Zeus

People use the term 'experimental' when it isn't even near what we're discussing here. Experimental means more than getting out of the comfort zone - it's about pushing the boundaries, definitions of the music genre you play, it's about adding new ingredients, like new instruments, time signatures, genres you'd never imagine getting mixed, etc to the world of music. Very few of the japanese bands we discuss here could be classified as ´experimental´ or ´experimental rock´ and Jupiter definitely isn't one of them.
 
It's just Hizaki guitar-fapping over modern visual kei.

Visual kei gets a bad reputation because visual kei fans can't talk music
Elaboration is the cornerstone of great conversation and great writing. Talking about music and bands is an exercise in persuasive writing. You're giving your audience - anyone that took the time to read what you have to write - very good reasons to consider why your position is correct. Now let's say I just left this topic with that one sentence in bold. I may have a good point. If I explain, I very well may change your view. But since I don't, you won't take me seriously. If I do this over and over again very soon I'm going to build up a reputation as someone not worth listening to because I don't explain the "why's" behind my beliefs.
Expand this out to the entire visual kei scene.
One of our largest problems isn't that we don't have a lot to say about our favorite artists. We do. We just never get around to ever saying it. This extends out beyond Monochrome Heaven. I find I can't take people's opinions or reviews seriously because they'll just say something is great or something is shit and leave it at that. Most of the time I'm convinced that subsequent people just parrot the first person to say something different, and it continues in that direction from there. There is hardly ever details and when there is it is at the most basic level possible. As fans, we should continue to promote our favorite bands and our favorite releases, but then couple that with reasons. Why do I like this album? Why don't I like this band?
And let's keep it strictly about the music, because believe it or not saying "the vocals are good and the guitars are awesome!" tells a potential interested reader nothing. What exactly does awesome sound like? Right...
Now if you are not confident in your writing and explanation abilities, don't let it stop you. Read up on professional reviews on other websites. Take tips from them. Continue to work on it. You can't become better at reviewing if you never try. But if we all begin to discuss the actual music behind visual kei when we make our claims, I believe that people in other scenes will stop dismissing us outright as wankers who only listen for the pretty boys.

Score: | When mediocre is a step up for a band, you know they're in the corner
FADELESS is the result of two flop albums backed by a hefty budget from a label that desperately wants something by this band to stick. It's a throwback to an older era for the sake of appealing to fans who don't like dial-up in their GazettE, and as such it gets caught up in retracing the footsteps of yesteryear instead of starting from square one. In short, it is exactly the song we've always wanted but never wanted realized. Now we have to take off our rose-tinted vision correcting glasses and contend with the fact that the GazettE were possibly always this mediocre with the occasional stroke of genius. I can enjoy FADELESS because it's exactly what Ruki said we would get: a 2013 STACKED RUBBISH clone complete with all the gimmicks. It still goes down better than anything on TOXIC or DIVISION, mostly because the rebranded alternative metal sound called "Gazerock" is safe at it's core and I know what I'm getting myself into when I indulge in my guilty pleasure.
So why so low? Well, that would be the fault of the two other tracks on this release.
QUIET is a waste of five minutes of your life, lacking the buildup of tension and emotion critical to a successful GazettE ballad. It meanders on aimlessly, going nowhere and accomplishing nothing. It's more contrived than Cassis, more subdued than Nakigahara, and feels like PLEDGE with all the interesting bits stripped out. It's the worst ballad they've ever done by a wide margin. FORBIDDEN BEAVER is a step down even from that. The lyrics are almost entirely in Ruki's slurred English about some raunchy, sexual subject that probably looked better on paper than it sounds on CD. I also caught a bit of DIVISION poking the tip in here and there, which makes the entire song sound confused because it doesn't know what it wants to pull influence from more. You can safely skip both of these songs.
I'll just pretend that they're saving all the good songs for the album and they needed a single to generate the appropriate hype.

Oh shit I kinda actually liked this band.

