ambivalentideal

I like obi! I've always kept them over the years. I used to keep them all together tied with a rubber band lmao but now I usually just keep them inside the CD along with the booklet. I feel like they're part of the release as a whole so it's nice to have them so it's complete, but it's not 100% necessary for me. I'll still buy a CD even if it doesn't have the obi. Just a nice bonus to have them. 

welcome!! nice candy spooky theater avatar, I used to be obsessed with Peggy back in 2008 lol...

Oh shit. This sucks but I don't feel like they'll disband from this. Hopefully they'll be able to find new members who play well. I'm not too worried about their sound since they didn't lose any main composers. Still looking forward to what they'll do in the future!

I know this thread was dead before but just to add on...I've never taught English in Japan before, but I have friends who do or have. From my understanding if you really want to do it, go through JET. And do NOT work for an eikaiwa. You will not have a good time. And from the rest of the replies here I'm seeing the same thing. 😕 If you really want to go to Japan and don't want to teach, my advice is to study abroad. It only lasts a year but it can be a really great experience! I studied abroad in Kyoto for a year and absolutely loved it.

Thanks so much for uploading, Cantavanda! That Bel Air performance just made me cry huge tears lol...
Kamijo did such a great job on vocals. I know Bel Air is pretty hard to sing but he did really well. I wish MM would get back together for a release with this line up.

55 minutes ago, monkeybanana4 said:

I just listened to some of it, and um, yeah. Haha, I wasn't expecting Rui to sing XD Yeah... that's Kazuki from Screw and Reika from D=out. The drummer is Kazami from the band, Daizystripper. I think they were guests artists at one time as I don't see them in any later videos. I also found this music video with Kazuki, Reika, and Kazami in there as well. It's... an interesting project to say the least, lol.

 

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Oh, nice! Which Gazette CDs did you get? Yeah, I've been recently visiting Gazette's early stuff, and they really had a different style then. Ruki's vocals were a little 'unrefined', but it somehow worked out. Do you have favorite songs/releases in their earlier discography? Wow, that's not a bad song by AND  They mixed it in with their own style, creating their own voice. I feel like I have to back and revisit AND's older songs. It's been such a long time since I've properly listened to their songs, haha. Also, thank you for the follow! Followed you back  

What an interesting lineup, lol. It's definitely a strange project. Really not a fan of them both singing at once, it really is so Johnny's-like. o<-<

I got MADARA (super super happy about this one), DIM limited edition, TOXIC limited edition and Division limited edition. Stacked rubbish is coming soon too, it's a brand new copy I ordered from CDJapan. :') Ah I know, I loved Ruki's voice back then. I have a lot of favorites!!! 

Shiikureta haru, kawarenu haru is a really good example of Ruki's vocal style from back then. Some might say it's a bit whiny, but I really really love it. : P This is one of my favorite songs from this era. I can listen to this song over and over. Pretty much any song from MADARA haha. Like No.[666]

I also have a soft spot for one of their earliest PVs, doro darake no seishun:

But yeah, I love that AND song! It's called Tokage. That and BLACK OUT were probbaly my favorite songs by them. Their music is definitely worth another listen  ah thank you!!

12 hours ago, monkeybanana4 said:

I've been meaning to get around to it, but I actually haven't listened to it yet ^^; I also had no idea it existed until recently. I'll leave some samples below in the cut. They've also got a YT channel as well if you want to check out more of their music. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfFBDwqBSuUeqHMnrjfQOPA

 

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Yeah, true! Taibans were where I got to see some of my other favorite bands up close and check out some super indies ones as well. It was a great experience. The pictures don't look all that bad =P Btw, Ryoga looked extremely happy to be there in all the photos compared to the other band members x"D I also chuckled when I saw Kifumi jumping over the table. It looks like it was a fun time to be there~ Btw, I also enjoyed reading the captions XP Haha, we all do some questionable things when we're at that age, don't we? X'D

 

Oh, that's nice! If you don't mind me asking, where did you buy it from? Haha, they credited GazettE under "special thanks"? That's actually pretty neat of them to admit where their source of inspiration came from. And Ikuma possessed a different voice than Ruki's vocals, which tended to sound nasally in the GazettE's earlier years. So I think AND's combination/style ended up being quite interesting  

Oh my god. I just watched some of their PVs and my first reaction is: Rui sings?! Second is: is this a Johnny's band?!?! lmfaooo what the helllll I wasn't expecting that at all. I actually like this song "VINTAGE TOWN" haha. Rui lip syncs like he has always wanted to do this lol. I can't help but noticing the band guys in the background though. is that Kazuki from Screw and the bassist from D=OUT?? wow.

