Laurence02

As has been pointed out, if you want to trade for rarez, you need rarez.
 
Also, if you want to trade with japanese traders, you better have a grasp of basic japanese, or at least the most common phrases used for trading, so you can pass off as japanese.
(I know that japanese traders have a terrible reputation, but if you get to know them they are actually pretty nice. I manged to befriend a few during my p2p days, and then they would give me all their rarez for free, even though I could rarely return the favor, and even though they sooner or later realized I wasn't actually Japanese. They are harsh against outsiders, but very generous to their friends.)
 
I stopped trading years ago, because it was more hassle than worth the effort, but I had two primary ways of trading: p2p in specialized rooms like on Utatane, and trade lists. I'm guessing that p2p vk-trading is pretty much dead, and I'm actually not sure if list trading is still a thing. Most of my contacts seem to have stopped with it anyway. Basically, you will sometimes encounter trade lists on the internet that will usually look like this. It lists the stuff they have, the stuff they want, their eMail and other requirements. You can contact them with a list of your own stuff, and if you are lucky they will reply. I have never once gotten a "rude" reply, the worst (and not uncommon thing) to happen is no reply at all.
 
But again, you should have some knowledge of japanese so you can read their rules and communicate with them. And, to get really rare stuff, you better have some damn rare stuff yourself. Most list traders have a hierachy of "rareness", usually indicated by stars or similar. They will not trade some COCKROACH release for just any random Alice Nine release, obviously.
 
If you don't want to bother with that, trying to find stuff on auctions is probably the easier, albeit more expensive way.

My 2 cents. There's two ways of obtaining rarez:
 
1) Trade with traders, foreign or Japanese. Japanese traders are total asshats who think they're better than everyone, period. If you have no rarez of your own you can't get into this game.
Then there's foreign traders, most of the ones I know are, like Tokage said, nice people. The reason why they don't want to share their stuff? Mostly it's because if their stuff gets spread onto every corner of the web they lose their connections with their trader buddies since they didn't keep it to themselves. It's a nasty world but that's how it works, sorry.

2) Buy stuff yourself. This is how I got most of my rarez. I have some stuff I know a lot of people are interested in but trust me, if you pay €50 for like 3 songs that sound like they're recorded through a toaster you wouldn't feel that entitled to share it with the rest of the internet either, unless you poop money in your spare time or something. I don't, so yea.

Or maybe they spent $50+ on a CD that was given out for free at a concert with 1 song on it and, quite frankly, don't want it to be on every corner of the internet so your dying blogspot or awful tumblr gets more hits on a rinkydink visiter counter applet. And of course, they'll have to make another thread for the same thing because it wasn't ripped in lossless: I need to be able to hear the vocalist's spit hitting the microphone or music will not cure my cancer!! 
 
Of course there's elitism. The only way to get what you want out of people who don't like to share in order to feel good about themselves is to have something they want. If you want a live distributed album that was only pressed into 20 copies from someone in Japan who has it,  you're going to need some collateral. Calling them a cunt on a last.fm shoutbox isn't going to change their minds either.
 
tl;dr : people think they're holier than thou because they have certain things, but at the same time everyone else also feels super entitled to having everything and any quality as soon as they read a thread Trombe wrote saying it was maybe released maybe not who knows
 
 
~Privilege is a two way street~
 
 
Also echoing what Tokage said. The overwhelming majority of rarez really aren't good in terms of quality or even good songs. Sometimes they end up just being samples or members mumbling over an instrumental version of a song they already put out or, more often then not, they're samples of a CD that never gets released because they break up 5 minutes later. Additionally some things aren't even "rare," so much as people stopped caring about them for 5 years and all the links to it died.

Because people are elitist and believe in keeping things to themselves, unfortunately. Also, there's the whole huge thing about credit. People want credit for everything and people had this thing where they hated all the mexican/spanish people and their blogspots where they'd post links of downloads they stole. A lot of people weren't happy about it.
 
I remember going through the stresses of this whole rarez thing a few years back. I forget how, but there are a few people that a notable for having rare things, and once you get to know who they are, you can use your super ultra rarez!11!  thing to trade and what not. The more you have, the more popular you'll become and you'll be introduced into a world of all these people. It's honestly unnecessary stress.
 
