Zeus

2 hours ago, Tokage said:

lol i'm like 99% sure that other √eight roasting is gonna be about that 1 track on the same album that's basically just Zilch's 'Psyche' 

There's also another one on that album but you would have be familiar with Black:List to catch it. And that time, the roles were reversed and √eight was the source. But yes, that is the next roast in line.

1. The condition he was diagnosed with sounds extremely serious yet they're going to continue full steam ahead? Something has to give and as time passes its looking more and more like YOSHIKI.
2. At this rate, we are never getting this album.

1 hour ago, Seimeisen said:

I still haven't heard the one hour absolutego, so I have no idea if this five minute version resembles it in any way at all. Regardless, it's awesome! And I'm glad they decided to not disband.

It does not, but it's equally as bad ass in its own way. I suggest you take time to listen to it one day, but only to say you have. It's a crazy good drone doom song but it won't shake your world.

I'm also conflicted about their disbandment reveal. I can't be mad because they've been at this since 1996 and no one knows better than them when the show is over. But I'm also not ready to live in a world without Boris.

@Carmelzors interesting find on G! I never knew the rabbit hole went that  deep, but there are other songs in visual kei that use the same chord progression. I just came across -OZ-'s S.I.N. and can't believe it hasn't been stated earlier. If anything, this is even worse than what I highlighted in the master post.

 

Are they continuing as a four piece?

 

5 hours ago, reminiscing2004 said:

However, I'm extremely suspicious that the remaster of 葬ラ謳 will show any improvement.... It's just a really great sounding album already. This is all intriguing news nonetheless, as a fan of pre-2005 ムック.

I hope it doesn't end up sounding worse due to an audio engineer or a CEO with tinnitus thinking louder is better. Some serious balancing of instruments on a tight wire is required before we could even talk about improvements. With a strict remaster they are working with what they have, unless they plan on cheating and re-recording a few guitar lines or drum fills here and there.

I am curious to see this crop up, especially after how well received T.R.E.N.D.Y. was (still haven't listened to it). Stopped following MUCC after Kyuutai but both Tsuuzetsu and Homura Uta are killer albums and I never thought they would revisit this era in any form.

I guess I'm not getting a review for my mixtape...

8 hours ago, raphael said:

Cassettes in iTunes are the bane of my existence, I swear. Does this shit annoy any of you guys?

 

 

I thought I had caught them all, but I guess I missed this one. I hate cutting down the artwork, but I hate things not being uniform even more.

 

It was worse when they tried to resize it to make them uniform. I'll just looked even worse. The only thing that bothers me is that its not centered anymore.

For the next 24 hours this is the MH Chat mourning thread. Press F to pay respects. Leave memories. Kumbaya.

The one suggestion I thought of now would be to avoid sticking to a schedule of any sort. Something I've learned from running ORZ is that schedules impose pressure and pressure removes the love from the labor. Feeling pressured to keep up with the newest releases or the most popular songs is a fast way to burn out. If anyone decides to go ahead and take a stab at it, do it on your own time when you can or want. Like maybe the "Band Battles" threads that come up every so often.

 

This will take the otherwise underused Lyrics sub forum by storm, so topics there will have a longer half-life and will remain more visible as well. Link to them in your signatures too if you want some free, mod-supported advertisement.

I like this idea. The language barrier is something we all face, ignore, and accept because that comes with the territory of listening to Japanese music, but that doesn't mean lyrics aren't important. There's a wealth of discussion locked behind this barrier waiting to happen and I can't wait to gain added appreciation for an artist's lyrical capabilities. One potential issue I see is how touchy some artists are over proliferation of lyrics. Some don't care and others treat them like prized jewels and don't want them spread everywhere. I never understood it but it is what it is, and for some artists finding lyrics may be more difficult.

