Chi

it's a pity they are going with the blank regular edition cover again because everyone looks good enough to be on it.
but i really like the first one. thank god tzk went back to black because i really don't dig any other hair color on him lol.

Me too!!! I think it's one of the best visual kei songs of all time. Most people don't seem appreciate it like I do though. Basically all of ScreW's older heavier songs like Vanquish, Death's Door, Raging Blood, etc were awesome to me though. I don't understand what happened to them... That sound really suited them and then they started doing ballads and pop rock.

Present:
Yuuki [Lycaon]
Chiaki[DEZERT]
Jojo[The Gallo]
Karma[AvelCain]
Futarishizuka[Crucifixion]

Past: 
Kyouka[Aliene Ma'riage]
Takayuki[The Piass]
Teru[Noir Fleurir]
Hisui[Madeth Gray'll]
Rei[Lar~;ia]

I like PLASTICZOOMS, but I can hardly understand english parts.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctQcISdam1U
Lyrics in description.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXE3imxUV4

special session will perform at Ogikubo ROOSTER North Side at 2015/11/04 and at 2015/11/05
 
special session members:
Dr.篤人(atsuto) (eStrial, Angels)
Gt.&Vo.夢時(yumeji) (eStrial, HOLLOWGRAM, Angels)
Ba.YUCHI (sukekiyo, kannivalism)
Key.&Vo.TERO (†яi¢к)
Vo.佐渡島ゆきお(sadoshima yukio) (Jupiter Dr.YUKI) (2015/11/04)
Vo.SORA (ex-INO HEAD PARK) (2015/11/05)

satsuki's entire solo career

Me too! XD
 
But yes, that's an interesting point. I guess it's true that sometimes it's just the nostalgia that lets us continue to enjoy some songs that we probably wouldn't take notice of if they were released today.
 
 
 
 
That's true. But I'm mostly baffled by the abruptness with which some people seem to exchange the things they love. My listening habits have changed a lot over the years as well, but I have to go back really far to get to some "lol, wth was I thinking?"-moment. And my answer would usually be "Well, I was 12 years old."
 
On the other hand, I have literally experienced people saying things like "Lol, I have just seen my last.fm charts from last year. I was such a weeaboo back then, totally embarrassing." Some people suggested that maybe they never loved the music to begin with, or loved it for the wrong reasons, but I think it may be the other way round, ie. they reject it now for the wrong reasons, like wanting to present a more "adult" taste, wanting to disassociate themselves from a fandom they grew to dislike etc.
 
 
I think music should be journey and you should keep exploring stuff, but a journey becomes kinda pointless if you vehemently try to forgot parts of your journey once you have moved on somewhere else. I do not listen to the same music I listened to 10 years ago, but I always try to bring the best bits and pieces of each stage of my musical journey as luggage into the next. Thus I can on rare occasions spin some old HIM or Marilyn Manson CDs, or some generic but fun vk song from 5 years ago, and be completely unashamed. XD

I'M A SHIT NOODLE!

The important question remain, do type A, B or C come with the PV? I expect a making of DVD and a privilege signed photocard if I buy them all.

don't worry, we all do that

I don't really have my past faves decided yet but present are (not in order) Kyo (DEG), Sui (Metis Gretel, Megaromania, Lin), Satsuki (RES, let me pretend his solo work doesnt exist), Karasuna Mei (memento mori, kuroyuri to kage) and Kobayashi Yusuke (the novembers)

Everything about VK makes me angry


But mostly the entitled white girls mincing around in horribly tacky lolita fashion thinking their shit don't stink because they listen to music made by a bunch of yellow perils in drag.

Too many things come to mind...
 
-labels/bands putting lots of time into the production of personal message videos in santa costumes instead of visiting a recording studio. Then wondering why they only have face-fans.
 
-old indies who somehow thought it would be a great idea to never actually release the live-footage they were constantly filming but instead put some recorded track over it and crop it to 2 minutes.
 
