ghostpepper

Toshi apparently deleted almost all Instagram posts related to X and even the ones mentioning hide so it seems the rift is pretty big between them now so I doubt the announcement will be the album. My buddy who asked Pata what was up at a tokyo yankees gig last year got a reply that made it seem like X was going on a break too so : / 

This lady does a really good job of explaining what Kyo is doing technically. 
Maybe it can be perceived as "he does not have control." At face value but he is really pushing the boundaries on himself all the time so. 
 
Metal techniques are harder to grasp at face and can seem easier than they actually are. Just the breathing aspect of it can be so hard. 

I think he's a good vocalist, but yeah never found him to be outstanding. He's good at what he does, but he's no vocal virtuoso.

I'm actually really curious how these visual kei guys get the sound that they do, because I've never heard anything quite like it. The vibrato doesn't really sound like a normal vibrato, but it doesn't sound completely forced or unnatural either, and the singers who do have some technical ability seem to be able to manipulate it pretty freely. It also kinda sounds like they are singing out of the back of their nose or something like that. Like there is a slightly nasal sound, but it's more "dark" than "bright" sounding. (This is probably a bad description.) Anyway, it's quite interesting and a pretty cool style.
 
I will definitely listen to more by those singers. Thanks for the recommendation!

I have no idea about technique whatsoever, but a vocalist/pianist friend of mine who studied music for 10+ years really praised Kaya for his vocal abilities. He emphasized how hard it probably is (at least from his own experience) for Kaya to keep his voice controlled and stay in tune, because for example most of the verse parts in his songs have very little "background" for the vocals to "fall back upon", i.e. it's usually just a drumbeat and random bass synth and he still pretty much nails all the right notes. Plus his voice is pretty powerful and cool, but that's just my personal preference/observation.  
 
Here's a random cool live clip:
 
 

@ghostpepper Sorry I should have clarified, I was talking 100% about clean vocals. I don't really know anything about metal screaming and other extreme vocals (don't particularly enjoy it either). I'm sure it's difficult to do right and requires technique, but as explained in the video you posted, it's a different set of techniques from standard singing. After watching that video I realize that when people praised Kyo's vocals they were more commenting on these types of extreme vocals, rather than standard singing, thus I was probably looking for the wrong things when I listened to him. I can certainly see why people would be impressed by his ability to make such bizarre sounds.
 
 
I'll try to listen to Ishi, Jui, and Hide. Thanks for the recommendations! I have listened to a few things by Luna Sea and while I thought the vocals sounded better than most, they didn't stand out as being particularly strong. However, I think those were all very old, so I will check out some more recent performances. I have listened to a couple relatively recent Japan X performances and was not particularly impressed by Toshi. Do you have a favorite performance to recommend? 

Kyo's technical abilities are really amazing, if you are actually a pro musician it is easy to recognize that he does some things that not really anyone else can in the scene. 
 
You have mostly people who do not really try to learn technique and those few who actually make the effort, same with most positions. 
 
Kagrra's Ishi was someone I know who actively studied theory, Jui from vidoll also. 
Ryuichi from Luna Sea really studied hard, hide once made a comment about how he was amazed how much he progressed. Hide also made a big effort with the same Vocal trainer Toshi used. Toshi still trains with international and japan based vocal teachers. 

Kyo's technical abilities are really amazing, if you are actually a pro musician it is easy to recognize that he does some things that not really anyone else can in the scene. 
 
You have mostly people who do not really try to learn technique and those few who actually make the effort, same with most positions. 
 
Kagrra's Ishi was someone I know who actively studied theory, Jui from vidoll also. 
Ryuichi from Luna Sea really studied hard, hide once made a comment about how he was amazed how much he progressed. Hide also made a big effort with the same Vocal trainer Toshi used. Toshi still trains with international and japan based vocal teachers. 

there're several VK vocalists with full on operatic range who actually have control over how they sound unlike kyo, but for a kpop stanbait thread you're doing amazing sweetie x
 
 

Kyo's technical abilities are really amazing, if you are actually a pro musician it is easy to recognize that he does some things that not really anyone else can in the scene. 
 
You have mostly people who do not really try to learn technique and those few who actually make the effort, same with most positions. 
 
Kagrra's Ishi was someone I know who actively studied theory, Jui from vidoll also. 
Ryuichi from Luna Sea really studied hard, hide once made a comment about how he was amazed how much he progressed. Hide also made a big effort with the same Vocal trainer Toshi used. Toshi still trains with international and japan based vocal teachers. 

Punk is in visual kei's DNA and that's why the vocals in vk are often if not always at least in part stylised and the emphasis isn't on technical ability but in the performance. The genre itself is long and storied at this point with fads coming and going, so sometimes when it takes influence from different genres it adapt to its new needs in the way its performed, so some dudes sing "better" like the people trying to do X power ballads or anthemic metalcore choruses, and some sing "worse" like idk the most obvious hardcore punk influenced examples like Piass and ANTI FEMINISM or something. They're trying to do different things. 
 
