qotka

Better late than never! Here's the newest batch of recommended tracks from the amazing ORZ team! 
 
Check them out and let us know what you think!
@tetsu_sama69's Pick
"PM:500" by ラッコ(LACK-CO.)

I really don't know why it is that LACK-CO.'s ballads always seem to hit me in the right spot. "PM5:00"  is definitely a track to be noted (if you can look past their drummer's current visual style) with its strange power ballad styling. It's very easy to get swept away by the tidal wave of guilt and depression, leaving you stranded in a sea of psychosis emitted perfectly though tenten's vocals and the bands messy but perfect instrumentals. Granted the rap segment of the track seems very awkward but it fits for me since it feels more like the ramblings of a man questioning his choices in life. Unfortunately, since I am not fluent in Japanese, I can't translate what is being said, only what is being musically expressed and LACK-CO. definitely know how to compose a robust track that can't be categorized as something "stereotypical". I really look forward to the release of their first album 『弱肉教職』 (Jakuniku Kyoushoku) , as it's hard to predict how it's going to end up. But if it's spiced up with a track like "PM5:00", then it's sure to land a place on this year's favorites list.

 
@helcchi's Pick
"お邪魔します" (Ojamashimasu) by まみれた (mamireta)

Mamireta have brainwashed me. This song is a drug. From the unnerving yet catchy door-knocking, to the deliriously hypnotic opening riff, to the disturbing lyrical and visual themes, “Ojamashimasu” is the intoxicating psycho fix that VK has been thirsting for. This band is so shameless in expressing their corrupt morals, and so unhinged in their mannerisms, you can't help but feel like many years of lunacy have been packed into the unit's short lifespan. Laden with fast talking featuring the ramblings of a madman, the eccentric vocal delivery adds to the song's intrigue, as this trope is so steeped in VK tradition.
Whilst a passionate chorus cuts through the repetitive rhythm that has pervaded through almost half the song, it quickly spirals into a fast-paced whir of pure neuroticism, leading back into the unnerving yet catchy door-knocking that started it all.
I've lost count of how many synonyms for “crazy” I've already used in writing this, but did I mention that this band is crazy?
Let Mamireta “ojamashimasu” into your head.

 
@emmny's Pick
"朧月夜 (Oborozukiyo)" by 己龍 (Kiryu)

Kiryu have passed 10 years together as a band, a massive milestone for any band, let alone a visual kei band. To celebrate they're...throwing it back to 1997? It's no surprise that Kiryu have an old school influence, especially as the band members have been active since the early 2000's. They're just very good at infusing it into trendy structures with their loud traditional instrumentation. I, however, live for the moments in their dark tracks when they really let loose and wear some blood on their sleeves *wink*. "Oborozukiyo" is three minutes and thirty seconds of kote-kei styled mayhem, melodrama, guts, gore; it's so indulgent and obvious a throwback that it feels like an inside joke between the band and their older fans, with the youth at the butt of the joke. Of course, all parties are in gleeful, head snapping, harakiri'd joy. Mahiro's vocal gymnastics recall the tortured voices of the late 90's, but with an amazingly melodic chorus to match the growls and grunts (all on pitch by the way, eat your heart out Matina and Soleil). The trebly, pitch-harmonic laden guitar lines paired with frequent gyakudai-style rhythm shifts disorient the listener, creating an air of chaotic noise. The track is a throwback, but not a copy in anyway-  a representation fitting of an intelligent band who have grown from the scene and still know how to extract every bit of theatric gold from a sound long forgotten, keeping it fresh 20 or so years later in 2017.
 
@plastic_rainbow's Picks
"管" (Kan) by umbrella

umbrella is a band that I regrettably have not paid much attention to until recently. I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but I've finally realized the greatness of their soft and melodic rock sound, plus their heartbreaking and soothing ballads are to die for. "Kan" sits as one of those beautiful tracks but takes it up another level. The beginning feels cinematic with the playing strings until a steady drum line and lovely guitar walk in. Yui's comforting vocals both sing like a slow heartbeat and an ocean wave that clashes against a rock gently; the perfect balance of softness and passion put into a ballad. Although umbrella may fall short because of their messier production, especially in their early days, they deserve much more love than they already do. I mean, if those mellow guitars don't tug at your heart strings then you must be on crack.
 
