Romlaw

Don't know yet, but to honour the spirit and follow suit, I'll upload a 128kbps, 15 seconds long sample on Livejournal when my copy arrives.

For the next 2 weeks I will enjoy my very first Japan-trip. As I will visit 4 concerts in this period I thought you may be interested in a report of the shows.
 
February 15, 2020 - Buglug, Arlequin, Kizu (Man only) - Meguro Rokumeikan

 
So this will be it: My first concert on Japanese ground! I was beyond excited. The concert was scheduled for 5:30. We went there early to avoid any troubles. In front of the venue a nice guy from Israel spotted us and gave us some useful tips for attending a concert in Japan (the entrance system, behaving etc.) Thanks for that man! He also told us that this venue is legendary one. Especially known for X Japan shows in their indies. 
We entered the venue after climbing some stairs down. It was much smaller then I expected. I would say it has a capacity of 150~200. There were no boundaries in front of the stage so the atmosphere is really  intimate. 
 
Arlequin (アルルカン) started the evening. Of course I am familiar with the name of the band but never dared to listen to them. But wow - they were great! They really really had fun with the man only gig. Aki pumped us with shouting Otoko!! several times. He even grabbed his guts lol. He did some stage diving between one song. I really liked his stage performance and the rest of the band was great too! I will definitely get into their discography. They played around 45 minutes. I can‘t report a setlist, sorry. 
 
Second band was (finally) Kizu (キズ). They were the main reason for choosing this concert as I really ship them! So this report will be very long. 😁
As not being the headliner you could see that most of the fans came for Kizu. So as their intro started the venue was pumped!
Lime‘s outfit was a mix between a vampire and the Joker. He had a long black cape, joker makeup (the Heath Ledger one) and hair extension. 
Reiki looked as usual with his short trousers. But his hair is grown much longer. 
Yue had a very dandy look with his hair combed back. He wore a black suit which was open so you could see his upper body. 
Kyonosuke had an interesting look with combed back hair too and a black ruffled indefinable top.
 
They started with Heisei which is so much better live! Lime played a second guitar. 
Next song was Buta also a very nice live experience. 
Then Jugo - and omg what a madness. So much headbanging and Furi. Same with the following Elise.
I‘m not a big fan auf Kuro ame but I have to admit the song is beautiful live. Lime sang the first verse without microphone and that gave me shivers. You could also see that the song is very emotional for the whole band.
The silence after Kuro ame was short as they played Oshimai - fuck yes! It was wild. Reiki did his guitar flip and the crowd was insane. 
Last song was Kizuato - forget what I was saying about Oshimai... this song was insane! That breakdown in the end. 😱 I hoped that they play it and I was so happy. 
And this was it. A 45 minute concert which felt like 10 minutes... If you have any chance to watch them, do it!
 
Setlist キズ:
平成
豚
十五
ELISE
黒い雨
おしまい
傷痕
 
And last but not least BugLug entered the stage. They were the headliner for the show. I‘ve never heard one song of them so I was excited to see what they may deliver. Light went out and a SE started to play as someone tiped my shoulder. It was the lead singer lol. They surprised us and came from the entrance straight through the audience to the stage. They shouted something with a megaphone. That was really cool. Next surprise: Before they started to iniateted a wall of death. Neat!
They did a really good and entertaining show with stage diving, moshing, fan service etc. While the last song the singer came right into the audience and sang the whole song there and even started to mosh. 
Great band but their music is not my cup of tea. (Please don‘t kill me dear BugLug fans!)
They also played 45 minutes. I don‘t know their songs but I took a picture of their setlist if someone is interested.
 
So this was it! A great concert with left us all with smiling faces. next one is the Meme Oneman on February 18.
 
I hope you liked this review and didn‘t fall asleep while reading. I will soon write again after the next concert.

The more "adult" my life becomes the more I resort to escapism. 🐸

ヴァージュ (Virge) have revealed a new look and will release 3rd mini album in June 2020!
They will also have a 3rd anniversary live at Takadanobaba AREA on 6th of May 2020.
More details will be announced later.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here u go

I honestly wanted to like this album but the outcome made it impossible for me.
Misc is one messy beast and a really unsettling listening experience. The whole thing sounds as confusing and random as Retsu's social media slapping over the last weeks. I really don't know who they (he) want to aim with this sound.

