Hakari

Sadly this, but we won't know for sure until it comes out!

Hizaki challenges my sexuality 

Hey guys...anything new yet?

I think this is my favorite list! Awesome reviews here and enjoy seeing some 'uncommon' releases.

Today's arrival !
 
Initial'L - Moon light down all types
the god and death stars - It isn't a singles
DALLE - ambivalence to violentia
Kisaki Project - Re:Requiem
megamasso -  雨降る夜に
megamasso - Frosty +  雨降る夜に for my girl @eiheartx (who will probably be in love after this pic :D)
 
LUNA SEA The holy night SLAVE FC limited tee shirt
LUNA SEA The holy night candle
 
FInal Fantasy XV Limited Collector's edition + Amazon JP pre order bonus
FFXV Prologue drama CD

BROOOO' YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM RN

No forgivness. You are banned forever from deviloof fandom 
 
haha jk

No forgivness. You are banned forever from deviloof fandom 
 
haha jk

none of the new songs? boooooooo

then i'm sorry,guys
i thought that was some confirmation of the release date,as i said,i wasn't sure

to be fair, it -is- called "poison chocolate" so from the jump it doesn't seem that serious of a song, haha. for real though i love their goofball mode but going back to something more mature a la butterfly/aoi yami (or blending it with panic's sorta steez) for the bsides/next releases would be great—hearing aoi yami was what hooked me on them in the first place. and i swear to god they better make their next record -at least- a mini... love everything they do but all these singles is a bit much looool

Actually not a huge fan of this song. Was hoping a little bit more of a mature sound a mixture of Kabukichou butterfly and Panic. Oh well maybe the b-side will deliver? This band seriously needs to release an album

Actually not a huge fan of this song. Was hoping a little bit more of a mature sound a mixture of Kabukichou butterfly and Panic. Oh well maybe the b-side will deliver? This band seriously needs to release an album

Welcome! Lots of awesome bands to get into! 

well this is what google translate says hahaha
 
"I did it! Official's 2017 one-man tour held, full album release,

Karaoke delivery decision! It is! Yuu fixed tweaks you again! It is! I did not go back to the original after erasing it"

Ok guys, but all jokes aside here is the link

Ok guys, but all jokes aside here is the link

I think this is my favorite list! Awesome reviews here and enjoy seeing some 'uncommon' releases.

~Like every year the combination of images and videos is assaulting your web browser. Just give it a minute~
 
2016 was an ... interesting year. I came to grips with my status as a visual kei fan of shit turn of the century disbanded bands and ojisan rock, but found new comers convincing enough to keep me around. Albums I had been waiting on forever finally released and invigorated my passion for music halfway through the year like it always does. A few surprises were sprinkled throughout the year and while I felt that the year was lacking in great music looking back it's not so bad. This year certainly left a better impression on me musically than any year since 2011 - and that's saying a lot for me since that's the year that I started doing these lists.
 

 
Aphex Twin - Cheetah EP
 
 
 

 
THE BLACK SWAN - OUSIA
 
 
 
 

 
BUCK-TICK - アトム 未来派 No.9
 
 
 

 
The Dear Hunter - Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional
 
 
 

 
decays - baby who wanders
 
 
 
 

 
downy - 第六作品集『無題』
 
 
 


Flatbush Zombies: 3001 A Laced Odyssey
 
 
 

 
HIZAKI - Rosario
 
 
 

 
IX -NINE- - NIRDVANDVA
 
 
 

 
 
KEEL - Raison de etre et de sang
 
 
 

 
陰陽座 - 迦陵頻伽
 
 
 

 
Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 3
 
 
 

 
Russian Circles - Guidance
 
 
 

 
有村 竜太朗 (Ryutaro Arimura) - 「デも／demo」
 
 
 

 
siraph - siraph
 
 


 
Vektor - Terminal Redux
 
 
 

 
Versailles - The Greatest Hits 2007-2016
 
 
 

 
ザアザア (Xaa-Xaa) - 中毒症状
 
 
 
 
Thanks for reading!

whut
 
 
You know this kind of pisses me off. It makes me realize that if X Japan actually did something and put out good music consistently they could be a big influence on the scene and do a lot of good. But you know that would be asking to much.

