Doesn'tEvenGoHere

I lurked for a long time before making an account, but even then I still wasn’t very active. Even so, monochrome heaven was always my go-to place for news and new bands. I found so many of my current favorite bands because of this place and I feel so thankful for it. My current life revolves around a band I found on here through the “new band has formed” section. And I was able to find my second favorite band at an event where my current favorite band was playing, so again it feels like I have to thank monochrome heaven indirectly for that too. It trips me out to think that without monochrome heaven, I might’ve not found my favorite band (or it might’ve taken me a lot longer) and I wouldn’t be following them around right now. I feel so grateful this place existed. Something so small about it has impacted my life so much. It hurts to see this place go.

I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and have been in and out of doctors for it for a long time . Generally, one of the things my doctors and psychiatrists have always been clear about is no, mental health disorders don’t actually ever go away. There’s no cure, only treatment. So basically, you can get better and your life can return to normality, but the risk of relapse is always there. The point of treatment is finding medications and habits that prevent you from relapsing (as well as learning to identify potential stressors that can cause said relapses and how to avoid them). But I’m under the impression Japan really doesn’t grasp that yet (or rather refuses to do so) as I’ve heard Japanese people say that their doctors are telling them their mental health disease is “almost cured.” Considering Issei’s streak with the vocalists he works with and their mental health, I’m kinda left wondering about what kind of work environment Issei provides, tbh.

We have been blessed.

Mamireta, Xaa Xaa, Nicolas, Razor, Kizu, Hueye, Doku, Roman Kyuko, and Gulu Gulu.

Some time around New Years (before or after, I can't remember) didn't Qu from Mathilda tweet a list of bands he wanted to do two man lives with and included Gosan? I stopped paying attention to Mathilda, so I wonder if that was a "let's bury the hatchet" kind of suggestion or if it was meant to be trolling against Gosan again.

I'm just really hoping Riuki comes back, tbh.

Damn. Lezard, Kagekui, and Blu-Billion in one month. Is it just me, or is January a popular season for disbands?

I always bite my lip when this comes up in general discussions about rock music because I never want be or sound like the sour adult who's mad that a scene they loved is dying out, but this, from what I observe, is true. I don't know what it is, but rock music doesn't seem to be picking up with the zoomers like it did with previous generations (yes, rock music has always been an alternative scene, but it still had a notable presence both in the charts and in fans). Now add that to the fact that once rock stars like Radke and Barker have implemented hip hop to their work and rock music aesthetics have been adapted by rappers and other pop music musicians, and it feels like our presence is nearing irrelevancy further than ever. It's also a hard yes to what you mentioned about how what would have been the present-day vk western fandom is now just another part of the kpop fandom and that point hits an emotional string in me because it was that realization that first made me notice how a taste for rock music seems rarer than ever with today's kids. I worked as a substitute teacher when I was in university and got to work around middle schoolers frequently and at some point it dawned on me that all the kids who were really into anime were also really into kpop. If I thought about that crowd in my day , that would have been the crowd where you would find the vk-fan kids (which as mentioned in other comments were in large responsible for the perceived popularity vk had around 2010). Anime is more popular than ever/Japanese fashion is more mainstream in the west than ever, and scene/emo fashion is popular again. All these trends are moving along. What's not being taken with them is rock music. And that hurts like heck to write. All of that being said, I would love to see zoomers make me eat my words and have them experience a proper rock movement of their own. But at the moment, that's just not what I'm seeing. Mind you there are some kids who still like rock music and vk, but their numbers are considerably lower than what we had in the 2000's.

"You can't make something popular again if it wasn't popular in the first place " was my initial thought when seeing this thread. We could aim for a revival of the scene we had in 2010ish, but even back then it wasn't actually popular. At least not at the level of things like Kpop or the emo music scene. And if "making it popular" meant morphing it into something it's not, I'd rather it not get popular. The 2010 boom happened naturally and a number of factors were lined up just right for it to happen. Fabricating something to intentionally make it popular (like the kpop scene or the kardashians got done to them) sounds like we might lose some of the things that make vk unique in itself.

Heck yes

Their single 無修正 and their album 調教 were their best pieces of work, imo.

Interested to see where he'll take this considering DAMY gave "artistic differences" as their reason for disbandment. This track sound really good though.

The agency taking them over to Mexico is apparently a pro at bringing artists from Japan. I think they do several acts a year including bigger acts like Dir en Grey regularly too. I think they also did Man with a Mission a few years back (?). It's a pretty relevant agency and they've been around for a long time, so I don't think they'll leave all the financial heavy lifting to DIMLIM. I'm curious to see how they do in crowd size. I know there was a very small hype over them in the Mexican fandom some time ago, but it seems to have died down pretty quickly and in general the Mexican fandom seems to have the syndrome where they refuse to properly acknowledge the relevancy of post 2010 VK bands. I hope it goes well for them though and I can only make these speculations as an outsider since I'm in SoCal and only have like 3 VK acquaintances in Mexico.

I am fully on board with this new song.

I haven't liked anything they've put out since Ningyo no Niku, but I'm looking forward to this. Maybe they'll go back to their original sound.