sai

BUCK-TICK - Catalogue Victor→Mercury 87–99 (First Press Limited Edition)
 
It was on sale (and for quite a bit too! More than 50% off!) so I figured "why not?" --> Seems like I got one of the last few copies, the sale's over now. Guess I got lucky.

Hello fellow Monochromiums,
 
After having thought this through for quite a bit of time (and copious discussions with the other staff members), I have decided that I will be stepping down as a moderator on this forum. I am very honoured that you voted me for staff of the year and I've appreciated all the love and kind words, but it's time for me to step down now. There are personal things I must first finish before I can be in full duty of this forum again. I want to thank everyone for the loving support and I hope you won't miss me too much while I'm gone. I wasn't the best mod anyway.
 
Best regards,
 
sai

I also think Sakura falling sounds a bit like Utataka by Kagrra,

Alright, thank you for your feedback We'll try to think of some more categories for next year. We'll also open another thread for category recommendations of course, just like this year. The thing with three people is that it's going to be difficult who to nominate for specific categories. We tried to give everyone a fair chance by doing it this way, but we'll look into alternatives.
 
So far we don't have anything planned for other competitions, but a while back we were considering doing a noseband-contest, though it never got past the stage of an idea. It included people having to take a photo of them covering their nose with a noseband (Reita-style), and the best picture would win. I'm not sure how many people would participate in this or if enough people are interested in a competition like this, but I need to know from you guys how you feel about it (I will make a special thread for it later probably).

Here are the results to the first new MH User Awards voting! I tried to fill at least the first three places per category, but that wasn't possible in all of them due too a minimal amount of votes. So, here are the winners! (reposted because MH crashed at the time that the thread was posted, so it threw up a few bugs)

 
Staff of the Year:
 
1. sai
2. Zess
3. Champ213; kai_desu
 
 
Most useless staff member:
 
1. Candy Warhol
2. Yasupon
 

Favourite uploader:
 
1. stylelover; CAT5 (it was a tie!)
2. nostalgia.
 

Best looking male:
 
1. Disposable
2. Daggi_X; D.L.S; Biopanda
 

Best looking female:
 
1. 237Q
2. sai
3. greeeeen

 
Best jokes:
 
1. Biopanda; Jigsaw9 (another tie!)
2. Senedjem
3. Tokage; Disposable

 
Weirdest user:
 
1. Senedjem
2. Disposable; Tokage

 
Most fascinating user that makes the most interesting posts:
 
1. Trombe
2. Zess
 
 
Best avatar:
 
1. Biopanda (with an overwhelming majority)
 
 

Best sig:
 
1. Candy Warhol (for his cockroach signature)
2. sai (for Maru in a bag)
3. Disposable (for Akane)


Biggest spammer:
 
1. The spambots
2. Trombe
 
 
Most argumentative:
 
1. Zess
2. AltermaliceNero

 
Drama Queen/King:
 
1. electrastar
2. MaddAdam
3. Ryu
 

Most effective Troll:
 
1. nekkichi
2. Senedjem


WTF-Award of the year:
 
1. The MH-Chat

 
Best drama thread:
 
1. Kisaki will be absent in live performance (and the picture drama that followed)
2. ZeluvA

 
Best review:
 
1. sai; Zess (a tie. Zess got
most votes for his review on ELEMENTA ALCHEMICA, while sai got most of
her votes for her DIVISION review)
2. Jigsaw9; MaddAdam
 
 
Friendliest/most helpful member:
 
1. Jigsaw9
2. sai
3. CaRaN; Biopanda

 
Most loyal Kisaki fan of the year:
 
1. pixyfalse01 (by an overwhelming majority, might I add)
2. inartistic

 
User with most interesting musical taste:
 
1. CAT5
2. stylelover; Disposable; -timecapsule-

 
Music-creation-award (for the users who post their own creations):
 
1. bonsaijodelfisch; Yuuko; jiyun_kun

 
MH Theme song:
 
1. idiot - Fakkin' A
2. ensoku - This is a pen
 
 
That's it! So how did you like these awards? Do you have feedback for next year's awards? Let us know here! Also, feel free to share your thoughts on the results!

Here are the results to the first new MH User Awards voting! I tried to fill at least the first three places per category, but that wasn't possible in all of them due too a minimal amount of votes. So, here are the winners! (reposted because MH crashed at the time that the thread was posted, so it threw up a few bugs)

 
Staff of the Year:
 
1. sai
2. Zess
3. Champ213; kai_desu
 
 
Most useless staff member:
 
1. Candy Warhol
2. Yasupon
 

Favourite uploader:
 
1. stylelover; CAT5 (it was a tie!)
2. nostalgia.
 