-people listening to the angsty suicide/rape/drugs/failing at life songs of visual kei bands, then assuming those artists must be totally emotionally stable and professional. Then wonder/ get angry when somebody does something stupid.
 
-western fans totally ignoring the japanese fanbase or making really weird generalizations about it and acting like vk was actually for them. Like.. a band tours all year and works very hard to promote themselves and everybody complaining why "they didn't do shit for a year".
 
-kiyoharu doing *the tongue* every 20 seconds.
 
...

I need to see if I still have it lying around somewhere, but I made an audio recording of blood's last live in Chicago. It really sucked, but there was one delicious nugget that was caught. About halfway through the concert, Kiwamu just stopped the music and everything and just raged hard shouting at this dude in the audience who was recording a video. He was leaning over the stage shouting like a god damned Yakuza... we totally thought he was going to jump down and rip the guy's face off/smash him with a chair.

I tried to avoid getting involved in this one, however just to simply state my understanding of how it works:

I feel that overseas fans downloading music really doesn't effect their sales. (as stated quite a few times). As of right now, we're not really a target audience since money has not been spent to promote and distribute their goods. cds etc to overseas fans. The fact that some overseas fans even go out of their way to spend the money and buy a cd would be a bonus considering what was spent to only promote and distribute in Japan. Yes in the long run, cd and goods purchased in overseas countries will most certainly play a role in deciding a tour here or not. I don't see a bunch of uploads coming from sources in Japan, they're usually uploaded and shared through overseas fans anyway.

The one thing that annoys me most is the fact that people still pull the whole. "Well if you love the band so much you'll find a way to purchase their stuff." 
I'd like to address the fact that a large percentage of people in to visual kei overseas are teenagers who don't have the means to even buy themselves their own shampoo let alone a $40 album. Plus from personal experience, I could love a band as much as i want to but if it's between keeping my water on or making sure I have gas money to get to work and buying a cd... hell, sorry for being responsible but i'm going to choose to pay my bills. I won't have a damn thing to play that cd on if my electricity gets shut off. but at least it will look nice on the shelf. 

Another thing that was brought up was the numbers that fill the live houses this band plays at. I don't listen to Nocturnal Bloodlust so i don't have a solid opinion of their style. Regardless, whether people are downloading or not, if they like the band and have the money and are able to go see them, they'll go. Whether it be promotion and marketing, or the band just not really hitting home with their style choices... overseas downloads do not play a part in how successful they are in their own country. 

I'm not saying downloading music illegally is all A+ okay now, no. Every artist deserves the support and i can understand. I'd be pissed off too if someone started handing out something I spent a shit ton of money on and hard work and efforts to make to just anyone. I'd feel under appreciated for the amount of people who claim to like it. But it should be common sense with the way the industry is and how file sharing has been for YEARS before NB even formed. 

File sharing is and always will be there, so they need a game change because as stated somewhat before... NB has 99 problems and file sharing ain't one of them.

You missed my point when I discussed a distinction between Popular and Art music (I wasn't talking about the "Art of popular music", whatever that means). The point was to demonstrate the high appreciative standard in Art music which deems music as a "privilege" does not necessarily hold up in a lot of Popular music -- especially when the end goal is marketability (especially with image in Nocturnal Bloodlust's case). If someone is trying to market something to you, is it truly a privilege to listen to when it's being thrown in your face? I also said nothing about how NB "don't have the market". I believe there you are referencing the point I just reiterated which was the band pushed their new look for the sake of marketability (when previously as those more knowledgable on the band have said in this thread, their previous look wasn't doing anything for them).
 
 
And we're not necessarily arguing potential (I'm not at least). If you were to ask me about their potential, I would say they're a terrible, derivative band that has next to no potential for staying around much longer. But that's just my opinion on their music, not an assessment on their financial dealings. So while others may have shared an opinion on the band, I'm shying away from that kind of argument because it has too great of a chance of devolving into subjective opinions without any care for reason.
 
