ahnchc

I love them already.

I can't believe this is that baby kei band. In regards to 『不響和音』: I like the guitar riffs and the bassline during the chorus is cool too. I see the potential in this band now that they've stopped that baby concept lol

They actually released something that I don't have to question whether I like it or not. This sounds pretty good. I hope they keep this sound at least for their next few singles.

I was about to post this. He looks like someone was aiming a gun at his head and told him to look happy and dance. The autotuned vocals are destroying me, but at least the music sounds more creative than the very uninspired "super star".

I wasn't exactly sure about whether or not I liked PLUTO when I saw the MV spot, but it took no time at all for it to grow on me. THE GALLO somehow manages to set the bar higher and higher for themselves, both in compositions and MVs. I'm also glad that they didn't strangely mix JoJo's vocals in the same way they did on KERBEROS lol.

As sad as it is, it's not surprising. Noulla did the same thing recently. An Cafe was a first-VK-band for a lot of people.. I sort of hope that it doesn't completely disband, but with everyone leaving, it might as well.

Not the best, but I'll take it over "THE KINKY".

LMAO. I was expecting this too tbh.

they look like they smell like cigarette smoke and mustiness

I keep trying to tell myself this, but knowing that Tsuzuku composed relatively decent songs from MEJIBRAY (such as baby crossing, 躁と鬱と境界 (Sou to Utsu to Kyoukai), 【worms】, -XV-, EMILY, amongst others) I'm not even sure it's a valid excuse for the less-than-mediocre composition of this song. This song was just completely uninspired in a way that I didn't even think was possible. Even if Koichi composed it, it's still pretty bad lol. I don't think anyone expected a VK style (I personally expected a ballad or pop song, and we got an extremely poor take on the latter). The song just sounds bad. I think that Koichi's voice has to do with my opinions on it also tbh. I can only hope that it'll grow on me (which is a bit unlikely), or their next release will be better. We've been trying to forget.

This song was embarrassingly bad LMAO. I'm not even mad it's a pop song. I'm mad because it's a shitty pop song. You all couldn't have come up with any different chord progression to use? + I don't know if it's just me, but the mixing sounds really... off. Even though Tsuzuku sounds incredibly soulless (with the exception of that one note at 1:47), I do have a feeling that if TZK was the only one singing, this song wouldn't be nearly as terrible. Unfortunately, he's not the only one singing, so I can't afford to ignore his tone-deaf companion! Koichi sounds so horrifically nasal I started furrowing my eyebrows and almost started grinding my teeth. With how skilled of a lyricist TZK is, the lyrics somehow makes this song even worse. It's not even what the song's about, it's just how poorly they're written (especially when put in comparison to MEJIBRAY's lyrics). This has to be some sort of joke.

I remember I wanted to watch Beyonce's stream but clicked the wrong video and saw X JAPAN playing at Coachella and what I heard in those 2 seconds gave me a stroke.

I feel like if they decided to go through and officially start the band, this song would have the most potential. I'd be interested in seeing a re-recording of it at some point in the future tbh, as long as the quality is better because yikes lol.

The new Smash almost looks like a Smash 4 mod. I know the idea was to bring back all characters from every Smash game, but.... the sight of Ice Climbers gave me flashbacks to the spammer IC players in 2008, and we're not even going to talk about Pokemon Trainer lol. I wonder why they didn't also change Zelda's design to the BOTW like they did with Link, but I'm just glad that Nintendo finally decided to change the Twilight Princess models.

In my opinion: Piracy is a "necessary evil" and something fans—especially foreign and international fans—rely on, but should not be one that gya always resort to/go to first. One could argue that VK fans rely a bit too heavily on piracy. I think it's good to keep in mind that 98% of these bands are extremely, and they're spending loads of money on costumes, sets, instruments, etc, etc. The little bit amount of money they get has to be divided for each member, hair stylists, makeup artists (that is, unless the bandomen themselves do their own hair and makeup), and the like. Despite that, people continue to pirate their music which can potentially result in a further decline of income. Relying on income from a band is a bad idea in the first place, but if you're tatted and pierced up it might be difficult to find another job that pays decently as well. Keeping this in mind, it's sad to think that some gya don't even want to pay 3200 yen for a decently mixed and produced album. I think exceptions to be made are teenagers and those in college/university, which make up a large majority of the VK fandom and community. I also do think it's fair to note that some of the album prices are ridiculous, especially for the audience visual kei tends to attract. For example: almost every La'veil MizeriA release where normally 3-5 songs costs a good 4000 yen. This isn't to mention live tickets, drinks, and other merch that's being sold. Yikes. On that note, I can admit that I wouldn't have found some of my favorite bands if it weren't for pirates and pirating. I also wouldn't have been able to listen to the glamscure x La'veil MizeriA coupling single 「禁断ノ果実」(Kindan no Kajitsu) which has 2 tracks and was originally sold for 1000 yen but was being resold for 5400 at some point. I only got to listen to it because of the DL forum on this site and I feel like a lot of members can relate to that with different examples. Something else worth mentioning was that if bands had a problem with fans uploading their music on to sites like Youtube, they could easily take it down. Whether they want to or not—or even care to—is another thing. It's not an excuse for pirating, however.