I do remember that TW had a secret forum for trading/sharing rarez, but you had to obtain a certain status... Not sure what it's like now though :x
 
And yea, knowing people in Japan helps too

Are there sites out there where you can trade with japanese people for rarez? I'm really confused and have been for about 7 years on how certain people get rare releases, and the voodoo vault guy had some rare releases but mostly just old jazz or blues japanese stuff.(Which btw anyone can get by going to any various japanese music site so not that rare just old like 60's old.) So anyway how do people get these rarez and more importantly why are only a few people able to? Friends, connections, moving to japan? Is that the only option to get rarez and why is it from time to time no information can even be found about bands (ex. Sugahara kouta since1889) like his band before usagi appearently that band had at least one release but only one person has it. Now for my last question; if you have these releases and no one else can get them and you can buy them yourself because you don't know where to get them then why not just share, I always do even though I've only got my hands on a handful of rarez.

Multiple bands of the same era will hold a memorial live. 
Details:
松村達明 追悼LIVE 
GAZ presents「Chain」
2018.7.8(日)目黒鹿鳴館
開場16:00 / 開演16:30
前売4,500円 / 当日5,000円
 
『出演』　 
theNightBreezeZinnia
黒蝪蝶 
GRIMM THE CAPSULE（tsubaki,TAKUYA）
堕天使 
superbrunch
Little Vampire
他
詳細は随時発表
拡散希望！

I don't think japanese bands are overthinking the matter nearly as much as you do.
 
 
Pretty much all tapes we are talking about here are from 90s bands. These bands didn't release tapes because CDs didn't exist (they did since the 80s), but because back then it was just cheaper and easier for a band to record a tape. So in the beginning of their career vk bands would often start with a few tapes as demonstration, and when they met with some success, they would venture into making CDs. As such, pretty much every tape could be considered a "demo". At least I have never seen a band say "Okay, we released a few demo tapes, and now we are going to release our first "real" tape!"
 
After some discussion among staff we thus decided that if we are going to have a new "tape" tag, EVERYTHING originally released on tape should be tagged as such. Trying to make a distinction between a "tape" and a "demo tape" just seems like splitting hairs, especially if bands use the terms interchangeably anyway.
 
As for the old "demo" tag... we will probably rename it to "Demo CD" to avoid confusion. But it's a really vague tag. There aren't really any inherent criteria that signify that a CD is a "Demo CD" other than the band calling it such. And apparently you can call pretty much everything a "demo CD", whether it's some unlabeled CD-R given away at lives or pretty much a standard single sold at shops. As such I consider that tag to be rather useless and I myself would prefer it if people used single/live dist/whatever else applies instead.

And please add "Demo" tag for the lossless section. I know, it's pretty weird but I prefer to rip tapes in lossless lol.

^ well, there are quite a few bands who sound like they could be from that era. It‘s not so obscure as actual 90s style oldschool bands. See DEZERT, Kuroyuri to kage, Gossip, AvelCain, Crimson Shiva, Sibilebashir, etc. The 00s sound hasn‘t completely died out yet. In fact, some of the bands of this era managed  to survive way into the early 2010s. I remember there were still enough Gazette copycats around in 2010. True it‘s slowly starting to fade away as Metalcore has become the next big thing, but a few bands still clinge to it.
 
Being a hopeless nostalgic I can understand where you are coming from, but can‘t agree 100%. The style has changed and the scene is pumping out one Royz-clone after another, but it would be wrong to idealize the past and say, that everything was better back then. The video and production quality seems to be the scapegaot in most discussions, but honestly: it wasn‘t as good as we claim. That doesn‘t mean that all PVs in the 90s and 00s were Matina-style low budget crap filmed on a shaky handcam with the band dancing around in the forest or wrapping themselves in toilet paper, but there wasn‘t as much budget as today. PVs nowadays look a lot better, because the technology may have become more affordable.
 
I also don‘t think that the production has gotten worse (it can‘t be worse than the ‘production’ some obscure VK bands had in the 90s when they recorded their songs in a 5m2 bathroom), maybe their instrumental just happen to sound bad. One thing I noticed with many indies VK bands emerging since the early 00s were the boring 3 chord (or less) riffs. Those were particulary bad in some low budget Nu Metal bands (plus half assed growls). My main beef with modern VK is that the bands want to play Nu Metal or Metalcore so badly, but either don‘t have the skill or the will to learn it. I am not an expert on this issue, since I am not really a big Metal fan, but I am sure that 90% of these VK bands don't even scratch on the surface of what are good growls or ‘harsh vocals’. I really can’t stand listening to random or reptitive guitar slamming and growls and screams so bad it gives me a headache. Which is the main reason why I stay away from this music (even though I listen to AvelCain and Karma‘s voice sometimes exhibits the same problem. I then often just skip the song or part…)

Both parties sure have points, but what bugs me more is that so many people paint the "elders" of the scene as narcistic assholes who are jealosuy of other bands and who try to overestimate their own success. Because his is not true. Of what should the elders be jealous? And why? After all, groups like LUNA SEA, KJamaitachi, X Japan and Pierrot were extremely popular and influential on the genre. It wouldn't really make sense if they were jealous of all these bands in the VK scene that started out (in one point of history) as their copy bands. New Visual kei is vastly different from old VK, but if you trace back the history of any modern band, epecially big bands like the Gazette, you will always end at LUNA SEA and their peers from that time.

