Himeaimichu

I kinda wish they still dressed Visual Kei. Like, yeah yeah I get it, music isn't necessarily a fashion show, but like, they sound too Visual Kei to dress so normal. 

It's like, I listen to it and I literally just hear a modernised Allure Idea. They sound way too cool to not be at least expressive with their looks. 

This band keeps getting more Vkei and I'm all here for it

While Jealousy is a natural feeling, it should always be kept in check. The best feeling is to be in a relationship where you're completely secure and trust eachother enough, to where jealousy is barely a problem. I think it's much easier though when you live with your partner and see them often enough to really know what they think about you, rather than say an online relationship or a medium distance relationship. When you live with them, you have more security because you know they're more than willing to put up with you, seeing as they enjoy being with you enough to share their home with you.

Looking to buy this DEViL KiTTY album. Doesn't matter if it's the jewel case version or the tall case version. I just want a copy lol

https://vk.gy/releases/devil-kitty/3609/akuma-kicha/

I'd have The GazettE do an alter ego where they still play Early 2000's Kote-Kei, and Saki from Cuartet and Tetora from Kamikaze Boyz would be guest singers.

Kimi Wa Surudoku could have an alter ego where they actually make music that sounds like Karuna and Shinobu's past bands (Gill'e Cadith and Delta Ark respectively)

Kuroyuri to Kage/Gulu Gulu doing a Kote Kei alter ego would be awesome too.
 

Knowing Mahiro's past as a Yuuga clone, it'd be interesting to see the Kiryu boys do a DEViL KiTTY copy-band lol.

I experience the same situation, and, it's honesty hard. I mostly keep myself occupied with music, and my special interests. Talking with friends about it may not make you happier, but it can help get things off your chest, and make you feel a little lighter at least

Even though Undercode wasn't signing non-Kansai acts at the time, Cuartet should've joined Undercode instead of Climax Enterprise. They would've made an awesome early Undercode band

So that's why his bands are a mess. They're for fun. Can't be too mad at him for that lol

Just when I thought the fucker fucked off.

I love how they are still playing GossiP songs. GossiP never died, it just faked its death and changed its alias

They left because they couldn't deal with all the cease-and-desist orders

26 minutes ago, Disposable said:

Is it just me who found this mini to be pretty mediocre. Their concept is nice, visuals amazin and Ai's singing is one of a kind, but the riff department is really lame. The nu metal riffs pale in comparison to KtK ( even if they were more than once lifted from other bands ) and they're just not as dark or weird as I wanted them to be. The last track is hands down the best one and still even that one has the same fucking dyny nyny public domain metalcore riff that everyone else has.

That was my only complaint, the riffs could've been better. Ai's bands have never been the best in the riff department and to me, it's always the songs as a whole that shine, but yeah, you're right. The riffs aren't as good as they were in KtK

2 minutes ago, secret_no_03 said:

I don't know how, whoever is the composer is very skilled, but both mini-albums sound different from one another in tone with only two separate songs on each. Who knew carnival-kei would be a thing in 2020.

Rito writes all the riffs while Ai comes up with the basic ideas and the lyrics. Lanju and Hotaru also have input, but it's mainly Ai and Rito from what I've been told

Also, if I'm correct, in "Yogoreta Buta", Ai says the lyrics "Otose Otose Otose", which is a nice throwback to Zakuro no Uta by Memento Mori

The previews sound awesome! 

Kenzi with a sickly looking Yuuga and a very different Yayoi from a Deadly Sanctuary revival in 2007.

Cursed photo of Orochi when it originally formed when Ryu was studying in Australia.

EDIT: I realized the look I was criticising was Xaa Xaa... god I am an idiot lol

48 minutes ago, Gesu said:

I can't handle anything too bitter so the only hot drink I drink is hot chocolate. I have a massive sweet tooth and I've never understood why people say "put sugar in it" when I say I don't like coffee. Coffee is just such an overpowering taste/aroma to me and I don't think all the sugar in the world could convince me to drink it. Although, all the sugar in the world does sound nice... 😆

With me, I can only have coffee with a lot of creamer or milk (either eevaporated or condensed). Basically, contrasting the bitterness with some creaminess and sweetness. That's why Thai and Viet coffee use condensed milk. You need something super creamy and sweet to contrast the really rich coffee. 

I will never understand plain black coffee. I've tried it and it ain't my thing personally. Just plain bitterness is sensory hell for me lol

My favourite coffee is Vietnamese/Thai style. Rich, dark roast, with condensed milk. It is simultaneously strong and creamy.

As for tea, I can only do sweetened teas because I'm an uncultured plebian. That being said, I love black, oolong, milk/chai/boba, and chrysanthemum. I can't choose tea or coffee over eachother though, because I like them for different reasons. Coffee during the mornings, tea and water the rest of the day for me lol

To add on, they even have full music videos for some Hat Van songs, although these are condensed to a regular song-length. So if the other two videos have too much microphone feedback, retreat to this one lol

Just now, StriderSubzero said:

Do you have any videos etc. of this? Sounds interesting.

