Zeus

1 hour ago, frayed said:

Forum is the name of the label (or sub-label?). Not this forum.

That is a horrible name for a label jfc

1 hour ago, frayed said:

So much this. I feel like it’s because it’s Tsuzuku that people are just kind of laughing it off. But honestly it’s fucked all around.

 

 I just don’t get what Forum is trying to accomplish here. Like this seems like a massive PR nightmare no matter how you swing it.

What we can accomplish?

 

2017 has been an...interesting year, with so much unexpected drama and surprises that's to go down in history for years. So much has happened that I was able to put together two lists of band members caught in embarrassing , illegal, and reprehensible crimes and scandals. Before we put this year to rest for good, let's take another look at visual-kei and some of the less glamorous acts musicians have been up to this year.

Also before I begin, I have to shout out a few members who gave serious help in making this list possible. Thanks to @suji, @tetsu_sama69, @cvltic. and @doombox for all their help, as well as for those who broke the news in the first place and those that corrected my facts after publication!

 

Keina (ex-DIVEIN)

 

The first entrant on the naughty list is bassist Keina, who was fired earlier on July 7th from indie visual kei band DIVEIN (ディヴェイン) for "violating the rules of the visual kei industry". Earlier in 2017, KEINA was hospitalized for tonsillitis and took a break from musical activities. While on break, he participated in a session band without the rest of DIVEIN's permission, and this angered the other three members of the band. He also spread confidential information about upcoming lives and photo shoots on the side, so that was enough to get him the boot.

 

蕚 (Utena) (ex-DEGENE)

 

DEGENE announced on September 26th that they fired their vocalist 蕚 (Utena) for "bad behavior". Digging a little deeper, we find out that Utena committed violent acts against certain members of the band, trashed band equipment, and sent one or more people into mental break downs. The band stated that they could not find any way to improve his behavior, and each member felt a sense of crisis about his behavior. The other four members came to the same conclusion: “I can't work with him anymore”. In contrast, Utena's announcement about his departure did not mention his bad behavior. DEGENE went on a temporary hiatus until they could replace him.

 

Chaos (Glamscure, ex-INSANITY INJECTION)

 

One of the dual vocalists of Insanity Injection, Chaos, got the boot on May 31st for being involved in "deplorable acts on many occasions". What it was has not been clarified, but it was something bad enough to sow feelings of betrayal among the members. One can only speculate what he did, but he hasn't made another appearance since his departure, so perhaps he was blacklisted from the scene? The band has continued without him as three, which as we will see shortly is not usually the norm. Good on INSANITY INJECTION!

 

Update: Turns out that Chaos is still active in the VK band GLAMSCURE!

 

塁 (rui) (ex-REVLOW)

 

The last bassist of REVLOW, 塁 (rui), was fired from the band on August 5th. Management and band members discovered on July 29th that Rui was involved in many "anti-social acts" that corresponded with recent criminal acts in various Tokyo restaurants. Of note is that the official announcement used the kanji "反社会的", which is often used to refer to the yakuza. REVLOW cancelled the rest of their live dates, including their first one man show scheduled for August 29th, and rescinded the release of their CD, "'REVLISM-EP", scheduled for Aug 23rd. The band has not yet returned from hiatus, and none of the other band members have appeared in official projects. It's sad when an up and coming band gets ruined by the poor choices of one member. Three lumps of coal, one for each member you screwed over.

 

冬音 (Fuyune)  (ex-サムクロ (Samurai Crows))

 

It's ironic that I found this picture of the purple-haired maverick while in a topic discussing crimes and other scandals. He was fired from his band サムクロ (Samurai Crows) on 2017/05/11 due to misconduct during their live at Ikebukuro BlackHole at 2017/5/5. He got a little too amped up and destroyed equipment, refused to apologize for it, and was caught verbally abusing people via private messaging service SNS. This is not only a rule not to be broken in visual kei, but also a rule not to be broken in society! Fuyune's misconduct caused the band to be dropped from their label, Me teaR music, and the band has been on hiatus after their live at Shinsaibashi paradigm on 2017/7/8. The other three members have moved on to a project called Bokutachi no neverland; Fuyune is still missing in action. I wonder if he has been soft blacklisted from the scene...