That's awesome, I bet it was! Haha yeahhh, Ryouga was having a great time I think. It was a lot of fun!! That was one of my favorite cons, vk band wise. Truuue lmfao, I'm glad you liked them. :') 

I bought them from a seller on Discogs located in my country (US), so the shipping was super cheap and he had a ton of awesome stuff for a steal. I got those two AND CDs, and four GazettE CDs. Yeah, I was really surprised to see that they credited them! Agreed! Oh, I agree with that too.  I'm a really big fan of that early GazettE style and I really like what AND did with it. Here's one of my other favorite songs from them in that style:

19 hours ago, monkeybanana4 said:

Oh, sorry! I completely misunderstood what you meant! Yeah, I remember that terrible, unfortunate accident. I was so afraid they were going to break up. It was good to hear when they came back though. Haha, I have that album as well. It's one of my favorites by them with many great songs on it. Also, slightly off-topic, but have you heard of the side project(?), Lill, that Tomo and Rui (vistlip) have formed?

 

 

I did attend some VK lives a long time ago (makes me feel old when I say that o_o;) I never saw BORN's one-man live, but I did manage to somehow always catch them when they played lives with other bands (taiban). Oh, darn. Hopefully, you'll be able to attend lives in Japan when you go back next time. It's certainly a different experience. Yeah, the gya culture can be a bit scary. I just avoid it as best as I can and enjoy the music/live. For some reason, I'm not surprised Kifumi might have been the one to stage dive because of his enthusiasm overall. Terrible pictures capture the best moments, lol, right? If it's not too much trouble, I'd love to see it anyways XD Seeing a piece of VK history is always great. 

Yeah, one of the main reasons I listen to REIGN is because of Ikuma's voice. Perhaps this is the kind of music he likes to make? (Oh, no don't die D:) At least AND's music will still be there for us to listen to.

It's alright! I know, I was worried they'd break up after that happened too, but I'm glad they managed to get through it. I haven't heard of that! I didn't know they made a side project. :0 What is it like?

Oh, nice! That's cool though, I feel like taiban could be really cool because you get to see the band you like more up close and check out other bands you don't know from the safety of the back lol. I'd like to try going to one. Thanks, hopefully so! Lol I don't mind uploading them! Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/t5ZpBSA Last one is my awkward pic with them lmfao, I'm a guy with a beard now but that was me then,,,

I really do like Ikuma's voice ;-; I'm sure I can find ONE of their songs I like haha. Maybe so. Agreed! I just received physical copies of AGENT FILE and their 1st album -&- which I am super super pleased about!! I noticed in the credits area of AGENT FILE they actually listed all members of the GazettE under "special thanks" lol. At least they were up front about their obvious inspiration, but I don't think it was to the point of them copying them or anything. I think AND's music was a mix of early GazettE and their own sound and the result was pretty cool!

1 minute ago, Duwang said:

I saw Plastic Tree in April and he has aged quite a bit since I saw them in 2013. He definitely looks like he's in his 40s irl, but he still looks good, just not young.

 

Some people just age better than others and everyone finds different things attractive.

imo Atsushi Sakurai still looks good at 53.

Oh really. Yeah personally that's fine if he looks 46 because well, he is. : P I was just looking at recent pics of him and yeah he doesn't look as baby as he used to lol but I still think he looks really good.

Yeah, exactly. Some people (me included) just like older men too.

Ohhhh agreed about Sakurai. He's going to be a foxy grandpa pretty soon lmao.