Also I am sure that most modern VK musicians are aware of the influence those old bands had. I am sure too that they all admire their elders. Therefore painting the elders as ignorant, envious assholes is pretty mean and not right. Also: why aren't they allowed to give their own opinion on VK? They were pretty much the creators, the fathers of VK. If it wasn't for them, VK wouldn't even be a thing nowadays. So they have all the reason to talk about it as they want. You don't have to agree with them, you don't even need to listen to them. It doesn't hurt you either that most of them disllike what their "baby" has grown into. I don't really understand how sensible one can be when the opinion of one musician makes you so angry that you have to talk bad about them. But maybe I am just growing sick and tired of people banging their heads against each other, just because their precious Kyo has said something about VK which they didn't like. (Also sure that in at least 20 years the popular VK bands of today will say the same about the next generation of VK bands)

And on a side note: LUNA SEA and Co. were definitely original, at least in their time span, when VK wasn't really thing and not many bands played in this style. In my opinion they are even original today. There may have been a lot of copy cats, but no other band actually reached the same level they had. Their impact on the japanese music scene was pretty big too, and wasn't just limited to futire Visual kei, but probably japanese rock music in general. I doubt that Sugizo is envious of "modern stuff" as their music is timeless and perfect as it is. And show me any modern day VK band that has reached the same legendary status, influence and fame that LUNA SEA have, please. And I am saying this as someone who isn't such a big fan of them. But I am not an igorant idiot and claim that they are a forgettable band who didn't pull of anything.

(I may agree with the statement about Angelo, but not Dir en grey. The latter don't even have any connection to VK anymore, so comparing their current stylistic direction with the stagnation of today's VK scene is far-fetched. And them playing their old songs form time to time doesn't really count and doesn't make them VK)

ono not this shit again. 
blackdoll, please, stop being an ignorant kid and trying to pin on your bullshit to others. you won't go too far with all those ridiculous arguments of yours. respect people's opinions and maybe your opinion will also be respected. 
 
and who the fuck stole flash-fab-supernova's account? curious to know, really.

1. Everything those old schoolers say is true. VK is in a period of stagnance run by money and looking cute to grab the tweens who want drag queens to drool over.
 
2. VK music was COMPLETELY different back then than what it is now. The music had diverse sounds rather than the same old shit being rehashed over and over. Visual Kei has become a conglomerate of pumping out over produced over done tacky bitches.
 
3. How are they being hypocritical? Their bands could never be easily compared to the sound of another. Now almost all VK bands are just overdone copypasta. And it's the TRUTH. You just don't want to accept it because you aren't mature enough yet to see it. But don't worry, you'll get there soon. We've all been in your position of haughty egoistic opinions. 
 
4. Calling them pricks and saying they should be spat on shows you are wildly immature and need to sit back and take a deep breath and actually THINK before you type. Especially when you are insulting the forefathers of your supposed loved genre of music. With out any of those "pricks" there wouldn't be VK. 
 
5. Anything Pierrot, Dir en Grey, Luna Sea, Kenzi did were all VASTLY different than the generic manufactured VK that is running rampant in the market today. Maybe I'll make an infographic that will show you the lines of descent between these bands and the new acts that are stinking up the place with their shoddy guitar riffs, clang-bang drumming, and cartoon styled vox.
 
666. Get some salve for that bruised ego of yours if you get upset over the opinions of others. You can't change them. And if ANYONE has a say on what VK has become it's definitely the people who laid down the ground work for what is here today.

VK died when people stopped dressing like nazis. No nazis, no VK.

I prefer the old Visual Kei, the one from the mid 90's to early 2000's when most bands ended up breaking up (around 2002).
 
In my very personal opinion this era was the best for Visual Kei because it kind of attained a more distictive sound and bands tended to be more dramatic/theatrical on stage among other reasons.
 
Today's VK bands don't appeal to me that much with a few exceptions. But most bands have that nümetal sound that makes them sound dull and all the same and if I compare them to older bands, current bands don't have much to offer that I might feel interested in listening to.
 