 

俐乃-rino- (ex - Synk;yet)

 

Remember how we established rules of the visual kei scene all members have to abide by? I can safely say one of them is to inform your band members and your label whenever you participate in a session band or a side project. Synk;yet's ex-guitarist Rino broke these rules and was terminated from his band and artist contract with Starwave Records on 2017/01/30, shortly after the return of bassist Shiori. The official reasons were "betrayal and breach of contract". Rino secretly planned musical activities with other management companies for two years behind other members' backs. He also had "private exchanges" with fans for money requests, but nothing confirmed as sexual. Synk;yet went on indefinite hiatus on 2017/05/21 despite their best attempts to keep it together, and Rino has wiped all traces of his online presence so no one knows what he is up to.

 

『L.』(ex-VAJRA)

 

Let's take it back to 2009 for a bit when grotesque face masks were all the rage and it was cool to rip off Dir en grey. There was an visual kei band named VAJRA, essentially a Dir en grey rip-off parading around as a silent tribute band, and mimicked all of their antics to carve out a meager existence in the indie circuit. VAJRA started by word of mouth and shot up in popularity quickly by sticking with the flavor of the month and putting on electrifying performances. Some of these lives would include fish hooking, vomiting, and public masturbation on the crowd, but the violent, unpredictable, ink-spitting guitarist『L.』took it too far one day. He was known for punching female fans in the face, giving them black eyes, and dragging them around by the hair on the stage, but he took up a notch for a live at Sendai on 2010/05/10, and caused fans serious injury. At first, he was put on house arrest and banned from lives temporarily, but soon after he "left" the band due to musical differences. There's room for interpretation on this. It is not known if he left because he wanted to and this was the breaking point, if he was forced out, or if he truly left on his own accord. VAJRA couldn't keep up the pace without him and virtually disappeared into disbandment. 『L.』found Jesus and work as an oshare-kei vocalist for the band Awake, now known as Eru.

 

Aki (ex-2bullet, ex-JackRose, ex-Concerto Moon)

 

Remember Takahiro from FAZ? He was covered in our first edition of the list and was caught trying to defraud people to fund band activities. It turns out that he had an accomplice! Aki, along with Takahiro, tried to defraud an elderly woman of 3 million yen. He was arrested once in November of 2016 and again in January of 2017, both for links to Takahiro and suspicion of fraud.  Norifumi Shima of Concerto Moon immediately dismissed him from the band, while vocalist Re:i announced that JackRose would enter hiatus, since Aki was the composer and keyboardist. Ouch.

 

Ryuusei (ex-暁月 (Kyogetsu))

 

Another unwritten rule of the scene - one that is good practice to follow in most situations - is to keep internal band drama private. I love juicy drama stories as much as the next person, but band members spilling the beans about strife in their own project will only undermine their musical efforts. What happened to 暁月 (Kyogetsu) demonstrates this perfectly. Our story begins on early September 2017, with a few incendiary tweets from guitarist Ryuusei on Twitter. In the first tweet he claims that all bangya not attracted to him are into Himura of Bananaman, or ugly men in general. The second tweet was a little more pointed:
 

Quote

Everyone is upset that various bands are stopping activities but I want them to realize that one of the reasons behind this is that bangya don't really go to lives and spend money

This hit a raw nerve with a lot of fans because it came on the heels of several unexpected disbandments. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. On his blog, Ryuusei went into detail about several aspects of the scene which up to now were just rumors and which come together to make life difficult for him and his band. A few of the things he mentioned (while also explicitly noting that he didn't know everything) were:

 

• Ticket quotas as fees for live performances. Ryuusei does the math on how many tickets they need to sell to cover for the fees, which is dependent on how many fans show up to see them and that's before the band members split the money five ways.
• Poor return on investment for popular vk standbys such as cheki.
• Name drops the GazettE in a section about how well popular bands with a "pretty bassist" do financially. This got Reita's attention with a fiery response of his own.
• Low wages paid from the indie labels.
• How difficult it is for bands to recover once they are "in the red" and how close 暁月 (Kyogetsu) is to reaching that point after three years.
• Asks fans to spend more money at shows, less at host clubs, and to tell him more information about salaries of other band men.