"Snow the Dark" by Spook Jack

Not being a fan of The Candy Spooky Theater, this new solo project of their vocalist Spook Jack (aka Jack Spooky) took me by surprise. While Spook Jack continues to portray his 'spooky' character, his solo work is not the usual fun spoopy-Halloween trope that The Candy Spooky Theater was. Instead, it's downright gothic and dark industrial. Apparently, Full (ex. Guniw Tools, Nookicky, Shilfee and Tulipcorobockles) collaborated with his solo project and although it's not certain how much he was involved in producing the music, some Nookicky influences can be heard. The slow tempo, the ghostly ethereal singing, the use of pianos and harmonious noises in "Snow the Dark" all make up the sound of Nookicky. However, being much darker, the track opens with a haunting industrial vibe, setting a gothic and bone-chilling atmosphere. Spook Jack's ethereal vocals tinged with a gloominess works wonderfully and reveals how mesmerizing his voice can be, unlike his The Candy Spooky Theater performances. If Spook Jack keeps this up with his new approach to a sinister and despairing night of horror, I'm all for it.
 
"ニヤ" (Niya) by Large House Satisfaction

There seem to be little to no fans of Large House Satisfaction here, so it's my job to make you start listening to them now, especially to those who like some new J-indie music. Large House Satisfaction is a three-piece band that have been around for over 10 years and play garage to classic rock music accompanied with harsh grating vocals. If you like Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, The Birthday, or any of Chiba Yusuke's side projects you may be interested in them. Usually their music is upbeat and faster-paced, but once in a while they'll chug out a few slower-paced songs as well. "Niya", from their newest album Highway to Hellvalley, happens to be one of those slower songs, yet is still stirred up by their punching garage-y guitar riffs and thick bass lines. The vocalist goes all out, and even sounds like he's about to croak, but his harsh singing effectively renders this piece as truly endearing. You'll be singing 'darling darling' all night once you listen to this.
 
Guest Blurbs from @Ada Suilen
 
"蛙-Kawazu-" (Kawazu) by キズ (Kizu)

In the contemporary visual kei scene, it's incredibly hard to find something appealing and worthy of some attention. One of the few times I had such a feeling has been with the second single of the new band Kizu, where the lead track "蛙-Kawazu-"shows their unexpected and engaging style: a powerful melody driven by astonishing riffs, and intense vocals by the former singer of Lezard, who seems to have found his own maturity with this new band. I can surely consider Kizu as one of the most interesting rookies of the year.
  "愚かしい竜の夢 " (Orokashii Yuu no Yume) by D D has been one of my first visual bands, and they are nowadays one of my fixed listenings. When they came back from the hiatus, they redid one of their dearest themes and tried to experiment with something new, which I enjoyed but not so much as I thought I would. But I was sure that one day this band would have found their unique energy, and in their fifth mini-album, a limited release, they used what made them so popular for the visual fans. The title track is surely one of the best works in their career, featuring an incredible mix of languages (a la Rozova Dolina) and a clash of tempos, going from soft to powerful in a blink, with a great technique and sublime vocals. If you had lost hope in D, with this track you will surely find it again.

Thank you for reading everyone!

I like about half of these, that Daikirai cover is fucking EMBARRASSING though
 
Feelin GGG, Dezert, Polysics, The Back Horn, Sukekiyo and Merry the most atm. I'm also still salty cali gari wasn't given an older song to work with lol

justice for ranchuu -.-, bandmaid slayed that, sukekiyo is SHOCKING, ggg is godly omfg, polysics was...shook, plastic tree was FASt, shido was suprisingly decent, oral was uhm....equally shocking, lynch was lynch, merry sounds pretty, dezert slayed my existence, golden bomber trash
 
okay this is actually shaping up to be a really cool tribute!! derlanger what happened

look at how beautiful my grandfathers are 

As part of their 30th debut anniversary project, BUCK-TICK are releasing a new single titled "BABEL" on 2017/11/15, with the following tracklist and versions:
 
