Miku70

Despite this being an obvious April Fools joke, I can totally see Gackt doing this 

Really nice 😍😍😍

Thank you!! 
 
Newest VK work is from VARIE

 

 
Also CD jacket, logo's (band & CD), flyers all my designs!

Why does no one mention Yoshiki? 
Nowadays he is doing anything but rock music... master of procastination and missguided self-marketing.
 
Also keiya from purple stone is now doing these anime songs, too...
 
https://sp.nicovideo.jp/mylist/37892459
 
 
 

And Maiju said he was a support member of Meji for a hot minute as well
 
 
 
The Misa Vinci Code is unraveling..............................................................................................................................................................................................................

Im creeped out by the koichi clone, but koichi died with mejibray so im fine with this reincarnation lmao

Hot damn that was a nice listen. Just soak up that sweet shit-kei.
 
also drink every time someone mentions that this song isn't as good as ojamashimasu and/or butt hurt about this band.
 
Just let people enjoy things. It's okay.

Hello everyone! You can call me Jae. I'm relatively a newbie in the vk world, even though for the past year I've been getting more and more into it. Unfortunately I'm the type that sticks to her favorites and doesn't venture much outside it, but I wanna change that. For that reason I thought that coming here would be a good way to find new bands and broaden my horizons a bit.
I'm mostly into the new wave of vk, I listen to several newer indie bands but I definitely wanna expand my knowledge. I'm here to learn so please go easy on me😊

cant believe this topic has 3 pages without a single mention of everyones fav problematic queen kisaki

EVERSSIC has gotten in contact with Daiju, who does not wish to return to the band due to family circumstances, and hence has been fired.
 

That sounds like a "telephone version" of Ojamashimasu,but not as catchy,of course.I liked the tight and heavy production,it doesn't sound sloppy like the last tracks, something happened again. However,Batsu's screams ruined it,imo,he desperately needs a vocal coach to learn how to scream "properly" and extend his capacity,but the track is an improvement after all.

avanchick - jinsei game
briefly speaking, the main character goes through several reincarnations, he reborns as a host, as salaryman, playboy bartender, and bandomen for whom nobody cares (all four careers not respected in society), but no matter who you are life is a joke and god is just playing with us and we buy relationships for money and bla bla bla
 
yami uta by gallo is criticizing japan, as there are two lines about corrupted country of the gods. japan is referred as country of the gods because their myths say emperors ascend from japanese god amaterasu.
 
well half of did song is in english and those lines cover pretty much everything: no point in living, no point in dying, god is dead, all that teen angst stuff

It's kinda sad how it doesn't shock people. I'm sure many people found Chanty's blackface hilarious, the same way they associate black people with exaggerated gestures and funny intonations - pretty much the only representation they get in Japanese media.
 
It's sad mostly because Japan is not as homogeneous as the mainstream narrative goes. The people they find so hilarious work with them, go to school with them (or with their children), teach them English and live in the same neighborhoods with them. Plus they're exposed to western culture through media. So while I understand why it's not shocking (the discourse on race in Japan is... different), I don't think it's a reason to shrug and say 'oh well that's just the way Japan is'.
 
So did they mean anything by it? Not a big political statement, but using the same tired portrayal of black people for comedy is saying SOMETHING.
 
 

I would bet that many people did. But like I said before, I wasn't very happy when I saw it. I didn't make a big stink of it, but I did not check Chanty out for quite some time simply because of that stunt. The first time I heard anything from Chanty was when someone put it on a mix, and then I swiped the mini and proceeded to never listen to it. I wasn't sad either when one of the members announced departure. I also refuse to review any of their material here. So these kinds of things do bother me and I do the things I can to express my displeasure, but I also realize that outside of here I have no power to change those attitudes.
 
 
But that is the way Japan is! Even if there are other races in Japan, Japan has been and primarily will be Japanese. Japanese customs and culture dominates there and it goes way back, and all that history has an impact on the present. They have exposure to some parts of western culture but a lot of context is lost in translation, and that doesn't displace their culture, and race is one of those things. As a result, their culture puts less value on racial issues than ours does. It's unfortunate, and with time those attitudes can change, but right now that's the way it is. I don't like it, but I have no choice but to accept it. My country is still in the process of sorting its own racial issues out, so I'm willing to extend some patience to them in this aspect.
 