This could possibly be a cool project for ORZ to take up but I wouldn't want to take it here for 2 reasons. One is that our skill sets don't nicely overlap with what is required to make this a repeated thing - if anyone is fluent in Japanese, has access to lyrics, and wants to join and do it with us that would be great! The other reason is that this is a topic where discussion is vital - and ORZ topics have a reputation of "look but don't touch" that I'm still trying to move away from. Community participation in this is required to really make it take off and thus I'd rather leave it to the community to start it up whenever they feel the inspiration to.

4 hours ago, seratonin said:

 

I actually disagree, listening to some parts of the chorus gave me goosebumps. Reila was always an 'okay' song for me, but this re-recording really shocked me, and now I actually like the song haha.

 

Singing:

-Ruki has better control of the higher notes in this recording (I sing myself)

-He changed his singing tone since when reila was initially recorded. His tone now is less nasally and more 'open'

-Extra verse at the end of the song, which I heard is sung at lives

-There's also more variation in notes for the singing, the singing in this VERSION KILLS THE OLD

 

Instruments:

-The guitar accompaniment/ambience affect is clearer, sounds beautiful

-new recording has obvious "Strings"/orchestra

-that improvisation-sounding jam with acoustic at the of the first chorus *was screaming internally*

 

 

 

reila is one of those long time fan favorite tracks so I paused when they announced they would re-record it. It was a gutsy move and if it didn't work out well for them, no fan would let them live it down. If it did, it would make the album that much better. My opinion is that all re-recordings need to bring something to the table - good or bad - so that it can distinguish itself from itself. The Traces Vol. 2 version of reila does that successfully for all of the reasons you listened there, but I elected not to say anything about reila because I don't like the song. I never saw the appeal in it. It's just another boring seven minute ballad and if I wanted to listen to Ruki croon, I'd listen to CASSIS instead...which just happens to be track two of this release. I'm still miffed that they included this track again after throwing it on basically every release they could, but in truth I'd rather cut 6, 9, or 10 first.

 

Time is never kind to my opinion of the GazettE albums but this one might escape without too many scrapes.

On 4/22/2017 at 9:35 PM, blackdoll said:

i not supposed to but after going through my ipod i had to say it. This negates the black swans existence, like what is jin smoking to abandon this sound?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

You mean what was SAN smoking because he was the main composer for NEGA before he lost his groove. NEGA abandoned that sound after Grave of the Sacrifice because SAN needed new inspirations. then we got the trainwreck known as PERESTROIKA, a revived NEGA which was pretty shit, and then THE BLACK SWAN which is the closest we've ever gotten back to that sound IMO. I actually think Jin is trying to get there all on his own again and he's doing much better than I thought he would.

Two thumbs up for illegitimacy (single version). The piano solo at the end is

3 hours ago, Saishu said:

Are we talking ReS Satsuki? What did he do aside from go on a pathetic tour featuring no backing band?

 

I have to do my research again but I vaguely remember some drama about him knocking up a fan while he was on tour for ReS/beginning of his solo project complete with photo proof from this ex showing how he recycled presents between the main piece and the side biscuit and juggled some blog posts to hide what he was doing.

1 hour ago, Carmelzors said:

Therefore, linguistic issues won't matter that much - as long as you don't blindly keep cockriding on tacky lexical and musical cliches blasted in your VK household favs, which is what YOHIO keeps doing with DISREIGN. If you are far more versatile in your own spoken AND musical language, perhaps that's the exact language you have "much better ear" in instead of your biases' bandwagon languages. For the sake of relevance, Bataar and especially Patrik have no idea of what kind of "musical language" suits them well - nor do their adopted conventions convince that much because it reeks of fuccboi bandwagoning...

 

 

I hadn't put much stock into the thought of language being a particularly visual kei thing that makes it special, but you guys put up a really convincing argument. I would even go as far to say that the language(s) we learn growing up cause us to think and approach music a certain way, so that trying to make visual kei music the straightforward way is much more difficult.  I have to think about this some more because its a deep revelation. While I agree with this in theory, I honestly can't imagine what a western sounding visual kei band should sound like. I think a good start would be to take a vocal melody from a visual kei band, replace the words with English phrases that aren't too broken and make sense, and then put that over a guitar and drum track in the tuning of your choice, and go from there. 

