Saga

A easy example about how the looks don't necessarily reflect the person of a visual kei artist is the usage of the hakenkreuz by the earliests bands. We don’t see as much nowadays, but the SS caps always appears, sooner or later.
Of course that there was some classic japanese punk nationalism in some bands here and there, but core of V系 was about shocking after all. So, the imaginary of the nazism is aesthetic, therefore should be used. 
 
As @薔薇の末裔 pointed out, understanding Kabuki is a good way to understand this theatrical musical scene. 
 
Kabuki in its first days was a female theater, a more accessible branch of Noh. But it was just too sexy for that confucian society. “A woman's place is in the kitchen”, said the Shogun (or it was my dad last night?). And then, the boys took the place of the woman, doing woman roles. But the boys turned out into fuckboys. “Notto disu shitto agen”, said the Shogun. And then, old man were doing woman roles. “Hmm”, long and deeply said the Shogun. Keep in mind that everyone was killing everyone in the past sengoku century, so the Shoguns could not fuck around (ha).
 
“Ok, ok, And so what?”. Well, since being really sexy was not an option, the onnagata dudes started doing their own shit to emulate the woman sexyness. First come the fancy wig, then they started showing some little skin and so on. Little by little there was no more “man” or “woman”, but onnagata. A woman that no other woman could be. 
 
At that point, Kabuki without man doing female roles is not Kabuki. Visual kei without man doing female roles is not visual kei? I don’t think so, exist†trace showed their shit and we digged it hard. But I would say that is highly expected to see a man doing female roles in the visual rock scene. D’s “Ouka saki some ni keri” is my pick for today. The contrast of Asagi manly vocals with his woman clothing is a perfectly example of why we love it the way it is. They do it with passion (or for money), and we love them for it, not because their sexual preference.
 
The whole pv setting is a love letter for their culture. And it is just one example, there is so many other bands with pvs with that scenary (and probably there is a “something-kei” for it too). The pompous and bold Glam Rock found it’s home in the japanese costumes and evolved into the coolest thing.
 
To be deeper into to sexuallity stuff we could talk about how Japan society potentially repress the sexual preference of their people in order to have things working “in the right way” and how the west really needs to “talk about it” and not let the individuals be themselves without pushing some agenda into your fuckin throat so it’s fuckin hard to understand these japs using lipsticks just because they like it, but that stress me too much so fuck it.

I think the reason the musicians don't talk about it much is because they're not thinking about their sexuality. Their look is a costume, just like other performance arts have costumes. Through western perspective it's easy to analyse and put gender roles and other analytical concepts to it, but I don't think the majority of vk performers thinks about what wearing make up and feminine clothes means to them on a gender transgression level/ as an extension of their sexuality. It's simple as "as a chef I put on my white apron" "and as a member of kiryu I wear full make up and sometimes a skirt. " of course there are queer members out there who probably enjoy the freedom of visual expression in the scene but we don't know for a fact who and how many, after all, sexuality in Japan is a taboo subject that can only be broken for the sake of fanservice bucks, horny fujoshi and temporary high school exploration storylines (hello shoujo ai). 
 