Now that I'm older myself (aka not a teenager) I just find older men attractive in general. Like I just genuinely like a sexy dilf lmfao but even back when I was younger and thought someone in his 30s was old, I've always been oddly attracted to Hakuei. I know he's old af but damn. I don't know. He's just really hot to me.  Oh and for another vk man who is old af but has never looked his age is Arimura Ryuutaro. Even in pics where he has very little makeup. It always blew me away how young looking he was. I've always found him to be really beautiful.

wow, very interesting! Just listened to the lyric video posted above, and I think you can definitely tell it's a song by him. It has a bit of An Cafe flavor to it. I actually really liked the song. It's cute and his voice is not bad. He was always my favorite in An Cafe so glad to see he's doing stuff again. 

14 hours ago, monkeybanana4 said:

Sorry for the super late response (I wasn't able to get near a computer ;w;)

 

Haha, my family still mistakes VK guys as girls even though they're missing some obvious features ^^; 

 

Vistlip did take a bit of a break since I think the vocalist, Tomo, had some health issues and couldn't sing, but apparently they're back. Yeah, it's always nice to see bands together even after 10+ years since it seems there are many bands who disband at the 10 year mark  It's happened to a lot of bands I liked, but hopefully it won't happen to vistlip. I wouldn't expect anything less from BORN especially from their early days, haha. They had a lot of energy when they played live, which makes me think perhaps they're more of a 'live' band than a 'recording studio' band xD Yup, I did manage to see them live although Kifumi already left the band by then, so I sadly never saw him play his awesome bass. Lol, that's pretty cool you got to take a picture with Ryoga (despite the cringeness of the photo). Haha, I look at the photos I took with VK artist and think, why did I look like that? XD It seems like Ryoga gets really excited and pumped when performing lives and meeting fans, lol.

 

Agree! They were pretty underrated although I guess maybe it could be that people considered them knock-offs Gazette? Well, I love Ikuma's and the instrumentals voice in any case. Yesss, that is such a good song! I haven't listened to them in a while, and forgot how awesome it is, haha. I have a hard time choosing which song I like from them. I'll just stick a few of their songs underneath the spoiler:

 

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Same here,. I remember being pretty much solely dedicated to VK, even dropping any other hobbies I had at the time XD Yeah, Reign's sound is different from AND ;w; I've only recently started listening to REIGN so I'm not familiar with the whole discography yet. I started off listening to their first full album, 666. Although, as you've already said, it's not quite the same as AND's sound. It's something else all together, lol. Not sure if I completely like them yet, but Ikuma's voice is still as strong as ever. As of now, I really like these songs: 

 

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No problem  I get super exciting talking about VK with others, so thank you! 

hey no prob! oh is that right about vistlip? I didn't know that. I'm glad Tomo got better. I was referring to when they got into that car accident where they were all unhurt but unfortunately their manager passed away. They were really affected by it and decided to go on hiatus for a while. It was so sad. But I'm glad they're doing stuff again. I still have their album THEATER, I should relisten to it!

Lmaoo yeah, born were pretty good on the record but 10x better live. Oh that's awesome! Have you seen a lot of vk bands in the past? I've seen so many. .__. but it's been a long time. Funnily enough, when I lived in Japan (I studied abroad for a year) I wasn't really into vk anymore except for Mejibray but I was too intimidated by the gya live culture to attempt going to any lol. I really wanna try going to some vk lives now though if I get the chance to go back. Kifumi was a lot of fun, he had a ton of energy. I think a few of them stage dived and he might have been one of them but my memory is fading, it's been 10 years lol. I have a ton of pics of them from this weird table meet and greet thing they did if you're interested, but the flash was on so they look terrible lmao. They were having the time of their lives tho cuz girls kept asking for kisses on the cheek and they kept fuckin doing it. RIP. I remember I even e-mailed (e-mailed!!!!!!) some girl a pic I took of Ryouga kissing her on the cheek AHAHA. God. But oh SAME, all my pics with vk bands are so embarrassing I die,, luckily that's not really a thing anymore ha.