 

For me, it's the awkward inclusion of Japanese that's the kicker. I don't care what language you sing in, as long as it's not a naked appeal to visualizm. Not singing Japanese doesn't make them "less legit" and singing in broken Japanese doesn't give any legitimacy at all. Despite me just saying language may be an important factor in the style, it stops where the melodies begin. If you can nail the melodies behind what gives VK its spin, the language should cease to matter. Visual kei artists sing in exclusively English from time to time and that doesn't rob the visual from the kei. Right now, every single WVK band outside DISREIGN fails terribly at this...and look how long it took YOHIO to get it right! AND I believe he stumbled upon a sound that works for him by reverse engineering late-era The GazettE.

1 hour ago, hyura said:

Homosapiens vo. is missing. : v

Satsuki is missing too. I gotta save some tea for later in the year.

1 hour ago, gekiai said:

I, accidentally, followed a western visual kei group on FB and I came across a gem of a quote "if you judge Western vkei, then you're directly judging the work of Japanese visual kei musicians" or something like that and I had a good laugh. That's not how it works, buddy. Like many have already said here, many of the western bands I've listened to are like sad rip offs of the real thing.  Saying what you do is exactly like the Japanese visual kei bands is arrogant af. 

 

I don't have anything against Westerners attempting to make a visual kei band, but honestly, all the stuff I've seen has been haughty white dudes who think they're really going to be the ones that'll make visual kei big in the West. Sorry, dude, you're not. It was never big over here, or in Japan, in the first place.

 

Do holler at me if anyone finds a Western visual kei group with some diversity tho.

 

2 hours ago, Pho said:

See, I don't even think that westerners trying to do VK is a problem in itself. I don't see any reason why a westerner couldn't pull off a VK inspired aesthetic, the problem is that those that have tried (at least the ones that I'm aware of) are just crap. Like you suggest, it just seems that most of the western bands that try to pull off a VK look or sound just end up coming across as wholly derivative and lacking in any originality (not to mention musical talent). Then again, I think a lot of the modern Japanese VK scene is like that too, but I guess there are enough bands in the Japanese scene that at least one or two decent ones manage to slip through the cracks every now and then.

 

I wish for something like that too, something subtle to contrast to the loud, wacky outfits from Japan.

Something about the visual kei aesthetic is lost in translation when Westerners try to do it. Let the scene influence you but to be derivative of a derivative scene is just copycat at that point. Come up with your own fashions. Set your own trends. Learn photoshop. Try not to look like a $5 Five Below reject. Small things would help me to take his opinion even slightly more seriously than I do now.

 

I'm back with the third installment of "Copy/Paste", where I roast visual kei songs under a microscope for taking an ounce or two more influence than they should from their favorite bands. This installment is focused on cases where it's incredibly obvious if you listen for more than a few seconds. Sometimes, I don't even think they tried to hide it.

 

Moran's "Lyrics of the DEAD"

stems from "Evolution" by Ayumi Hamasaki

Homage or Copy: Homage!

 

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Credit for this discovery goes to @Ito for drawing comparisons across two scenes of Japanese music that normally don't cross. On one hand, take visual kei rock jewel Moran. The other is one of the queens of J-Pop Ayumi Hamasaki. Moran was above copying the queen of pop - and they probably wouldn't have gotten away with it if they lifted tunes as liberally as some other examples I've pointed out before - but in cases like these it's always nice to hear how our visual kei musicians is influenced. Also, considering how popular pop music is in Japan it's not as surprising that a small homage to Hamasaki's  single "Evolution" was stashed in Moran's "Lyrics of the DEAD". Compare the two choruses and tell me what you think. Also, if you've never listened to Moran now is a great time to start!

 

 

 

Viored's "君影草 (Kimikage Kusa)"

stems from "RED...[em]" by Dir en grey

"Kasumi" by Dir en grey

Homage or Copy: Copy!

