Cantavanda

I want this so much you don't even know. Not going to happen though. I don't even think Mana knows of Klaha's whereabouts at this point.
 
Everyone deserves a DVD of this.

UNDER FALL JUSTICE have announced at their 5th anniversary live on July 27 that they will temporarily suspend activities in December.
 
 

 

For as much as I love visual kei, there are plenty of practices I detest. I could go on forever. It wouldn't be fair to celebrate all of the good in the scene without admitting the bad as well. There are so many things that make me sad, make me irate, or make me want to rip my hair out that it was hard to settle on just five. Here's five commonplace practices in visual kei that's a total ball ache for any international fan invested into the scene.
 

 
 


 

 

 
Like I said above, I have way more than five things that annoy me about the scene. Does anyone else want to fill in the gaps with practices that they hate that they've come to accept within the scene? Come share your frustrations and horror stories with me. We have plenty of tea and live-distributed crackers for you.

Hello, I am a fan of visual kei since 2006 and I am read this forum.
I am French  and I a student of archive.
 
I like bands An Cafe, A9, The GazettE, Codomo Dragon, Kiryu, Zero [Hz]  etc.
 
I like mangas , animes, history and others.
 
 
 
 

Hello! I have copy number 14 of the DVD. It contains a concert, but actually much more. Two PVs (Fleur and ROMANCIA), the Fleur is much better then the VHS release we only have, it contains many many pictures in a slideshow that were released nowhere else, over 100. It also contains a slideshow of lots of unseen concert footage, but with just a song over it. And it contains excerpts of yet another major era concert, with about 15 seconds per song, it has Billet in that! The only live Billet footage there is.
This DVD just shows as a love letter how much love KAMIJO has for his fans, he didn't have money to print any more copies probably, because he had to print more compilation CDs at that time like Imperial Concerto, but it's still a big love letter.
 
Good news, I PUT A PART OF IT ON YT!!
Share it like widefire guys.
 
But I love this DVD so much, it's my favourite part of my collection besides their 1st demo tape (100 limited), and I want it to keep it's huge value among collectors, being sold for 100s the rare times it shows up, so I'm not going to put anymore online.
BUT I'm going to make an entry of this DVD in Discogs with a detailed tracklist guys
I'm already doing a lot for the fanbase by giving info and that one vid, cus there's litirally NO info at all about this at all on the internet besides the Puresound entry. Oh yes, if you have this DVD, YA BETTER NOT SHARE IT TOO  It must stay valuable.
 
 
And OMG I read your long post about their disbandment! This made me sooo sad.... I already knew some of this but not with this much detail! I always knew LAREINE had so much love for each other and their fans, even though I hear people sometimes say KAMIJO is an asshole. Or even a few posts before that they didn't like each other LOL.
APPLAUSE RECORDS was the only reason why LAREINE could still make music, I'm so grateful KAMIJO made it when he still had money in Fierte era. And their late era music has so much gems! Imperial Concerto, Sakura, Drama, 愛されていた日々-Ever Love-, 月の狩人, basically the whole Winter Romantic EP, but there's a lot of just good and some decent tracks too so that's why people think it. But I've listened to NEVER CAGE and Imperial Concerto sooo much times, hundreds that I love it all hahaha. Only 眠れぬ恋は真珠 I actively dislike and avoid. It might be one of the worst LAREINE songs ever lol.
I didn't know they actually COULDN'T find a drummer, that's soo sad! 😢
 
Also almost ALL releases of LAREINE after 2003 are expensive ASF and rare and rarely show up: NEVER CAGE, the main album of that time is rare, the three versions are all three rare, normal, Deluxe and Limited... The main singles: Trailer, Sakura, Drama and Sakura -Second Season-, 雪恋詩, 道化師の舞曲 and Cinderella Fantasy are rare too! It's exeptional that these are on puresound at the moment actually, they're KINDAAA overpriced, but are still expensive items. And let's not talk about Best Album Ballad and Fleur, Imperial Concerto, Winter Romantic, Deep Forest, 白蝶 and 女王という名の貴公子 that are each worth over 100.... A prime example of releasing REALLY GOOD music on limited batches of prints. They actually also had a revival of the Fleur fanclub magazine in 2004 that had a few issues, these seem to be so rare that I've never ever seem them on sale. Heck, even the Fleur magazines from the major era BARELY go on sale...
 
I'm dreaming of ever seeing a Bara wa live performance, question: Did they perform this and Billet in their late era concerts? Or songs like ピンクの傘 and パリは秋色 from Fierte, two of my favourites and sooo underrated. Sadly these four are not on the THE LAST OF ROMANCE I DVD main concert.
 