 

You can see how this won't go over well. It's one thing to blow the whistle, but when you do you better know all of the facts. Constantly dropping figures about how much your competition makes relative to you while claiming you don't know for sure is a fast way to draw a ton of well-deserved criticism both from outside and within, and that's exactly what happened. On top of that, the claims made do not mesh well with the stories I've heard about what lengths some fans will go to support their favorite artist or band. I know that some tsunagari will go as far as to feed, clothe, shelter, and fuck a band man or two just to support them! But treating your fans like ATMs and literally telling them to "If you have money, use it. High schoolers, study so you can make money in the future." is trash. To me, it seemed like Ryuusei is looking for a scapegoat for his band's poor performance. Fans struck back by revealing his name, his bare face, his DMs, and even coordinating to send 100 pizzas to his house! Ryuusei threatened to get the police involved if the situation escalated further.

 

His behavior afterwards is what sealed the deal. His band mates wanted nothing to do with the controversy this generated, as the vocalist even went so far as to hold an "apology twicast", and posted many apologetic tweets, even individually replying to people to apologize long before Ryuusei commented on the issue. However, Ryuusei did eventually apologize before backtracking the very next day. In his second blog post, he starts by claiming he only apologized because he was forced to. He then deflects the contents of the first post to "netogya" (a derisive term referring to online fans that don't go to shows, meaning most of us here), apologizes for name dropping bands and labels, claims he's always trying to be controversial and that this is no different, and claims that he thought this was common knowledge so there would be no problem. This only provided fuel for the fire.

 

The sad thing is that, as you could have guessed by now, these guys were virtually unknown before this. Shame is a very powerful deterrent in Japanese culture, and I've seen lesser drama capsize bigger bands than this. By constantly undoing the damage control his band members tried to provide, and by backpedaling and baiting Tanuki, Ryuusei put Kyogetsu in a spot where they had to kick him out to continue or disband. They did both. Bassist Shogo jumped ship first, but the formal disbandment of Kyogetsu was announced for October of 2017.

 

Setsuna (ex-THE EGOIST)

 

Whenever I write one of these lists, one person ends up doing something that eclipses everything else I discuss. Setsuna, guitarist of THE EGOIST, takes the "honors" for this position this time, although it's not something to be proud of. 2017 was not a kind year to THE EGOIST, as they paused activities earlier in the year when they lost contact with their vocalist, but things came to a breaking point by the end of the year in what will remain a black mark on visual kei for a long time to come. The timeline gets hazy at points but what we do know for certain is that Setsuna, also known as Keisuke Kawasaki (thanks NHK!), began an intimate relationship with a woman named Uran Hirayama while engaged. Uran didn't know he was engaged when she met him with the wedding planned to the degree where the venue had already been picked. The marriage was held sometime during his relationship with Uran as well.

 

It is not confirmed if she was a mitsu of his, but what we do know is that they had a very tumultuous relationship, all documented on Hirayama's twitter. Uran used the account as a regular personal account initially, but at some point the account became flooded with pictures and screenshots of the newly minted couple. Many LINE screenshots show both happy times as well as arguments, including one where Uran demanded to know if Setsuna had slept with a tsunagari/mitsu of his named Ayumi. He initially denies it, but admits to eventually sleeping with her once and apologizes, swearing Uran is the only one he really cares for. He ends up saying something similar on his public Twitter: "I've had relationships with various women, but aside from Uran I was just messing around. I'm very sorry. I'm considering marrying [her] in the future". No mention of his wife. Other pictures included Disney date pictures, many pictures of them in the snow as a couple, and of course the now-infamous video of him eating out Uran's ass (note to future readers: he chows down). Considering this is all in public view, it didn't take long for his "wife" to come across some of it; she apparently went ballistic when she found purikura of her and Setsuna kissing in his wallet.