 

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Talk about not even trying to hide your influences! Viored (バイオレット) was an indie visual kei band straight out of Kantou, Japan active from 2006 to 2008, best known for their strong twin guitar sound and the energy of the whole band. Most of the members have retired from music, although guitarist Nagi later ended up in Sel'm. Anyone who was familiar with visual kei at this point in time knows how common it was to compare every new indie single to a Dir en grey song, but with 君影草 (Kimikage Kusa) it's two! The intro sounds like a bad attempt at masking "RED...[em]" and then the riff kicks in and sounds like a distorted take on "Kasumi". Trust me when I say you don't have to strain your ears too hard to agree with me on this one.

 

 

 

 

√eight's "Illational of the people"

stems from "electric cucumber"by zilch

Homage or Copy: √eight's is a zilch cover band

 

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Much beloved visual kei band √eight is notorious for sounding like absolute garbage on every single release except illational, which is the only reason why anyone remembers them anymore anyway. We can all thank Kenzi of ANTI FEMINISM for stepping in and showing them how to master an album. Kenzi, however long he's been in the scene, must not be very familiar with zilch. He didn't pick up on - or maybe didn't care - that opener "illational of the people" is literally zilch's opening riff to "electric cucumber" over and over again. This isn't the only instance this happens on the album and I'll have to roast them another time for doing pretty much the same thing on another track. This wouldn't piss me off as much if the entire song wasn't based around the kick-ass riff.

 

 

 

Black Gene For The Next Scene's "DOOM"

stems from "INCREASE BLUE" by Dir en grey

Homage or Copy: Definitely a nod towards Dir en grey

 

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Otherwise known as the only BFN song you will ever catch me listening to, the first 40 seconds of this song sound like an inspired take on "INCREASE BLUE". It's subtle enough to slide by if someone doesn't point it out or unless you listen to one and then the other, but its there. The rest of the song does its own thing, and the similarities are probably why I even bother listening to "DOOM" in the first place. I have to admit that as much as I love ragging on this band, this particular instance doesn't bother me too much. What do you think?

 

 

 

 

Dir en grey's "Unknown...despair...a lost"

stems from "G" by Luna Sea

Homage or Copy: "Heavily" "inspired"

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It would be wrong of me to bring up two instances where Dir en grey served as inspiration but not to bring up this one. This goes to show that ideas get used and reinterpreted all the time. In reality, the entirety of Dir en grey's early biography can be dissected, influences traced, and that information turned into a topic all its own. The original version of  "Unknown...despair...a lost" is one of Dir en grey's earliest songs, even featured on some demo tapes they distributed during their first lives, and is very influenced by Luna Sea's "G".  It's a nice thought that they chose to strip this song down and finally give it some unique flavor when they tackled the re-recording on THE UNRAVELING, but I feel something missing in translation there too and somehow still end up preferring the original. If anything, this speaks to the power of Luna Sea's riff craft, because this is a BOSS ASS riff.

 

 

 

Xaa-Xaa's "ラストダンス (Last Dance)"

stems from "Dance Rock night" by girugamesh

Homage or Copy: You can play them one after the other and they line up damn near perfectly

 

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I alluded to this in my review, but XAA-XAA's latest album showcases some nods to both MUCC and girugamesh. Of all the influences they wear proudly on their sleeves, this is the easiest to draw parallels to. I was on a plane half asleep when I heard this riff for the first time and the only thing I could think of is girugamesh. The allusions are so grand halfway through XAA-XAA's version of the song I was expecting a guest feature from Satoshi. They both even have "Dance" in their song titles for crying out loud! I do think this was intentional, but I only wish they made it a little less obvious.

 

 

 

I didn't even notice that! It's a damn good drawing too so I'll leave it there to show it off.

Also speaking of pictures I almost used for this topic, I thought about using the mugshots of Manew and SHINTARO but I thought that might be a little scummy. I did want to contrast how they look without make up on since in their cases it ties in, but then they would stand out from the rest of the featured pics in a bad way.