Best looking male:
 
1. Disposable
2. Daggi_X; D.L.S; Biopanda
 

Best looking female:
 
1. 237Q
2. sai
3. greeeeen

 
Best jokes:
 
1. Biopanda; Jigsaw9 (another tie!)
2. Senedjem
3. Tokage; Disposable

 
Weirdest user:
 
1. Senedjem
2. Disposable; Tokage

 
Most fascinating user that makes the most interesting posts:
 
1. Trombe
2. Zess
 
 
Best avatar:
 
1. Biopanda (with an overwhelming majority)
 
 

Best sig:
 
1. Candy Warhol (for his cockroach signature)
2. sai (for Maru in a bag)
3. Disposable (for Akane)


Biggest spammer:
 
1. The spambots
2. Trombe
 
 
Most argumentative:
 
1. Zess
2. AltermaliceNero

 
Drama Queen/King:
 
1. electrastar
2. MaddAdam
3. Ryu
 

Most effective Troll:
 
1. nekkichi
2. Senedjem


WTF-Award of the year:
 
1. The MH-Chat

 
Best drama thread:
 
1. Kisaki will be absent in live performance (and the picture drama that followed)
2. ZeluvA

 
Best review:
 
1. sai; Zess (a tie. Zess got
most votes for his review on ELEMENTA ALCHEMICA, while sai got most of
her votes for her DIVISION review)
2. Jigsaw9; MaddAdam
 
 
Friendliest/most helpful member:
 
1. Jigsaw9
2. sai
3. CaRaN; Biopanda

 
Most loyal Kisaki fan of the year:
 
1. pixyfalse01 (by an overwhelming majority, might I add)
2. inartistic

 
User with most interesting musical taste:
 
1. CAT5
2. stylelover; Disposable; -timecapsule-

 
Music-creation-award (for the users who post their own creations):
 
1. bonsaijodelfisch; Yuuko; jiyun_kun

 
MH Theme song:
 
1. idiot - Fakkin' A
2. ensoku - This is a pen
 
 
That's it! So how did you like these awards? Do you have feedback for next year's awards? Let us know here! Also, feel free to share your thoughts on the results!

ER KOMT GEEN EINDE AAN.
 
Soon it'll be a mash-up of Dutch people and Finns 8|

THE GOOD
ONE OK ROCK - 人生x僕= (this album presents a more mature ONE OK ROCK, but still has that sound they excel in)
Boris - Präparat (it's Boris, do you need me to explain?)
lynch. - BALLAD (a standard lynch. single, but compared to IC and LIGHTNING this is definitely a lot better)
SHINee - Dream Girl - The misconceptions of you (catchy pop-album with diverse tracks and great vocal work)
雅-MIYAVI- - Ahead of the Light (not sure what 雅-MIYAVI- has gotten into his mind when it comes to musical directions but it's awesome and I like it)
 
THE BAD (or more like, disappointing)
NoGoD - V (songs sounded too similar and didn't have any power whatsoever)
A - 白い悪魔～Phantom of the Snow～ / SAKURA (first release by A that I just can't dig, it's like they didn't even try on 白い悪魔～Phantom of the Snow～. And of all songs from WHITE ALBUM they could choose to re-record, they picked the weakest track of the mini?)
ナイトメア - SCUMS (see the review thread for a more elaborate explanation on this one)
U-KISS - 3집 COLLAGE (I know you're not popular in Korea and I know you want to spend more time on Japanese music but don't half-ass an album merely for that, thank you very much)
T.M.Revolution - UNDER:COVER2 (for butchering all of the awesome originals. Also the GazettE's barking dogs vocals in SHAKIN' LOVE made me cringe)
摩天楼オペラ - 喝采と激情のグロリア (I expected a lot more out of this, too many filler tracks)
 
THE WTF
東方神起 - TIME (it wasn't really BAD, it was just...I don't know. I kind of enjoyed it but at the same time it had too many old tracks and too many of the new songs were ballads. I know SM wants to make them do that "epic" sort of pop music but it doesn't suit the guys at all)
Girls' Generation - I GOT A BOY (should we do hip-hop or cute stuff let's mash it up! No wait it doesn't work and it sounds terrible. SM no. No no no. I wasn't sure whether it should classify under bad or under WTF, but it's more WTF than bad I guess)
 
All in all, not much that I like yet. I hope the rest of the year gives me more music that I'll enjoy. 2012 really wasn't my year

Raise your hand if you saw it coming after the announcement of that complete best CD 8|

Raise your hand if you saw it coming after the announcement of that complete best CD 8|

Oh fuck I completely forgot about Morrie. DEAD END's releasing a new album this year if all is well, Morrie will make a solo comeback as well + there will be a DEAD END tribute album. ALL THE MORRIE.

