Pretsy

btw someone give Kyo some knife gloves so he can complete his Voldo cosplay

I disagree with Salems Lott being a full on glam metal band. And the reason is simple: they play a type of music that doesn't fall in under that term. There's elements of the traditional glam metal sound in their music here and there, but they fall a lot closer to the heavy/speed/power metal of bands such as X Japan, Aion, Harkenkreuz and Rosenfeld, and of course bands such as Accept, Loudness and more. You gotta remember that glam is about more than just having big hair and flashy clothes. To be a glam band you also gotta play a type of music that fits in with the genre, and Salems Lott simply isn't doing that.
 
Visualy I also think they look more like X Japan, Rosenfeld, Harkenkreuz and so on, than any traditional glam bands IMO.

tää koko ketju on ainut syy käydä MH:ssa, sitä voi sitten selailla vaan näitä paskapostailuja päivästä toiseen
 
ASIASTA KUKKARUUKKUUN, kukaan tulossa gazetteen? @allisapp @Carmelzors @Slsr @Koike @Disposable @orange~ etc ketä teitä suomijuntteja nyt olikaan
 
Satuin saamaan kaksi lippua 70€, 35€ viitsinkin maksaa gazetten näkemisestä. 55€ on kyllä niin helvetin suolanen hinta, että sitä en olisi kyllä tollasesta paskabändistä maksanut.
 
Tässä vielä vanha ja erittäin hyvä suomimeemi.
 
http://imgur.com/YUztjYK
 
 

Rather bothersome that gradually each and every (social and public) medium is subjected to the "safe space" principles. How can we even express our well-reasoned ideas without being slammed as "bigots" or "asshats" after such events?
 
Also:
 
Me going through uni-related documentation atm...bureaucracy!
 

Promoters and avid fans alike forgot to pinpoint the fact that Deviloof had a lot of time as a non-vk metalcore (w/ slight deathcore influences I think) band  before eventually donning the whole VK Unsraw-Reivier kei shtick. You read it right: they were never rooted in VK antics, ideals in the first place (nor they have any particular interests in the said scene). Does it matter? Yes, a lot. Rather risky trend too, if you ask me.
 
So saying things like "Deviloof HAZ ZE MOST VK SKILLED VOCALCRAFT" or "THEY WILL MAKE VK GREAT AGAIN" (indirect quotations but w/e)  is as fair and logical as regarding Nokubura as the most professional "VK" band.
 
Feel free to support the band if you will but pls, provide proper reasoning without bashing those who explain themselves adequately. Critique is part of the logical, less biased consensus and progress after all.

Their last album was very disappointing, but other than that this band has been Close to flawless ever since their demo, so them splitting (not sure if they're actually split though, or if it's just that all the members except of John Haughm who's left?) sucks.
 
From Which of This Oak, Pale Folklore, Marrow of the Spirit and Faustian Echoes are most excellent, and The Mantle, Ashes Against the Grain and the majority of the other releases are great too. The only release I don't listen to on a regular basis is The Serpent & the Sphere.

As we all know, various bands have their own Youtube pages for commercial/promotion purposes - but what about bandomen/members of these bands having their own youtube pages, where they'd post something almost irrelevant to their respective bands' songcraft / actual promotion purposes? As with that instagram thread you have noticed lately, post speficic youtube urls of your fav. bandomen's "separate work" (or semi-personal stuff) here, for instance:
 
Shou (Alice Nine)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC381H7iNJLOUiZijZVypPzg

(Classical/Flamenco covers w/ piano & guitars*, random comps, specific self-covers and random goofy videos)
*yes, he's a multi-instrumentalist!
 
