Milayou

There are some people like Cameron Scholes whose contributions are pretty well documented by now. That's kind of what I was trying to get at in my previous comment: the same few names and places tend to come up a lot when you trace back the early origins of VK fandom in the west

...isn't that literally how it happened though? At least in the very early days of the fandom.

You can always fall back on the likes of Velvet Eden and Blam Honey, i'm sure there's gotta be something that fits the bill nicely if you start exploring peripherally related artists. There's also this band called Mesumerian I remember reading about on invasion dreams but I wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be more "Powerman 5000" than "Ministry"

It's kind of sad how every single one of these basically admits to being a trend hopper

The funniest bit of gossip I ever dug up on there is Shun from Deshabillz spending most of the 2000's living as a pachinko addicted neet

Believe me, I could kill someone to get my hands on some of those old fics again. What a way to get introduced to La:Sadies

This 90's VK twitter bot is also a good way to discover both obscure and widely celebrated genre classics https://twitter.com/old_school_vk

As far as video compilations go, I always loved this particular series. It's notable in that it gives a feel for the scene from a japanese point of view which is still something that rarely manages to cross the language barrier. There's a lot of genre defining stuff on there that usually gets omitted by western fans because VK fandom overseas has always kind of been its own beast. Part 2 and 7 are missing unfortunately but if you're really interested in getting the full picture their tracklist should still be available under video description.

Crow's demo tape before they became Kagrra is absolutely up there as some of the best music i've heard from that era

Whatever the actual reason is, it sure got a lot of lemon writers' imagination running back in the day

Came here to post this, here's the reupload

Well this is convenient, I was just about to post a thread asking for Matina bands I might have overlooked. I'm surprised to see Mist of Rouge get so much attention, I always assumed they must be one Matina third-stringer band among many others for some reason so i'm gonna correct that mistake and give their stuff a try asap. Also, are there any Syndrome releases you would consider mandatory listening? I'm already familiar with Sosei but I can't remember anything else leaving a strong impression on me otherwise.

That Mirage setlist is disappointing as hell. No Nadir? No Moon Light Dance??!!

Mirage, Silver~Rose, Luna Sea, Crow/Kagrra, Raphael, Maschera, Missalina Rei, Birushana, Lakshana, JULæY

Came here for Kazuki

Im about to beat Gothic 2, gonna look for PS2 games at the used game store when i'm done

This is one of the songs I always come back to when I want to introduce people unfamiliar with classic VK to the genre but I always feel like Ryuichi shouting at the start makes for a really embarrassing first impression

All the big VK fans I used to know ended up leaving last.fm in droves when they changed to round avs

I just finished Dragon Quest 8, the last DQ game out of the first 8 I beat. 4 and 7 are still my all-time favorite, i'm not sure where i'd rank it. It's definitely not the best one in the series though

I used to fantasize about having Noir Fleurir's Gin-iro no basha play at my funeral

I spent a month and a half hunting down the PV before youtube was a thing. Good memories....

I might as well call this my favorite album of all time

What do people base themselves on when they call a VK band influential? Gut feeling? Observation? Or something sourced from actual members of the visual kei scene back in the day? You can draw parallels between La'mule and early 2000's bands all you want but how much of it is actually rooted in VK history?

I've actually found myself digging deeper and deeper into the genre over the years. Tokyo Damage Report have pretty dubious credentials but that article they put out on the shadier side of 90's VK really sparked my curiosity. It becomes so exciting to find a tiny bit of info that helps you make sense of obscure VK mythos and draw links between bands or labels (although I guess the language barrier might make it seem more exciting than it really is...)