 
And you'll need to link me to where they have announced they are playing in larger venues, because I took all of the shows they have lined up on their website and went through them by capacity, all totaling to about 600-700 each. Nowhere is there any mention of anything to indicate otherwise, please provide a link if you can.
 
 
 
 
There is one thing that struck me, and what I find to be the focal point of your narrow interpretation of this situation: "They're losing in the international market not because the interest isn't there, but because it's easier and free to just illegally download."
 
 
At first glance this is blatantly incorrect. The reason why it's not entirely incorrect when in consideration of the whole is because there are people that will just download an album because it's free. There are those that can't be bothered to pay anything, and that's fine. But how many of those are even fans to begin with? How many are potential fans that want to hear the music first? How many are people who just want to rag on the band by downloading the album and shitting on it afterwards? There are many groups that need to be considered because it's not a black and white issue of "they're losing the international market because it's easier and free to illegally download". 1. They're NOT losing the international market because they're not even IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET. Their presence is literally unknown to everyone but a minority of those that listen to and follow Visual Kei. How can you be losing a market that you have LITERALLY 0 presence in? You can't, because they were never there to begin with. This is a failing of the band. If they're not marketed, how am I to know I can purchase their music in the US, or Europe? If you disagree, show me sales outside of Japan that indicate otherwise.
 
 
You can't argue that NB are losing sales and international market potential due to downloads, because to argue such you have to be ready to prove it with statistics. At that point you can argue that you THINK they MIGHT be losing potential; but due to the complex buying habits of individual persons, I would disagree with you. As mentioned above, how many of those downloads are from people that are curious and want to see if they like the music? how many are from people who want to give the band another chance and see if they're any good? how many are from people who genuinely like the band and want their new release for free? You don't know these things, and those are but 3 of the endless factors that take place when someone purchases an album.
 
 
I can only speak off of personal experience (and others can attest to this as well, I'm sure); but as others have said, many of those downloads could very well be of those that would not even buy their music in the first place, and perhaps don't even like the band. BUT, those downloads could also come from people who are curious about the music, and intend on paying for their goods if they like the band. I could easily inflate my argument to assume that those people (those that gain interest in the band, download, like them, and then begin supporting them) are the very refutation of your point that downloads are killing their market potential; but even I know that's not the whole picture. When I mentioned personal experience, I am referencing my large (and growing) collection of Classical that I have bought (and torrented). I recently picked up Kleiber's infamous recording of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. I downloaded it first though, listened a few times, then purchased a physical copy. Why did I do this? Carlos Kleiber is dead along with many of the musicians that took part in that recording. They won't receive the money, so by logic I can argue I don't NEED to pay; but I did to show my furthering support (and Wagner Operas do not come cheap) of the music. In fact, most purchases have come this way where I wanted to listen to a recording before making a decision. I'm not saying that this is what everyone in the world that torrents does; but this is a group you have neglected in your assessment, and which I guarantee makes up a large portion of this community from the amount that have indicated this notion in the past.
 
 
In regards to ("but I think your reasoning is flawed in a business perspective. Because it obviously does affect the market enough for the band to actually say something about it,") - you can't argue this because you don't truly know. What if their record label is acting through them by proxy? Those more skeptical would indicate such, especially when you take into account the variety of bands that speak out about piracy, and in which in many of those cases, financial dealings have nothing to do with it.
 
 
tl;dr:   There are too many factors that are in place for you to make the argument that illegal downloads are responsible for the band's lack of market hold abroad. As I have indicated, that cannot be the case when 1. they don't have the presence in the international market that you think they do. 2. You are assuming an outdated argument that illegally downloading = huge impact to the band when in many cases (i.e. even big bands like Metallica) they don't see much, if anything, from CD profits (to make this argument you'd need to know how much NB make from record sales vs. merch and ticket sales). and 3. you are failing to take into account the complex buying habits of individuals.
 