It might sound weird from a western perspective, but visual kei is like the straightest and most homophobic music scene in Japan. We tend to look at visual kei with western eyes and mix its cultural aspects with things that belong to the western culture. Fanservice and provocations used for shock value put aside, the androgynous aesthetics of visual kei band rarely expressed anything related to gender identity and especially sexual orientation. 
After all, it started with people like X Japan who admittedly were inspired by glam rock bands and way of life, which I would find hard to connect to sexual orientation. Visual kei early bandomen were mostly chinpiras, bosozokus (bikers) and the likes. They really incarnated the somewhat glamrock aesthetic of riding bikes getting drunk, banging girls, etc. Of course X had their own decadent/romantic taste that made them different, and a lot of influences changed the scene over time. However, visual kei is still remains 99% driven by social outcasts looking for pussy and very rarely by something else.
In Japan we also have onnagatas, who are kabuki actors specialized in female roles that are again 99% straight. Bandoman with feminine looks call themselves onnagata, not josou (crossdresser), implying that the cultural source behind their looks is not connected with crossdressing but just playing a female role in a band,  but again this something that might be hard to completely understand it taken outside of Japanese culture. For example Izam, the king of all onnagatas, married more than once and has more tha one child, and outside of his role in Shazna he rarely did anything ambiguous, just like the kabuki onnagatas out of stage. Both media and fans are everything but respectful of privacy, but I've rarely seen Japanese articles or message board questioning bandomen sexual orientation. That's because the number 1 reason people do visual kei is because the girls like it (well, liked it, I am not sure this is the trend with young girls anymore). 
Soft Ballet/Ken Morioka are closer to Soft Cell/Marc Almond so I would not even count them as visual kei even though they had some influence on it. And of course, there are exceptions as you mentioned. The chinpira bandomen of the 90's almost extincted and younger generations bandomans are usually anime/game otakus. They grew up with different influences and values, and it would make sense if the current incarnation of visual kei instinctively appealed to more people with sexual orientation/gender identity concerns, especially after Japan started talking about these issues in a less obsolete viewpoint.

Social networking service.
 

Social networking service.
 

Click the link to the tweet and wait a bit after playing the clip a few times. It takes a while before the higher bitrate ver. 1280p version is served (there are three versions including 568p (w/ shite audio) and 640p (w/ comparable audio to the 1280p ver.) 
 
Here it is fully loaded: https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1220260237426298880/vid/720x1280/quRgWqspuG1DKzWu.mp4?tag=13

hello sr.
 
can you let us dream for a while
 
xoxo

hello sr.
 
can you let us dream for a while
 
xoxo

They sold out the limited donate-a-bag-of-animal-food-and-pay-the-half-of-the-price ticket. Still selling the normal one (which you still can pay the half if you are student) and the M&G.
 
 
Anyway, some days ago someone from the organizers told that the tickets were "selling well" in general. In total, there was 300 tickets on sale. Let's see.
 
 
 

They sold out the limited donate-a-bag-of-animal-food-and-pay-the-half-of-the-price ticket. Still selling the normal one (which you still can pay the half if you are student) and the M&G.
 
 
Anyway, some days ago someone from the organizers told that the tickets were "selling well" in general. In total, there was 300 tickets on sale. Let's see.
 
 
 

NEiN's interview was coordinated originally by me with help of John @inartistic we both made this interview our first interview together. 
Since NEiN is a band who fits also to less visual bands, we decided later on to cross post it also on JAPANESE ROCK'N'ROLL.
 

Full interview in English can be read here.
https://vk.gy/blog/an-interview-with-nein/
https://jrocknroll.wordpress.com/2020/05/27/interview-with-nein/
 
Also the original Japanese version has been shared for those who can understand Japanese
https://vk.gy/blog/an-interview-with-nein-jp/
https://jrocknroll.wordpress.com/2020/05/27/interview-with-nein/
 
 
 
 
 

Dir en Grey have always been a point of contention for me. As a visual newbie, I was intimidated by their extreme aesthetics and sound, and it took me a while to come around to liking their early works since it’s basically an amalgamation of everything I already liked. This sort of distrust of their music has caused me to not really delve too much into their middle works. Sure, I’ve heard some of Arche, I sat through whatever their album from last year was called, and I dug Sukekiyo, but for whatever reason anything earlier than Marrow of a Bone hasn’t existed on digital platforms. Yesterday, this changed — three of their early ~ middle career releases were added to Spotify and now I have no excuses for ignoring them. As such, I was challenged to do a blind listening review by some veteran fans—partly for their amusement, partly because my musical opinions are highly sought after (citation needed). Here is my first listen review of the classic album Vulgar.
 
Let’s start with the album art. What am I looking at? Is it a bird? Are these disembodied arms in opera length gloves? Overcooked pork tenderloin? I’m really not sure. Sometimes art is like that — it makes you unsure, and that uncertainty makes you uncomfortable. Sometimes that discomfort makes you think, but then other times it makes you reject something and move on. I don’t want to give the band credit for being provocative. I’ve read a lot of Tumblr and have the arcane knowledge to confidently state that this artwork is actually from Disney’s Maleficent — it’s her horns after they got lopped off.
 