 
 
And some good info:
I'm working on a huge LAREINE fansite! With scans of every release booklet, a full discography AND miscellanous items like the many many message CD/VHS/Tapes, lots of information, magazine and book scans! It's sitll in early stages so no link yet, but I will make a topic and a new LAREINE thread here (this one's from 2007 lol) when it's close to done and presentable!  Using a paid domain and a very good Wordpress theme with many plugins. I think I am very fitted to make the website since I own almost every item ever except the FC magazines that I barely own.
 
Inertla thank you so much for your post!! Can I use info of it in my site? I will credit you! This might also be my favourite post on this whole site lol!
Bye
 
Also if anyone is wondering why Reine de fleur I and II sound so weird, it's because it's a compilation of pre-BLUE ROMANCE LAREINE except for Detest Off Doll and a version of Féerie. KAMIJO's voice was completely untrained in some of the songs on it. When I first started listening and downloaded Reine de fleur I and II I was also very confused by this LOL. I put on 季節風 and Dir en gray at random and was like "WTF??" lol

Hello! I have copy number 14 of the DVD. It contains a concert, but actually much more. Two PVs (Fleur and ROMANCIA), the Fleur is much better then the VHS release we only have, it contains many many pictures in a slideshow that were released nowhere else, over 100. It also contains a slideshow of lots of unseen concert footage, but with just a song over it. And it contains excerpts of yet another major era concert, with about 15 seconds per song, it has Billet in that! The only live Billet footage there is.
This DVD just shows as a love letter how much love KAMIJO has for his fans, he didn't have money to print any more copies probably, because he had to print more compilation CDs at that time like Imperial Concerto, but it's still a big love letter.
 
Good news, I PUT A PART OF IT ON YT!!
Share it like widefire guys.
 
But I love this DVD so much, it's my favourite part of my collection besides their 1st demo tape (100 limited), and I want it to keep it's huge value among collectors, being sold for 100s the rare times it shows up, so I'm not going to put anymore online.
BUT I'm going to make an entry of this DVD in Discogs with a detailed tracklist guys
I'm already doing a lot for the fanbase by giving info and that one vid, cus there's litirally NO info at all about this at all on the internet besides the Puresound entry. Oh yes, if you have this DVD, YA BETTER NOT SHARE IT TOO  It must stay valuable.
 
 
And OMG I read your long post about their disbandment! This made me sooo sad.... I already knew some of this but not with this much detail! I always knew LAREINE had so much love for each other and their fans, even though I hear people sometimes say KAMIJO is an asshole. Or even a few posts before that they didn't like each other LOL.
APPLAUSE RECORDS was the only reason why LAREINE could still make music, I'm so grateful KAMIJO made it when he still had money in Fierte era. And their late era music has so much gems! Imperial Concerto, Sakura, Drama, 愛されていた日々-Ever Love-, 月の狩人, basically the whole Winter Romantic EP, but there's a lot of just good and some decent tracks too so that's why people think it. But I've listened to NEVER CAGE and Imperial Concerto sooo much times, hundreds that I love it all hahaha. Only 眠れぬ恋は真珠 I actively dislike and avoid. It might be one of the worst LAREINE songs ever lol.
I didn't know they actually COULDN'T find a drummer, that's soo sad! 😢
 
Also almost ALL releases of LAREINE after 2003 are expensive ASF and rare and rarely show up: NEVER CAGE, the main album of that time is rare, the three versions are all three rare, normal, Deluxe and Limited... The main singles: Trailer, Sakura, Drama and Sakura -Second Season-, 雪恋詩, 道化師の舞曲 and Cinderella Fantasy are rare too! It's exeptional that these are on puresound at the moment actually, they're KINDAAA overpriced, but are still expensive items. And let's not talk about Best Album Ballad and Fleur, Imperial Concerto, Winter Romantic, Deep Forest, 白蝶 and 女王という名の貴公子 that are each worth over 100.... A prime example of releasing REALLY GOOD music on limited batches of prints. They actually also had a revival of the Fleur fanclub magazine in 2004 that had a few issues, these seem to be so rare that I've never ever seem them on sale. Heck, even the Fleur magazines from the major era BARELY go on sale...
 
I'm dreaming of ever seeing a Bara wa live performance, question: Did they perform this and Billet in their late era concerts? Or songs like ピンクの傘 and パリは秋色 from Fierte, two of my favourites and sooo underrated. Sadly these four are not on the THE LAST OF ROMANCE I DVD main concert.
 
 
 
And some good info:
I'm working on a huge LAREINE fansite! With scans of every release booklet, a full discography AND miscellanous items like the many many message CD/VHS/Tapes, lots of information, magazine and book scans! It's sitll in early stages so no link yet, but I will make a topic and a new LAREINE thread here (this one's from 2007 lol) when it's close to done and presentable!  Using a paid domain and a very good Wordpress theme with many plugins. I think I am very fitted to make the website since I own almost every item ever except the FC magazines that I barely own.
 