 
If you can address points 1-3, and provide statistics as support for the claims on losing market potential, etc., then I will be thoroughly persuaded and will be driven to find out more about this issue. Until then, I still say you need to broaden your understanding seeing as how with points made above, it is far more complex than the black-and-white issue you're trying to draw it into.
 
 
 
 
Finally, please link me to your 60 page thesis if you can, I'd love to read it.

This is the most understated point in this entire topic.
 
As "famous" (I use that word very loosely) as Nocturnal Bloodlust are, they're still an indie band an unpopular scene playing metalcore/deathcore music. Their fanbase is small due to the nature of their music and they only made it smaller by entering the visual kei scene. They haven't been active for all that long either. Bands that end up going abroad and are still successful in Japan are bands like the GazettE, X JAPAN, and Dir en grey, who have all been around for 10 to 15 to maybe even 20 years. And you know what all three of those bands had in common? They didn't give a fuck about the foreign market until they "made it" in their home country. The GazettE pretends the American continent doesn't exist and don't come here. I still can't find albums before Withering to death. in American stores.
 
Nocturnal Bloodlust have been around for what, three or four years? How many indie bands in Japan have been around for seven or eight years and still haven't been signed to a major label? How many just made it? Did they not do their research on visual kei before diving in? Not many VK bands accelerate to superstardom status in four years.
 
Placing things on iTunes for purchase, opening doors to fanclubs, etc. are all things other visual kei bands should be doing because it doesn't require a lot of effort and the returns are valuable. However, all those CD sales and MP3 purchases still translate into money that's only going to be used for advertising and concerts in Japan. If you don't have the budget to advertise overseas, then you aren't ready to go there yet. And when you factor in our inability to attend their concerts in person, buy their merchandise in person, support them in person, then our sales are but a miniscule portion of whatever revenue they get. We aren't that important. Yet.
 
But they realize our importance. If they don't stop activities some time in the near future, they'll get places.

First, I've always found it fascinating how so many different bands can have a different stance on this issue. You'd think that in the music industry, every band would speak out against piracy; but that is nowhere near the case. There are bands (often Japanese bands) that go on about how downloading music is ruining their lives; but then there are others that have a "fuck it" mentality. I can't even count the amount of times I've been to a show where the vocalist has said "Buy our new album, pirate it, I don't care, just listen to it". Why is this? It could be any amount of factors including personal views, record label pressure, and anything else that I can't think of at the top of my head.
 
 
 
The issue, which many have touched on here, is the archaic model of signing bands to contracts, releasing albums, and basing sales performance on the longevity of the band. This is a model that has been going all the way back to the 50's and 60's -- why are we still employing a model that is ~60 years old, in a world that is vastly different from that time? Sure, the business model of these big record labels worked when availability was scarce; but today we have access to so much information at the click of a button, that the old model becomes even more irrelevant. As with all businesses, they must adapt or fail. As it stands right now, the music industry is intent on fighting a fight that can not be won.
 
 
I sure as hell don't have the answers; but all I know is that the old way of doing things needs to be revised / completely overhauled to suit an age where not only are bands a dime-a-dozen; but their access and interaction with the consumer is far greater than it has ever been, thus direct distribution becomes an attractive method instead of dealing with binding contracts from record labels.
 
 
Or, Nocturnal Bloodlust could just stop making bad music and get people to want to buy their music / attend their shows. But to them, it's the world's problem, not theirs.