But yeah, pretty true about AND. When I opened that first video you linked most of the comments in Japanese say something like "the melody is really similar to Gazette's 'sumire'" or something. Which I guess they're not wrong, they were clearly inspired but I thought they were doing some cool stuff! Oh wow, I had never seen that last song, BLAZE. I think I fell out of listening to them in their last few years. I didn't know they had an edgy phase haha. It's a cool song tho. 

HOO BOY, yeah it's really disappointing for me because I love Ikuma so much, but I just tried to listen to those two REIGN songs again and I just cannot. :' ( If they just got their shit together they could really improve,,,there's just zero cohesion in the songwriting, like everything just sounds all over the place and slapped together. The bridges don't make any sense with the choruses, it's like two different songs together in one song. No idea who the main songwriter is, but damn. The second song is a bit better composition wise but I cannot get over that over the top chorus haha. Also I think they're just throwing in way too many unnecessary elements, which results in the composition feeling both too busy and missing something at the same time. I really am dead. o<-< I wish I could like them but I don't think their songs are for me. One thing at least, I really like their look and aesthetic! They look really cool but at the end of the day the music is just not there for me. I think Ikuma's voice is probably their best asset and I kinda can't help feeling it's going to waste a bit. ;;

Right, why was this a thing?! My favorites have to be the Malice Mizer ones, Bara no Konrei and the Bel Air movie. Oh also I remember at one point Versailles had a whole ass TV drama with some random little girl. Idk exactly what it was about but they had to take care of her or something? Kinda weird lol. Never actually watched it so idk. 

8 hours ago, YuyoDrift said:

We were doing it back in 2005-2006 when Mao formed Sadie and everyone knew he liked DEG, so naturally the comparisons were made right there for each album they churned out. I guess it's easier to point out this difference now than it was back then 🤷‍♂️ Glad Mao is doing well in THE THIRTEEN, and even then he had a rough beginning with this project too lol.

 

DIMLIM are already known as the Saviors of VK haha, its almost fitting.

 

It has been that long. I was into VK a year or so longer but the people who taught me were around in 2002-2003, right when the boom internationally was beginning. I do wish they stuck around though . Might help a bit to keep VK relevant in the USA.

 

Check out the live report on the GazettE Tour in NYC recently and share your thoughts/views on the demographic of new VK listeners that you saw for an audience.

 

 

Oh BTW, reading your responses here @ambivalentideal I can see you know your history haha.

That's real good. New users are popping up constantly now, that they outweigh the minority of us that stuck around lol.

 

oh man, completely forgot about that whole thing with Sadie lol. that's interesting to hear that Mao is still up to band stuff.

but yeah true, there really aren't many people from that time frame who are still into vk. When I first got into it that was like everyone, so it's kinda wild! 

just checked out that live report, and it sounds pretty close to what my show was like. From what I gathered though there seemed to be a decent amount of people who were pretty familiar with Gazette. I didn't really hear or talk to anyone who had like zero idea who they were so that surprised me lol. Maybe that was more of a New York thing and people who come to see a vk band in Texas are a bit more dedicated? Who knows. Or maybe people like that were there and I just didn't notice. That's probably it. : P

oh thanks, I (sadly???) know way too much about vk which is a wealth of knowledge that I almost never use lmao. So it's exciting to me to get to talk to other people who know it well and remember way too much like I do haha. Ah yeah, that's to be expected I guess, but I actually kinda like talking to the new people too! I get to recommend stuff I love to someone who maybe has never heard it and that's really awesome to me  

20 hours ago, Kuro said:

I didn't know the 2nd press also is sold out by now. I missed the 1st one and was thinking through some options when they just announced the 2nd one by the end of last year. I know it's up at iTunes but I wanted to own a physical copy of the album so I can relate you are searching for an option. I found it listed at a German shop that seemingly sends to the US but it seems all the order part is just put in German. You might check it out over here and see if this works for you. That's the link to the CD itself.

same here, I already have been listening to it on apple music, but I really wanted a physical copy. hey thanks! I appreciate it  

23 hours ago, God said:

oh yeah, totally agree with that.  i’m stoked that some of the bands i grew up with have influenced some of current gen bands.  exciting af.  not only that, but the era of diru that dimlim seems to be inspired by the most is imo one of their best during their career, so getting to hear smth that came as the result is really cool.

completely agreed!