Inertla thank you so much for your post!! Can I use info of it in my site? I will credit you! This might also be my favourite post on this whole site lol!
Bye
 
Also if anyone is wondering why Reine de fleur I and II sound so weird, it's because it's a compilation of pre-BLUE ROMANCE LAREINE except for Detest Off Doll and a version of Féerie. KAMIJO's voice was completely untrained in some of the songs on it. When I first started listening and downloaded Reine de fleur I and II I was also very confused by this LOL. I put on 季節風 and Dir en gray at random and was like "WTF??" lol

Great! Versailles has at least 20 comment CD/DVD's. Some of these have no cover at all are are completely white. So the owner of this DVD probably just wrote it with a marker so he won't forget what it is.
 
Here's just a few:

 

 

 
Not mine BTW, someone sold these but others got it instantly

Any thoughts on their disbandment?
I've always felt that 95% of the stuff after Fierte was pretty generic, thus boring. I deeply believe it reflects an atmosphere of low creative energy, clearly derivated of the loose bonds between the members, with their easy comes and goes. This is something I've never came to understand fully, since there is much evidence that, although they never reached the mainstream attention bands like Shazna had, neither the levels of popularity bands like Dir en grey or Pierrot enjoyed in those years, Lareine was indeed a solid band with a strong concept, decent musicians and organic compositions, that had marked with fire the scene for ever. In fact, it is obvious to me that they started the prince and princesses trope back in the day.
I will always praise their contribution of a very genuine and refreshing approach to the visual kei clichés that will never be forgotten.
A tragic-concept band project met an actual tragic end...😢
 
P.D.: the tears I shed while watching Kamijo sing Fiançailles during his anniversary tour date in my country were the worthiest ever. 💗🌹

I lived in Tokyo and went to all their local shows and many of the away ones too during their second period in the 2000s. Something that I think isn’t fully appreciated among international fans is just how unpopular and broke Lareine was during that time, and how desperately and passionately they worked despite the obstacles. But every concert was magical. It had to be. There was no reason to do it otherwise, and a million reasons to quit. It felt like borrowed time, and I was always so happy and grateful to be able to see them despite the bittersweet feeling they would have been better off doing something else.
 
They always looked exhausted at events, rarely had new costumes, rarely even had new goods because I think they had trouble coming up with deposits. Cheki didn’t start to become a thing until late in their history (2005-ish?) when they’d already spent years grinding away with little return. I suspect the reason why they were able to put out as many releases as they did is because back during Lareine’s Sony days Kamijo invested in buying a bunch of his own production equipment. I think normally an indie band at that level wouldn’t have had those resources.
 
But time to write and rehearse seemed like a scarce commodity too back then. There were times when Kamijo looked half dead. And every time Lareine did a little tour we could watch Kamijo perk up day by day, at the same time as us fans with normal lives were getting more and more tired as the tour went on. It always made me wonder what on earth kind of awful schedule he normally had in Tokyo, juggling the band and probably a part-time job, that going on tour would feel like a vacation to him. (Later on when I read Versailles interviews, they mentioned that Kamijo and Hizaki first met while working at Third Stage.)
 
Unfortunately by 2003 Lareine was already perceived as old, out of date, and uncool. A ‘90s band. If they hadn’t paused in 2000 maybe things would have been different, maybe they could have built a solid base like Dir or Pierrot. But coming back in 2003 it was too late, the trends had already changed. Lareine had few fans back then, and it seemed like all of us were fans from before. I never met any Japanese fans who said they were new. (only international fans) Young VK fans didn’t care. Lareine wrote some of the currently trendy themes into their music in ways that were interesting instead of pure copy/paste, and us old fans had fun, but nobody else cared. They did some amazing experimental stuff on stage, and nobody saw it except us few old fans. To give you an idea of how young fans perceived them, there was a big outcry when Versailles was announced because people didn’t think a pansy weak vocalist with a thin high voice like Kamijo should be playing with awesome (but unknown) guitarists like Hizaki and Teru. They really got outraged when we heard Versailles was going to have a heavy sound. I got in a lot of arguments online at that time with people who clearly thought I was a delusional fangirl for saying that Kamijo’s voice is powerful enough to sing heavier music.
 
