吸血鬼 ~Kyūketsuki~

Well, it is what the title says. コロナウイルス is forcing people to stay home in Japan and the japs have a nice philosophy of spreading hope in times of despair, so they went there and performed anyway and are being nice and posting the gigs that got cancelled online for all to see, including us, poor gaijin. No live audience, no staff, etc.
 
These are the ones I've seen so far:
 
 
 
 
Let's make this collaborative so do share other links here if you know of any. I'll keep updating this list.
 
Previously unreleased lives uploaded for viewing due to the Corona situation are also to be freely shared in this thread - MH Staff
 
And bear in mind most of these gigs will be available for a limited time only, so hurry up and watch or download the ones you're interested in watching ASAP.

damn I've had periods last longer than this band.

jesus fucking khryst

there's no difference now, and japan has always been a bit different with the definitions; but in the vinyl days, a single would be 1/2 tracks (side A+B), or up to 3 tracks on a 7" vinyl;
EP would be 3-4 songs on a slightly larger vinyl disk, and mini album is 5-6 tracks, all progressively going up in price. with CDs, same idea is p much used as a marketing gimmick because there's no difference in manufacturing costs, etc, inherent to vinyls.
 
with VK we went from pierrot releasing 4-5 track singles like nbd to this 2004 dir en grey parody of a ~maxi single~

I may be in the minority here... I love all eras, don’t get me wrong, but Klaha era is one of the best things to ever happen to VK  to music. Bara no Seidou, especially. That album is pure beauty. I remember when I first heard it... when it ended, I was like “where TF was I for the past 51 minutes and 42 seconds?” It just transports the listener in its own world. The picture it paints is second in vividness only to Dir en grey’s Dum Spiro Spero, and far more delicate. It’s like it’s a whole album-length song, honestly. I can’t even think of listening to the songs alone (with the exception of “Kyomu no Naka de no Yuugi”). 
 
Anyone here agree?
 

This new band will thave their first live on 2019.09.30 at Takadanobaba AREA.
 
Singer : Sui (David, Megaromania, Lin...)
Guitar : Yuhma (ex-Fixer)
Bass : 70. (ex-Fixer)
Drums : 知哉(Tomoya) (ex.シュヴァルツカイン(SchwarzKain, LIV'ERT)
 
Twitter : https://twitter.com/OfficialCula
 

 

 

 

 

fuck off yoshiki drop the album or retire

hoping for a retirement and official cancellation of the album

KAMIJO won't be finished with Eye of Providence as it's been announced that he will begin releasing a series of singles starting in October. If that weren't enough the covers are being illustrated by Ayami Kojima who is best known as the amazing artist and illustrator for the vast majority of Castlevania games, most famously Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. 
 
Source:KAMIJO's OHP

Literally when has art not been political though? As much as I'm a fan of the ideal of art for art's sake, you can't really pretend  that art hasn't been co-opted by politics since like Ancient Rome. 
 
Edge and lack of sense are fine for me, not everything has to be conventionally beautiful or coherent to be good IMO. The main problem I personally have with a lot of contemporary art (at least the type  you'd stumble upon  in art galleries and such) is that half the time it feels like the works themselves are a mere afterthought and the narrative behind the work weighs in heavier when it comes to audience appreciation than the way in which said narrative is translated and ultimately expressed visually  by the artist (I'm just limiting this to visual media at this point, but you can definitely expand it beyond that scope to incorporate music and literature as well). It's all good and well  to incorporate your personal ideologies into your work, but the works themselves have to remain enjoyable on their own merits as well. The 'message' should be there to further enrich and enhance the material, it shouldn't subsume it and BECOME the material. At that point it just becomes soapboxing at best and outright propaganda at worst. I've disagreed with the idea that every creative work apparently needs to have some deeper layer to it ever since my first lit class in secondary school, and I don't think I'm ever gonna change my mind on that one. People often use the expression  'style over substance' to deride stuff, but apparently they just straight up forget that style IS substance as well, doubly so if we're talking about visual art. To me this type of people are equal to the ones who'll go like ''this song sucks bcuz it has no lyrics i can relate to :(" while entirely ignoring the actual music itself. It's focusing too much on one aspect of things and losing track of the bigger picture

I'm not sure on people's opinions about KAMIJO's solo career, but I've heard a few people say they find him annoying as a person, whereas I like him/his solo career. I think his songs sound like boss fight music, which is A-Okay with me. I was actually gonna go see him in September last year, but I missed out cuz I fell out with the person I was gonna go with. I'm still fuming over that.

Congrats to him~! I hope he and his family are well
 
ETA: I greatly respect that he's choosing not to go into too much detail about his family life. I hate it when people overshare their children's lives over social media, so props to him for that.

Astounding levels of shameless money-grabbing, even for VK, lmao.

The constant and drastic changes of look and sound that this band has had since they were born may tell that they've always been managed by a group of people that tries everything they have near them just to sell them as much as possible... 
 
For me, they are the prototype of what in this forum people call the "idolized" VK industry of the recent years.