44 minutes ago, Carmelzors said:

One could care less about otherwise very carefree, condescending attitudes/lifestyles that most of these bandomen exhibit but let's talk about more significant, large-scale effects here - i.e. things that have impacted songwriting/production heavily AND permanently later on.

 

Kisaki is quite obvious but even so, I think Tommy has the most notorious, and notable backstory here if we follow aforementioned criteria. Come to think of it, there is a clear negative association with him in an instant whenever there are label talks with his "foster children", i.e. Dir members or even 12012 until they decided to cut their ties or idk. We might never know how much of illegal shite has been done (e.g. 2007 case) to keep his poster boys relevant in the eyes of Nipponjins and gaijins.

 

Literally the Don Corleone of visual kei - with Kisaki being "lesser evil" per se.

 

And since it's all the rage for us to sneer at rockstars for doing "the hard stuff": Kiyoharu did hard drugs too yet he has tons of dedicated stans and 0% media judgement. Go figure.

 

Well, he lost the rights to KUROYUME not too long ago for failing to pay taxes so I don't think he gets all the passes in the world. Whatever good will he was riding on then has exhausted itself by now. I thought about including him here for that but he didn't get into any ~real~ trouble and there's not much more interesting than what I mentioned so I left it off.

 

The end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 has seen a lot of arrests of visual kei members. While band members skirting the law - and sometimes even breaking it - is nothing new, it is rather unusual to see so many high-profile cases in such a short time span. So today, let's indulge in some visual kei drama both past and present and look at some other famous cases and arrests. Grab some tea, because this topic is going to get delicious.

 

Disclaimer: While the title says "Bad Boys" of visual kei, some of the stuff covered here is particularly heinous. It's one thing to be a "bad boy" and it's another thing to be a rapist. Please don't read into the title too much.

 

Sakura (The Madcap Laughs, ex-L'arc~en~ciel)

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Reason: On February 1997, Sakura, L'arc~en~ciel second drummer, was arrested on charges of heroin possession. When news of sakura's arrest became public, the group's CDs were removed from the shelves in record shops. Their song "The Fourth Avenue Cafe", was replaced as the fourth ending theme of the Rurouni Kenshin anime after only four episodes. In addition, the release of the "The Fourth Avenue Cafe" single was postponed, but eventually released in 2006. He lost sponsors, the band had to move back to an indie label (and it almost broke them), and fans were shocked. He quit the band of his own accord in October and laid low for two years before forming the band Zigzo in 1999. He's had a modest musical career since them, currently he is in The Madcap Laughs.

@Zeus

 

Dai (Himitsu Kessha Kodomo A (秘密結社コドモA))

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Reason: With outfits as eccentric as their music, 秘密結社コドモA was one of UNDERCODE's stranger selections, sporting an upbeat chiptune electro-rock sound. Poised for modesty, they hit a snag when bassist Kouta departed, but the situation fell apart when Dai was dismissed. Various factors lead to his dismissal, including lying to staff and band members, leaking personal information about CODOMO A, other UNDER CODE bands, and the UNDER CODE office to the public, and for stealing money and flipping studio and band equipment for cash. Eiji reported Dai to the police, but no one was able to contact him as he was not at home and not answering his phone. Dai eventually paid back the money but he was not invited back to the band when they reformed as キボウ屋本舗 (Kibouya Honpo). Dai himself has disappeared completely.

@Zeus

 

 

Kisaki (Lin, Phantasmagoria)