59 minutes ago, God said:

yeet.  i’ve seen some people complaining that it sounds like dimlim is ripping off diru.  but tbh that’s kinda dumb?  even if there are obvious influences, it’s bound to happen since diru is one of the big boys™️ of vk and all.  i’m p excited to see where dimlim goes.

lol, yeah. I can get that but also it's not that serious,, like personally I love dir en grey and I think what DIMLIM is doing is fantastic. yeah, exactly. I think that's really cool that we're at that point in the history of vk that bands are inspired by them in that way. same here!

43 minutes ago, psychonnect_rozen said:

Well my all time favourite VK band will always be Dir En Grey. Second would be The Gazette. Malice Mizer is up there as well.

 

Many newer bands I have been getting to a lot such as Kizu, DADAROMA and DEVILOOF. I have been getting into a lot of 90s indie VK bands such as BAISER, Aliene Ma'Riage, D'elsquel and NOI'X.  Even some 2000s bands such as Sadie, An Cafe, Rentrer en Soi,  Megaromania and Phantasmagoria. I'm all game for many VK bands, old and new. I'm into the alternative rock, heavy metal, nu metal, progressive rock and pop rock genres so any bands that fit in those categories would be awesome!

 

 

those are some of my all time favs too :') cool cool! I like Kizu too, I think they're doing some pretty cool stuff. I'll have to check out the other two. 

if you like old school vk you may like AZALEA. earliest band of vocal Hina (hurts, schwein, etc). hurts were an UNDER CODE band, so if you like phantasmagoria and megaromania you'd probably like them too! that's what my profile pic is from, hurts' single gankyuu x needle. I always loved anything Hina was in, idk why but I really love his voice. I think he's doing some really underground solo stuff nowadays. he looks exactly the same even tho he's like in his 40s lmao.

if you're familiar with D'elsquel i'm sure you know about 9GOATS BLACK OUT, but just in case you don't, I 1000% percent recommend them. It was vocal Ryo's band for a while and to this day they're one of my favorite vk bands of all time. Ryo is an absolute genius imo, and I think his work with that band is still one of the most unique projects in vk. I've always been really in love with his voice too, it has such a unique quality to it and his range is really interesting. he was a graphic designer or something, like i think he did that as his job, designing jacket art for other bands for the years between Gullet disbanding before randomly jumping back into the scene and shocking everyone (lol) with 9goats and how ridiculously good they were. anyway he designed all the jacket art and art design for 9goats and I believe he was the main songwriter. he's fucking amazing and I can't recommend 9goats enough! i'll leave you with those for now and if you're still interested i definitely have more haha. It sounds like you have a pretty wide taste so i'm sure there are a lot of bands you'll like.   I hope you like these!

1 hour ago, monkeybanana4 said:

Haha, same here! For me, it was Bonds and Snow Scene, which I put on repeat the most. And I don't regret a single second of it even if it drove my family crazy, lol. 

 

Yeah! If you can, you should definitely check out vistlip's latest album. I think it's a bit experimental, but still retains vistlip in it, haha. Wow, that's awesome you saw BORN live. Ryoga and the band were a ton of fun to see in the flesh, lol. But yeah, he was a hot mess and a really entertaining vocalist  Can't deny that, as you've said, he's come a long way. Also, not to bother you with one last rec, but I saw you liked AND ^^; If you're a fan of Ikuma (the singer), he's created a new band, REIGN, which I think is not too bad. 

