Himeaimichu

14 year old me would be disappointed but current 20 year old me is pleasantly surprised

Doing stage musicals nowaday, for the most part, following her scandal in the anime world. Her voice has gotten more polished:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=平野綾+mozart

First vid. had a lot of Japanese people who previously knew of her really surprised (mostly in a good way).

this gives me very awful flashbacks…

@Ikna It's both awful and awesome for me lol. Blessed but cursed.

I just realized my name in the screenshot still has the last name Tamura, which was the last name of an ex I had lol. That's how long I've had this microsoft account

Their music and aesthetic did influence early Vkei bands though. Like, listen to the song Catholic. Visual Kei literally partially grew from Japanese Goth bands. Obviously G-Schmitt pre-dates Visual Kei, but their music was definitely an important step. Many of the first Visual Kei musicians were goth, and probably listened to Japanese goth bands as well as your standard western goth bands.

Obviously G-Schmitt isn't full on Visual Kei, but to say they didn't influence Visual Kei at all, is really stretching it.

I'm afraid people who went to see late 80s post-punk liveshows or walpurgis etc events made their own post-punk/no wave bands to stay underground...  I can hear post-punk-ish rhythm and "nerve" in the very early vkei, but it disappeared too fast...

And then there's the great Auto-Mod, who had Tomoyasu Hotei on guitars before he moved on to Boowy. I always considered Auto-Mod/Genet to be the secret grandfather of visual kei. It always felt like Kiyoharu got his early warbly voice in Kuroyume more from Genet than the obvious Robert Smith. The Tribute to Auto-Mod album really drives that home with Kiyoharu's epic Deathtopia cover.

And then there's Libido who I've gotten into recently who was connected with YBO2 and the Transrecord scene of krautrock. Their songs definitely had gothic moments both aurally and visually. One of Libido's early guitarists actually was one of the founding members of G-Schmitt before moving on to other projects.
 

I've had it done a few times, hopefully there's no issues. it's not fun.

That's some fine detective kei work.

The older artwork on their releases are super cute and appealing to me. also devil kitty is just a great band name, 悪魔鬼茶 would be just as good

You forgot about the biggest crime in smartphone design in the last years: removing the headphone jack. I don't care how convenient it is to have no cables - the jack worked fine and the sound quality is better and more reliable. I know people who'd smash their bluetooth speakers and headphones against the wall if it weren't for the peer pressure and "coolness factor". 

The last years we didn't have any true improvements as storage, memory and cpu capabilities are only slowly getting better and at this point it's just producers and brands inventing new gimmicks to incite people to buy the lastest tech. Shit like making phones so thin they need a screen repair after one year and having to buy extra bluetooth devices or an adapter to listen to music are the things that help these companies to fake innovation to get more money… while prices are increasing every year. 

My biggest headache tech wise is having to not only choose whether I charge my phone or use earphones, but also the fact that my phone has an exclusive earphone/charging jack so if I'm going out with more than one device I have to take out multiple headphones. That and like aimi said  m ergonomic issues, my hands are destroyed from phone use. 

Remember when the future meant super tiny phones?

I let my phone slide and hit the ground or fall just because it's now designed to do so. haha within reason so I don't have to buy another one. Lucky so far but also ready to smash it's face. Tech indeed has improved our lives but the moment it stops working like it should, it brings out a unique kind of rage. I'm talking about texting correct English and casting to my "smart" TV. I used to love customizing my phone interface, but my latest had so much stuff for me to go through to "get to know it" I quit and just change the bkgds now...

Also, I think having great cameras on phones kills my camera buying. I still want a camera but then I need a phone which costs more than a decent camera but the phone comes with some high tech lens and I can't avoid it. Now two big appliances in my bag.

I miss flip phones and phones with full keyboards.

There's a Brazilian studio working on a GTA esque game set in Brazil. 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1269370/171PrAlpha/

That seems cool! Hopefully they'll make an English translation of the game! Brazil would be an interesting place for a GTA clone. I imagine the Favelas of Rio would make for excellent parkour

fuck cops and fuck any line of thinking that has some fantastic construction of people as the sole owners of this that or the other ( especially land )

fyi

Hakuei >>>>> any western weaboo kei band

/thread

@Naaaaani In the musical department, of course. Hakuei beats them all.

In the opinions department however, they're all *Danny Devito voice* TRAESH

For reference, most Chinese Folk Metal bands are rooted in modern Chinese Orchestra, and would be better classified as Chinese Symphonic Metal than Folk Metal technically (Chinese folk music is a completely separate musical category, although both are thought of as traditional)

For fans of Kote Kei, the melody played by the Dizi flute in this song really remind me of Kote guitar riffs. However, I think it's simply because they coincidentally used the same mode or scale those Kote songs use. The song slaps though. 

I literally think they had a full version going but at the last moment, Yuuga decided no guitar or drums lmao

preach

Well, since we were talking about post-punk influences… I am certain G-Schmitt had a huge influence on this trope, as they had a few songs with spoken parts. Here is one song, that always reminds me heavily of the dark 90s VK bands:
 

The intro of this Gilles de Rais song is also very Deshabillz-esque (and features Lucifer from Gille's Love)

So I'd say it's been around quite some time, just like counting on German (earliest use by Zi:Kill afaik).

Recently I've been digging acts from the 80s, and discovered a track by Dead End (I guess it's from their 2nd or 3rd album) where Morrie does a speaking part. I think that's the oldest song where I found this trope.

I found the song. It's from their 1986's album "Dead line": 

I've listened to them a few times and I really need to try them out more!

Some Suggestions (though some of them may also be from early 90s): DIE-QUÄR, Media-Youth, D≒SIRE, Silver~Rose, L'yse:nore, Canary, Speed-ID, Rapture, FANATIC◇CRISIS, Maschera, Kneuklid Romance, Romance for~

Pretty sure there's plenty others, the early to mid 90s were the best time for VK, lots of great bands as the scene exploded and reached its peak.

Kneuklid Romance [2] (haven't listened to their major era much, but their 2nd (?) vocalist material is some of my all-time vkei favorites)

L'yse:nore [2] (although I think they're also late-90s).

Canary [2] (they're basically Deshabillz with better vocals)

Ti+Dee

Penicillin (Penicillin Shock ~ Vibe albums should be what you're looking for)

Sleep My Dear

Blüe

I don't think Riku or Jun really like K*$aki at the moment, so that's seemingly possible. They'd probably use Gotcharocka's bassist tho, instead of some random who hasn't been in a band for nearly 20 years.

Btw, this is the kind of music that always makes her light up lol

We joke that she's secretly a Javanese Cat in a Domestic Shorthair body lol

IDK if this counts but my cat stops sleeping and gets up to leave whenever I sing along to Diru or X Japan (she really hates my attempts at their ballads lol) 

🤔