  Things get demented as the year winds down to a close. The messages on Uran's Twitter become more alarming; her profile stated 'I wish to be reborn and marry Keisuke in my next life', she posted screenshots of one of Setsuna's tweets that basically said he "will be one" with Uran (which he quickly deleted from his page), tweets about gifts she bought with the money she got from sex, and more. At some point, Setsuna informs Uran that he was married and in retaliation, she dumps all of this information on her Twitter. She also had at least one suicide attempt around December 3rd, likely in response to all of these happenings. Despite his marriage, he still publicly pines for Uran after all of this. The following is my guess of what happens next: Uran tells Setsuna about her suicide attempt(s) and he tries to talk her out of it, but ends up agreeing to commit double suicide with her a week later on December 9th. We know this because Uran sent the explicit details of the plan to one of her close friends around 3pm that day, which was later posted to her Twitter page. The person who posted the notice in no uncertain words claims it was intended to be a double suicide and firmly believes that was their original intention. This same friend also contacted the police with all of the information she had at her disposal, but by the time the police showed up to Uran's apartment at 9pm the deed was done. She was found on her futon, her room was locked, there were no signs anyone had been through her belongings, and there was a handwritten suicide note next to unused charcoal briquettes. I can only guess the plan was to lock themselves in a room and suffocate to death, but Setsuna had a last-minute change of heart, ended up choking her to death, locked the door, and left.

 

It took the detective work of another of Uran's friends to connect Setsuna to this mess and to send the police to his door. He admitted to the killing and was promptly arrested. When asked his occupation, he claimed he was a "part-timer" and did not mention THE EGOIST, his band mates, or his label. Thus, the band was able to avoid most of the wrath of the Eye of Sauron, but they still chose to disband anyway to distance themselves from the stigma as much as possible. I don't blame them. The story stops here for now, but there are a lot more questions to be asked than can be answered. As for the most important one, as one of Uran's friends put it, "The only way to know the circumstances that led to Uran being the only one who died is to ask [Setsuna] himself". Maybe this information will come out in a court trial soon.

 

UPDATE: THE EGOIST disbanded earlier in 2017 due to the departure of their vocalist.
UPDATE 2: His trial started one year after the incident. Setsuna stated that Uran asked him to kill her, so he "helped her". Since the tribunal couldn't verify if that is true or not they accepted that Setsuna killed her on request and therefore reduced his sentence from 13 years to 3.5 years in prison.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully, band members will behave and another one of these lists won't come for a good while

Starting the year off right!

why is there so much space in your post?

Unbelievable! I Was listening to grpyhis glaucus the other day! RIP

12 hours ago, Peace Heavy mk II said:

I think in some capacity, I've convinced myself that if I can care about all of the world's problems, even ones I am not even going to remotely be able to fix or help with, that when I need it most, the world will care about me back.

 

Chris and I get into fights about that all the time. I want to fix the world, he's content with acknowledging most people in life are inherently evil and you need to be on guard.

I can totally relate. I think I'm leaning closer to how your bf feels though.

2 hours ago, Peace Heavy mk II said:

One of the things I've struggled with fairly recently is being happy for someone who I do not personally care for.

 

It's a weird sensation of feeling two different, and often contrasting, emotions at once. The biggest struggle is not the ability to do so (a lot harder for me to not feel something, rather than getting myself to have some sort of expression), but to not convince myself that I should feel guilty about it. 

 

"This person was bad. Why are you celebrating something good in their life?"

 

I think part of being able to let go is being at peace with this duality. It is okay to remove yourself from a person while also not wishing them harm. At the same time, wishing them well and being happy for their victories is not an invite to allow them into your life and harm you again.

 

The situation I'm vague blogging about is my ex's sister. I've never actually met her, but from the few interactions I've had around her have not been positive. She's married to some son-of-a-super-church-owner or something in Colorado, making tons of money selling faith (this is an incredibly weighted, but different, issue, but I'm more sharing this for the context of her character). When she was getting married, she invited me because ~she had to~; she later called him to rescind the invitation. "He'd make other guests uncomfortable," she said.

 

Needless to say I was pretty upset. I asked him to get her to change her mind. Eventually she did, but I was told to act like his friend, rather than his significant other (again, to not ruin the experience for the other guests). At that point, I uninvited myself and said it was not worth the hassle. I came out once and had no intention of revisiting that experience, so I just didn't go.

 

---Today---

 

She had a baby. I am not on speaking terms with my ex, and I don't talk to any of his friends or relatives simply because I have nothing to say to them, and I definitely do not speak to her. However, I am still happy that she had her baby without any issue. I saw a few pictures and she (her new daughter) looked cute, and I wish both of them the best.

 

So here I am, hours before I share Christmas with my current partner and his family before heading home, pondering about whether it is right or foolish that I am feeling like this. It's toxic to dwell over those who have been a source of pain in the past, but just as harmful to fully forget.