At a very young age I already loved music and everything that came with it. Four year old me would often dance and sing in the living room to random songs on the radio whenever I wasn't at school. My mother tried to keep me away from it though, since my dad used to be in a band and was often gone from home because he and the band often played in small venues throughout the region. So I stopped being interested in music when I was around 7 years old.
 
When I turned 12 I got an mp3-player and I listened to most songs from the radio, some Dutch hip-hop and other things. When I was 13 I discovered YouTube and found an AMV with a Nightwish song. Even though I had never before been introduced to rock music nor symphonic metal, this instantly clicked with me. My mp3-player soon became a mix of techno, electro-pop and symphonic metal. The techno and electro-pop disappeared after a while and more symphonic metal and hard-rock took their places. Bands like Nightwish, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, After Forever and Evanescence was what I listened to the most back then.
 
Visual kei followed. A friend discovered An Cafe and became a big fan and tried to get me into them too. Before that I had already found out about NIGHTMARE, UVERworld, HIGH & MIGHTY COLOR and Gackt by myself (because I watched a little bit of anime at the time). I thought An Cafe were okay, but never fully got into them. I really got into abingdon boys school after that, and stayed closer to more darker bands (mid-2010, the time I discovered D) but after a while it turned into a mix of more serious pop-rock acts and some darker bands. Currently the amount of VK bands I listen to has sincerely decreased (pretty much limited to D, BUCK-TICK, Alice Nine and Kagrra,), but I'm currently still exploring the non-VK scene, so you can say my journey isn't quite over yet!

I can't believe I didn't post here yet. Anyway, here's my take on the matter:
 
Whether VK is just a phase is up to every individual. It also depends on what VK means to you, in some aspects. There are enough cases of people jumping from VK to K-Pop, totally abandoning the former. This is something I find very odd, because if you truly loved it for the music you wouldn't be able to make such a dramatic switch. So yes, for those people it's probably a phase.
 
For the ones who like VK mostly because of the music are different cases. You can grow out of it in a way that your musical tastes develop in such manner that you won't see the appeal in most VK stuff you listened before anymore. I can honestly say that I stopped listening to almost 60% of the VK bands I used to listen to back when I just got into the scene. That doesn't mean it was a phase and that I'm over it now, but it just means that my musical tastes have developed and changed, and that most VK doesn't fit in there anymore. I still have some VK bands that I really enjoy listening to and that I still actively follow, the number has just decreased. Other people who develop musically might do that differently than I do and might still find VK more appealing than I did at that moment.
 
So if I have to put it short: it depends on the person, basically. Saying it's a phase everybody gets out of is a bit close-minded.

I'll write small reviews of the releases I tried from this list here and add stuff to it whenever I listen to more.
 
ESNO - Visionary: Really blew me away. Great electronics, great mixing and really relaxing. This would do really well as studying music too. I'd recommend everyone to try this, because it's simply beautiful in its own way.
 
FilFla - Fliptap: A pretty good release. It didn't grab my attention well enough for me to keep it on my mp3-player, but definitely not bad. It shouldn't have been any longer than it is as well, I noticed that I'd get bored easily at the longer tracks.   M-Koda - Inga: Incredibly surprised at this one as well. I thought this might bore me after a few tracks, but I was completely wrong. Definitely recommended.   nego - SANSARA: Absolutely great, nego is great at what they do and this album shows it. Each instrument is crucial to the compositions, which also means that using low quality gear to listen to this completely ruins the experience. Each instrument does its job wonderfully and even my friend who isn't that big on electro-rock enjoyed this record a lot.   fresh! - What Are You Doing In This Confusion?:   Jimanica - Torso: Even though the electronics were well done and created nice beats here and there, I couldn't get over the incredibly annoying distorting vocals. They completely ruined the atmosphere in most of the songs for me, which left me really unimpressed around halfway in. I was practically waiting for this to be over at a certain point. If you can stand distorting vocals, it's probably a great album though.   LAGITAGIDA - CartaMarina: This sounds like an instrumental heavier version of school food punishment and I'm actually loving it. All five tracks were just nuts and really well composed. Let's just say "short but sweet". I will definitely keep an eye on these guys!   TK from 凛として時雨 - flowering: Good album. I was afraid I wouldn't like it too much because I'm not a big fan of TK's voice but he didn't overdo it on his this album. The upbeat tracks are all very diverse and actually pretty damn great, my only complaint would be the mash-up of ballads at the end, it kind of got boring because of that. The ballads didn't sound very different from eachother most of the time, which is a shame. Overall still very likeable.   アルカラ - ドラマ: This has to be the best アルカラ release I've heard thus far. The tracks are diverse, have interesting hooks and bring new things to the table that I haven't heard before on other アルカラ releases. Even if you're not a big fan of indie music, I'd definitely recommend this EP.   トクマルシューゴ - In Focus?: Great album, never thought I'd love this style of music as much as I did. Though he's not the best vocalist, his vocals really match the playful atmosphere of his compositions. Best listened to on fine spring days.