 

No problem! Always happy to help out if possible 

oh yesss snow scene too, and honestly all their PVs haha I was really obsessed with them at the outset. lol yeah, same, my family had to get used to weird sounding japanese music and guys in makeup pretty fast...

oh yeah, I will, thank you! I think I watched one of their newer PVs the other day when I found out they were still together and I was really happy to hear that they still sound like vistlip :') it's really interesting to me to see bands that I never expected to stay together longer than a couple years who have now been together for 10+! yeahhhh BORN were super fun live, they had a ridiculous amount of energy and they covered up their amateur-ness pretty well with their eagerness haha. it was literally right after felony came out so they were super green. : P have you seen them too? yeah lmao, I actually have a really cringey photo of myself with BORN and god it's so bad. I was hugging Ryouga's arm and he looks maybe a bit too happy about it. RIP. omg no, you're not bothering me at all! yes I loved AND!! They were one of my favorite bands of 2009, they were so so good. I think they were insanely underrated. They put out this freaking gem: 

One of my favorite songs of that year, which is saying a lot for me bc 95% of my time was dedicated to vk back then haha. yeah, I'm a huge fan of Ikuma, he was my favorite in AND! Ah yeah, I've checked out REIGN, and while I'm really happy he's still singing and I love to hear his voice, they're so different from AND ;-; I think AND was really inspired by the GazettE tbh, but I'm not really sure what's going on sound-wise with REIGN. Do you have a favorite REIGN song that you might be able to recommend? I really want to like them more haha. Thanks for talking with me!

1 hour ago, psychonnect_rozen said:

Hey! I'm a relatively new fan in the VK scene as I have been a VK fan for about nine months since October. Glad to see a veteran on here who can give me some recommendations!

hello!! that's amazing, I was just wondering how many new fans we have nowadays :') I'm really glad to see new people getting into the scene. oh yeah I totally will! If you're interested in older bands, especially bands from around 2007 to 2009, I am your guy haha. what kinds of bands are you into?

1 hour ago, secret_no_03 said:

Oh wow, Batsu, I thought I'd never meet another person who knows Batsu. That place was crazy. 

oh man, right?? There were a lot of good times there and I definitely met a lot of cool people, but it had its fair share of drama 😅 any idea how that place finally died? did they just sort of slowly fade away or did something huge happen lol 

2 hours ago, God said:

idk if you already know but they just released a single a few weeks ago?  maybe more recently, i’m really bad at tracking time.  but it’s p cool.  kinda different from chedoara, but i still dug it.

oh yeah, Rijin? I was listening to it earlier, and I'm really into it! it is fairly different but I think it's great that they have a well-rounded sound. Their vocalist is clearly heavily inspired by Kyo, but I think he brings a lot to the table on his own too. I can already see a huge improvement on his part from their first album to their second, which is super exciting. Honestly I think he's one of the best vocalists in vk in a really long time. Nearly each song I listen to as I go through their music I'm hearing him do something new and successfully at that! Will definitely be following them from here on out.

5 hours ago, YuyoDrift said:

2006 definitely counts as old haha.

Your tastes are also so broad that I think you'll fit in just fine.

 

Welcome to MH!

 

Honestly if the GazettE coming to the USA can bring back many of the fans that once existed back into the scene (and maybe even migrate them here to MH), then I'm so glad they decided to tour here again.

 

Enjoy your return to VK dood!

The scene has been sporadic asf but the new generation has entered the mix and they are pretty good. Many artists from bands that once were are in new projects, so read up on some of the news we have here and see what you can find.

yeah, I guess it does, doesn't it? haha. I know there are people who have been in it way longer, but I guess it's almost 13 years now.

thank you so much!!  

agreed! From what I gathered at the concert, it seems like it did exactly that for a lot of people. I think maybe we're seeing a slight resurgence of vk. Especially since I remember the period when looking really kote kote started to be really uncool in the scene and a lot of bands were going for that vk lite look that i really hated lol. and coming back into it and seeing older bands reclaim their old vk look and newer bands making their own new heavily vk-focused looks has made me incredibly happy. it seems like kinda a return to form for me!

thanks so much ❤️ I've been seeing that! Both the new generation bands and the new projects are really exciting for me! I definitely will, thank you!!

10 hours ago, God said:

chedoara is sick, tbh.  imo the best vk album from last year.  still playing that record, tbh.  welcome! ☺️

right?? as I'm getting more acquainted back into vk I'm starting to think the same thing. so good. really looking forward to what they'll do next. thank you so much!!  

11 hours ago, Miku70 said:

Welcome here 😊. An Cafe was my first band too.

thank you so much ❤️ ahh really!! they were a lot of people's first band back in the day, weren't they? so many memories!