Some of you also stated the electronic samples. Yeah, cringy is the perfect description for them. Especially the SEs are freaking annoying.
Three quarters of the album sound the same (Which isn't always something bad as CHEDOARA had a stringent structure, too) and songs like MIST or Funny World are kinda bland and forgettable. I rather not start talking about fucking Lament.. 
What's up? for me is the only highlight followed by before it's too late and Tick Tak.
 
This state of the band really is a waste of talent and I hope that Sho will leave this sinking ship soon and joins a banging VK combo again. He is too talented for draining in a J-Pop band.

I'm curious of how well this album will be embraced and if they will gain new fans with their new sound. But it is with a tearing eye that one of my (our) VK hopes left the arena and will definitely not come back. 

The second half of the album waaaaay outshines the first half IMO (with the exception of Before it's too late, which just feels like the obligatory tacked-on ''WE'RE STILL HEAVY GUYS'' tune). Tick tak and out of the darkness are probably my 2 fave tracks so far. First half suffers too much from a combination of ''I wouldn't really be able to tell these songs apart if you played 'em for me randomly'' and anisong-syndrome.
 
Overall, I feel like I'd appreciate this album a lot more if it had been released out of the blue by some total newcomer band. Taken completely as its own thing it's definitely not garbage all the way through & I do welcome the new genre influences  for bringing in some stuff that isn't very common in the VK-adjacent scene, I just feel like  it doesn't quite cut it when you match it up against the highest highs of CHEDOARA and Rijin in my opinion. Sho has some of the best and most versatile vocals out there among the newer bands and I can't help but feel like his abilities are severely being underutilized here w/ this type of stuff, the wildest it gets is some whisper-singing and sorta half-yelling. Dude deserves his own sukekiyo-type project to go wild at this point lol

Guys I think I just found out why D.I.D. never disbanded even though they stopped releasing stuff and doing lives.
 
If the acronym means "Until The Day I Die" it will only disband when one of the band members die, or maybe its only when Akane dies? I don't know thats still a mistery I will keep you guys posted until I am able to use 120% of my brain capacity to figure out the rest
 
Until then I will keep breaking PRs in the gym to Akane's beautiful voice and desperation fuelled lyrics.

Well, our passion for Dimlim made us go off-topic but...
 
Despite being a complex matter to approach, and also the fact that there isn't analysis available on the matter (at least in English), VK actually is a genre. There being a lot of variation and diversification both sonically and visually between bands of the scene doesn't necessarily conclude into VK bands don't having a LOT of things in common to make them part of a whole 'scene', in many levels (sound and visuals, but also other aspects related to production of the artists, their promotion, fans' rituals, etc., VK culture per se).
 
'Genre', 'movement', 'scene', call it the way you like. 'VK', as other things, exists by virtue of patterns of key elements that repeat all over their products no matter their differences between; in the end, that is what make their producers, bands themselves, us the fans, people inside and outside the scene, pick the term 'visual kei' to describe some music projects, and not 'glam rock', 'goth', 'punk' or 'metal' instead, in the way of deciding what music to listen according to our tastes.

What if the person who said "what's up?" is like one ok rock thinks one ok rock is heavy as fuck and we are getting ahead of ourselves based on one person's testimony?
I hope if they are going in a "chillhop" direction they do it for just some songs so we can see what it sounds like but the album also have things close to what they used to sound too so its a more comparable experience of past and present DIMLIM.
I also hope I am not in a denial stage even though the album have not even dropped yet lmao

What if the person who said "what's up?" is like one ok rock thinks one ok rock is heavy as fuck and we are getting ahead of ourselves based on one person's testimony?
I hope if they are going in a "chillhop" direction they do it for just some songs so we can see what it sounds like but the album also have things close to what they used to sound too so its a more comparable experience of past and present DIMLIM.
I also hope I am not in a denial stage even though the album have not even dropped yet lmao

So, that's how they punish us for pirating Kidoairaku?