And by that I meant I liked ELECTRIGGER.

well i normally wouldnt open a thread for one single anime, but this might justify a own thread imo.
 
they just announced a new Pokemon anime based on the original Blue/Red/Green games. so it wont be like the first pokemon season. it will be a legit adaption of the game.
 
sounds pretty cool imo.
 
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_Lyi2RSVxqg
 
 

The irony here is simply astounding. Saying that you don't believe in illegal downloading is silly. You believe in it whether you choose to admit it or not. Without illegal downloading, neither this forum nor the vast majority of the VK/J-rock/Japanese music fanbase would exist overseas. Whether you choose to purchase music or not is your own perogative, but keep the following in mind:
1) Purchasing music doesn't make you any more or less than a fan.
2) If you know beforehand how people are going to react to you talking/gloating about what releases you've bought, why talk about them in the first place? If you're going to get angry at people for requesting releases from you, then you can solve that problem by simply ceasing to talk/post about those releases. That's like waving a steak in front of a lion and acting surprised when it attacks you. Regardless of your intentions, what you're essentially doing is teasing.
3) If you're an overseas fan that purchases Japanese music, there's a damn good chance that your purchase won't do much to "support" whatever band you're buying from. This is ESPECIALLY true if you're purchasing music released through major labels. Hell, most bands make their real money from performing live, not CD sales. I know you want to feel special like you've done some kind of good deed for buying music instead of downloading it illegally, but I'm sorry, you don't get a cookie for spending your hard-earned cash on ridiculously overpriced Japanese CDs. To be honest with you, you'd probably be supporting these bands more by distributing their music digitally.

I'm determined to spark a shitstorm with my opinions sooner or later.

BABYMETAL isn't the spawn of Satan
 
Sexism at it's finest, really. BABYMETAL has succeeded at doing what the visual kei scene has failed at repeatedly - juxtaposing music and appearance in such a way as to confuse the listener. It's unorthodox, it's original, it's exactly the same reason why plenty of people say they listen to visual kei...and yet they get lambasted for it over and over and over again.
 
BABYMETAL plays the same kind of music that's popular within the visual kei scene, which is deathcore mixed with pop hooks and a ton of electronic influence. I would expect the same people that like those kinds of bands to at least tolerate their existence, if not enjoy them as something familiar yet different. But once again the hivemind takes over. Since one person decided they didn't like it, everyone else hops on the bandwagon without listening for themselves.
 
Inevitably, I come across someone that says that they don't like their style of music, yet has in their collection plenty of bands that use the same formula. Oops. 

True facts right here, if Black Gene For The Next Scene or REALies covered メギツネ (which sounds exactly like what they've tried to do and have failed at for the last forever and a half), I would bet my bottom dollar nothing but praise would be lobbed at those bands for getting back in shape, improving their squeals and writing actual riffs. 

Disclaimer:  BABYMETAL isn't the greatest band to squeal into a breakdown or three. They just get a lot more hate than they deserve because people care too much about what other people think of their music taste and in the visual kei world it's easy to hate "pop music" or anything associated with it.
 

I don't follow your logic.
 
So a band full of musicians decide to disband, form a new band with all the same musicians, change their outfits slightly, and play the same music as before rip off their fans how? There isn't even an implication to work with. Musicianship is all about marketing - how you market your music, how you market your concerts, how you market your band, etc. If a band feels that they need to start over to better position themselves to be successful, it comes out of no one else's pocket but theirs.
 