They should change their name to Nocturnal Butthurt tbh

NB basically killed themselves when going visual kei lmfao
 
I agree with whoever said that today's music industry is awfully outdated, especially in Japan. There are not a lot of artists in VK that distribute their stuff digitally, and when they do it's only in the Japanese iTunes store. Websites like HearJapan offered cheaper digital releases compared to other digital distributors, so I think the website was for a good cause (especially since they also offered bonuses and higher bitrates). It's a shame that not many people bothered to pay less than 500 yen for a full album they actually really enjoyed; most full lengths on iTunes cost 2000yen, physical copies usually 3000yen. With HearJapan gone, in order for fans to buy digital copies now, they'd have to make a Japanese iTunes account and buy Japanese iTunes cards online; purchasing the physical copy from CDJapan therefore is much easier, even though it costs more (of course there's also amazon, but we don't talk about amazon's digital quality lmao). Besides, I know people similar to me who prefer to have the music in the bitrate they desire; iTunes offers 256kbps rips that sometimes sound like shit, especially on high quality headphones. Websites like bandcamp offer a solution to this, and perhaps putting their music on bandcamp costs less than putting it on iTunes, but I wouldn't dare state this as fact.
 
These artists keep complaining about overseas fans that download their stuff while they're not even their target audience. If my target audience was Japan and I had people outside of Japan buying my stuff here and there, I'd see it as something nice on the side, unless these people would encourage my Japanese audience to buy less. If that's what's going on, then I understand why bands like NB are upset. If not, I don't see how they're making huge losses from it if they're not putting any sort of money into promotion outside of Japan.
 
Not everyone can buy everything, but most musicians understand that; most visual kei fans are teenagers who are still in high school and have no income except for their montly allowance they get from their parents, and you can't blame them for not spending that allowance on CDs every single time. If you however DO have the money to support your favourite artist, I feel like you should. I know not many VK fans feel up to that, but how can you make people purchase more?
 
I feel like Korean pop companies found the answer to that question and it's called packaging. EXO for example sold more than 1 million copies of their first album, and even though Kpop has a way bigger target audience because pop music is just more mainstream than VK is, I wouldn't deny that the packaging and price have something to do with it. I know that in Japan prices for CDs are just regularly high, but Korean pop CDs usually cost about 15 euros and are packaged in boxes, books, metal cases etc. with the CD, a thick photobook, a card signed by one of the band members and usually a big poster for free as well. I love buying Kpop CDs because of this; of course I buy a CD when I think it's good, but that fantastic packaging just gives it a little bit extra. I can understand some indie VK bands can not afford this kind of packaging, but I know plenty of bands can. Make it desireable to purchase the CD, give it extra things that a downloaded copy could not give you. If VK is so oriented on looks, why not add in a seperate photobook, for example? You'd have to pay extra for a photographer and the printing, but if it made you sell more copies in the end and raise the profit, why not?
 
Though selling more copies in general only enriches the record company, not so much the artist, as we all know. In Europe, 25$ for a newly released CD is a normal price and the least you can do (legally) is listen to 30 second samples in the store itself (if it even offers that option). That alone is not going to make me buy an album.
 
Anyway this became way too long and doesn't make any sense probably but I hope you at least understood what I was trying to say lol.

Obviously this is an issue much larger than NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST, but it does get the ball rolling again when an actual musician or group acts on it. In NB's case, I'm actually a bit confused about their concerns, because although they're starting to reach that level of popularity in the indie scene where people clamour for their releases it's not like they're not shifting copies. I had to go into two VK CD stores yesterday (the day of release) to buy their new single because in the first one it was already sold out. I think I may have grabbed the last copy from the second too because there were no more on the shelves, although I guess there could have been some in storage since they were still clearing up after an instore event. That said, I also bought a ticket for their one man next weekend which has yet to sell out (and probably won't). Now I don't know whether NB make more money from their CDs than their lives (there's a strong used market in Japan with stores like Closet Child and Puresound, and of course the auction sites). But in today's reality the way most foreign bands (especially indies) gain recognition overseas is by someone on the internet saying, 'hey this band is awesome, check them out' and people sharing downloads. It's great to see more bands these days like NB use an official YouTube account to advertise their music and PVs, but people still need to know about them to watch them. It's a tricky issue, but as people have already stated suing your fans seems like it can only do more harm than good at this point. I'm looking forward to see if NB have any announcements to make at Shinjuku BLAZE.