I wonder why. I like the sound of "NIL UNDER RAIN" better than "MICBAM" personally, but after that one band named themselves "MEME", I think I'm fine with any band name and name changes

Another bandoman that'll do just about anything for attention. This thread is the epitome of why I'm still in the VK community LOL.

I honestly sort of hope I'll take a liking to these songs and Initial'L in general, but for now I'm not into them. "NEED YOU" probably would be the more likely of the two to grow on me tbh. Does anyone actually genuinely enjoy these guys?

LOL. Has anyone been taking count of how many VK bands have disbanded in the last month?

VK bands are dropping like flies this year

I can't exactly speak for why it never broke through in the past—possibly making my post irrelevant—but I can give my opinion on why it's not breaking through now from an American standpoint. a ) Problematic. The VK scene is somewhat notorious amongst gya for being problematic and not exactly politically correct. Being PC has become a trend and VK certainly isn't following it. Examples: subtitle for ギャロ/THE GALLO's "DIAVOLO" album as well as their lyrics in general, not to mention the whole "menhera" trend that took off in VK at some point. b ) Rock or any variation of metal isn't as popular as it once was. Pop, R&B, trap, and rap are all the rave and are trendy. While rock certainly hasn't died out, it definitely isn't as widespread as it was in the past. c ) The widespread belief that Japanese men are more effeminate in appearance is definitely be a turn-off for some. America still has something of a toxic masculine mindset, and still associates femininity with homosexuality: therefore, anything that doesn't fit the "masculine" bill gets shunned and disregarded. This is a potential explanation as to why bands like BABYMETAL, LADYBABY, and ONE OK ROCK are gaining popularity while VK bands remain relatively unknown. This option is definitely the first complaint I hear when I try showing someone a VK band. "They look like chicks!", "Those aren't guys", "They have to be gay", etc, etc. d ) Second most common complaint I hear: "They can't sing!", "They sing through their nose", "They're tune deaf". Self explanatory. e ) Immature fandom. Once people see the portion of the fandom that's rampant with puerile teenage girls salivating over their faves and pretending like they're in a relationship with them, they'll probably make a run for it and never look back.

Adding on to my last post: I can possibly give a bit of insight as someone who casually and mildly enjoys their music even though I'm not a hardcore fan like a lot of the teenage western gya that salivate over scantily clad men that the band seems to attract. Perhaps it's uncommon, but the thing about MEJIBRAY that actually gained my attention and sort of attracted me to them was MiA. Not for his looks, but for his guitar playing. Whether you love or hate MEJIBRAY or are somewhere in between those two, I think everyone can agree that MiA is a rather skilled guitarist. The fact that MiA composed almost the entire discography increased the liking I had taken towards them. The compositions were always so versatile and—as a result—I never knew what to expect for their next single or album, and that's what I liked. MEJIBRAY constantly kept me on my toes, and while I strongly dislike songs like 盈虧 (Eiki), I was able to respect the fact that the band was trying something new, not to mention that it was still somehow conjured up by the mind of the composer who also did songs that are very different in sound and ones that I'm fond of such as 砂に帰りしキミ走る (Suna ni Kaerishi Kimi Hashire) or DIVERGENCE. The same goes for their drummer: meto. I consider meto to actually be skilled in drumming and I always thought that he certainly doesn't get enough praise from fans. In addition, Tsuzuku's vocals are unmistakable as someone has mentioned. You can pick his nasal (and also sometimes extremely irritating) voice out of a crowd. In addition, he proves himself to be a decent composer, for he composed one of my favorite MEJIBRAY songs: baby crossing. Something that people constantly critique Tsuzuku for are his screams. While his screams are admittedly quite strange, I'm not sure many vocalists could imitate that strange sound in the outro of the aforementioned baby crossing. His voice is very unique and distinct although sometimes it made me want to grind my teeth when he hits obnoxiously high notes (i.e.: some live versions of 原罪の林檎/Genzai no Ringo). However, I have a suspicion that a majority of the attention to MEJIBRAY comes from their bassist: Koichi. In the comments of MVs and live videos alike, there are a myriad of comments about Koichi and how attractive they find him and/or his clothes to be. Refer to the latter portion of the first line in this post: "gya that salivate over scantily clad men". Hopefully I've made my point. I don't have anything against Koichi (although I do have my suspicions that he sometimes pretends to play bass during lives for a reason I can't figure out), but it's a shame that a band that—in my opinion—had potential gained most attention because of their wardrobe. It is visual kei, but I think too much attention went on their appearances rather than the (mostly) decent content they were producing and releasing.

I saw this one coming