I actually don't care much if a band sounds "crappy". One of the things that attracted me to Visual Kei was that most bands in the 90's had that "mental insanity" sound  with those hypnotic guitars that I just cannot find in today's bands. As an example, listen to Verfe~gorl's Kindan Shoujou. That song is amazing and can be used as a reference of the 90's sound of Visual Kei. I don't find that sound today.
 
There are and have been bands that I like and have liked today, but I usually forget about them after a time.
 
It all depends on personal taste. However I wish there were more bands like the ones of the 90's and early 2000's.

There's at least two that I know of and those were listed on the page you linked previously.  There might be more out there, but since LBB weren't popular and were based in Kyoto, the people that still have them might not be as eager to sell them.  I own a demo tape by Naoki (Decameron) that I have zero information other than it was released before Decameron's Blue Stranger and I have never been able to find it for sale outside from the MH user I bought it off of. 

Outside of the Emergency Express 1992 omnibus, LBB didn't have anything ever released on CD.  They released a handful of demo-tapes due Andy and Ryollan burnt their bridges with Free-Will Records when they left Decameron.  Back during the early days of VK, burning bridges with one of the 'big two' (Extasty & Free-Will) once you made that connection with them meant the death of your band and vk career.  Since Lucky Bon Bon were based in Kyoto, that also adds up to the rarity of the demo-tapes.

Some pre-DEG stuff:
 
http://warasibe.co.jp/detail.php?ec=10007646
 
 
A live video by La:Sadie's that's not one of the "big three"? Also, a PV?
 
http://warasibe.co.jp/detail.php?ec=10007644
 
 
La:Sadie's versions of ZAN and Setsuna? Also mentioned here, along with 鏡死 and 刺ノ刻, whatever those songs are.
 
http://warasibe.co.jp/detail.php?ec=10007645
 
 
The famous Kuroyume cover. Don't know from which date, though. Could be the February pre-DEG concert or a later...
This guy says that one of Kyo's earlier bands covered the song as well, and that he has a tereko of the performance, but won't share it... love the scene, really
 
http://warasibe.co.jp/detail.php?ec=10007643
 
 
Not sure what this is. In general, the whole Gesshoku discography is a little confusing^^
 
http://warasibe.co.jp/detail.php?ec=10007642
 
 
Allegedly, they're live tracks, but... well, no idea if they exist. Also mentioned here.
 
Leaked La:Sadie's lives:
14.08.1996 - Kumagaya Vogue (one song leaked)
16.08.1996 - Niigata Odo-Hall
20.08.1996 - 市川CLUB GIO ( two songs leaked)
29.08.1996 - Osaka AMhall (completely leaked, often mislabeled as LS' last live)
 
Also, from DEG's Mousou~ VHS tapes and their VOS documentary, we know that most, if not all of their indies concerts were actually recorded on camera.
 
I also have to correct an earlier statement regarding Kiri to Mayu and Sangeki no Yoru: The actual story is that one day before DEG began recording MISSA, Kyo was told to change the lyrics for Sangeki no Yoru. The band considered removing the song from the EP for that reason, but decided against it since Kiri to Mayu, as it was now called, was the first song the fans were to hear so it was important.
 
And something y'all probably didn't know: Karma was actually supposed to be on MISSA as well, but was not included due to the same reasons. Both songs were later included on the Kaede VHS. Which brings me to another fact:
If your Kaede Crystal Video Box has blood on its back, it's Shinya's. He cut himself while packing the boxes (which the band had to do themselves). Although it's unclear how many boxes they packed, after all, there are 10k copies^^

2017 has been an...interesting year, with so much unexpected drama and surprises that's to go down in history for years. So much has happened that I was able to put together two lists of band members caught in embarrassing , illegal, and reprehensible crimes and scandals. Before we put this year to rest for good, let's take another look at visual-kei and some of the less glamorous acts musicians have been up to this year.

Also before I begin, I have to shout out a few members who gave serious help in making this list possible. Thanks to @suji, @tetsu_sama69, @cvltic. and @doombox for all their help, as well as for those who broke the news in the first place and those that corrected my facts after publication!
 

Keina (ex-DIVEIN)
 
The first entrant on the naughty list is bassist Keina, who was fired earlier on July 7th from indie visual kei band DIVEIN (ディヴェイン) for "violating the rules of the visual kei industry". Earlier in 2017, KEINA was hospitalized for tonsillitis and took a break from musical activities. While on break, he participated in a session band without the rest of DIVEIN's permission, and this angered the other three members of the band. He also spread confidential information about upcoming lives and photo shoots on the side, so that was enough to get him the boot.
 