Nice to meet you Kevin/octoral/however you want me to call you I don't know too much about non-VK bands (apart from a few electronic exceptions + Boris and Arukara for example), but I hope you'll be one of those who can educate me on that Don't be afraid to drop by in the chat and have a talk with the regulars! Most of them are into non-VK as well And last but not least, enjoy the forum!

...the decline of J-Rock? Don't they mean "we only bring VK indie bands no1curr about and then are surprised no one buys tickets"? God. No one even knows/listens to this band apart from a few Ricky and D'espa fans, and their music isn't something that would attract D'espa fans musically anyway, I think. The fact that no one buys tickets for bands that have been around less than a year and most probably have around 10 full songs in total really shouldn't come as a surprise.

Wow CAT, that is one impressive post! I decided to check the Japanese artists for now, might check the non-Japanese ones later. There are quite some things in there that didn't really fit my taste, but these releases I'd definitely like to give a try now: ESNO, FilFla, fresh!, Jimanica, M-KODA, nego, TK's solo, アルカラ (I'm already familiar with them, but haven't listened to much of their stuff yet), トクマルシューゴ and LAGITAGIDA.

That's enough. Shaolan, this is not the first time I've seen you talk badly about bands you don't even care about. We accept constructive criticism and legit reasons why people think they disappointed them with their last release for example, but just entering threads to say "lol they suck" is pointless and against the general rules. I know TRUST isn't the new generation's LUNA SEA, but there are still people who like this artist and if you like to offend this band you definitely need to get your priorities fixed. Or a more productive hobby. This is your one and only warning. If I see you do it again, I'm going to have to give you a warning point. And that might just include your posts being monitored and checked before you can post, and I'm sure you don't want that, nor do we, since we have better shit to do than check people's posts just because they can't stay in line.

That's enough. Shaolan, this is not the first time I've seen you talk badly about bands you don't even care about. We accept constructive criticism and legit reasons why people think they disappointed them with their last release for example, but just entering threads to say "lol they suck" is pointless and against the general rules. I know TRUST isn't the new generation's LUNA SEA, but there are still people who like this artist and if you like to offend this band you definitely need to get your priorities fixed. Or a more productive hobby. This is your one and only warning. If I see you do it again, I'm going to have to give you a warning point. And that might just include your posts being monitored and checked before you can post, and I'm sure you don't want that, nor do we, since we have better shit to do than check people's posts just because they can't stay in line.

That's enough. Shaolan, this is not the first time I've seen you talk badly about bands you don't even care about. We accept constructive criticism and legit reasons why people think they disappointed them with their last release for example, but just entering threads to say "lol they suck" is pointless and against the general rules. I know TRUST isn't the new generation's LUNA SEA, but there are still people who like this artist and if you like to offend this band you definitely need to get your priorities fixed. Or a more productive hobby. This is your one and only warning. If I see you do it again, I'm going to have to give you a warning point. And that might just include your posts being monitored and checked before you can post, and I'm sure you don't want that, nor do we, since we have better shit to do than check people's posts just because they can't stay in line.

I don't know whether we have to blame the financial crisis for only getting shitty indie bands all the time or if the organizers just pick bands because they're cheap, not thinking whatsoever of if they'll make profit and whether people actually like them. Perhaps a more famous band is more expensive, but perhaps there is a possibility to actually bring one if they saved all the expenses they're giving out on indie bands that no one wants to see anyway.

LOL Alice Nine pulls a Lycaon. In all honestly I'd go with the regular edition or the Saga edition.

Got rid of my internet forum trolling wallpaper and went with one of the most adorable things ever ;____;