 

Ultimately, I will be okay, but I still don't like her.

My question to you (and a totally honest one) is why do you care?  This person has no connection to the people most important to you in your life right now. It doesn't sound like she ever did anything for you. I doubt anyone you know right now knows her on a more personal level than you. I'd put money on you thinking about this situation positively more than she's thought about you positively ever. I'm missing the connection between thinking positively/negatively about this situation and its effect on you.

 

There is merit in reflecting on this situation and deciding to be the bigger person. There's even more merit in absolving yourself of this mental load. Toxicity can remain on the brain long after you remove the source of toxicity from your life, much like there's still poison in your system long after you stop chugging bleach. It can metastasize into all sorts of different forms, take root in all sorts of insecurities, and often make you question yourself...much like a toxic person would themselves. I blame social media for this one; when everyone's thoughts are on display for everyone else to read, the line between personal thoughts and hive mind thoughts has been blurred. It's hard to distinguish personal thoughts from ones that have been planted in your head, influenced by the ideals of someone else, and when the equations don't add up the first emotion through the gates is self-doubt. I often find myself policing my thoughts to appease a hive mind composed of my own opinions, but no matter how many trains of thought I've chased, the conclusions I come to are the same: So what?

What do you get from being the bigger person? What do you get from being the smaller person? Who would congratulate you for your actions without you recounting some stories? What do you get by being happy for her? Sad for her? Indifferent for her? My answers to you would be nothing, nein, no one, nada, and zilch respectively. If even one of the answers were anything else, I could see merit in thinking about this situation. If all roads lead to the same place, pick the path of least resistance. Save yourself the personal anguish, grief, and doubt.

 

 

2 hours ago, chemicalpictures said:

Another life very likely lost to depression. And yet society in general still don't give two fucks to mental health...

 

RIP.

An excerpt from an interview he did in April makes this situation much sadder.

 

Quote

Jonghyun: A few years ago, I was crying and whining at my mom and sister while I was really drunk. I asked my mom and my sister.. it wasn’t long after we’d moved. I asked them if they were happy. I got drunk and woke up my entire sleeping family, like some ahjussi(old man). It had been my number one goal in life, you know, to make my mom and sister happy. They both woke up and told me they were happy. But I was so envious at the fact that they were able to reply that they were, indeed, happy. Because it wasn’t like that for me. I told them while sobbing: "I want to be happy too." Then I felt like I’d done my mom and sister wrong. But from then on, I started contemplating about happiness. For about six months, I pondered specifically over what I would need to do in order to become happy. I think that time of transformation has come. I think I need to become happy, now. I must become happy. I am going to be happy.

 

I hope he archives the site even if he doesn't return to it. What's there is a valuable source of information we can't get elsewhere. Losing that would suck. I don't want the 00's and the 10's to be the new 90's in terms of lost information and lost bands.

I hope to see plenty of votes and submissions!

This is going to snowball into some serious shit. Silver lining here is that he's not in a band so he's not screwing over four people.

That, or Gonchi was a bigger part of the sound than we realized...

8 minutes ago, nekkichi said:

i-dont-know-her.gif

Tagged as メリヤス♀ if you want to know more

I am not sure what to make of this.

1 hour ago, nekkichi said:

so being in a major pop band doesn't pay shit either these days?

 

get money, business-minded queen

I'm very sad and from here I'm only hoping they won't replace her with a cishet boi and call it a ~new era~ or smth

If anything itsuka might continue meliyas

Charisma.com have announced that they will enter indefinite hiatus on January 27th after their one-man live at Zepp TOKYO, and at time DJ Gonchi will withdraw from band activities and retire from music. Her stated reason is to take over the family business. 

 

They will release the best album "Charisma.BEST" on January 10th, and will hold a one-man live at Osaka · BIGCAT on January 12th and at Zepp Tokyo on January 27th. Tickets for both shows are now on sale.

 

https://natalie.mu/music/news/260166

 

On 12/4/2017 at 4:30 AM, nostalgia said:

Not sure either, but simply I think it wouldn't be appropriate/make sense to release a song under the disbanded name Girugamesh as the band no longer exists. Otherwise, it could lead to a misunderstanding that the band had been reunited.

