monkeybanana4

Ordered some interesting stuff, and some not so interesting!
The not so interesting:
The Gazette - TOUR 2006 NAMELESS LIBERTY SIX GUNS @ BUDOKAN Limited Edition
 
Now for my interesting stuff:
Nightmare - Star Knight (live limited, only available from their 2007 appearance at Budokan)
Various Artists - Yougenkyou -moon-, I only ordered this because I love the song Okuribi by The Gazette

I still remember watching DBZ (as well as Pokemon, Sailormoon, and Digimon) on television when I was quite young (I forget what channel it is now), and that was what got me into the whole "I've got to listen to J-music" craze. Even now, I recall trying to scour the internet on very shady sites/places to grab a bite of J-music regardless of its subpar quality. It was quite a different time then. 
I think this is an interesting point, which I agree with. Some people who I used to interact with on other social media sites like LJ have now seemingly migrated over to K-pop and lost total interest in VK/J-rock despite being huge fans themselves at one point in time.
 
I agree. I think K-pop is more accepted than VK because it is more heavily advertised. Heck, I see the band, BTS, on American and British channels being interviewed these days. I'm not an expert by any means, but I feel an important tool of advertisement that probably helped catapult the popularity of K-pop is the usage of the Internet and social media. Interestingly, the "Korean Wave" (the popularity of Korean pop culture, including K-music) started in the 1990s - right around the same time when VK was gaining traction overseas. However, unlike VK/J-rock, it seems K-pop/K-music were not afraid to tap into the power of the Internet and social media and utilized it to spread the word. To this day, I remember being able to find Korean music much more easily and listening to that for a time before I could even find VK. (VK music was notoriously hard to find back in those days.) Even during the 2006-2009 period, VK (in general, including the bosses who run the whole business, lol) seemed resistant to use the power of the Internet and social media, making it difficult for the genre to grow and become more acceptable.
 
Anyway, I have completely digressed from the topic, but it is an interesting subject to mull over ^^;
Completely concur with you on this statement. I discovered so much in this time period that I got completely lost in the deluge of amazing music. Perhaps it's nostalgia, I return to listen to it even now, and I love it just as much since I first discovered it. Even though the post only covered albums, there were also many noteworthy singles released in 2008 as well. (Making a post on that would be quite the undertaking!)

The album will come in two editions and be released on 2019.04.05.
 
Deluxe Edition (6,000 yen)
- 11 tracks
- T-shirt
- 12 pages of 
 
Regular Edition (2,000 yen)
- 11 tracks

Both 憂璃-yu-ri- and 氷龍-hiryu- from MIZTAVLA have officially joined the band.
 

 


 
 

 

 

You're not wrong. I would peg the growing interest in anime and Japanese culture to the late 90's and early 2000's. I was too young to notice at the time, but thinking back on it, it was my dad who introduced me to Dragonball Z. He heard about it from his coworkers, all about 30 or 40, so clearly its influence had infiltrated my country by the time I was 5 or 6. Visual kei jumped on the bandwagon a few years after that, because the first time I ever heard about it was in 1999, but it was defo underground at the time and in my entire life I only talked about visual kei in person to seven or eight people. Interest in visual kei spiked around 2003-2004 and reached critical mass around 2007-2009. These days, it's almost impossible to find new fans in the flesh.

I won't even try to analyze the reasons why interest died off since I'm not certified in it, but what I can say is that at some point interest in Japanese music fell off completely. I have friends who will admit to watching anime, playing JRPGs, going to anime conventions and cosplaying, but not one of them talks about listening to the music.  If I were pressed to give a reason for this, I would point to K-Pop. I know many a fan who jumped ship to K-Pop once the craze died down, and to be honest it feels more socially acceptable to like K-Pop than visual kei these days because one is more commercialized than the other. To J- and K-music outsiders, I can see how the distinction between "J-Rock" and "K-Pop" is irrelevant when they don't understand the words anyway, so I'd say that for many people K-Pop fills that musical niche for their interest in ~exotic Asian musics~ where J-Music should be.
 
A lot of my fondness for this era is because this was the music I listened to in my formative years and I will always have a soft spot for it, but I'd be lying if I said 2008 wasn't the best time ever to be a visual kei fan. It was.

The album will come with twelve tracks and will cost 3,000 yen (tax included). It will only be available at lives or by mail order. He will also have a one live man at Shinjuku WildSide Tokyo on 2019.03.23.
 

Tracklist
[DISC1]
1.-W・W-Ⅱ [SE]
2.アヌンナキ
3.Welcome to TRICK DEATH LAND
4.SiLiConE
5.未完成サファイア
6.Burn your soul
7.INFERNO
8.El_Dorado?
9.ACID CASTLE [album edition]
10.Amadeus
11.Flower World.
12.ニライカナイ
 
[Disc2]
1.VAD†MAN
2.不死鳥-FENNIX-
3.FIXXTION BOY
4.メトロア3.0
5.RAVVE OF MY TRINITY
6.IKAROS
 
Guests on the album
GAKU(FEST VAINQUEUR) / Cazqui(NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST) / 奏 / 椎名未緒(ユナイト/APPLIQUE) / 鈴木俊彦 / Daisuke(SEVER BLACK PARANOIA) / Daichi(NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST) / 村田祐一 / YUCHI(sukekiyo) / YOW-ROW(GARI) / 猟平(ex-CLØWD)

ヴィルシーナ - 依存
万鬼隊 - あやかし七変化
 

I don't think Rucy was ever a good fit for this particular band since he came from the neo visual scene and the other guys are basically veterans. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some disputes going on, given the difference in music style and age especially.