蕚 (Utena) (ex-DEGENE)
 
DEGENE announced on September 26th that they fired their vocalist 蕚 (Utena) for "bad behavior". Digging a little deeper, we find out that Utena committed violent acts against certain members of the band, trashed band equipment, and sent one or more people into mental break downs. The band stated that they could not find any way to improve his behavior, and each member felt a sense of crisis about his behavior. The other four members came to the same conclusion: “I can't work with him anymore”. In contrast, Utena's announcement about his departure did not mention his bad behavior. DEGENE went on a temporary hiatus until they could replace him.
 

Chaos (Glamscure, ex-INSANITY INJECTION)
 
One of the dual vocalists of Insanity Injection, Chaos, got the boot on May 31st for being involved in "deplorable acts on many occasions". What it was has not been clarified, but it was something bad enough to sow feelings of betrayal among the members. One can only speculate what he did, but he hasn't made another appearance since his departure, so perhaps he was blacklisted from the scene? The band has continued without him as three, which as we will see shortly is not usually the norm. Good on INSANITY INJECTION!
 
Update: Turns out that Chaos is still active in the VK band GLAMSCURE!
 

塁 (rui) (ex-REVLOW)
 
The last bassist of REVLOW, 塁 (rui), was fired from the band on August 5th. Management and band members discovered on July 29th that Rui was involved in many "anti-social acts" that corresponded with recent criminal acts in various Tokyo restaurants. Of note is that the official announcement used the kanji "反社会的", which is often used to refer to the yakuza. REVLOW cancelled the rest of their live dates, including their first one man show scheduled for August 29th, and rescinded the release of their CD, "'REVLISM-EP", scheduled for Aug 23rd. The band has not yet returned from hiatus, and none of the other band members have appeared in official projects. It's sad when an up and coming band gets ruined by the poor choices of one member. Three lumps of coal, one for each member you screwed over.
 

冬音 (Fuyune)  (ex-サムクロ (Samurai Crows))
 
It's ironic that I found this picture of the purple-haired maverick while in a topic discussing crimes and other scandals. He was fired from his band サムクロ (Samurai Crows) on 2017/05/11 due to misconduct during their live at Ikebukuro BlackHole at 2017/5/5. He got a little too amped up and destroyed equipment, refused to apologize for it, and was caught verbally abusing people via private messaging service SNS. This is not only a rule not to be broken in visual kei, but also a rule not to be broken in society! Fuyune's misconduct caused the band to be dropped from their label, Me teaR music, and the band has been on hiatus after their live at Shinsaibashi paradigm on 2017/7/8. The other three members have moved on to a project called Bokutachi no neverland; Fuyune is still missing in action. I wonder if he has been soft blacklisted from the scene...
 

俐乃-rino- (ex - Synk;yet)
 
Remember how we established rules of the visual kei scene all members have to abide by? I can safely say one of them is to inform your band members and your label whenever you participate in a session band or a side project. Synk;yet's ex-guitarist Rino broke these rules and was terminated from his band and artist contract with Starwave Records on 2017/01/30, shortly after the return of bassist Shiori. The official reasons were "betrayal and breach of contract". Rino secretly planned musical activities with other management companies for two years behind other members' backs. He also had "private exchanges" with fans for money requests, but nothing confirmed as sexual. Synk;yet went on indefinite hiatus on 2017/05/21 despite their best attempts to keep it together, and Rino has wiped all traces of his online presence so no one knows what he is up to.
 

『L.』(ex-VAJRA)
 
Let's take it back to 2009 for a bit when grotesque face masks were all the rage and it was cool to rip off Dir en grey. There was an visual kei band named VAJRA, essentially a Dir en grey rip-off parading around as a silent tribute band, and mimicked all of their antics to carve out a meager existence in the indie circuit. VAJRA started by word of mouth and shot up in popularity quickly by sticking with the flavor of the month and putting on electrifying performances. Some of these lives would include fish hooking, vomiting, and public masturbation on the crowd, but the violent, unpredictable, ink-spitting guitarist『L.』took it too far one day. He was known for punching female fans in the face, giving them black eyes, and dragging them around by the hair on the stage, but he took up a notch for a live at Sendai on 2010/05/10, and caused fans serious injury. At first, he was put on house arrest and banned from lives temporarily, but soon after he "left" the band due to musical differences. There's room for interpretation on this. It is not known if he left because he wanted to and this was the breaking point, if he was forced out, or if he truly left on his own accord. VAJRA couldn't keep up the pace without him and virtually disappeared into disbandment. 『L.』found Jesus and work as an oshare-kei vocalist for the band Awake, now known as Eru.
 