It's the "Lên đồng" Shamanism tradition. Essentially, it's pretty much indigenous spirit mediumship influenced by Taoism and Hinduism. The Shamans can be male or female, and they can envoke spirits of either gender, so it's not uncommon to see a man dressed in women's clothing with makeup. Even then, shamans will pretty much wear feminine makeup no matter the gender of who is being envoked. As well, the outfits worn by the Shamans include dresses that pre-date the modern Áo dài, and is more similar to the clothing of the ethnic minorities. The music it's set to, "Hát chầu văn", is pretty much the most authentic Northern style of traditional Vietnamese music. It takes on elements from all genres of traditional Vietnamese music, and is very improvisational, and can go from sounding very Chinese, to sounding more Indian (Traditional Vietnamese Music historically had a lot of Indian influence composition-wise. Especially in the South.) There is also a whole community dedicated to filming these events, since, I'm not kidding, many of these musicians are famous within the Hat Chau Van "community".

I don't know if this is the case for this, but I know that in Burma, they have a similar Shamanism tradition, with even crazier music, that has actually become a way for Burmese LGBT people to express themselves lol. I don't know if this is the case for Vietnam though.

Being an otaku since age 7, I always had a small idea of what Visual Kei was. I was aware of Dir en Grey, Gazetto, L'arc en Ciel, etc., but I always regarded them as just "Japanese Rock".

From age 14, I got a huge interest in traditional Japanese music. I then found this group called CrowXClass, that called themselves Visual Kei, and used traditional Japanese instruments. From there, I found Memento Mori, Kagerou, ACE, Kiryu, and other bands.

I think what mostly draws me to Visual Kei is the mishmashing of genres, kinda like prog (in fact, a friend of mine who is a huge prog head, thinks Visual Kei has a lot of its origins in prog) but done without thinking. By the late 90's, bandmen probably weren't thinking "Oh, I'm going to intricately mix Post Punk and Thrash Metal", they probably were like "I wanna sound like Luna Sea and Kuroyume". Most of these indie musicians were unknowingly making some really cool sounding stuff.

Also, I just really like the Thrash metal sound, but I hate the majority of western Thrash bands, so 90's Vkei has got me covered. That's another thing I like about Vkei over western metal. In western metal, it's like a competition to see who can be the biggest, manliest, and most brutal. But in Visual Kei, there is none of that. You don't have those really rough vocals you find all the time in western rock, and bands aren't afraid to mix genres.

Rock music is kinda limited in Vietnam. It's weird, Viets almost have no idea Rock music beyond the 60's stuff their parents listened to after Doi Moi reforms in the 1980's. Electric guitar music can be found, but it's usually shoehorned into traditional music performances (sometimes to a really good effect, as in Southern Vietnamese folk music, but a complete mess in Northern Viet folk music). They are well aware of the electric guitar, but they only use it to play traditional music, or really dated sounding pop music, often laden with cheap yamaha synths.

The closest thing we have to Visual Kei here is, and I'm not kidding, musical Shamanism rituals where the Shaman crossdresses. It's a really cool thing though, but I'm guessing that's not why you posted here lol.

This is the only Vietnamese Metal band I know about (there are more, but this is the only one I'm familiar with) and they're ok. Nothing too phenomenal. This song though isn't their strong point, since they attempt to mix in traditional Vietnamese instruments... with really bad keyboard samples. Like, you're in Vietnam. You could just get a Dan Tranh (zither) or Sao Truc (flute) player of the street, and even then, I've heard somewhat good samples of these instruments used by other music groups.

The way electric guitars are used in traditional Vietnamese music seem to be influenced by Rock music (or maybe it influenced 60's rock music, knowing how many musicians served in the war. CCR for example), but the style dates back to French colonial times. Other than the 5 popular rock and metal bands that exist, this is the closest to any kind of rock that most people listen to. ESPECIALLY if you're in the areas near Cambodia like Chau Doc.

It's safe to say that there are probably no Vietnamese Visual Kei bands. Maybe one or two, but I have no idea about them. There are some Thai Visual Kei bands though, but I don't think they'll inspire their neighbors anytime soon.

12 hours ago, avaritonista said:

I didn't get that one. What do you mean?

The "Loudness War" is a phenomenon in popular music where producers keep trying to make music louder and louder, at the cost of sound quality. Louder music is more likely to be heard, and therefore more likely to sell

8 hours ago, JRD said:

If I recall correctly(This is 12 years ago and I'm in my 30s so my memory is blotchy) they did have full PVs because a friend of mine sent them to me when they first came out. I think it died with my hard drive when I dropped it(but I can ask my other friend if he has them, since we were in the same circle and we shared shit all the time.)

Please do ask them!

They released PV spots for Another Side and Shigoumizakura, but never full versions. They remain on Niconico if I am correct, and watermarked versions can be seen on YT. These were made very early in their career, way before they got the record deal with BP, however I don't think full versions were ever made. If they do, then hopefully someone uploads them lol