The reason why guys like Ruki and Kyo* sound, or sounded in Ruki's case, rough and stylised is because they're from a different era when the emphasis on technical ability wasn't what it is and was in metal in the west around that time, while guys from newer metalcore bands from a completely different era like Jiluka, Dexcore, Nokubura that are influenced by different bands are at the very least on par if not better than many of their American colleagues from the bands very successful in their style like BMTH, Of Mice and Men, Chealsea Grin etc. because the emphasis is now on the vocalist's technical ability like it is in the rest of the genre in the west. Basically tl;dr vk does what it wants to do and it performs at the level of an American Idol finalist, Kpop schlager belter or some other circus bear on an unicycle trying to woo the masses to consume more product by jumping through fiery hoops at the crack of the corporate whip when it wants to, but more often than not it doesn't because it's main objective as music isn't to do that. 
 
Then of course there's legions and legions of music from all genres in Japan with exceptionally skilled people involved, but the people still using the Jrock tag pretty much ignore everything that isn't vk and ONE OK ROCK. Even if you go searching for vk as a newbie you'll be encountered by a pretty significant bias for newer bands and especially a bias for the more vaguely metal sounding bands from western vk boom years in favor of bands that are really new like the ones I mentioned prior or the older classics. In the early vk scene more than a few bands have very skilled vocalists like La'Cryma Christi, Luna Sea and even L'arc. 
 
* Personally I'll never forget the time when they were trying to make it in the west and all the paid mainstream reviewers started ooing and aaing about the Japanese Mike Patton. Kyo sounds and always sounded, vk as fuck. 

Kyo's technical abilities are really amazing, if you are actually a pro musician it is easy to recognize that he does some things that not really anyone else can in the scene. 
 
You have mostly people who do not really try to learn technique and those few who actually make the effort, same with most positions. 
 
Kagrra's Ishi was someone I know who actively studied theory, Jui from vidoll also. 
Ryuichi from Luna Sea really studied hard, hide once made a comment about how he was amazed how much he progressed. Hide also made a big effort with the same Vocal trainer Toshi used. Toshi still trains with international and japan based vocal teachers. 

I wouldn’t rank Ruki among the best vocalists, he has the same vocal tone and range than half of the scene. 

The song ''X'' is actually about how he got his tubes tied and Yoshiki insists on performing it every time just to assert his dominance

why does that matter?

I'm OK if this sets a trend

Sweet baby jesus the new single is out now. 
Next month I will be a guest on Tokyo Borderless TV on 7/15 & 25 
Will reveal artist photos for band 
and new member as well. 
I hope you can enjoy it ﾔｯﾌ〜(*ˊᗜˋ*) ﾉ

【En'Cell♰Dis'Dein】
†NEW SINGLE COMING SOON†
精神異常者センチメンタル
Lyrics: 宗
Music: Kairu
 
Advanced preview for Monochrome Heaven:
 
 

Nice guitar work and really good mixing

It is really funny seeing people who are not Japanese use the term gaijin. Like uncle tom level. 
 
So uh, lets say BLM protest being lead by black people would be bad by your logic? 
Been living here for nearing 7 years, have terrible experiences with police fucking me over just for being a foreigner. been choked in front of police officers just waiting for me to defend myself, was pretty much told it was my fault by an old countryside cop after finding my ex's body after a suicide. so uhh the people affected by these BS situations leading the protest recently is not strange? Or about"look at me!" I hate those typical english teacher jobber types too, but that Kurdish man who was a victim of excessive force leading a protest for him and others like him is 100% normal. 

New single sounds great!!!
 

Sweet baby jesus the new single is out now. 
Next month I will be a guest on Tokyo Borderless TV on 7/15 & 25 
Will reveal artist photos for band 
and new member as well. 
I hope you can enjoy it ﾔｯﾌ〜(*ˊᗜˋ*) ﾉ

Am but a single lil foreign man in a sea of fakeness but I try to put my love for all things oldschool VK into these songs ❤️ hope that can be felt in these songs. 
 
Have had a lot of people put that save VK thing on me, maybe should make some kind of Jihad song? Kill zee infidels. Spit on the false Queen my bruddahs 

10/10, definitely will look forward your next releases, and hope you save VK from its current misery state. 

Sweet baby jesus the new single is out now. 
Next month I will be a guest on Tokyo Borderless TV on 7/15 & 25 
Will reveal artist photos for band 
and new member as well. 
I hope you can enjoy it ﾔｯﾌ〜(*ˊᗜˋ*) ﾉ