hadn't got around to even booking yet) promoting the album without the album being ready? Come on.
 
If Pata is actually seriously ill, why is the show already rescheduled? If he died or was left impaired from his illness, wouldn't they need to cancel the gig again and disband? They're full of shit, and pushed it back a year because they have no album finished and no tour booked. It's the same old song and dance from Yoshiki going back 20 years.

Of course many bands do; no one is going to disband and say "We've decided to break up because no one likes us."
 
There was a band, I think it was Kagrra, that disbanded a few years ago, and a lot of people were mad because apparently someone in their management suggested they call it a day. Some people were arguing that it was absurd to tell a band that they should break up, and that the group should do it as long as they are inspired.
 
The reality is that their career had plateaued; past three albums had hit the same spot on the charts. Management knew they weren't going to get any bigger, but they hadn't hit the level where they were making a lot of money, so it was time to cut their losses and go find jobs while they're still relatively young. That is simply the reality bands have always faced, but it is especially true in the modern age, where 500 units can be the difference between a band getting dropped or making another album.

Of course many bands do; no one is going to disband and say "We've decided to break up because no one likes us."
 
There was a band, I think it was Kagrra, that disbanded a few years ago, and a lot of people were mad because apparently someone in their management suggested they call it a day. Some people were arguing that it was absurd to tell a band that they should break up, and that the group should do it as long as they are inspired.
 
The reality is that their career had plateaued; past three albums had hit the same spot on the charts. Management knew they weren't going to get any bigger, but they hadn't hit the level where they were making a lot of money, so it was time to cut their losses and go find jobs while they're still relatively young. That is simply the reality bands have always faced, but it is especially true in the modern age, where 500 units can be the difference between a band getting dropped or making another album.

David Sylvian is the Godfather of Visual Kei in my opinion, the man who started it all. Recently grabbed these:
 
The Japanese pressing of Japan's "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" single.
Weatherbox - A special box set of Sylvian's first four solo albums with added tracks, plus an instrumental disc, special booklet, and poster.

Interesting question!

I was into visual kei for many years. I witnessed the bumpy transformation from 90's visual kei to 00's visual kei (although it wasn't as prominent and 9 year old me didn't really know what was going on...I was just in it for what free tunes I could get) and one noticeable part of this transformation was how many online fans didn't move with it. Those that loved the old goth style of the 90s continued to but as the scene moved away from that sound and style they found less and less artists that appealed to them until they quit the scene entirely. This transition seems to happen every ten years because I'm witnessing it again. There's another transition occurring but lots of bands are going in many different directions. I bet in a few years we'll see the birth of new sub-scenes again like oshare-kei that we use informally to describe the new sounds that form (and I can see them forming around bands that use dubstep influence, alt-rock bands, "traditional"-influenced bands, etc.).

As for me, I haven't cared about visual kei in years. There's an undeniable sound associated with it that appeals to all of us somewhat but the scene is saturated with a lot of bands that play very similar music. After ten or so years of listening to the same bands play the same kind of music and watching the progression of visual kei slow to a glacial pace, I got bored. @CAT5 at the time helped me to get adjusted to the other side of Japanese music, which in turn helped me to appreciate different artists in the visual kei scene which were doing things a little differently but we're still pretty cool. It also gave me perspective on just how small this scene really is. In a way, I came full circle back into visual kei but the artists that I enjoy and the amount I'm into it certainly has changed. Now I'm really into a lot of the alternative rock visual kei bands, nagoya-kei bands, or otherwise visual kei oddities that don't fit into the metalcore spectrum.

After thirteen years I can say that there's always bands in visual kei that sound different from the rest of the competition. @emmny mentions deadman and how influential they are as an "old band" but remember that deadman and Aliene Ma'riage were contemporaries! At the time, deadman was playing music completely new to the scene and look where it's got them. It's always easy to look back and say that yesterday's bands are better than today's bands because of x reasons but hindsight is always 20-20 and time has a way of preserving only the best. I feel like we won't really know if the scene's improving or dying for the next few years but I have more hope for the future of the scene now than I did a few years ago. 
 