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Reasons: The stories with KISAKI are endless; from rumors such as stealing Kyo's girlfriend to selling pictures he posted on his blog as a photo book and passing off unknown 90's visual kei tracks as his old band demos, the man has made himself into a legend for better or worse. For this topic we'll stick to facts. The earliest known source of juicy drama is his tax evasion in 2007, when he owed 45,000,000 yen worth of taxes (approximately $380,000 USD). He hid it in his younger brother's personal account. The judge sentenced him to one year and six months jail time, a four year suspended sentence, and a 12,000,000 yen fine (approximately $100,000 USD). He announces retirement from the stage in response to this incident and disbands Phantasmagoria, but he starts activities a few months later as if nothing happened. In 2012, he announced an absence from live performance due to illness and was sent to the hospital. Kisaki claimed that he was deathly ill and vomiting blood. He posted updates on his blogs to confirm his earlier announcement, including one that implied someone broke into his car while he was sick. It was soon discovered that these pictures were not his, which would imply that he was not in the hospital, which would imply that he's not sick, which directly implicates that he was lying. He then deletes these pictures, which implied further guilt as he wanted no more investigation into the matter. He then announced his retirement from the stage ahain, but he returned a few months later as if nothing had happened. Again. Mid 2016, his Twitter account was allegedly hacked and pictures of Sui (Megaromania) passed out from intoxication surfaced on Twitter. Due to the mentor-apprentice relationship it was assumed he had with Sui, it reflected very badly on him and he got a lot of heat for it. He announced retirement from the stage after this latest scandal....okay we all know he's coming back in a few months let's be real...

@Zeus

 

SHINTARO (ex-アイヲロスト)

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Reason: The high-profile case everyone is waiting for! On January 27, 2016, drummer SHINTARO (age 34) was arrested and fired from visual kei band アイヲロスト(aiolost) because he was suspected of violating the Child Welfare Law. It was then revealed that he would get acquainted on fans on an exchange bulletin board and told them that "he would introduce them to the idol office" and that "they would meet with band stakeholders". He would then coerce them into sexual parties knowing they were underage, take pictures of them, and blackmail them into silence. The girl in question was noted as a big fan of アイヲロスト(aiolost) and participated in at least five orgies with him, and she denied all charges. アイヲロスト disbanded after these accusations. He's been active on social media since his arrest, but I was not able to uncover much information about a court case or what penalties he will have to face.

@Zeus

 

Miyawaki Wataru (ex-12012)

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Reason: On August 12, at a friend's house in Toshimaku, Tokyo, 12012's vocalist Miyawaki Wataru (27) was drinking with five friends, where he got into an argument and allegedly strangled a a 21 year old female friend. She had a sprained neck and bleeding surface wounds and her injuries took a week to heal. She then filed a report on the 23rd. Beyond these, details of the reports were inconsistent. For example, one take says they were five friends at a house, the other says three friends at a bar. Regardless, Wataru confessed to this crime (while drunk) and was arrested a few weeks later on September 10th.  This wasn't his first run in with the law either, as a few years prior he was caught for possession of a weapon in an airport. The news shocked the scene, as at the time 12012 were arguably at the height of their popularity. Many fans expressed their support for 12012 and Wataru in particular despite the charges, and even Kisaki wrote a blog message directed at Wataru expressing his support. Wataru has since reconciled with the woman, and arranged an out of court settlement. The band publicly apologized by shedding their "kyouki shouji" musical concept and releasing Mar Maroon.

@Zeus

 

Tomioka Hiroshi / Dynamite Tommy (Free Will president)

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Reason: This incident happened in tandem with the Miyawaki Wataru incident covered above, which is more proof that 2016 wasn't the only year visual kei went to hell in a hand basket. In 2001, Kaku Kouichi (39), a former employee of Asatsu DK Inc (ADK), Tomioka Hiroshi [DYNAMITE TOMMY] (43), the president of the music label FREE-WILL, and Murasaki Ittoku (35), also of FREE-WILL, placed an order for costumes, concert costs, music video costs, and other overhead costs for the popular band Dir en grey, and were suspected of defrauding ADK of 324,000,000 yen (approx. $2.8million). The majority of the money was given to Tomioka by Kaku. Keep in mind that at the time, Free-Will was a very vast and influential label even containing the legendary UNDERCODE label, so fans were worried that bands on or affiliated with Free-Will would have their assets frozen. This included Dir en grey and 12012.  In regards to the investigation, Kaku confessed to the charges while Tomioka, who had been dragged into the fraud scandal, denied them. He was arrested on September 14th and was held for more than twenty days at the Tsukiji office. He was indicted despite the police investigation finding no suspicion of fraud on Tommy's part. Tommy was enraged at the whole situation, and was quoted saying "The police and the prosecutor performed a thorough investigation. The reason for my arrest was due to the asshole judge's assumptions!". There's a larger subtext about prejudice against rock musicians in Japan here, but suffice to say DYNAMITE TOMMY was eventually cleared of all charges. I'm not sure about the other two.

