sakuran

He forgot to do his arms

damn the vocalist looks deadass like Kyo
 
inb4 "they ran out of gazette looks to ripoff"

Bought some CDs and a photoset from old gossip, and it turned out Hiro's photo was signed.
 

MACABRE tour pics.
 

& all of this just because they didn't play ash this tour, smdh guys

I'm pretty sure that foreign fanbase is an afterthought at best. 
 
That said though, I attended the entire tour and didn't see one single of the many Chinese people present break out in tears, rip their Dir shirts to shreds or try to suicide bomb the venue. I didn't see a single overtly supremacist statement or controversial point beyond a very mainstream "free tibet" deal which makes sense based on their Buddhist backgrounds. It's about as dangerous and edgy as wanting to free Syria from ISIS.  I think it's safe to say these "problems" mostly exist in your head, and to be frank you present them in such a convoluted way that I think most people aren't even sure of what you're trying to say.
 
Let that be an end to this for now, we don't need any "Dir en grey are supremacists" discussions based on hearsay.
 

blonde Kaoru looking like shit is a way bigger problem than whatever failed political message they've been trying to squeeze over this tour

i think this hits the nail on the head of this problem.
when you're looking to curate something (and i believe this is a large part of an organizer's job), you need to know your shit and actually care about the acts you're bringing.
taking a quick look at the VK acts b7klan are working with, my first thought is 'i don't believe you for a second that you actually believe these bands have potential in europe'.

its funny cuz now its a loop
label staff know bands flop so they wont send over actually good bands except to the handful of good promoters in the scene who have shown results SO the other promoters just take kamijo 2x a year + some flop willing to do anything for free. also a lot of current bands don't have any plans on going abroad, which is why i think yukika isn't into it at all. then again, once a company has a good experience with a con or organizer, it spreads around and who knows after pentacum's success (??) a new bunch of bands will become interested all over again to go abroad.
 
also, no promoters actually like vk anymore to know whats cool and interesting in the japan instead they'll bring europhile bands and anyone on a major label
 
 

First off, Rouage's Mind album on vinyl.
 


 
The rest of my recent haul that's not as fun.

BY-SEXUAL - So Bad Boy promotional single cassette tape
Zeta Volume 2 VHS
Aggressive Dogs - Truth & News! Media!!  (I only bought this because Color's Marry and Decameron's Take-chan sang back-up vocals in the chorus in one of the songs.)
 

Pierrot - パンドラの匣
Pierrot - 気狂いピエロ
Aura - 20th Anniversary Best (Only for the two unreleased songs.)
Bellzlleb - Mr. Ree
Bellzlleb - Section II
Red Tail Cat - Sixth Sense Balance
Sister's No Future Max - Naked in the Rain single
Sammy (Billy & the Sluts) solo album
Billy & the Sluts - All That Billy greatest hits
 

-OZ- and despairsray ;_;

Kamikaze Boyz. 💗💗💗

Eh, I don't know. It's not that I don't like any VK bands anymore and I still listen to much of what I was into 5-10 years ago (the "classics"), but with the huge flow of band's and releases it just gets harder and harder to find new bands I enjoy. Back in the day when I first got into VK I started with all the classic bands and big bands, making it easy to find quality bands. Nowadays it feels like everyone is releasing something and I have to go through 50 bands to find one I like. Not worth the time IMO. And the "recent" metalcore-esque tend really didn't do me any favors as I despise the sound of modern, 2000's metalcore.
 
But this goes for every genre and scene. Like the depressive black metal boom, thrash metal boom, othrodox black metal boom and so on. I like all these subgenres a lot, but suddenly you had to listen to 50+ albums to find one decent within these styles because "everyone" did them. It was just too much shit getting released which made it hard to find something good, which again made me look for something else. Basically same with VK for me.