Aki (ex-2bullet, ex-JackRose, ex-Concerto Moon)
 
Remember Takahiro from FAZ? He was covered in our first edition of the list and was caught trying to defraud people to fund band activities. It turns out that he had an accomplice! Aki, along with Takahiro, tried to defraud an elderly woman of 3 million yen. He was arrested once in November of 2016 and again in January of 2017, both for links to Takahiro and suspicion of fraud.  Norifumi Shima of Concerto Moon immediately dismissed him from the band, while vocalist Re:i announced that JackRose would enter hiatus, since Aki was the composer and keyboardist. Ouch.
 

Ryuusei (ex-暁月 (Kyogetsu))
 
Another unwritten rule of the scene - one that is good practice to follow in most situations - is to keep internal band drama private. I love juicy drama stories as much as the next person, but band members spilling the beans about strife in their own project will only undermine their musical efforts. What happened to 暁月 (Kyogetsu) demonstrates this perfectly. Our story begins on early September 2017, with a few incendiary tweets from guitarist Ryuusei on Twitter. In the first tweet he claims that all bangya not attracted to him are into Himura of Bananaman, or ugly men in general. The second tweet was a little more pointed:
 

This hit a raw nerve with a lot of fans because it came on the heels of several unexpected disbandments. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. On his blog, Ryuusei went into detail about several aspects of the scene which up to now were just rumors and which come together to make life difficult for him and his band. A few of the things he mentioned (while also explicitly noting that he didn't know everything) were:
 
Ticket quotas as fees for live performances. Ryuusei does the math on how many tickets they need to sell to cover for the fees, which is dependent on how many fans show up to see them and that's before the band members split the money five ways. Poor return on investment for popular vk standbys such as cheki. Name drops the GazettE in a section about how well popular bands with a "pretty bassist" do financially. This got Reita's attention with a fiery response of his own. Low wages paid from the indie labels. How difficult it is for bands to recover once they are "in the red" and how close 暁月 (Kyogetsu) is to reaching that point after three years. Asks fans to spend more money at shows, less at host clubs, and to tell him more information about salaries of other band men.  
You can see how this won't go over well. It's one thing to blow the whistle, but when you do you better know all of the facts. Constantly dropping figures about how much your competition makes relative to you while claiming you don't know for sure is a fast way to draw a ton of well-deserved criticism both from outside and within, and that's exactly what happened. On top of that, the claims made do not mesh well with the stories I've heard about what lengths some fans will go to support their favorite artist or band. I know that some tsunagari will go as far as to feed, clothe, shelter, and fuck a band man or two just to support them! But treating your fans like ATMs and literally telling them to "If you have money, use it. High schoolers, study so you can make money in the future." is trash. To me, it seemed like Ryuusei is looking for a scapegoat for his band's poor performance. Fans struck back by revealing his name, his bare face, his DMs, and even coordinating to send 100 pizzas to his house! Ryuusei threatened to get the police involved if the situation escalated further.
 
His behavior afterwards is what sealed the deal. His band mates wanted nothing to do with the controversy this generated, as the vocalist even went so far as to hold an "apology twicast", and posted many apologetic tweets, even individually replying to people to apologize long before Ryuusei commented on the issue. However, Ryuusei did eventually apologize before backtracking the very next day. In his second blog post, he starts by claiming he only apologized because he was forced to. He then deflects the contents of the first post to "netogya" (a derisive term referring to online fans that don't go to shows, meaning most of us here), apologizes for name dropping bands and labels, claims he's always trying to be controversial and that this is no different, and claims that he thought this was common knowledge so there would be no problem. This only provided fuel for the fire.
 
The sad thing is that, as you could have guessed by now, these guys were virtually unknown before this. Shame is a very powerful deterrent in Japanese culture, and I've seen lesser drama capsize bigger bands than this. By constantly undoing the damage control his band members tried to provide, and by backpedaling and baiting Tanuki, Ryuusei put Kyogetsu in a spot where they had to kick him out to continue or disband. They did both. Bassist Shogo jumped ship first, but the formal disbandment of Kyogetsu was announced for October of 2017.
 

Setsuna (ex-THE EGOIST)
 
Whenever I write one of these lists, one person ends up doing something that eclipses everything else I discuss. Setsuna, guitarist of THE EGOIST, takes the "honors" for this position this time, although it's not something to be proud of. 2017 was not a kind year to THE EGOIST, as they paused activities earlier in the year when they lost contact with their vocalist, but things came to a breaking point by the end of the year in what will remain a black mark on visual kei for a long time to come. The timeline gets hazy at points but what we do know for certain is that Setsuna, also known as Keisuke Kawasaki (thanks NHK!), began an intimate relationship with a woman named Uran Hirayama while engaged. Uran didn't know he was engaged when she met him with the wedding planned to the degree where the venue had already been picked. The marriage was held sometime during his relationship with Uran as well.
 