I've been following this thread for quite a while and many things came up in my head while reading through it. Many people already mentioned things I wanted to say or made valid points, but I'd still like to share a few things from my own point of view and experiences. (and sorry if i repeat some things already stated because i read kinda fast and have a short memory...)

To me, LJ played a huge role in the VK international fanbase and was what really made it feel alive (especially for people who lived too far to attend lives and such and could only rely on the net for the experience). It was very interactive and people shared the shit out of things. Jrock scans was one of the best LJ communities ever and I must've spent hours browsing through their directory just trying to save scans of all my favorite bands. I still have them in my hard drive today and my only regret is that I didn't spend more time on it because all the links from there are dead now (lol). I was one of those people who made a shit ton of graphics and icons so scans were pretty important for me yeah...For a movement that's all about the visuals though the idea of making pretty graphics felt interconnected and made the fandom more fun as a whole. Now that it's practically not a thing anymore the whole appeal of the visuals feels more boring? Another thing I liked about LJ was that you could read your friends' journal entries and learn about their favorite bands, other than the ones you already share. People wrote about their favorite bands all their time, posted PVs and pics, and shared live reports, which I found very fun to read because they were very casual. Around the time LJ died out was around the time everybody's favorite bands started disbanding and a lot of people just left. With the transition to tumblr, like most people mentioned already, it's only reblogs and it feels a lot less interactive, making it hard to find/talk to new friends. (thankfully there's still MH though :>)

Seeing that all my vk friends were leaving even I was feeling the pull of leaving vk forever. I even left my fav band Plastic Tree for a while (probably sometime after their ammonite album released). How dare I, I know. But in between those times I was out of vk I still found myself checking back in the scene once in a while out of curiosity, and found interest in a few newer bands. I just wasn't as crazy active as I was during LJ times. It wasn't until I went to Japan when I attended my very first vk live, which was AvelCain, that I regained all that vk-ness back in me. After seeing such an amazing and fun performance I realized how much I still loved vk, and that was pretty much how I woke up (and here I am now). It's probably different for everyone, but I feel like those who say that it was a fad might just a need a little something to make it all come back again, as it did for me.

Also, I feel like the attitudes of fans might also play a role in the decline. You see a lot of people complaining about the low quality of music these days and that vk is not the same anymore, which I KNOW is very true in many cases and I do this too, but at the same time it puts too much negativity into the fandom and makes everything seem less attractive, and so people leave. The sharing aspect also feels increasingly dead--music sharing wise the reasons are pretty obvious, but even just the talk and spread of vk feels increasingly dead. Again, this can probably lead back to how tumblr is all about the reblogs, not much interaction or discussion. That's why I'm very glad that MH still does what it does today (the monthly recommended tracks, reviews, and great threads like these and the awesome recent oshare and nu-metal kei threads, etc. where we can really discuss and share about vk), because maaaan the vk fandom feels so dead everywhere else.

With the changes in mainstream culture, and Kpop still a thing, I don't see how the newer generation will grow into vk. The only way they'll ever get into it is probably by the influence of a friend. So with that said, keep spreading the vk love people, as cheesy as it sounds lol.

Oh man, vkdb was my thing before the editors stopped editing it regularly. It's strange how few of today's newer bands are featured on that site relative to the mid 2000s.
 
I don't know how to contribute to this thread since most of my thoughts have already been said.. I learned about visual kei through a friend on Youtube and got really invested into the music mostly through watching Youtube related videos, and later through last.fm (RIP Last.fm) around 2008 but got really involved in 2009. It seemed like some of the most recognizable visual kei bands were really going strong back then, bands like diru (not technically vk but arbiters of the scene), d'espa, gazette, rentrer en soi, sadie, nega, deluhi, matenrou opera, -Oz-, D, UnsraW, versailles, girugamesh, LMC, merry, an cafe, alice nine, and many other bands that really seemed to stick out more to people... Hell I remember when visual kei bands were getting millions of hits back then within such short periods of time on Youtube and I don't even know what happened. Now I look at visual kei and I can see people getting into these relatively newer bands like MEJIBRAY, but these bands just don't have the same mystique that the old bands had. It also seems to me that VK is losing its distinct marketability and becoming more akin to things like Kpop (Pretty boys performing dynamic popular music) . I dunno I could be bloviating here but those are just a few thoughts.

man i live and breathe br00tal kei. if more vk bands venture into metal and core genres and do it WELL, i'd be all for it