Well, since he either quits or has everyone quit on him, I guess a solo career is the best option 😄

^ it would be nice if you added more to your post :v
 
D has announced 5 new concept collection album releases based on the band's characters from their VAMPIRE STORY series, featuring old songs. Each of the five albums features a different band member posing as a corresponding story character. Four of the five albums also feature an old song with alternate vocals performed by that character/band member. (thanks vkgy!)
 

Dahlie (ASAGI) tracklist (1500 yen) :
1. 開眼 (未発表曲)
2. 隷獣～開闢の炎～
3. My unborn baby 
4. 赤き羊による晩餐会 
5. 開眼 (Instrumental) (new song)
 

Kircheis (RUIZA) tracklist (2500 yen) :
1. Misty (Instrumental)(new song) 
2. コールドスリープ 
3. Glacial melt
4. Kの氷奏曲
5. 月と海の誓約 
6. 氷の墓標 
7. Gemini ～片羽の報復～
8. 氷獄の魔獣
9. Crystal Crown
10. 血に濡れた一角
11. SECRET HANGAR
12. STAR SAPPHIRE 
Bonus track
13. コールドスリープ(Kircheis（Ruiza） Vocal ver.)
 

Rafaga (HIDE-ZOU) (2100 yen)
1. Determination～風の決意～ (Instrumental)(new song) 
2. 翠緑の翼 
3. Memento～風のレイピア～
4. 風に嫁いだバイラオーラ
5. Solitude～最後の手紙～
6. Little Adventurers
7. Ghost in the mirror 
Bonus track
8. 翠緑の翼 (Rafaga（HIDE-ZOU）Vocal ver.)
 

Carbuncle (Tsunehito) (2300 yen)
1. 凄艶 (Instrumental)(new song)
2. クヴァンデルの肖像
3. ひび割れた柘榴石 
4. Luminous flame
5. 愛は棺の中に 
6. 紅の蝋涙
7. Dragon Princess
8. 微熱～雨の幻想曲（ファンタジア）～
9. The Secret Rose Garden 
Bonus track
10. クヴァンデルの肖像 (Carbuncle（Tsunehito） Vocal ver.)
 

Wilderness (HIROKI) (2100 yen)
1. Vorreiter (Instrumental)(new song)
2. Desert Warrior 
3. 太古の牙 (Instrumental)
4. 砂上のバラドゥン
5.  アネクメネ (Instrumental)
6. 猿王の腰掛け
7. ザハブを継ぐ者 (Instrumental)
8. 千夜一夜のダラブッカ 
Bonus track
9. Desert Warrior（Wilderness（HIROKI） Vocal ver.）
 
Well this is different 😮 

KISAKI PROJECT will restart activities with new vocalist ENDIGO (ex-Still Echo --> Overworld --> BaTAAr) as of April 1! Their first single, "And the rest is rust and stardust... " will be released sometime in September, and their first live will be around the same month.
 
"And the rest is rust and stardust" cover art:

 

 

Please be gentle, we've worked very hard on this ❤️

Kisaki also tweeted that if you buy 50,000 yen worth of stickers from the LORELEI webshop, you get 50,000 yen worth of stickers and he will handwrite "LA:SADIE'S" on a piece of paper for you

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

THIS
But it's not just men. It's women, too. It's everybody.
 
Most people simply do what they were taught to do, whether they learned directly or indirectly. And I'm not talking about academics - I'm referring to how we're being taught to live in general.
 
When you look at society as a whole, particularly western society - it's clear that what we're doing isn't working...that what we've been learning (and subsequently acting out) isn't good enough. We live in a society that perpetuates, encourages, and even rewards dysfunction. So is it any wonder that we're all depressed, anxious, and stressed out of our minds? These are things WE'RE ALL affected by.
 
This also raises the question: What and how are we being taught? Do we even have the tools to better educate ourselves? If so, what are they?
 
....
 
Ya know, I've gotten shit for saying negative things about feminism before, as people are quick to assume that anti-feminism = anti-woman or anti female-empowerment, which is absolutely fucking ridiculous. But I'm of the opinion that all of these different social movements can go...be it feminism, men's rights activism, red pill, MGTOW, black lives matter...whatever the fuck. They all appear to be well-meaning movements on the outside, but as they say, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" - and ultimately, these movements seem more like dysfunctional solutions to a misdiagnosed problem. It's like trying to cure a cancer patient with cyanide. Meanwhile,  they actually have AIDS . Sure, your *intentions* may be to cure the patient (which is great), but your actions are just introducing more toxic elements to an already deteriorating structure - the cause of which has not been fully explored. So from what I can tell, the real problem seems to be much deeper...and it transcends both men and women, black and white, rich and poor, etc.
 
Whatever it is, it effects society as a whole. And society isn't some nebulous thing. It does exist outside of us, yet we all make up society individually as well. So if men are lost (and we definitely are), would that not also imply that the whole is lost as well? So all I'm saying is that perhaps we should endeavor to take a more balanced and holistic approach to viewing and scrutinizing these important social issues, instead of blindly entertaining all of these divisive ideologies that constantly pit one group of people against the next. Meanwhile, the whole suffers. How is society going to get anywhere if the right leg is constantly at war with the left? The body needs both of them to walk properly.
 