01. BABEL
(lyrics: Atsushi Sakurai / music: Hisashi Imai)
02. Moon さよならを教えて (Takkyu Ishino Remix) (Moon sayonara wo oshiete)
(lyrics: Atsushi Sakurai / music: Hisashi Imai)
 
■Limited edition Type A (SHM-CD+Blu-ray)：VIZL-1261 / ￥2,380(tax out)
■Limited edition Type B (SHM-CD+DVD)：VIZL-1262 / ￥1,880(tax out)
■Regular edition (SHM-CD)：VICL-79002 / ￥1,000(tax out)
 
The bonus discs will contain the music video for the title track. Also, seeing as there is a remix of an as-of-yet-unreleased song, I think it's safe to say that a new full-length album won't be far behind either.  As they promised at the beginning of the year, iirc.
 

MBHI had several unreleased songs, although most/all of them featured on their one live DVD release. They put a couple of short demos on YouTube around the time they started activity but several of those were never properly recorded. Interestingly though, one of them was a full song, it was just never released elsewhere: 21st century boy.
 
Recently disbanded MALISEND also played their full discography at their final live which I was able to attend, which included at least 3 unreleased songs (including the various free distributions). I directly contacted them upon disbandment inquiring about purchasing these unreleased tracks as at least some of them had demos on Youtube, but they informed me that no properly recorded versions had ever been made, so I wasn't able to get hold of them.
 
Going back to DDRM and KIDS WAR, Yoshiatsu's previous band Crazy Shampoo also had a couple of songs they often performed live but never saw official releases. After extensive research, it appears they had live distributions a long time ago, but since I've never seen them for sale either in used stores or at auction/Mercari, I consider them to be basically 'lost' songs. (Will pay for them if anyone has them though). The ones that immediately come to mind are 'Guernica' and 'Battou'.
 
 
 
And on a personal sob story, I have always deeply regretted missing Signal's last live due to my flight being just two days later, and as a result will pay handsomely for a copy of their last single 'Crossing fate' which has yet to even see the digital light of day.

Some early LUNA SEA songs that never was recorded:
 
・DREAM IS OVER
・PERIOD
・JUNKY-もう死んだふりさせない-
・CONCLUSION
・FEELING
・Fly
・第三の言葉
・SINFUL SONG
 
 
btw ・JUNKY-もう死んだふりさせない- is the only LUNA SEA song I know of where INORAN plays the solo instead of Sugizo, possibly because it was so early and SGZ had joined fairly recently.
 
 

I've posted this around a bit, but this thread seems as good as any to post it again. Around the time that Grieva started, they were playing a mysterious song called "THE Suicide☆$HOW TIME". As far as I know, this hit the cutting room floor near the end of December 2012 and was never played again or officially recorded. Since Grieva released their final album, I think it's safe to say that it'll forever stay in the vaults. The only record we have of it beyond some old setlists was a recording I made at what was possibly the last live it was performed.
 
 
I can kinda see why they decided to drop this thinly-veiled Child Prey rip-off, but nevertheless it was a pretty interesting piece of the band's history.
 
Outside of Grieva, I've got a bit of info with... no real info actually XD Last year I had received some uncirculated demo CDs from the bands Orphee, Medical Trance Peach and Romance For～. Each of these contained 5-6 unreleased songs and (as far as I can guess from how they looked) came from a former(?) employee of a recording studio. There was no tracklists or other info on these beyond recording dates on the Romance For CD(1999.03.15~1999.04.15). Doesn't really reveal a lot, but it's still really interesting to see that each of these bands were in the studio recording a minialbum's worth of songs that would never end up being released.

Dir en grey has a ballad called "Ai Murasaki Iro" which has never been properly released and hasn't been played live in years.
 