In February 2006 Kazumi announced that he was leaving Lareine and retiring from music. I never blamed him, I was thankful that he had done his best to help bring us great music for so long despite the hardships. But this was really the beginning of the end. Lareine put out big ads in the major VK magazines looking for a new drummer, and they even went out of their way to explicitly write that they would take applications from anybody regardless of age or sex or nationality, as long as they could play and would love the band. I think that would be shocking to see in a band’s want ad even today, and this was in 2006 before the explosion of international tours had happened. But they weren’t able to find a drummer, and then during the summer Mayu vanished again. Honestly I can’t even blame Mayu either for wanting to quit under the circumstances, but it was terrible that he vanished without communication or warning. The Club Citta live they did in October was originally supposed to be a Halloween Party event live with multiple bands, not their last live.
 
I went to as many of Kamijo’s anniversary tour dates as I could, since it was so special. The Tokyo final with everyone was amazing. So glad I went.
 
p.s. “Drama” was so great live that to this day I can still half-hear the performance in my memory, even though they only played it twice in Sapporo in February 2006 before Kazumi left. It was so powerful. Kazumi and Emiru were much louder than on the studio version; this song actually has a really sexy rhythm when you can hear them. Mayu took the electric part instead of the acoustic one. They came together solid and strong booming on the beat in that last chorus on the song, Kamijo singing powerfully instead of gently, and hard on the beat like the others. I regret not bringing my MD recorder to Sapporo, but I never imagined that those 2 nights would be the last times we could enjoy Lareine normally.

Sadly I don't speak japanese, but I think I found out what privilege DVD it should be. It should be from YesAsia for Philia.
 
Here a screen shot (with the Philia era costumes).
 

 

I think it's going to come out
 
it's just that it will have about 4 new tracks and one of them is an intro. 

IF ONLY! (about the demo)😆
 
No, my collection is much smaller because even though I collect Lareine material since like around 2005, I'm on a budget and I did not have direct access to the japanese second hand market till now, so I needed to be VERY patient to wait for the right occasions (=sales with NOT too overinflated prices). The list is full of errors because I don't speak japanese, so I must rely on cross-checked informations from different western sources sadly (When I find different dates for the same item I put two differen versions when I'm not sure it's an error or they are speaking about two different prints), but I'm always open to corrections. 
I don't lie to myself thinking I'll be able to complete it (not with my budget), but I like to see what I have and what I still need looking for, and I like that sensation when I mark down some more difficult to find item.
 
Congratulations over your collection! I know it was very hard work for you.

I have meet&greet (VIP) and photo tickets for his September Paris concert! So excited!! I will give him a hug, and a letter in Japanese (translated by a friend), and as a gift together with the letter a CD with LAREINE covers by me. I'll also show him my Laliene 1st demo tape, he'll be really surprised!

When you're on a completely non music / vkei related youtube video and see people in the comments with the band as an avatar / name.

They way the CDs are made tell a lot about their budget. When a band is low budget ATM they use a thin CD case, or one with not much prints, or a small booklet, or a 8cm, when they have a budget at the moment, it's a thicc well made CD with sometimes a DVD extra.

They way the CDs are made tell a lot about their budget. When a band is low budget ATM they use a thin CD case, or one with not much prints, or a small booklet, or a 8cm, when they have a budget at the moment, it's a thicc well made CD with sometimes a DVD extra.

Hello there!
I am fairly new to the forum and have made a couple of posts. 
I am interested in many J-rock bands from the 90s (both visual rock bands and not visual kei bands that went major such as Glay, Luna Sea, X Japan, Siam Shade, L'arc-en-ciel, Lareine, Janne Da Arc  and a few more) and Pop bands that don't really suit this forum such as SMAP or Spitz ^^". I like the sound of 80-00s Japanese music (either rock or pop).
I am not into nowadays J-rock or visual kei groups except for Versailles but maybe from browsing through the forum I get to know new groups and get into new bands  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FUqvHaKHg3YhOEdEzxlZDAu6tBBmc9HOyumIc4f7Z9k/edit?usp=sharing
 

It's easy! To enable MH Premium Membership just [THE CONTENT OF THIS POST IS FOR PREMIUM MEMBERS ONLY.  YOU NEED A MONOCHROME HEAVEN PREMIUM ACCOUNT TO ACCESS THIS POST]

So, I've noticed that you can no longer view the download forum without being a premium member apparently. First, I personally think that's dumb, but it's not my decision. Anyway, my question is simply how does one become a premium member? There's nothing in the account settings to allow for it or anything, so I'm confused on how someone would even do that.

Literally one of the best in vk history tbh

Excuse me, but this isn't the "Best Jrock CD Cover" thread.

Selling CD's, DVD's, cheki, postcards/photos/trading cards etc.
 
Check Paradox VK Sales !
 
As I'll move back to Tokyo in January, I'll start offering shopping service too.
 
 
Will go see (have ticket for)
• KAMIJO on September 16 (EU tour)
• ayabie on January 12, 2019 at Zepp Tokyo
*more coming soon*

Okies...pm me with your PayPal ^^