It doesn't seem to be any more or less "full of shit" than bands that change their name, since disbanding one band and forming another is a roundabout way of doing that. How does that rip you off? It doesn't. As a matter of fact most bands that start over take a huge risk since they (mostly) have to claw their way up the ladder once more.
I'm all for keeping it real but let's not make shit up and attach buzzwords where they don't fit.

their new album "狡猾なる混沌の仔と至極たる黎明に捧ぐ葬斂の劇詩" will be released at 2013/08/12, for which samples of songs could be listened to in their special webpage
 
[track list]
01.嘆きの宙
02.狡猾なる混沌の仔と至極たる黎明に捧ぐ葬斂の劇詩
03.狂い匣と嘘吐き遊びの庭園
04.朧々と咲く異形の饗宴
05.螺旋淵
06.餞
07.虚の玉座と空の終焉
08.赫焉たる星影は永劫の黄昏に滅する
Another Code:"Guillotine"(Decapitation v2)
 
http://vdas.main.jp/vdas0001.html

Since I can't stand the Mejibray/GazettE-stanning that's taken over this topic and has gotten away from the original intent, I'm bringing it back. I'm also giving you all something new to talk about since new unpopular opinions have ceased to surface over the last page or so.

Visual kei is not a genre or an aesthetic movement. It's a paradoxical manifestation of an anomaly against the negatives of Japanese culture.

This is closely related to the problem of "what is visual kei?".

Stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia, a genre is defined as
 
 
We can stop right here. Before you start processing the definition, ask yourself "what is visual kei"? We can have a ten page discussion about that in this topic right now and still not come to a consensus. Visual kei is an open-ended, ill-defined term exploited by both us and the bands in the scene to refer to whatever we please. We agree to disagree on what the term is supposed to mean and take it at face value when someone tells us that a band is or isn't visual kei anymore.

By definition, visual kei can't be a genre because we can only define it by what it is not, and very conservatively at that. The difference between newbies and veterans in the scene mostly comes down to context sensitivity determining band classification. What do I mean by this? Well, we can all look at a band or an idol group and very clearly say "this is not visual kei". But if we look at a visual kei band next to a band that uses theatrical make-up and aesthetic elements, we get into murky territory. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Newbies lack the knowledge to make this distinction, and utilize only the looks to say whether or not a band is visual. Then, they get lashed upon by fans of that band who "don't want to associate this band with those bands" for getting it wrong, and they learn. Eventually they learn only to label a band as visual kei if they describe themselves as such or if someone else before them says it first. [1]

The thing is, the newbies have the right approach at first. They get into the scene, they hear that it's a genre, and seek to classify it. But before long they realize that over the span of twenty years, visual kei has birthed bands that sound very, very different. Going off of sound alone, all bands that were ever considered visual kei can't be connected short of a definition so vague it's useless. So then we turn to the costumes and theatrics and claim that as a large component of what makes a band visual. But even there, we can piece together different bands that don't look anything alike - some bands which don't look remotely visual at all - and claim they are all visual kei. Hell, lynch. has looked like a normal band for quite some time and there's still a heated debate to whether or not they're visual kei. On the first page of this very topic, one of the unpopular opinions was that "Dir en grey is still visual". Once again, you now have bands that have very little in common aesthetic wise and short of a very vague, useless definition we have nothing to go off of.

So I've basically run through this problem, haven't given a solution and haven't explained my point (or have I?). What gives?

Well as a fandom we tend to separate visual kei bands based on decades, so let's do that:

- The mysterious late 80's, which most of us like to pretend doesn't exist, full of bands that play some form of rock or metal.
- The music of the 90's, which is usually thought of as bands inspired by Victorian and goth costumes playing...well, whatever they want.
- The 00's, which was populated by lots of flashy costumes, usually subdivided into subkeis to better be able to classify and understand bands but still full of bands playing whatever they want.
- The 10's, which seems to have a preponderance of electronic elements in the music but for the most part still full of plenty of different bands playing whatever they please.

And even here we tend to simplify this as to "80s HAIR METAL, 90'S GOFF MUZIK, 00'S KEI ON KEI ACTION/RAWRCORE, 10'S WUB-WUBCORE", which illustrates the points I made above. As a fan, you get to a point where you realize that the term can't be defined and thus you stop. The working definition is "If a band wants to be visual kei, they'll be visual kei. When they don't, they're no longer visual kei". [2]  So doesn't this describe a movement, which brings together people just as different for a common cause? Let's go through all of the things that should make a movement and see if it lines up.