Tora (Alice Nine)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmCmZr5-yw9yoUFCdJnaWWw

(Only two self-covers so far)
 
Junichi Konno (Karasu (not the vk band - the indie rock Karasu))
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9VnrfroWDUV6Tfk-vIxuJQ

(self-covers)

OMG GUYS I'm laughing and crying at the same time <3
 
Thank you everyone who congratulated me today, seriously the best part of my birthday was logging in to MH and seeing all you wonderful people congratulating me. I've never felt so loved before, especially since it was by people who live all around the globe.
 
Thank you:
@eiheartx @nostalgia @hiroki @yakihiko @emmny @freesia @beni @Zeus @Biopanda @Tokage @WhirlingBlack @The Reverend @Peace Heavy mk II @colorfuljinsei @Yuuko @『Hotcakes Butt MK II』 @YuyoDrift @The MAD Stallion
@kyoselflove @Seimeisen  @leafwork @Jigsaw9 @Carmelzors @237Q @VaL @Jiyun @CAT5 @doombox (and Mi'ihen because I refuse to type his new ridiculous username here AND all the other people I forgot because dammit i got so many birthday wishes i couldn't count them all)
Oh and especially @Jiyun who is recording a cover song for my birthday <3 <3
 
I'm so glad to be part of this community. I have gained so many amazing friends from here who I will hopefully be friends with for the rest of my life. 
 
It's now 8PM and even though I spent most of my bday working at the office, I'm now drinking sparkling wine, eating strawberries and listening to amazing host kei while writing this message to all of you MH members. I love you all to death but remember to behave or I'll personally ram the banhammer sideways in your ass <3
 

In regards to the latest singles, a nice lil' conversation with Jig and Orange enticed me to take up on Gazette once again after my months-long hiatus (lol). I decided to go with latest ones and backtrack from there - well, guess what:
 
Post-DOGMA singles are not bad at all (disregard my earlier statements)! Whereas I am not still the fan of Ruki's current patchwork songwriting, their attempts to patch some things up together ever since BD has helped them to discover a lot more chemistry between each others' ventures after almost monocomposed/arranged pieces that were TOXIC and DIVISION, respectively.
 
I am not the fan of strictly loyal direction on DOGMA (hell-bent on being -coreishly heavy), but my opinion still stands: they did their homework well. A few drawbacks in their new songwriting and producing procedure still exist, however. I am not gonna discuss them here since all of you might already guess my points of criticism.
 
Will make separate posts on UGLY and UNDYING sooner or later in case something interesting springs to my mind. But I couldn't resist writing some says off my spins here:
 
- Aoi is my new found favorite in terms of compositions and technical experiments. Look forward to my reviews in case you want to understand my idea of "patchwork songwriting" and composer roles.
- Kai has improved a lot, especially in heavier songs (?!).
- Ruki doesn't sound goofy anymore when screaming/growling.
 

In regards to the latest singles, a nice lil' conversation with Jig and Orange enticed me to take up on Gazette once again after my months-long hiatus (lol). I decided to go with latest ones and backtrack from there - well, guess what:
 
Post-DOGMA singles are not bad at all (disregard my earlier statements)! Whereas I am not still the fan of Ruki's current patchwork songwriting, their attempts to patch some things up together ever since BD has helped them to discover a lot more chemistry between each others' ventures after almost monocomposed/arranged pieces that were TOXIC and DIVISION, respectively.
 
I am not the fan of strictly loyal direction on DOGMA (hell-bent on being -coreishly heavy), but my opinion still stands: they did their homework well. A few drawbacks in their new songwriting and producing procedure still exist, however. I am not gonna discuss them here since all of you might already guess my points of criticism.
 
Will make separate posts on UGLY and UNDYING sooner or later in case something interesting springs to my mind. But I couldn't resist writing some says off my spins here:
 
- Aoi is my new found favorite in terms of compositions and technical experiments. Look forward to my reviews in case you want to understand my idea of "patchwork songwriting" and composer roles.
- Kai has improved a lot, especially in heavier songs (?!).
- Ruki doesn't sound goofy anymore when screaming/growling.
 