And I think this is the most important thing you said. It means SOMETHING, and that something is definitely unsavory, but that doesn't mean we can generalize about the political and religious beliefs of an entire race of people. The same thing goes for use of nazi imagery in visual kei.  I know that they know what that symbolizes, and that it is insensitive, hateful, and inflammatory. I bet some artists do it for the shock value, some are more radicalized and believe in it, and some aren't associated with it at all. Plenty of songs feature speech snippets from Hitler, Goebbels, and the like, but these clips are used in many contexts. The simple inclusion of these clips doesn't mean they are automatically neo-nazis.

There was a poster in here I had to censor because they wrote several long manifestos, but between the ranting there was some lucid thoughts that do add some context to this discussion. They mentioned lyrics from several visual kei bands that could be interpreted as one or more band members having radical beliefs. Unfortunately, they did not include an English translation, so I can't verify. Can anyone find translations for the following songs so we can decide on our own?

Avanchick - Jinsei Game
 

THE GALLO - Maou -Yami Uta-
 

D.I.D. - nihilism.
 
 

I can't actually understand those lyrics because there are no English subs, but even if the lyrics are bad, one song isn't going to prove an ideology for thousands of people. Also... I'm sorry, but I am so confused right now. Should I bail from this thread? I might lurk.

They are in a dire need of a hiatus, for a year, at least, because this is getting worse and worse. The new Youtuber bullshit is just a cherry on top of all that trashpile. It feels like BPR wants to milk out every last yen, 'til Mahiro actually goes blind.

Don't be alarmed, but I think we've found our new SilverEspeon

Found it...I remember this being one of the first things I read when I first went to Shattered Tranquility.

I wish I could find this picture right now, but when Chanty popped up on the scene they did it with blackface. That's what turned me off the band entirely. But did they mean anything with it? Probably not, because they live in a pretty homogeneous country and they don't have the cultural conditioning to understand why it is wrong. I would say they lack that conditioning so much, it wraps around the continuum and becomes something so foreign to them that it's not even shocking. Does that make any sense?
 
 

I agree with some of the points you made, but not with the conclusion. People do edgy shit all the time for attention. That doesn't mean they actually believe what they're doing. Visual kei bands appropriated nazi imagery years ago, but that doesn't mean they are automatically all neo nazis. Most bands have never appropriated this imagery, so by your logic most bands aren't neo nazis! We're going to need Akane-level outbursts on twitter saying they hate gays, jews, and blacks, or lyrics or interviews that say as much, before I would be willing to point to a band member and say "yep, that's a neo nazi right there".

If you wish to educate us some more, exactly who is it that you are thinking of and what proof do you have? Proof is the coin of the realm here on MH.

Yeah for me if I want to listen to something profound or whatever, surely I won't find it here lol, but I still love them (except those handful of radio sounding songs.) They are perfect for what I listen to chaotic music for, but they only fill that specific niche like Igorrr. I only listen to お邪魔します casually outside of physical activity or art time.
Sometimes you gotta enjoy the Face/Off's of music...I say this not really being able to listen to pop music at all, and everyone has their own taste, but you get what I mean maybe. 😺

Punch records is a subset to FORUM right? Could be intentional lol

A lot has been already written about the SS uniform being an 'edgy fashion thing' that was copied over and over again by generations of vk bands from the 80s until today. Personally I think it's cringy and stupid but I can't really feel offended after seeing it done so many times.
In fact it's also pretty exotic and in a way understandable that the Japanese wouldn't feel as sensitive to it as Europeans and would generally be less educated about it than them.
What I find much more problematic is the way a lot of bands are using the  imagery of Japanese imperialism. (WWII Uniforms, rising sun flags, propaganda) After all, Japan has its own fascist history of imperialism and war crimes, mainly in other Asian countries. And in contrast to Germany they don't really admit them and don't make mention of it in their history books. It's not really controversial to use these images, despite the crimes they stand for. Using symbols from foreign history as some exotic gimmick is one thing (albeit not great), but using the same propaganda your ancestors used a while back without any proper reflection and not expecting backlash either just shows that young Japanese people are very oblivious and ignorant due to their lack of a proper political education.