Well let's see:

- Coordinated group action. Well, visual kei isn't very rebellious or subversive, outside of the low barrier to entry being offensive to some people's ears and the costumes being offensive to some people's eyes. Unless there is this entire "point" they all share that we've missed for forever and a day, I believe that most bands focus on staying functional over staying Stallman-esque in their beliefs. [3] And frankly, I can't blame them. Pragmatism rules. [4]

- A common cause. But what is that cause and do all bands share it? As I said above, we really don't think of visual kei as something as much as we do as an entity against something. But even that "entity" changes over time, reflected by the different forms of visual kei. So do the bands of the late 80's and the bands of today share the same goal? Yes and no. [5]

- People from different walks of life. We can't say too much because we don't know the details of most musicians. Note however that on a macro scale most visual kei bands are Japanese and many tend to gravitate around a few cities on the mainland. We also can surmise that a lot of these musicians are poor or struggling. We also haven't seen the scene take root in any other countries with similar situations. In this sense, it represents a truly Japanese problem - disillusioned youth versus "The System". If it's a movement here, it's on a small scale.

Visual kei is too anti-classification to be a genre and too inconclusive to be a movement. So what is it?

My admittedly semantic description of visual kei is that of a paradoxical anomaly. It exists, full of people perpetuating it unaware of it's purpose, fighting against an issue that plagues the Japanese society whilst embodying almost every characteristic of that society. What is that issue? Well, I believe the issue lies in the extreme conformity and deference to authority found in the society, coupled with high expectations placed upon every member of that society, along with a thirty year recession that has stagnated the Japanese economy and makes it hard to achieve the life every Japanese person feels it is their duty to obtain.

A strictly Japanese problem. [6]

Visual kei exists as an antagonist to everything in that society, even definition, because it refuses to conform. It's piloted by people who know full they may never see success but toil anyway as a gigantic "FUCK YOU" to their society. It's also mostly populated by young people with the drive and ambition to change their surroundings but no means to achieve that change (and older people who exploit these young people for the cash they'll never see, bringing the entire scene into territory so meta it hurts). When those kids grow up and lose their drive, as after years of fighting against this nebulous problem they watch it shift into something new but no less harmful, they give up, slip into the routine, and become working salary men that can't be identified. It's an anomaly that just is, and that anomaly happens to make noise that we like to listen to.

To pigeonhole visual kei into anything else misses the political and cultural significance that caused it's birth.

tl;dr - Visual kei is the Japanese "hippie culture" of the 60's, with no Vietnam War in sight to bring it to an end. [7]

Notes:

Here I extrapolate on points that I wanted to make above and didn't because I didn't want to go on a tangent and not come back.

[1] This is my personal belief behind why revival bands like Grieva and Ru:natic will never see a resurgence. The forms that visual kei took in the 90's was in resistance to the culture and expectations of the 90's. The world is an irreversibly different place and thus visual kei must change along with it. This is also why I believe that visual kei is not an aesthetic - the fashion world moves in cycles much shorter than 30 years. Visual kei hasn't repeated a phase to date. That's why I believe it supersedes such a definition.

[2] Not only does this loose definition work but it reflects a lot of what I get into later in my argument. Most importantly, that it gives an element of control back to the band. I've read in multiple places that the Japanese populace don't feel like they have much choice - they must succeed in school, get into better schools, succeed there, get a good job, start a family, etc. - and then must face a wall of depression when they realize that most can't get to the head of the pack and they didn't. By sticking to this definition, bands can have a say in a core element which defines them.

[3] Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project. Read up on him to see what ideals unbounded by pragmatism really is. Hint: it sounds like crazy.

[4] When bands have no motivation or have run out of reasons to continue they sometimes disband for no reason. On the other side of that coin, some bands are so tight knit that they feel as if they can't function if a member leaves. But at the heart of it all, many bands don't put ideals and beliefs over success. Those that have them use them alongside the visuals and their music - and even then if it becomes too hard they quit or if they become successful they tone it down or cut it out completely. See, NoGoD.