@Zeus

 

Manew (ex-The♡Valentine)

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Reason: A little known debacle overshadowed by all the other happenings of 2016 is known as the Bar Velu scandal. At the center of it  is bassist Manew (Yamaguchi Shou (29)) from visual kei bands The♡Valentine and TRUST. He also made a living as the manager of a club called Bar Velu, which employed visual kei musicians as hosts to cater to female fans. It was very lucrative, amassing 20 million yen in a little under 14 months. Police raided the bar on April 18th, and the next day Manew was booked for employing male staff members to sit near and entertain female customers without a valid license. This violates the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses. He admitted to the charges. I'm not sure if the bar was closed down.

@Zeus

 

Akinori (ex. lynch.)

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Reason: On November 22 2016, Akinori, the bassist of Nagoya-kei rock band lynch., was arrested for “antisocial behaviors”. This was later revealed to be marijuana possession. The amount and how intoxicated he was at the moment is unknown, but in response lynch. went on hiatus and canceled all their tour dates including their “Countdown Japan 16/17” live show. The band and management came together to discuss ways to move forward as a group of five, but that proved impossible and Akinori departed from the band on December 20th.

update: after several months of silence, Akinori eventually returned to lynch.

@Zeus

 

TAKAHIRO (ex-FAZ)

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Reason: Takahiro (real name 田原尚泰 (Tahara Takahiro), age 38), from indie visual kei band FAZ, was arrested after attempting to scam a 76 year old woman for 6 million yen. His reasoning was because the band needed money and this was a quick way to do it. This idea came at a very poor time, since at the same time ToshiA (the same person who owned MATINA's STORM) was experiencing foot pain so bad that he couldn't perform since November. This caused postponement of their two last singles for their 5-single campaign and the band had to perform as a trio. ToshiA was later diagnosed with ankylosin spondylitis (chronic inflammation of joints) and was put into treatment at the hospital. When he received this news, he decided to put FAZ on indefinite hiatus after their live at HOLIDAY SHINJUKU on February 6, 2017. Takahiro was quickly fired from the band a few days later and his sister issued a formal apology to his fans on Twitter.

@Zeus

 

RIO (ex--LONDBOY)

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Reason: This story starts sometime in 2016. RIO from LONDBOY hooks up with a girl who claims she is legal, and even shows RIO her ID to prove it. They see each other for some time, but for reasons RIO decides he wants to break it off. In response, the girl spread sensitive photos and conversations online. RIO went to the police to solve the situation, and it was then that he discovered the girl was underage. He was arrested on the spot for fornication with a minor, but was released the next day. At this time, LONDBOY will proceed without him until further notice. This is one of the most recent of the cases, so at the time of writing there is still no information present.

@Zeus

 

shia (chanty)

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Reason: He was arrested in April 2017 just one day after Rio was arrested for as of yet unspecified reasons. I literally felt Monochrome Heaven shake as the news unfolded. No one expected anything of the sort to hit visual kei band chanty. The band and management have issued a formal apology, but shia himself has been quiet on the whole situation. It's been a few weeks and we still don't have details. We can only speculate on what happened and what will come next.

Update: It was later confirmed that the Hiroshima Prefecture Police detained the musician on charges of fraud.

@Zeus

 

Daishi (ex-Psycho le Cemu)

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On May 31, 2005, singer Daishi underwent a urinalysis that showed up positive for methamphetamine and was arrested by Kanagawa police. When the story broke in the media, all of the band's merchandise was removed from shelves in Japan. Daishi's solo tour was cancelled, and his solo EP was removed from shelves. On June 5, the band announced via their official website that they would be on hiatus due to Daishi's arrest. On September 30, Daishi was sentenced to one year and ten months probation with a suspended sentence of three years by a court in Yokohama.