As far as I know, "Ai murasaki iro" was only played on the following live shows:
Shibuya Public Hall on 1998.05.05 Nakano Sun Plaza on 1998.08.04 Kumagaya VOGUE on 1998.10.09 Nippon Budokan Hall on 1998.11.02  
Here's some sources from the OHP showing this song does exist:

http://direngrey.co.jp/special/arche2016/gallery_007.html
 
There is also something called "NS1" not sure what that is. After digging around for a bit I found another Dir en grey song I've never heard of called "Setsuna", which is not the same thing as La:Sadie's "Setsudan". It could also be an early version of "tsumi to batsu" that's been floating around the net for years.
 

1997.05.31 at 難波ROCKETS
1997.06.27 at 宗右衛門町 COWBOY WORLD
1997.08.07 at 新宿 LOFT
1997.08.08 at 新宿 LOFT
1997.09.15 at 目黒鹿鳴館
1997.10.28 at 渋谷 ON AIR WEST
1998.02.21 at 博多DRUM Be-1

I'd like to take YOSHIKI's quote and add my own context.
 
This is the key. Visual kei was born out of Japan by those who felt like they didn't fit in anywhere in Japan. YOSHIKI isn't going to say that visual kei can't exist world wide because that's not good for his bottom line, but there's a very good reason why it hasn't taken off outside Japan. It has less to do with looks, singing capability, or chosen musical direction, and more to do with anti-conformity and rebelliousness within and against a homogeneous society. No other country faces the same mix of societal pressures and obligations the way the Japanese do, and as these pressures change over time visual kei changes over time too. This is in contrast to musicians from Western countries who want to emulate the style and look to their favorite and popular artists first. It's the difference between taking a picture, and taking a picture of that picture, and taking a picture of that picture. The farther away one gets away from the source and the conditions that cause that source, the less authentic the final product is.

 

I fully agree with this. So many bands follow trends because it's the thing to do, but at some point a trend started as a unique idea. Much as I expect musicians to look within themselves and put their feelings into music, I expect inspiring Western visual kei musicians to do the same thing with their looks. The looks are supposed to be an expression of how one feels, not a style of the decade to phone in and gain legitimacy.

I do think Western visual kei is a thing that can happen but the form it would assume would be so different we wouldn't even recognize it by looks alone. My ideal Western visual kei band would be identifiable with the sound alone. We would hear them and just know where those influences came from instead of the "lol i like visual kei and pocky" archetype that usually translates over first.

I'm done ranting.


 

Tracklist:
1. 蛙-Kawazu-
2. ラブソング
3. ELISE (Type-A only)
4. 十五 (Type-B only)
 
 ｜Prosaic, but with potential
 
Should a band be held accountable for not living up to hype created by fans before they’ve released a single note of music or even revealed their identities? That’s the question I pondered as I listened to キズ (Kizu's) second, and newest, maxi-single 蛙-Kawazu-.
 
The conjecture surrounding Kizu started near the beginning of this year when a red and black flier was handed out at VK venues with precious little information other than the name of the band, details of their first show, and a phone number prominently displayed. Callers of the phone number were greeted by a recording informing them that the band would listen to “your pain, your worries, displeasure, and anxiety”.
 
All VK fans had to work with was a new, mysterious, melodramatic, emo as hell band that had left no direct clues about the members’ identities; not even a group shot in silhouette or with the faces obscured by masks! The biggest clue being that the other bands performing at Kizu's first show (DOGinthePWO, Unite) were popular bands in the scene, so this new band must be made up of people with connections… probably from playing in bands with some success themselves. This wasn’t a bunch of newbies who would be unknown whether or not their names and faces were public knowledge!
 
Little by little more info leaked out of the Kizu camp (the vocalist of the band would actually answer calls to their number, more fliers with references to despair and scars and blood and loneliness) but still no one was quite sure who was in this new band. Theories about vocalists from all sorts of recently disbanded acts were entertained. One that gained traction that I hoped would turn out to be true was that this was Karma from Avelcain’s new band. The signs were all there: Karma is the queen of teen-angst-zetsubou and these promotional materials for Kizu had that in spades.
 