It's really about how far you want to dig to find it and how willing you are to give new things a chance. And this is coming from someone who barely listens to any new visual kei.

Couldn't have said it better desparejo, I totally agree! I feel like it's also sort of incredibly disrespectful to Pata to make it seem like it's his illness that's causing the delays and not Yoshiki's lack of effort.

Signing a deal would also mean signing a contract agreeing to actually turn in an album by a set deadline. Yoshiki hasn't done that in twenty years.
 
 
It's not about just the UK show. A lot of fans are being hostile towards Yoshiki because, regardless of Pata's condition, they've known for months, well before Pata took ill in January, that the album wasn't coming out. The album doesn't even have a title, which means it doesn't have artwork, Yoshiki was still mixing it a few weeks ago, and above all they don't even have a record deal. It was never coming out in March.    No one is saying Pata didn't take ill. But even the official announcement says that he's on the mend, just isn't ready to fly yet per doctors orders. This begs the question, had Pata been able to play the gig, were they really going to do this X Day event and alleged world tour (that they coincidentally hadn't got around to even booking yet) promoting the album without the album being ready? Come on.
 
If Pata is actually seriously ill, why is the show already rescheduled? If he died or was left impaired from his illness, wouldn't they need to cancel the gig again and disband? They're full of shit, and pushed it back a year because they have no album finished and no tour booked. It's the same old song and dance from Yoshiki going back 20 years.

I'll get soon some more Kote Kote-Kei Stuff from Mebius / Phobia & co. <3 Can't wait. Haha.

Hello
 
Lurker for about 1 week deciding time to say hi!
i am not good at intro so this will be quickly!
 
I am 20 year old and currently I am a student with a pediatric caare center. Always looking
for new music on my free time.
 
My likeness in music does not lie with one specific genre/country. 
 
Chinese: Forest/Carsick Cars/Aristophanes/Morning Call/Shin/etc.
 
Japan: Yura Yura Teikoku/Plastic Tree/The Novembers/Dadaroma/The Dresscode/ etc.
 
Korea: Nell/Norwegian Wood/Louie/OOHYO/A-Fati etc.
 
 
 
I look forward to getting to know many and maybe contributing from my own collection something different!
 

Co-resurrecting this thread!
 

 
1983 Ibanez Roadstar II RS100. Stock pickups. My main guitar.
 

 
1996 Jackson Performer PS4. Ibanez V5 bridge pickup and GFS Fat PAF neck pickup.
 

 
2005 Agile AL2500. Ibanez V5 bridge pickup and GFS Fat PAF neck pickup.
 

 
2004 ESP Ltd H-207. DiMarzio PAF7 bridge pickup, stock Duncan Designed neck pickup.
 

 
2012 Schecter Hellcat VI. Stock Seymour Duncan pickups.
 

 
My pedalboard. Line6 FBV controller. Madbean Afterlife compressor, TC Electronic Shaker vibrato, TC Electronic MojoMojo overdrive, MXR Carbon Copy analog delay, Behringer Chorus Space-C.
 

 
My amp. Line6 Vetta 2x12 combo. I find myself mostly using the Fender Twin model these days.

Current Gear: ESP LTD-VIPER 330 -Lana Ashley Q
Epiphone Les Paul Special II (Recently Modded with EMG 81/85 pickups)-Marissa.
 

Seeing as though its less of a hasle, I play/record everything digitally via Guitar Rig (combined with REAPER, Fruity Loops, and EZ Mix).

That is some damn fine old school visual kei loot!!!!

I'm in Japan at the moment to see a downy concert and while I was here I decided to go check out the Budokan since I was in the area. Actually had no idea the ARCHE lives were this weekend, so I was pretty surprised when I found myself surrounded by fans queuing up so early in the day xD