@tetsu_sama69

 

I'm surprised that this album is evoking such polarizing reactions! For me, 不幸な迷路 totally brought 2017 in with a bang. I mentioned in my review it reminds me a lot of 2001-2003 indie visual kei, especially with tracks like 落とし穴 (Otochiana), 寄り道 (Yorimichi) and 交尾をしてよ (Koubi o Shiteyo). I could slide any of these next to an early the GazettE track or a turn of the century Aliene Ma'riage track and it wouldn't sound too out of place. Then, in certain places it strays into 2004-2007 era like ラストダンス (Last Dance) and 排水口 (Hasui Guchi), and then makes an awkward leap to 2015 to the present with the rest. Do either of you feel the same way?

 

 

 

Tracklist:

01. 入口
02. 不幸の始まり
03. ぐちゃぐちゃ
04. 排水口
05. 気付いて
06. 人殺し
07. ラストダンス
08. 恋人ごっこ
09. 寄り道
10. 落とし穴
11. 交尾をしてよ
12. ユメオチ
13. 最後の歌
14. 出口

 

| One of the most promising visual kei albums in recent memory.

 

After nominating their mixed bag of a collection album 中毒症状 (Chuudoku Shuujou) as one of the best of last year only to be greeted with a three consecutive singles campaign I would sooner forget about, the announcement of 不幸な迷路 (Fukou na Meiro) didn't strike me as anything particularly noteworthy to check out. I knew that ザアザア (XAA-XAA) had to bring the heat, but I didn't expect an album of this caliber from them. It falls a bit short of becoming a classic for me, but 不幸な迷路 is the most fun I've had listening to visual kei all year.

 

Ask me to define what visual kei is and what you will get is a lot of stammering and gesticulation, and maybe a comment on the style or popular genre of choice. Ask me for an album which embodies all things visual kei, and I'll point to 不幸な迷路 immediately. ザアザア has combined all the visual kei tropes in a familiar but new way, including some unfamiliar ones. For example, the band spared no expense in ensuring their disjointed album opener and closer SE's have nothing to do with the tracks they sandwich. Also for good measure, the album switches gears halfway through in a misguided attempt at showing diversity, starting with the very girugamesh reminiscent "ラストダンス" (Last Dance). They at least stopped short of including their sub par singles just to pad the running time. Some seasoned visual kei veterans would roll their eyes at these, but I embrace them all with open arms. It lends an undeniably last-decade visual kei feel to 不幸な迷路 without leaning on novelty or the band's laurels, and as a result its very easy for me to get lost in it. I can play the whole album without pausing once.

 

One point of contention I had with 中毒症状 was how lazy many of the bridges sounded. Bridges hold a song together, and often it was just one word or one phrase repeated eight times. I'm happy to report that this sin is only committed once on 不幸な迷路 with "落とし穴", and that a large majority of the tracks have well thought out, even memorable choruses at times. Ironically enough, my favorite track,  "排水口" - an undeniably MUCC-influenced slow burner that could earn a spot on the aforementioned 2004 album 朽木の灯 - has no chorus to it. I like most of the songs even if the vocalist Kazuki works within a very small tonal range, I don't remember actively hating or skipping through any song, and after five or so listens I consider this to be their best release yet. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, and maybe it has a few too many toppings, but it's a damn good sandwich for those with the corresponding taste. Only time will tell if future releases can maintain the same balance of familiarity and inventiveness.

 

I expected nothing at all, but 不幸な迷路 resonated with my stodgy, old soul in a way I haven't felt for some time. It strikes with an intensity and charm that took me back to my nascent years in visual kei almost immediately. I implore them to follow whatever creative workflow resulted in this album and not their consecutive singles release, because this works for them. Most importantly, in a time where there isn't a clear leader in the race to the top of the indie visual kei charts, 不幸な迷路 provides a compelling reason to choose ザアザア.

 

 

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