They may also not own the rights to the name anymore.

24 minutes ago, Mamo said:

I think they're to many releases to do a poll. But if have something in mind I'll add it to the original post.

 

Maybe if we get the required likes in the next few days @Zeusmight do it still. 

 

Also you would need various polls because of various categories. I suppose I could make various topics of this sort but idk about that.  

You can add multiple questions per poll.

I came here expecting some kind of news and am even more disappointed than I expected...

So what's the whole story behind this band?

6 hours ago, YuyoDrift said:

"What the hell are these "Bitcoins"??? Must be like coke rewards or something. Eh."

- Yuyo, 2009 (maybe 2010).

 

When I think about potentially having over $100,000 USD in that old Hard Drive that took a shit ........ just fucking great. 

Seriously, fuck.

 

reminds me of people at work who believe bitcoin and altcoins are all scams. sure, stay on shore and miss the boat boi.

 

i don't believe it's the mecca of money making but i fail to understand how one can be a paragon of capitalist market forces and not believe that a digital stock market can exist. value lies were people believe it does.

 

It's the most wonderful time of the month! Let's give thanks to our favorite musicians and highlight some spicy cuts from this month. Check it out and fill out the list with yours below!

 

@tetsu_sama69's Picks

"Monster" by 戦国時代-The age of civil wars-

Granted there were most likely some very mixed reactions when 戦国時代-The age of civil wars- were announced because of the random make-up of band members but with a group full of well experienced musicians with a splash of ex.SIAM SHADE members how can one go entirely wrong. 戦国時代 may end up being a temporary group in the long run but their first mini-album 初陣－First battle－ (Uijin－First battle－) is surprisingly stuffed with energetic and catchy songs that shouldn't be missed. "Monster" is one of the heavy darker themed tracks on the mini-album and sticks out mostly for its fantastic musical composition. "Monster" is a song that infuses heavy metal with traditional Japanese instrumentals spiced with pop-rock that has a bass line that'll get stuck in your head for days. The instrumentals go from energetic to headbanging at the drop of a hat and the vocals go from screaming to melodic so smoothly. The previews do no justice to 戦国時代-The age of civil wars- making them sound as if they are just another generic traditional themed pop-rock group, but they'll surprise you if you give them a chance.

 

"春雪ノ頃" (Shunsetsu no Koro) by Schwartz:Mist

I was in no way prepared for how much I was going to enjoy this at all. But once I heard that explosive grindfest of an opener I knew I was in for a treat. "Shunsetsu no Koro" is an amazingly solid song brimming with energy and emotion. Especially the breakdowns at the start and end of the track can only be described as a headbanger's best friend. Vocalist 心 (Shin) (ex. LucieN) has a fantastic voice able to deliver harsh powerful screams and gritty clean vocals that hit me in all the right places. Surprisingly what really makes "春雪ノ頃" stand out for me is that there's no guitar solo but if you listen there are some spectacular riffs from Guitarist 環 (Tamaki). If you have a thirst for some more from Schwartz:Mist after hearing "春雪ノ頃", you should definitely check out their first mini-album "S.M" and enjoy this great band!

 

 

"Imitation" by DEXCORE

Visual kei refuses to be a letdown this year with powerhouse band DEXCORE. If you weren't already hooked on them from their past releases then "Imitation" is a perfect song to get you into this band. With the addition of guitarist haku since their previous single, the band has grown exponentially. There's a serious amount of depth to "Imitation" layered with shockingly vibrant vocals and explosive instrumentals. DEXCORE has set the bar for the current scene of 'br00tal kei' a bit higher by delivering a song that's anything but generic. There's nothing held back in this storm of drums and waves of breakdowns that burst forth with vocal shock waves. Drummer Naoki (ex. DEATHGAZE) seems to have gone out of his way to make sure that DEXCORE sounds a step above anything he was involved in previously and it's a blessing to anyone who listens. I'm seriously looking forward to full release of "Imitation" and anything else DEXCORE brings in the future.