This! To me, those years were sort of like a renaissance of VK music - so much amazingly good music was released and I still return to listen to lots of it even now. If I remember correctly, VK was at its height in Japan in the '90s - a time when many VK musical pioneers came out - and had mostly faded away from mainstream popularity in Japan in the 2000s. However, for us Westerners, that was the time it felt as though VK offered a treasure trove of fascinating music to listen to. It exposed most of us to something different and got us researching as to what the heck was this genre called visual kei. I could be wrong, but I also feel that the burgeoning interest in anime and/or Japanese culture around this time contributed in creating the perfect setting. At least, that was the case for me.
 
By the way, another amazing album, which came out in 2008, was Sincrea's Atlus. That had awesome killer songs, Jesus Maria and Silkspider to name a few.

The "LAMENT" mini album is actually pretty good, it is high quality music. I don't think it sounds that similar to DEG, DEG nowadays is just growling mostly, so it really doesn't sound anything like this mini album at least xD  it's very pleasant to listen to

🎁As an early gift to the community, MH will once again be hosting the MH JRock Awards for 2018!🎁
 
Now, before you start voting, read the rules provided in the spoiler below, or else Yuyo will ... idk yet but just read it anyways.
 
 
Once you have read the general rules, here's how to vote:
 
1. Copy the list of categories below into your reply
2. Fill in your votes (you can skip as many categories as you'd like)
3. Submit.
(Try to keep your votes organized under spoiler tags in order to save space for other voters)
 
Your posts will stay hidden until the end of the voting.
 
Here are your categories to choose from:
 
 
Voting will last until Sunday, January 13th of the New Year (2019)
This will allow everyone to take their time, since some of us are still waiting on some final releases to come out this month.
 
Note: 
"Album" includes both full and mini-albums. For simplicity reasons, we follow the "Once Visual Kei, always Visual Kei" rule. So yes, that makes bands like Dir en grey or L'Arc~En~Ciel a Visual Kei band, just for the purpose of this voting.  
If you missed/skipped 2017 or are just joining the forum and have never heard of this, then take part this year!
If you have any questions about the 2018 MH Jrock Awards, feel free to contact myself or any of the MH Staff!
 
Happy Voting!

 

Both LM.C and Mana (including his fashion brand, Moi-même-Moité) will be coming to Anime Weekend Atlanta during 2019.10.31 through 2019.11.03.

This! To me, those years were sort of like a renaissance of VK music - so much amazingly good music was released and I still return to listen to lots of it even now. If I remember correctly, VK was at its height in Japan in the '90s - a time when many VK musical pioneers came out - and had mostly faded away from mainstream popularity in Japan in the 2000s. However, for us Westerners, that was the time it felt as though VK offered a treasure trove of fascinating music to listen to. It exposed most of us to something different and got us researching as to what the heck was this genre called visual kei. I could be wrong, but I also feel that the burgeoning interest in anime and/or Japanese culture around this time contributed in creating the perfect setting. At least, that was the case for me.
 
By the way, another amazing album, which came out in 2008, was Sincrea's Atlus. That had awesome killer songs, Jesus Maria and Silkspider to name a few.

This! To me, those years were sort of like a renaissance of VK music - so much amazingly good music was released and I still return to listen to lots of it even now. If I remember correctly, VK was at its height in Japan in the '90s - a time when many VK musical pioneers came out - and had mostly faded away from mainstream popularity in Japan in the 2000s. However, for us Westerners, that was the time it felt as though VK offered a treasure trove of fascinating music to listen to. It exposed most of us to something different and got us researching as to what the heck was this genre called visual kei. I could be wrong, but I also feel that the burgeoning interest in anime and/or Japanese culture around this time contributed in creating the perfect setting. At least, that was the case for me.
 
By the way, another amazing album, which came out in 2008, was Sincrea's Atlus. That had awesome killer songs, Jesus Maria and Silkspider to name a few.

This! To me, those years were sort of like a renaissance of VK music - so much amazingly good music was released and I still return to listen to lots of it even now. If I remember correctly, VK was at its height in Japan in the '90s - a time when many VK musical pioneers came out - and had mostly faded away from mainstream popularity in Japan in the 2000s. However, for us Westerners, that was the time it felt as though VK offered a treasure trove of fascinating music to listen to. It exposed most of us to something different and got us researching as to what the heck was this genre called visual kei. I could be wrong, but I also feel that the burgeoning interest in anime and/or Japanese culture around this time contributed in creating the perfect setting. At least, that was the case for me.
 
By the way, another amazing album, which came out in 2008, was Sincrea's Atlus. That had awesome killer songs, Jesus Maria and Silkspider to name a few.

A part of me is glad that so many of us were able to contribute to this showcasing of 2008's VK, but also sad we left 2006 out of these blurbs. Maybe we can find a way to include previous years in the same format for our newer members here on MH.
 
Looking forward to what this year brings!

I am feeling so nostalgic right now, haha. It's not surprising that so many of us came into VK between 2006-2009—The music from that period was just so good, so original that it was blowing up everywhere. Coupled with the interest in other hardcore/metalcore bands overseas, it was the perfect setting. I wonder if we will ever make it back here again.

According to the tweet, the company, Advent Quad, has decided to terminate the contract with HOWL on 31 December 2018(?). There's no mention of disbandment or hiatus from the band yet.

While writing up  blurbs for this list, we came to the conclusion that 2008 was a golden year for visual kei. So many good things were released or happening during that time. This took so long to come out because every time one of us was done, another person snuck in a blurb or two. If we didn't cut ourselves off, I'm sure we would have wrote a bit about everything released that year. I'm not expecting 2009's retrospective to have this many blurbs.

Slight correction. The deluxe edition will not be released on 2019.04.05 but will be shipped in March (if you order it from mid-February) and will be available through their web-shop.
 
 

Both 憂璃-yu-ri- and 氷龍-hiryu- from MIZTAVLA have officially joined the band.