It would sound  very awkward and generic if Ryo decided to stick with full mid-range vocals here instead  (it goes pretty much for any TK-penned song - see: when TK penned songs for SMAP)
 
Ryo nails it as usual though. Hands down one of the most underrated J-multi-instrumentalists out there.

*Заорали

It's too early to point out that A9 became a "better" band after witnessing merely a small bunch of post-PSC repertoire. As much as many monochromiums like to project their contempt/disgust towards anything PSC, we need to acknowledge that a tremendous number of brilliant records have been produced under Tomomi's (President of PSC) wing - in Alice Nine's case it would be obviously Gemini (produced during Gazette's eventual "demise" in 2011) and "9" (palatable continuation to Gemini's otherwise "innovative" soundscape, produced when it became all the rage in MH to call PSC "totalitarian music regime" or in any similarish slurring manner).
 
I used to feel cozy on this bandwagon of usual PSC bashing but at the same time - I learned to question my preference towards this company when I understood PSC's input having a positive side as well (obvious but this seems to be skimmed over).
 
After all, I have to feel happy about PSC actually granting A9 chances (back in 2010) to collaborate with one of the most prominent producers in Japan, Hajime Okano (the lead guy behind e.g. Laruku's pop era, incl. Ark/Ray and Kiss) in order to redefine their sound as something more airplay-worthier, but at the same time "nostalgically creative" (since "nostalgic" is the adjective of success in '10s after all).
 
Until someone actually manages to go hunting in Wikileaks-ish fashion and prove that Tomomi and Co. DO bear hindering regime-like control (i.e. lack of flexibility on songwriters' part has nothing to do with the process) over bandomen's deeds, I would suggest looking into the positive efforts of PSC-era A9.
 
PS. I find it appalling that GEMINI gets little love here, really. Oh, and SUPERNOVA singles weren't bad at all either!
 
On-topic: I cannot see any significant changes behind this move either - D=Out transformed into one-of-a-kind-ish VK act under PSC's wing too, right?

Revisited this thread and just noticed your embed link
 
I must be a special snowflake since that "pseudo-glam rock-ish-grab-your-balls" scream @Decadence's chorus is what makes it memorable to me
 
Also:
 

 
*wink wink* Anti-idols.

It would sound  very awkward and generic if Ryo decided to stick with full mid-range vocals here instead  (it goes pretty much for any TK-penned song - see: when TK penned songs for SMAP)
 
Ryo nails it as usual though. Hands down one of the most underrated J-multi-instrumentalists out there.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Becky

Yukari surely managed to keep them away from kaisanization by getting them on TV and whatnot. Here's hoping they will evolve further.

I can't vote in the poll because I would need an "all of them" option. I don't think any one thing is more important, even if I have a bias for one thing over another it wouldn't sound good if the instruments with it didn't work in its favor. Everything has to work together for me, personally.

I don't think there's a single instrument that's more or less important than the others in general as it's all about how the band want to sound, how they write their music and so on.

Consider the following:
 
1) DEG bandmates aren't in talking terms with each other ever since DSS. Shinya and Kyo were in fact very open about the fact that they do their thing in the band because "they have to". You do know that considering your job, or in this case DEG musicianship, as some kind of "sweatshop" publicly says a lot about your genuine feelings? Let's not forget those particular DSS/Unraveling moments where they all were pro tools'd on their laptops quietly in the same room instead of idk, initiating a brainstorm/scrum about songwriting?
 
2) True - solo careers do in fact help to keep things fresh and possibly salvage certain tiresome relationships. However, there are many cases where artists might end up "rediscovering" their calling elsewhere and prefer calling quits on their initial project instead of forcing themselves to backtrack and move on. Kyo was, at least according to those ARCHE interviews with Boo, not attending a significant share of ARCHE-related sessions due to his "preferred focus on solo activities". Roughly put, we could easily assume that he just came in to record a chunk of vocal lines and GTFO'd in an instant.
 