And so I'm glad that @Zeus brought that point out, because it offers an additional perspective (without demonizing other perspectives) and shows that there's often more going on beneath the surface than we might be willing to explore. These are complicated issues.

Before I get into it, random disclaimer: I have nothing against women, International Women's Day, or dedicating the entire month of March to women. Go women! Good vibes for females all around.

I feel really bad for that Ambrose dude, and for all guys that find themselves in a similar emotional predicament. A lot of the assumptions and caricatures we make about men like these are rooted in real insecurities. His hostile reaction to this picture really shows it off. The way I'm looking at it, he's not mad that women are getting actively praised and recognized as much as men aren't being actively praised and recognized. And the key word there is actively, which is why I put it in bold it three times.

What's happening globally doesn't always trickle down to the individual experience and this is a great example of that. While men are more privileged than women in many aspects of life, it is possible that this particular man isn't. He doesn't have the tools, the vocabulary, or the emotional maturity to reconcile what the world thinks he is versus what he really is, or how to express that to other people. All he sees is women being lifted up for being women, and wondering why he doesn't get the same treatment for being a man. Of course the reality is more complicated than that, but even a satellite sees at only one angle.

People responded to the post below him reminding him that men have their own day too, but does that really matter? That day doesn't get as much traction as International Women's Day and I can tell you that people weren't thanking me for being me on that day just because I'm a guy.  I can tell you that it's never been the case for my entire life. I think this really speaks to a lack of active and direct support for men in our society. I would bet 50 quid that this guy hasn't received a genuine hug or a compliment from anyone in years and it shows. He might be doing it to himself - he probably is doing it to himself in some ways - but what really matters on a surface level is what is and isn't coming together.

That's why I said actively was so important earlier; I feel like this society has a lot of implicit support for men but only if you meet certain criteria, and that's never really explained to anyone. This guy is lost and confused and there aren't a lot of socially acceptable avenues for him to describe his pain. I was there once too and that's how I recognize it. Active and implicit support is necessary for healthy human development. As a man I feel like I have a lot more opportunities in life, but I also feel like I'm left to figure more things out by myself. I bet his life experiences causes him to double down on his beliefs because according to him, this life is all he knows. I also bet this Twitter exchange gone viral caused a triple down too.  This attitude is what happens when you leave people to figure life out on their own and they come to answers the rest of us don't agree with. I was able to pull myself out of that quagmire, but I couldn't really describe to you how it was done.

Lies. I can and it's called LSD, but I don't recommend it to anyone lightly.

This is something I've been thinking about all month, and not out of a place of hate. Men aren't being petty because women are getting attention. Men are being petty because they are lost. I don't know what it feels like to be praised for being a man, but I do know what it feels like to be praised for being black, and that puts me in a really awkward middle ground where I'm in both groups simultaneously and I see both sides of it, and I understand how both sides are right. From talks with several male friends of mine, ranging from chads to dads, it's not that uncommon of a feeling. All these guys having so many insecurities in common is a bigger issue.

I hope that this November, someone can start a viral campaign for actively supporting healthy expressions of masculinity, to give a lot of guys like this a chance to work out their inner discord in a healthy and constructive manner.

Why is it that when people make baseless accusations about innocent people, everyone believes it and their reputation gets ruined, but when someone is proven to be an absolute cunt with irrefutable evidence against them, money settles all and, eventually, no-one gives a shite? Disgusting, naïve and disrespectful to everyone involved. I just hope the poor kid's alright and that Kisaki is eventually incarcerated.
 
This is why I stay out of shit like this until there is evidence. I believe in innocent until proven guilty on both sides and no amount of bullshit will ever cloud my perception on that. Kisaki can fuck right off if he thinks he can buy his way out of this mess he started.
 
Still, I'm not going to say that this damages all of VK. Yes, what Kisaki did was fucking abhorrent, and it undoubtedly damaged his reputation and, unfortunately, probably those of the people who have worked with him in the past as well, however I said that I believe in innocent until proven guilty on both sides, so I'm not going to let this take away my faith in the genre. Don't get me wrong, my faith in him is down the toilet, but that's him as an individual. Instead of letting his actions define what could and couldn't be possible in the lives of the many, many J-rockers we all know and love, I'm going to just separate him from it all. It's argued by a lot of people here that the art should be separated from the artist, so I'm separating Kisaki from VK. Abusing someone isn't a staple of the genre, it's a crime.
 

well I guess he was... レックレス

ex-レクレンズ (Reclens) Vo.みさき (Misaki) (real name 三崎優太 (Misaki Yuuta)) has been arrested for tax evasion of 180,000,000 yen.
 
Since his departure from レクレンズ (Reclens) in 2011, he has been focused on his company メディアハーツ (Media Hearts) which specializes in health food drinks and recently opened the cafe "FABIUS"
 
He became known as "青汁王子 (Green Juice Prince)" and made several TV appearances.
 
a more complete translated summary is at vk.gy written by @inartistic 💕