It is not confirmed if she was a mitsu of his, but what we do know is that they had a very tumultuous relationship, all documented on Hirayama's twitter. Uran used the account as a regular personal account initially, but at some point the account became flooded with pictures and screenshots of the newly minted couple. Many LINE screenshots show both happy times as well as arguments, including one where Uran demanded to know if Setsuna had slept with a tsunagari/mitsu of his named Ayumi. He initially denies it, but admits to eventually sleeping with her once and apologizes, swearing Uran is the only one he really cares for. He ends up saying something similar on his public Twitter: "I've had relationships with various women, but aside from Uran I was just messing around. I'm very sorry. I'm considering marrying [her] in the future". No mention of his wife. Other pictures included Disney date pictures, many pictures of them in the snow as a couple, and of course the now-infamous video of him eating out Uran's ass (note to future readers: he chows down). Considering this is all in public view, it didn't take long for his "wife" to come across some of it; she apparently went ballistic when she found purikura of her and Setsuna kissing in his wallet.

  Things get demented as the year winds down to a close. The messages on Uran's Twitter become more alarming; her profile stated 'I wish to be reborn and marry Keisuke in my next life', she posted screenshots of one of Setsuna's tweets that basically said he "will be one" with Uran (which he quickly deleted from his page), tweets about gifts she bought with the money she got from sex, and more. At some point, Setsuna informs Uran that he was married and in retaliation, she dumps all of this information on her Twitter. She also had at least one suicide attempt around December 3rd, likely in response to all of these happenings. Despite his marriage, he still publicly pines for Uran after all of this. The following is my guess of what happens next: Uran tells Setsuna about her suicide attempt(s) and he tries to talk her out of it, but ends up agreeing to commit double suicide with her a week later on December 9th. We know this because Uran sent the explicit details of the plan to one of her close friends around 3pm that day, which was later posted to her Twitter page. The person who posted the notice in no uncertain words claims it was intended to be a double suicide and firmly believes that was their original intention. This same friend also contacted the police with all of the information she had at her disposal, but by the time the police showed up to Uran's apartment at 9pm the deed was done. She was found on her futon, her room was locked, there were no signs anyone had been through her belongings, and there was a handwritten suicide note next to unused charcoal briquettes. I can only guess the plan was to lock themselves in a room and suffocate to death, but Setsuna had a last-minute change of heart, ended up choking her to death, locked the door, and left.
 
It took the detective work of another of Uran's friends to connect Setsuna to this mess and to send the police to his door. He admitted to the killing and was promptly arrested. When asked his occupation, he claimed he was a "part-timer" and did not mention THE EGOIST, his band mates, or his label. Thus, the band was able to avoid most of the wrath of the Eye of Sauron, but they still chose to disband anyway to distance themselves from the stigma as much as possible. I don't blame them. The story stops here for now, but there are a lot more questions to be asked than can be answered. As for the most important one, as one of Uran's friends put it, "The only way to know the circumstances that led to Uran being the only one who died is to ask [Setsuna] himself". Maybe this information will come out in a court trial soon.
 
UPDATE: THE EGOIST disbanded earlier in 2017 due to the departure of their vocalist.
UPDATE 2: His trial started one year after the incident. Setsuna stated that Uran asked him to kill her, so he "helped her". Since the tribunal couldn't verify if that is true or not they accepted that Setsuna killed her on request and therefore reduced his sentence from 13 years to 3.5 years in prison.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully, band members will behave and another one of these lists won't come for a good while

We're getting close to the end of 2017 so I thought I'd post a small list of Japanese metal releases I've liked a lot this year.
 
Evil - 邪悪を讃えよ (Rites of Evil)
By far my Japanese favourite of the year. Take the debuts from bands such as Bathory, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Sabbat, Bulldozer, Venom, Sarcofago, Vulcano, Sodom and Sepultura and mix it up and you've got this. Simple, straight-forward and fantastic black metal that sounds like something from the 80's.
 
Bafomet - Poison of Darkness
Japanese/Chilean black/speed metal. It's simple and straight-forward, but it's lots of fun.
 
Coven - The Advent
Traditional heavy metal with ex-Fastkill guitarist Akihiro Ito. The cover is the least metal thing I've even seen on a heavy metal release, but music-wise it's really cool. The vocalist is a bit hit and miss, but it's catchy as fuck.
 