Audience KILLER LOOP: never a fan of when titles suddenly yell at me. It really makes me on edge, kind of like this song does. I’m really going into this blind and any departure from Gauze is going to be a real change for me. I guess this is alright, but maybe this style just needs to grow on me more. Let’s see how I hold up going further in…
 
 
THE IIID EMPIRE: not sure why they decided to make a Star Wars reference here, but to each their own. I suppose this is the hard-hitting style that people have grown to love from this band. The guitar riff slightly after the middle of the song is super cool — in spite of all of the shit I give this band, sometimes they really do have neat ideas.
 
INCREASE BLUE: Again with the yelling of the song titles. Reminds me of the graphic design class I needed to take, with my teacher looming over me. My composition was too warmly colored, so she yelled to me from across the classroom “increase blue.” I took her advice and then she docked me points for it anyway. “Too much blue.” Fuck me.
 
 
Shokubeni: Apparently this means “red food coloring.” I bet the lyrics have something to do with bloody food or chopping up someone’s girlfriend. This band seems big on that and it’s kind of off-putting. I’d give some deep analysis on the meaning, but I can’t speak Japanese well.
 
Sajou no Uta: Kinda boring. This isn’t really my thing.
 
RED…[em]: a bit too rough for my liking. I get that this is when their hurgleblurgle kind of approach to art really started, but doesn’t mean I need to be fully here for it. A part of this almost saved me from disliking it, but it wasn’t enough.
 
 
Sfisdfeijaoifjsoefijse: too long for what it was, skipped
 
MARMALADE CHAINSAW: sticky sweet and incredibly wasteful. Started a trend of bands naming things with “chainsaw” in their names, which makes me wonder if the Japanese really know what a chainsaw is? Surely you don’t need one for spreading jam but I’m not Julia Child.
 
Kasumi: Fun fact—this was the name of “Misty” in the Japanese version of Pokemon. Further fun fact, there is a Pokemon card called “Misty’s Determination,” which I assume is written like “Kasumi no Jiketsu.” “”Jiketsu” means “self-determination” but is also a euphemism for “suicide,” so whenever I see that card I read it as “Misty’s Suicide” in my head. Seems like a tangent, but this is honestly a very Dir en Grey kind of story.
 
R THE CORE: filler intro 
 
DRAIN AWAY: I actually kind of like this. The guitar atmosphere is really enticing and they’ve definitely upped their skill since Macabre (the last album I blind listened to). I know I’m very firmly into the “Gauze and then the band died” camp, but I am glad I am getting something positive out of this album.
 
NEW AGE CULTURE: Wow. Woooooow. Y’all went OFF on Kisaki for “stealing Kyo’s girlfriend” or whatever and then they go and literally steal the title from a famous Matina omnibus series? I cannot believe the low-life attempt at being petty, but here we are. Unfathomable. 
 
OBSCURE: huh…pretty sure Grieva used this. I mean, I knew they seemed like they were fans of Dir En Grey, but I didn’t think they’d flat-out STEAL from them. Well, song is kind of bouncy and hypnotic, so I can see why they’d want to base on of their own songs on it. Still kind of shocked that this is borderline plagiarism.
 
CHILD PREY: One of the best songs on this album. Love the meaning behind it and how the lyrics fit together from the parts I could understand. I don’t mean to gush, but this definitely has that “it” factor that draws people into this band. Amazing. Pray / Prey for your butter
 
Amber: This band likes to have female names as titles. Amber, Kasumi, Audrey, Yurikago….it makes me wonder what their take on feminism is. They’ve already displayed a rather ham-fisted pro-life stance a few albums ago, but maybe their time within the inner machinations of the visual scene caused them to change their stance, especially having interacted with so many female fans and the changes fame brought to them. I wonder if this song’s direct is a reflection of that as well — it’s hard to get into an artist’s head and really understand how they see the world.
 