 

@emmny's Picks

"LAW'S" by Kiyoharu

I'm kind of new to the cult of Kiyoharu, so I was shocked to find out this was an old song, re-composed and arranged for an upcoming "rhythmless" remake album, with other Kuroyume, Kiyoharu, and SADS tracks. The original "LAW'S" closely resembles newer SADS material, but Kiyoharu's recent work tends to overlap stylistically, regardless of the project the song falls under. If you're wondering how this eight minute remake of a five minute song manages to even remotely resemble the original--you're totally right, theres no comparison. Kiyoharu and co. turn the edgy punk-styled track into a floaty ballad, anchored by gripping and rough vocals from the legend himself. The progression of the track is amazing, with delicate acoustic guitars giving way to more fullbodied instrumentation, ending with a good few minutes of Kiyoharu just wailing on the track. The imagery of the video is slow and erotic (or is it just sad?); the kind of shit you'd see a cabaret musician playing, with their cigarette smoke trailing into the air after last call rush dies down--but in the best way. In visual kei we're used to seeing good talent go to waste with bad taste, but it's a privilege to constantly see a talented musician making such carefully calculated stylistic decisions, as evident in the uniquely sultry arrangement in "LAW'S".

 

"夜想" (Yasou) by Virge

Virge, the project born out of the ashes of Mediena and Malisend continues to drop bop after bop, showing just how much Shin's (FKA Rino, ex-bassist for Malisend) compositional prowess has improved. The aforementioned bands piqued a lot of of interest on here, mostly because of their fairly strong early-00's revival sound. The trend continues with Virge, splicing equal bits of Phantasmagoria-style melodicism and the harsh guitars/bass of mid-era D'espairsRay to great effect, as seen with "Yasou". The band understand the importance of good, simple riffs and an even better chorus, using this ethos to frame their music. My only complaint before was that songs came across as a little 2D, or flat in their structures. They've read my mind (wwww) and addressed that with "Yasou", as it goes through a fair bit of shifts, showing off a more adventurous style, although the palette is the same as we've gotten to know the band for. The huge bass tone (almost sounds like slap but isn't, reminds me of Reita's best tones) clashes perfectly with Ryo's dazzling vocal delivery, and new drummer Aru's contributions are noted as well with great rhythm work. If you're not stanning--despite how much coverage we give them here--you are totally missing out.

 

 

"歪" (Ibitsu) by VRZEL

Believe it or not, for all the "INSIDE BEAST", Gazette-lite clones we've gotten over the past few years, we now have a "Taion" to balance it out. The opening is the heaviest section the band have ever done, alternating between grinding alt-metal riffs and eerie wailing clean guitars over whispers. This is the most obvious section recalling "Taion"; the rest is all VRZEL for better or worse (I'm purposely ignoring the gratuitous gazethot interlude). This goes on for a full minute before clean vocals even come in, building up a tense atmosphere. The rest of the track moves at a lurching pace, bordering on heavy-ballad territory, anchored by Cion's wailing vocals. VRZEL took a risk releasing such an intense, five-and-a-half minute track as the promotional lead for the album but it paid off. The brutal fiend in me wishes they went for an even darker concept, dropped the guitars to A# and MUCC'd it away, but VRZEL stayed true to their image while rendering a quasi-challenging track for their fans. I've always been in the corner cheering on Cion's compositional prowess, and I'm happy it has culminated to such a solid track--a merger of old and new.

 

@qotka's Pick

"十五" by キズ

 

Featured on the Kizu's 2nd single, Kawazu, "Juugo" is another display of power from one of the fastest growing, strongest newcomers on the scene this year. Ask anyone who's had to FIGHT for tickets to their one-man. While this b-side doesn't offer anything too different from the rest of the recorded material they've put out so far - if anything, it shows consistency and careful building of their sound and image as a band - it's here this month for simply being the fun track it is and for having those sweet, anthem-like qualities. If you're on the lookout for a dramatic, non-cynical power metal banger to indulge in, this is your new jam. From its restless, rapid verses to its uplifting, theatrical chorus, this zero bullshit 3-minute track hits the spot. Video bonus: showcases how frighteningly GORGEOUS their gya are. 

 

 

 

 

@The Reverend's Pick

 

"哀絶綺譚 feat. 祈狂 of La'veil Mizeria" by 魅裟

 

I think I must have a thing for music box-y intros in VK. Dir en grey's "Cage" and Avelcain's "死化粧" are two of my favorite songs ever; and despite it's obvious flaws I'm really enjoying the newest from 魅裟 (missa) this month.