When it was finally revealed that the vocalist was Lime previously of Lezard there was a collective “not bad… but I wish it had been *insert my favorite vocalist who isn’t in a band right now*”. By the time their first (extremely energetic and polished) PV came out many people had already come down from their speculative excitement.
 
With all that being said, what about the actual songs?
 
The music is not the backdrop for despair that their promo fliers would imply, which is a blessing because Lime is a capable vocalist but it’s hard to imagine him pretending to cut his wrists or mumbling to himself trying to quiet the demons in his head. In fact, the least worthwhile parts of this maxi-single come when Lime tries to showcase his harsh vocals. Too much of "ラブソング (Love Song)" is marred by Lime trying to contort his voice into shapes it just wasn’t meant to fit into. He’s much better highlighting his slightly staccato, higher range such as in the otherwise rather moribund "十五 (Juugo)".
 
Kizu is at their best playing the frenetic, vaguely djent-inspired fast-paced VK you can hear in the title track "蛙-Kawazu-" or after the jarring Beethoven intro homage has ended in "Elise". When the big riffs and digital effects combine into some bouncy, undeniably fun rock'n'roll you can see why Kizu have scheduled a second oneman live at Tsutaya O-West less than a year from their formation and having released only two singles.
 
Ultimately, I'd place my bets on the slightly brasher Razor or the even more scatter-brained Lack-co to be the 'winners' of these djent-kei experiments, but if Kizu can continue to channel the relentless energy of the performances in their PVs (shoutout to them for the throwback 'VK band in the woods' video) into their live shows and releases they should be able to make a name for themselves in the crowded and often staid VK landscape.
 
Support the band: CDJapan

MIZTAVLA's drummer Fumiya suddenly passed away on 2017.10.15.
It seems his disease unexpectedly got worse. His family asked to the exact cause to be hidden. The funeral will be private too.  It's hard to imagine they've just had a live on the same day and it seemed everything is okay even if they were tired...  The members all left  a comment about their feelings and will take an announcement about the band's future later. 
It's really hard time for the members and the fans too, please show them respect.

You can find here the official announcemet and the comments:  MIZTAVLA Official Blog 

tfw he rams it in D R Y
 

me when there's drama
 
 

Here's some old Miya caps I had for a mood theme a while back. The king of silently judging you.

I banned myself from listening to vkei on public transportation because of this.

me every fucking day
 

 

 

 
and sometimes
 

 

Another mood. I would have to say this is my mood almost all the time. Idk what it is, but  yea.

Mid-thirties here and still don't want kids, or even a serious relationship, tbh. Everyone in my family looks at me like I'm an alien because I don't give a shit about marriage or children. I also get tired of people insinuating I'm selfish for not wanting children, like living my life for myself is a bad thing. The world is scary, not to mention over populated as it is. I don't feel compelled to add to it. 

I banned myself from listening to vkei on public transportation because of this.

I banned myself from listening to vkei on public transportation because of this.

I banned myself from listening to vkei on public transportation because of this.

Hello! I hope I am posting this is the right thread, I apologize if not.
 
Chaotic Harmony is starting a new video series where people can get to know the bands better!
Our first video in the series will feature DatuRΛ!
 
To participate, just send in questions in English in reply to this pos, DM on social media, or e-mail them to [email protected]!
We can't guarantee that the band will be able to answer all of the questions they receive. It may take a few weeks for the band to record the video and our staff to subtitle it, so we greatly appreciate your patience! We'll post the video to our YouTube channel once it's ready to go.
 
We plan to do these videos regularly, so we hope to be able to feature some of your favorite artists, or help you get to know some new ones!

update: i gave m-ology another listen and i really like it *____________* especially 犬型真性MASOCHIST. i think i established this already, but it's probably my fave out of the whole album. other than that, it's not as bad as i thought it was at first, (altho it still doesn't slay as much as their previous albums) and i feel bad for dragging my babies...................🙇🙇🙇

vo.: Kaya 
gu.: TaNa
gu.: 依織 
ba.: Toshi
janitor: Gackt