 
Overall: 5.5 / 10 for me
 
I know this is a classic album, but that’s how I felt on my first attempt at going through this. I still need to listen to Kisou, so I am open to doing a blind listen review for that as well. If you’d like to try out this album for yourself, or provide your own take on the music, feel free to check it out on Spotify. Sometimes I need to listen to things multiple times to form a true opinion. Funny enough, I still need to actually listen to this album for the first time, as I wrote this review solely based on the song titles and album art.

Ai and Kisaki in one session band - am I dreaming? That's so goooood

4th Single: サヨナラ(Sayonara)
Release: 2020.02.26
 
 

The good thing about Visual Kei is that it is always around. A little different now and then, ever changing but never losing the glamour.
 
Arlequin is still rocking a lot btw. Love these guys.

Waiting for the PV with the Psico shower scene.

ya'll bunch of INFIDELS
 
when the boys have ever disappointed you since that drummer dude left?
 
HAVE FAITH

I_don't_know_what_the_fuck_is_going_on.jpg

Ready, set....

I find early deg often too confusing. I would even say that the visual diru works really better for me in a audio-visual way. Myaku is a song that I dig the MV a lot, but without the right mood I would skip it easily in the song player. Macabre is another song that makes me think that if I had a bigger understanding of the language, the album (and maybe the whole era) would feel less deranged. Like in a classic japanese theather experience, the guitars making strange noises followed by some drumming in the middle of the song would only make sense if you know the history behind it beforehand.
Of course the band never stopped in sounding chaotic, but now they are chaotic in a more ordened way, making it easier to digest.
The last 3 releases are highly enjoyable albums. I could listen DSS, Arche and TIW for ages without skiping a song, but they lack of really remarkable tracks. Thats why I put TMoaB higher. Even if sometimes it is a tiring experience, Namamekashiki, Ryoujoku no Ame, The Pledge and Conceived Sorrow made it for me.
Uroboros, Vulgar and WtD are things that I will protect with my life.
 
01. Uroboros
01. Vulgar
03. Withering to Death
04. The Marrow of a Bone
05. Dum Spiro Spero
05. Arche
07. The Insulated World
08. Gauze
09. Kisou
10. Macabre

You know, the album is nowhere the trainwreck I was expecting! Those are just my impressions from a first listen.
 
Let me start with the biggest problem: Mio's singing. He is trying WAY TOO HARD to sing in a range he doesn't have. He is indeed a very good screamer (he's way better than Sho when he started out, he doesn't overabuse inhales and is overall more versatile) but for now his clean voice is making me have a harder time enjoying the music. Maybe he can go under an impressive improvement like Sho did, but who knows?
 
While there is recently a whole wave of VK bands that put A WHOLE LOT of emphasis on musicianship sometimes to the expense of songwriting, I feel like the musicianship is not only capable but also used in a way it doesn't try to compensate for bad songwriting (different to something like Jiluka's lastest album which is nearly unlistenable). Despite the over-triggered drum sound that doesn't make him much favor, Issei is indeed a good drummer and way more capable than the repetitive machine gun double bass blasting I've heard in a lot of his stuff would indicate. The bass-heavy production renders the music a bit messy, and it doesn't help that their sound is very layered (with lots of guitar leads, vocal harmonies, orchestral and electronic instrumentation), so the mix is kinda muddy (I had wishes of DeG going for 8-strings before but this album reminded me that with their awful production values of late, the music would sound like a total mess).
 
The songwriting is all over the place (there are proggy pieces, the all-out aggressive stuff in line with the promotional singles, synth-heavy "anthemic" live-oriented stuff, ballads here and there) pretty much like early Dimlim, but I consider it to be a slight improvement over something like Various (sorry, but I really dislike it). One of the biggest complains is the abundance of synth sounds that a lot of times subtract more than add to the song (not to mention how they clutter the mix even further). Couldn't care less about the anime ED ballads though and the unabashedly "live-oriented" songs with all the gang vocals and call-and-response bits don't do much for me either.
 
My favorite tracks were "Judas" (which sadly suffers from some of the worst vocals of the album), "unknown" and "Blink".