You might of course call bullshit on each and every bash I make on DEG. However, you should at least take these things in a closer scope and see what I am exactly about.  Their current, "grave" attitude in promos and all that shizznit goes beyond their musical gimmicks - it doesn't take a genius to see that they are visibly and perhaps even audibly (!) very tired of each other (god knows if they do in fact hate each other's guts).
 
All in all, we might not expect immediate kaisanization or something similar from DEG, but there's more than meets the eye in the midst of bullshit spewed by Will or Patrik about how skeptical fans "have no proofs" or "attempt to spread hysteria" (the latter is of course the phobia of their DEG-dependent identity).

leaked announcement
 
 

Kiwamu buying a stock of chairs for blood reunion live show.

Technically speaking, any song which stays in the scope of particular key is somewhat easy to play once you get the gist. E.g. heavier Lycaon songs are usually done in Bm (which is not hard when done in drop B ), which makes them rather effortless sans specific Slash tribute moments by Satoshi (which require a bit more practice, frankly speaking).  Or the hell, majority of obviously nu metal-inspired fares in VK (DEG's six Ugly-WtD era as a case in point) won't require much from electric axemen tbh...
 
@sai is not necessarily hanging around here anymore, so I am addressing anyone with similar intents: in order to develop your skills in any kind of field, you need to look for "fittingly challenging" scenarios - or repertoires and/or specific collections in terms of musicianship. This means that you shouldn't necessarily go for "easypeasy" tracks but more or less "medium" ones.
 
Go for songs where you'd be somewhat able to realize specific influences and "rules" of the particular genre they are played in. A decent chunk of knowledge about keys, scales and other factors belonging to the basis of music theory will be as useful and perhaps even necessary before delving into the art and practice of rock music AND J-rock respectively (unless you aspire to become a wizard of djent/prog/avant wankery).
 
Tl;dr: if you didn't bother to read much of the stuff said above - my personal picks for each and specific style I could think of for an aspiring musician with enough patience to assess this songcraft:
 
Rock ballads:
 
- Gazette's Cassis (just play the chords, forget the Uru parts for a while)
- Dir en grey's Undecided (half-ballad but slow down a little bit and practice the (essential) chord structure)
- Luna Sea's ANOTHER (very accessible ballad from guitarist's perspective in a very rookie-friendly setting, go with this one for basic understanding about key changes etc.)
- L'Arc~en~Ciel's Pieces (assessment of Japanesque pop melodies requires you to get familiar with unusual concepts  like "Royal Road progression" etc. This ballad follows the said progression a little bit with its intriguing key and chord changes along the way. Fittingly challenging after two formerly mentioned tunages)
 
"Rockers":
 
- Penicillin's Romance (very distinct chord progression, moderate key changes, must-cover for almost every self-respecting JAYRAWK hobbyist)
- hide's ROCKET DIVE (descending/ascending guitar riff here shouldn't be hard to decipher but assess the pop punk aspect here - you will need it for oshare songs etc.)
- Kuroyume's Miss Moonlight (welp, kote/pop territory! Practice necessary hook solos for older and perhaps newer J-rock songs here)
- Janne Da Arc's Shining Ray (...deeper and deeper into the basic axeman shredding and riffage! Practice your essential progressions once again AND usage of electric shreds etc. here)
- Raphael's Hana Saku Inochi Aru Kagiri (in case you are willing to get familiar with doodlings for Bearsighs and other fast-paced acts, get used to this one)
 
Not exactly the most recommended choices here but I had to think of "coverable" numbers anyway! NOTE: practice standard/Eb tuning first - go for drop tunings only if you have to (since starting out with drops is blatant cheating/clear sign of laziness)
 

I don't think even the most critic voices would dare to say anything negative about them at this point seeing as they played a huge role (along with other acts) in this 00s-10s VK wave or w/e you name it (i.e. how we, 20-somethings and prolly 30s know VK in its glory).