Guys I think I just found out why D.I.D. never disbanded even though they stopped releasing stuff and doing lives.
 
If the acronym means "Until The Day I Die" it will only disband when one of the band members die, or maybe its only when Akane dies? I don't know thats still a mistery I will keep you guys posted until I am able to use 120% of my brain capacity to figure out the rest
 
Until then I will keep breaking PRs in the gym to Akane's beautiful voice and desperation fuelled lyrics.

Guys I think I just found out why D.I.D. never disbanded even though they stopped releasing stuff and doing lives.
 
If the acronym means "Until The Day I Die" it will only disband when one of the band members die, or maybe its only when Akane dies? I don't know thats still a mistery I will keep you guys posted until I am able to use 120% of my brain capacity to figure out the rest
 
Until then I will keep breaking PRs in the gym to Akane's beautiful voice and desperation fuelled lyrics.

I can hardly find a single job that wouldn't make me blow my brains out and it's making me want to blow my brains out.

DELUHI new live DVD "THE XING OF DELUHISM" will be released at 2020/02/05.
 

 
TrackList:
～ OPENING SE 〜
1. HYBRID TRUTH
2. Rebel:Sicks, Shadow:Six
3. Freedom
4. flow snow
5. WAKE UP!
6. シェイド(Shade)
7. Ivory and Irony
8. The farthest
9. NO SALVATION
10. FOLLOW THE FUTURE
11. G.A.L.D
12. REVOLVER BLAST
13. Frontier
14. s[K]ape:goat
15. Baby play
16. F.T.O
17. Departure
＜encore＞
18. Remember the rain
19. Vivid Place
20. CODA
21. Orion once again
22. Two Hurt
～ ending ～
 
 

One of the thing I love about it is how you don't know what kind of chunni you will find. Kamijo's Castrato lore is cringe as hell but at the same time I LOVE seeing someone do the shit he loves to do without fear of judgement. I know people who can't handle seeing other people doing "embarassing" things, but I just feel at home when I see a frontman doing edgy poses thinking he is cool as hell and that he has some kind of special power lmao

Ready, set....

cant stop imagining a timeline where they actually make it abroad but end up having their equipment stolen partway through the 'tour'

One of the thing I love about it is how you don't know what kind of chunni you will find. Kamijo's Castrato lore is cringe as hell but at the same time I LOVE seeing someone do the shit he loves to do without fear of judgement. I know people who can't handle seeing other people doing "embarassing" things, but I just feel at home when I see a frontman doing edgy poses thinking he is cool as hell and that he has some kind of special power lmao

One of the thing I love about it is how you don't know what kind of chunni you will find. Kamijo's Castrato lore is cringe as hell but at the same time I LOVE seeing someone do the shit he loves to do without fear of judgement. I know people who can't handle seeing other people doing "embarassing" things, but I just feel at home when I see a frontman doing edgy poses thinking he is cool as hell and that he has some kind of special power lmao

One of the thing I love about it is how you don't know what kind of chunni you will find. Kamijo's Castrato lore is cringe as hell but at the same time I LOVE seeing someone do the shit he loves to do without fear of judgement. I know people who can't handle seeing other people doing "embarassing" things, but I just feel at home when I see a frontman doing edgy poses thinking he is cool as hell and that he has some kind of special power lmao

One of the thing I love about it is how you don't know what kind of chunni you will find. Kamijo's Castrato lore is cringe as hell but at the same time I LOVE seeing someone do the shit he loves to do without fear of judgement. I know people who can't handle seeing other people doing "embarassing" things, but I just feel at home when I see a frontman doing edgy poses thinking he is cool as hell and that he has some kind of special power lmao

One of the thing I love about it is how you don't know what kind of chunni you will find. Kamijo's Castrato lore is cringe as hell but at the same time I LOVE seeing someone do the shit he loves to do without fear of judgement. I know people who can't handle seeing other people doing "embarassing" things, but I just feel at home when I see a frontman doing edgy poses thinking he is cool as hell and that he has some kind of special power lmao