kuyashii

Even on $5 headphones albums produced and mixed well sound fine.

TIW sounds like it was recorded on starwave so like w/e

yep. Alice9 and Kaya had done successful crowdfunding for their releases in the past, there's an ongoing campaign to bring Sui to Europe for a concert (I'm not following her so idk if they reached the milestone.)
 
if paid fanclubs fall under your idea of subscriptions, those are out there for p much every prominent vk act.

I think blacknazarene might be on patreon? They're one of those idol/metal groups. Otherwise I've also seen some of em on bandcamp and on that website u can buy an album but give them more than the base price 

Yeah of course the Tomurai debacle was very hard to swallow but to be honest I wouldn't be concerned yet. The "Vanitas" music video was posted on the 2nd of June, and Chedoara itself was out on the 8th of August, more than 2 months after it. We woulnd't see a "digest video" of the Chedoara songs until August 13, 5 days after the release of the album. I understand people have legitimate reasons to be feeling concerned but I don't think it's time to be freaking out yet. Have stuff to be continuously postponed without little explanation like Tomurai, then I'm going to be actually concerned.
 
BTW, has any j-rock/vk band ever tried any crowdfunding campaign or subscription system or something like that? Maybe it could help them. I kinda doubt it considering the japanese music industry is so assbackwards lol

does it tho

As much as it hurts, I'm sure I would do the same if I were in their place. VK isn't nowadays a good scene to be related to in the eye of the public if you want to do actual art (at least not with 0.1mg, Chicboy and the like being around).
 
Btw, "leaving make up" shouldn't be a radical choice; maybe they are leaving the flamboyant look for a more quiet one, I hope so.

this is such a wild statement to make regarding a scene that has a plenty of
 - bands that dropped putting in any resemblance of effort a single into a sell-out major contract (I'll use fucking an cafe for this to avoid the elitism punch)
 
- bands that relied on outside producing help from people who left the music biz/passed away which let to an immediate drop in quality (see  - pierrot/ex-pierrot) - which on top of that regularly happens in literally every other music scene out there;
 
- bands/members that understandably lose enthusiasm for creating anything at all in a scene sandwiched by tangible and narrow walls and piss off to grow organic lettuce;
 
- bands that never were anything in the first place but the gya got the HottS  - and this is where bar for "elitism" drops to "minimally developed taste"
 
- why "2010"

They still look better without makeup than half the scene so who cares 

Said every VK elitist who got stuck listening to moth-ridden bands yet is still active in the scene shitting on anything post 2010 that comes out lol

Technique is important when it comes to screams. Yeah, "expressing your feelings", I get it, but if you can't realy do it properly don't even try.
 
Yeah, Vanitas is definitely their best moment IMO Can't really remember anything from it other than the intro, this song and "V-Rock is Dead" though

Idk how unpopular this actually is but I've seen them get clowned around a bit but I really love the last few releases of 12012. XII, the swan, decida of silence I find all stellar 

I don't really mind the whole no cameras rule at concerts
 
The only time I'd say it's fine is when the band is entering the stage, leaving the stage or is just doing something when they're not playing. I am against people filming during the band playing or at VIP events. 

I actually like Nega's Vanitas album. I mean, listen to this. Sure it's a bit of a Vinushka ripoff but still! 
 
 

Don’t know, I thought his drumming in Arche was brilliant. 

While I'm not trying to protect Shinya from any justified criticism (I agree the drumming on TWoM was pretty underwhelming) if people tend to bring Kyo's health issues when defending him from criticisms when it comes to his problems regarding vocals, I think we should also consider that Shinya has been struggling with some health problems afaik since 2011 (I remember during a live on the AQA tour he had to be rushed into a hospital and it was discovered he had stress fracture on the ribs and managed to play an entire gig through immense pain). I haven't really watched much live footage by them in a good while but I remember in stuff from 2011 you could see he was often making faces of pain while playing songs. While it's kinda understandable he toned down some of the craziest things within his drumming I agree his work has been kinda repetitive and monotone (even though I always loved his more "proggy" drumming with all the toms and cymbal rolls I agree on TWoM his drumming is rather bland and not really varied) and his stuff on the heavy parts has been kinda samey and overall pretty boring.
 
This is one of the reasons I'd rather have them toning down all the more extreme metal influences: they haven't really been in the prime physical condition they used to be when they were at their craziest instrumental habilities so they need to acknowledge the way their physical limitations interfere with their musicianship - and while I think the band still has room to evolve, the arguably questionable quality of their recent attempts at doing heavier stuff - via TIW- kinda demonstrated this is not really the way they could achieve the best results, plus, there are some younger bands that have been absolutely killing on this whole br00tal kei scene.
 
On TWoM itsel, I can't still express how much I love the tempo change around 8:40. That is probably my favorite moment of the song.

I'm kinda amused by the fact they chose to finish this album chapter with... a song that doesn't sound anything like it lol. Yeah their first post-album singles never really sounded like they could fit the previous albums very well so it doesn't really surprises me. I wonder if they're still going to pursue this "proggier" direction (I'm not really talking about song lenghts, but you know, more detailed arrangements, more adventurous song structures, that kind of thing) considering TIW was kinda punkish and they probably feel done with that thing for a while?
 
I won't lie I had dreams of a full-on prog album by them before lol You know, 5-6 songs, all really long  

.

If anything I feel like Sho uses growls when it fits the lyrics. Kyo, on the other hand, often seems like he just randomly makes noises. 

acoustic dozing green sounds gud

Song lyrics. Anyone wanna have a try?

Well ah least he is being more respectful about it than Issei
 

Shinya looks like a single mom who reluctantly has to go to bring her kids to church this morning. She classed herself up a bit, but refuses to stand and sing.

Deg's coming for Tool

First listen opinions: "Baku" is kinda odd. It has the potential to be something absolutely sick but feels kinda unfinished and rushed, but I really like the emphasis on atmosphere. "Sense of Distrust" does the "heavy verses poppy chorus" thing pretty well I must say. I honestly consider that formula to be one of the worst things going on within the br00tal kei scene but the melody is very engaging, props to them for being able to get it right! Not anything to say on the SE track really. It's nice as far as SEs go, and while its addition already reeks of "we don't have anything else to put on the single", its placement as the last track feels really weird and it doesn't add absolutely anything to the single.
 
I kinda liked it more than Ideal tbh