 

Missa and  祈狂 (Kikyo) from La'veil MizeriA team up for "哀絶綺譚" (Aizetsu kitan), the best of three simultaneously released digital singles from Missa on a vanity label with the most VK name ever; Malformed Maria Records. Certainly the most surprising thing about this single is that, despite combining members of Insanity Injection and La'veil MizeriA, it's a not-quite-ballad obviously attempting to be unironically *pretty*. That piano/vocal melody will absolutely get stuck in your head if you let it, and the guitar tone is a bit amateur but quite tasty.

 

The fake drums are a bit of a turnoff, and I maintain that a song really needs a reason to be over five minutes; but if Missa keeps releasing these digital singles with fun special guests during his other bands' downtime, he may be able to carve out a niche where many have failed in the realm of 'VK solo acts'.

 

 

@Zeus's Picks

"the whirl" by lynch.

No band in the visual kei scene nails re-recordings as consistently as lynch. does for me. A lot of this is because lynch. have never deviated too strongly from the sound that defines them, and their retake of 2007's "the whirl" is everything I never knew I wanted from the song. The heavier parts are grittier, the softer parts more delicate and emotional, and the transitions between them hit just as hard as I'm used to. While sonically everything has been pushed to the extremes, the rough production brings everything together like a caressing smack to the face. The improvement on the drums is worth the price of admission alone, and let's not even get into the improvements to Hazuki's voice.  After a multitude of A-B-C comparisons, this is my favorite out of the three versions floating around; the original on underneath the skin has flat production and the version released on THE BURIED sounds too sterile for my tastes. Normally I'd say something snarky, but I don't even mind that the ten year old track is the prime attraction on lynch.'s newest!

 

 

 "五月雨" (Samidare) by 左迅×弐×愁×Яyo

 

2017 has been kind to "五月雨", as this is the second successful reinterpretation of an early visual kei classic. "五月雨", released on TRIBUTE OF MUCC - 縁 [en] -, is a secret track credited to 左迅×弐×愁×Яyo, but it's pretty much girugamesh, and I will refer to them as such for the rest of the blurb. girugamesh will never steal "五月雨" from MUCC, but they can certainly add this to their live repertoire and I wouldn't be mad. They successfully made this their own song, preserving the original feel of the song while effortlessly adding their signature elements to it. I delayed posting this list just to add it. Listening to girugamesh's cover of "五月雨" gives me feels of them at their best with a tinge of angura I never knew they had in them. If I wasn't already pining for their return, this solidified it. Anyone who misses girugamesh needs to sample this song.

 

 

Thank you for reading everyone!

 

 

Just finished doing surgery on my baby.

 

I have an i5-4690k overclocked to 4.2Ghz - nothing out of this world, but certainly shouldn't be choking on playing games, and certainly shouldn't be 90 degrees celsius idling at the desktop and 61 degrees celsius in my BIOS. Turns out the fan on my heatsink crapped out a while ago and i've been relying on the natural airflow in my case plus the exhaust fan in the back to keep my computer cool. Apparently it was enough to stream at 1080p 60fps while playing Overwatch, but I got another heatsink today and slapped it in. Had to settle for the T4 because B&H didn't have the 212 Evo in stock, and Cooler Master doesn't have the replacement brackets for the 212 EVO in stock so I couldn't just swap the dead fan. Ended up turning into a whole rebuild complete with some sorely needed cable management, and at the end of it i swapped the exhaust fan in the back and put a second fan on the heatsink so the air moves in a T pattern in my case. Next, I need a 140mm case fan so I can replace the intake fan at the front because that sounds like a jet when I keep it on due to a missing blade

9 minutes ago, BrenGun said:

I guess the main question is.

 

can we see at the pose of the guy, if he is gay or not.

 

Well, I've seen so many Japanese guys, but it's damn hard to tell if they are. 

Japanese guys also don't care to hug or to touch each other, doing crazy gay poses, etc.

 

after all, does it matter if someone is gay? well would be painfull if you kove a gay men as a woman. but still...

 

Sooo, maybe...

people

lets turn this topic in.

I guess this 「guy」 of this 「band」 is gay because (........)

 

 

＼(^^)／

 

How does how you pose for a picture have to do with being gay? I  could stand that way and it doesn't turn me gayer.