^ I totally agree with you @seikun,  the Visual-kei have alot of different phases, and in my opinion there will be more phases in this style, who all (or the most part of this site) love. There always will exist a lot of bad bands. but it's something about music tastes of the people, if you really love Visual-kei you can search a lot of different bands, with heavy, speed, old, sad, happy, etc sounds, you only need to search something that you like. Or still listening the older eras of Visual-kei that you never finish finding bands.
 

So much analysis.
What's wrong with stating what you don't like about today's Visual Kei?
People did the same thing ten, fifteen, twenty years ago and most likely the same exact debate is happening in Japanese circles too. I don't think this is only happening in the west.
 
Visual Kei has gone through different phases, some more memorable than others and that have made a greater impact. It's not like everything today with Visual Kei is bad or a disappointment, but perhaps there is something about the style that's missing. In the end that's what forums are for: debate.
 
No one complains when you state that you love today's Visual Kei then why does it bother you when someone criticises it? You can do the same thing with older eras of Visual Kei, whatever you opinion may be. If you start stigmatising people for comments that you don't like even though they are personal opinions that harm no one then people will feel discourgaed to leave comments and a forum should be open for differing opinions.
 

I can think of a few good reasons why.
 
There isn't anywhere else. There wasn't ever anywhere else really. During the VK heyday, most of our "competition" were blog spots. Finding downloads is easy. MH is one of the few bastions of hardcore music discussion left on the Internet dedicated to visual kei. It's not endemic, but it's not uncommon either. There's something about visual kei that comes and goes in waves and perhaps by sharing our experiences we can all come to a common understanding on what visual kei really means to us. The more I think about it, I don't "fall" out of other scenes or genres the way I do visual kei. I could go three to four months only listening to visual kei, and then spend another three to four months not listening to it at all. It's got a really addicting quality to it! Some people remain steadfast, others worship the false god K-Pop, and then the rest of us are somewhere in the middle, one foot still tied to this place. Or at least I am. For me at least, it's really interesting to see why people are leaving visual kei. The first reason given is usually a general one that hides the real one. A pattern I have noticed and never seen mentioned is that all it takes is one band's untimely disbandment for the wind to leave someone's sails. Mine was D'espa. For what it's worth, I haven't noticed too much complaining in this thread. But I have noticed that a lot of members have refined tastes in visual kei, and know what they like, and will tune in when something catches their interest. There's just so much going on in the scene these days, if one is not knee-deep in it and doesn't have a gateway band to ease returning into the scene, it can feel like the scene has nothing to offer them anymore.

okay 5400 yen revival qweens! get that pay cheque!

I was expecting Metis Gretel or a new project together Suzuya (ex.Trance Note) but hey ... that's fine ... too ... I guess.

I woke up this morning and saw some ameblo notifications in my inbox, and I remembered that the tour final was last night, so I was like, okay, we have a new single and some preview or something.
 
Single (with a $100 limited version because WHY NOT), two albums, and a 108-stop tour? Time to start pawning off my organs I guess.

(For real though, am I the only one concerned that Yukika is going to work these guys to death?)

I hope he's coming back! I missed him.

No photos yet but I ordered this rare ass V.A called Screen of Culminate Vol.1 and I dunno if anyone here would appreciate the bands or not but it's really my style.
 
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/HLD-29
 
Screen of Culminate Vol.1 / オムニバス
クラッチ、Veronica、アンデット、PARFAIT、悪いヤツ!、℃、Garret、PHANTOM、Feather、Grieveの楽曲を収録。
 
Here is one of the songs from the V.A, and again I dunno if people here are into this type of shit but I really like it and can't wait for it to arrive so I can rip it immediately.
 
 
 
 
 

@emmnyfound dead in miami

visuals SNATCHED

Oh yes I did not think about "jacket" in this way, it makes sense now. I was thinking about the jacket as an item of clothing... xD

Vexent - VICTIM + DVD + Signed Photoset <3 ( Yuito didn't sign his photo </3 )
Virge - 不透明な雨 + Bonus Track