[5] Even more interestingly, visual kei itself tends to conform in ways, which subverts the point of the whole thing. It's like a military group led by a dictator attacking a dictatorial government for its evils. This is why I refrain from calling it a movement, because it itself embodies the very principles it seeks to combat.

[6] Which is why "overseas visual kei" will never take off. The societal conditions are not right for it to spawn. YOHIO and Seremedy are second-order simulacra.

[7] After WWII, Japan isn't allowed to have a real standing army so it isn't in it's best interest to get into conflicts. I meant it literally. In another sense, you could say that the counterculture of the 60's was against "The System" but manifested itself through the War. Once the War ended, the culture had little reason to exist. Since visual kei doesn't have such a clear cut enemy, it will continue on for much longer. This is also why visual kei can't "die".

No that you're going to have to do yourself. I had a lot around one time I could try to find them again.
EDIT: Here we go. This is what I could salvage:
Saikou no Sekai
Koudokeizai gizensha shakai banzai
Haisetsuteki benri joukyuu
Denpa hasshin jushin sokushibou yuugi
Rakkanteki jibun shugi
Sono te wa mienai basho de tada nonoshitte
Daiji na mono wo kesshite tsukamenai
Dakara koso ima
Sora miage kaze wo kanji iki wo sutte
Kiri no kakaru mori no naka nigeteku genjitsu(ima)
Tsukamae hikisaki kuraitsukeba ii
Ikite ite
Kono yume mo kibou mo motenu utsukushisa wo
Daite ite
Sono hako no nakami wa kitto zetsubou dake janai
Manpuku kan mansai sengo nippon
Taiman teki higai mousou
Sekai wa mata dareka ni tsumi wo natsuritsuke
Kakurisareta heya de inochi wo tsumitoru
Dakara koso ima
Shinjitsu wo chiisana te de dakishimete ite
Kanousei wa sono mune ni ikidzuiteru
Matteru kimeru no wa jibun jishin sa
Ikite ite
Kono yume mo kibou mo motenu utsukushisa wo
Daite ite
Sono hako no nakami wa kitto zetsubou dake janai
Kore ijou
Soko ni ite mo hikari nante todokanai kara
Ikite ike
Kono utsushiku mo yogoreta mawari tsudzukeru
Aisubeki saikou no sekai
Saikou no Sekai Translation (this isn’t accurate at all! take it as a general summary of the song in English)
The economic growth of a hypocritical society HURRAH
Management conveniently excretes superiority
Sending transmissions, recieving, the sudden ends of friendships
It’s my own optimistic doctrine
It seems this place is usually abusive
The people I cherish should never be attacked
So definitely now,
I look toward the wind and the heavens feeling as if I’m going to breathe in this hanging fog as I watch from the forest above
Pleasantly catching, tearing, biting
Living this dream also carries my fierce suggestions
Embrace the contents of the box that question only despair
Japan appears healthy but is talking deliriously
Ignoring these damaging delusions
The sin of happiness awaits someone in my world
My isolated life in this room has been plucked away
So for sure now,
My small truth holds someone tight
The likelihood of my will to breathe life
Decides to wait for itself
Living,
This dream also carries my fierce suggestions
Embrace the contents of the box that question only despair
Tt’s strange how that place of light reaches out!
Living this ideal it becomes stained with blood as it circulates
I am the most lovable in the world
Tsumibatsu Egoist
[Zettaiteki na souo]
Tsukisasu shisen no naka
Koko wa marude jigoku sa