Kanashimi - Inoni
More depressive black/doom metal from this Japanese one man band. It's a bit more uplifting and airy than the debut, and with a more post-black metal-vibe than funeral doom. But it's beautiful and haunting, and I really, really like this album.
 
Anatomia - Cranial Obsession
This Japanese horde delivers mean and dirty death/doom metal in the vein of Autopsy and Coffins. They stick to what they know, and that's OK because they do it so good every time. Great album!
 
 
 
Witchslaught released their debut (recorded in 2013) this year too. I've only heard a few songs, but this shit is great and the demo rules too. Furious metal punk that makes me want to smash a head or two.
 
Necrophile released their debut album Awakening Those Oppressed this year. They formed all the way back in 87 and released some fantastic demos and EPs before they split up. Reformed in 2013 and released their debut now. Not heard the whole thing, but the tracks I've heard have been good. Death metal.
 
Also really looking forward to hearing the new G.A.T.E.S. album. It took no less than 18 years before these Japanese metal punks with members and ex-members from Sabbat, Magnesium, Metalucifer, Sacrifice, Church of Misery and Sonic Flower manage to release their debut, but I bet their spent their time well.Can't wait to get a hold on it.

Yoshiki confirmed in an interview last week that the album will be released on 2/30/2018

I'd say a healthy dose of both, lel
 
Honestly, something like this would be the absolute dream.


Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to read this, I'm so glad it went over well! Eventually I'd like to write about the old roadie/mentor system in VK (but it's been a pain in the ass to research), or do an archive of the older legends/rumors of VK (easy to research but probably going to take 100,000 words to write it all out), it was very encouraging to see that people were actually interested in this piece since it was my first crack at this kind of thing.

Congratulations on 10 years!
Read through this thread, must have been spicy 10 years ago (forums dying, drama)!
I really didn't know about this board until a few months ago, but the glorious shitposting and rarez (along with the history that has been made) keeps me here.
As I am a new fan of 90s stuff (and Japanese stuff in general), it seems that I have missed the golden days of LiveJournal and MySpace, but I sincerely believe that the days haven't passed yet (this forum is probably the last stronghold though, so when this forum dies, we die with it!).
 
A special shoutout to @Ikkifor being here and on Jpopsuki. I have thoroughly and obscenely made love listened to your uploads.
Also, @robkun, you are a nice person, and you have single-handedly probably uploaded most of the 90s stuff here. Not only that, but you are an excellent historian. I love you for this - therefore please don't stop doing what you do.
 
I, personally, will do my best to upload what I get, and through that keep this boat going as long as it can.
Thanks for everything! Here's to another 10 years of madness!

Congratulations on 10 years!
Read through this thread, must have been spicy 10 years ago (forums dying, drama)!
I really didn't know about this board until a few months ago, but the glorious shitposting and rarez (along with the history that has been made) keeps me here.
As I am a new fan of 90s stuff (and Japanese stuff in general), it seems that I have missed the golden days of LiveJournal and MySpace, but I sincerely believe that the days haven't passed yet (this forum is probably the last stronghold though, so when this forum dies, we die with it!).
 
A special shoutout to @Ikkifor being here and on Jpopsuki. I have thoroughly and obscenely made love listened to your uploads.
Also, @robkun, you are a nice person, and you have single-handedly probably uploaded most of the 90s stuff here. Not only that, but you are an excellent historian. I love you for this - therefore please don't stop doing what you do.
 
I, personally, will do my best to upload what I get, and through that keep this boat going as long as it can.
Thanks for everything! Here's to another 10 years of madness!

Congratulations on 10 years!
Read through this thread, must have been spicy 10 years ago (forums dying, drama)!
I really didn't know about this board until a few months ago, but the glorious shitposting and rarez (along with the history that has been made) keeps me here.
As I am a new fan of 90s stuff (and Japanese stuff in general), it seems that I have missed the golden days of LiveJournal and MySpace, but I sincerely believe that the days haven't passed yet (this forum is probably the last stronghold though, so when this forum dies, we die with it!).
 
A special shoutout to @Ikkifor being here and on Jpopsuki. I have thoroughly and obscenely made love listened to your uploads.
Also, @robkun, you are a nice person, and you have single-handedly probably uploaded most of the 90s stuff here. Not only that, but you are an excellent historian. I love you for this - therefore please don't stop doing what you do.
 
I, personally, will do my best to upload what I get, and through that keep this boat going as long as it can.
Thanks for everything! Here's to another 10 years of madness!

Lol found these while browsing Jake's old myspace.
 

 

 

 
I'm pretty sure this is from the very first acen panel we did.
 
Also more promotional images lol