Kan ni sawaru gebita koe da
[Taihaiteki na kanjou]
Teinou ni shite oroka na saru
Murete mawari ni awasete
Kobi bakari uri tsuzukete
Kono ryoute ga hamono dattara
Sono kubikiri otoshite shimaitai
Soshite fumitsubushi tsuba wo hakitsukete mikuda shite
Asa wa tada yuu’utsu no hajimari de
~Kurikaesu~
Yoru wa asa wo osore nemuru
Furue nagara
Kawaranai sekai wo
Kaeru no wa boku dakara
Tada no haguruma dakara
Kimitachi wa kono kowareta kikai no
Ima wa kienai
Umi to kizu wo kamishimete
Kurai asa ga mata shinu no wo matteru
[shoudouteki na koudou]
Subete kiete shimau
Inochigoi suru kimi de sae
Yasashiku kuchi wo fusaide
Zainin ni shi no seisai wo “danzai”
Toganin ni shi no seisai wo “danzai”
Kimitachi ni shi no seisai wo “danzai”
Kono boku ni “yasuragi” wo
Mimi ga itai hodo no seijaku wa
~Yasashikute~
Yogoreta karada wo dakishimeru itai hodo ni
Kono basho ga motomete ita hazu no rakuen de
Daremo okase wa shinai
Boku dake no gyokuza ga aru meikyuu
Namida ga denai
Kokoro wa mou inakunatta ne
Nano ni kuuhaku ga umerarenai
Oto wo tate boku wa kowarete yuku
Soshite kami ni narou
Hiki kane wo hiite
Tsumibatsu Egoist (Translated. These lyrics are miles better but not 100% accurate.)
[Absolute compliance]
A deep, piercing look here,
this sensation is quite hellish
Your touch coarsens, your voice degenerates
[Decadent Emotions]
A particular “hero’s” imbecility
Completely surrounds him
Nothing but flattery to acquire (knowledge) again and again
If it’s the case, then with this edged tool the execution will be complete
and with my spit I revoke this monitored annulment
The origin of my usual melancholic mornings
~Repeat~
Concern my mornings as I shiver while I sleep
My world transforms
Replacing me so
I stray from the usual so
All of you destroyed this chance
Now I vanish
Reflecting upon the pain I brought
And on this dark morning I wait to die
[impulsive Behavior]
All of you vanish completely
Even as you beg for your lives
Kindly shut your mouths
The punishment of death to a criminal “CONVICTED!”
The punishment of death to an offender “CONVICTED”
The punishment of death to ALL OF YOU ” CONVICTED!”
This is “tranquility” to me
Looking at the corpses only silence remains
~Kindness~
My dirty body holds all that remains
This place seeks to be a garden of pleasure
All of you violate the throne, the mystery of life
Only my throne remains a mystery
Tears come forth
My heart already bears fruit but
There isn’t any place to give birth
The length and sound of my voice breaks and dies out
And God bears fruit
As my bell of joys and sorrows pull back
『破天乃獅子』
　　　　作詞：団長/作曲：Kyrie【新興宗教楽団NoGoD】
また眠れないよ
こんな夜はいつだってそう
高鳴る胸
まだ眠れないよ
不安が胸を締め付ける
暗い夜
どれだけ
旅を重ねても
また足を止めてしまう
だから伝えたい
目を覚ませ
全ての生命よ眠れる獅子よ
その手は栄光の為に
我儘で破天荒な物語
構わないさ
主人公は君の中にある(※だけだから※)
辿り着く先が例えどんな結末でも
前を向いて
大切な物は既にこの手の中にある
離さないで
変わらぬ時代に背を向けて
掲げたその旗
振り翳せ高く太陽に
目を覚ませ
全ての生命よ眠れる獅子よ
その手は栄光の為に
我儘で破天荒な物語
構わないさ
輝く日々よ
そう主人公は君の中にある(※だけだから※)
mata nemurenai yo
still sleeping
kon na yoru wa itsunatesou
this evening when
daka naru mune
my chest roars in volumes
mata nemurenai yo
still sleeping
fuan ga mune wo shime tsukeru
a strangling uneasiness is affixed to my chest
kurai yoru
this gloomy evening
doredake
to what extent
tabi wo kasanete mo
must we continue this journey
mata ashi wo tome te
until we stop going
dakara tsutae tai
along with tradition
me wo samase
my sight clears up
subete no seimei yo nemureru shishi yo
is all of life a sleeping lion?
sono te ha eikou no tame ni
this hand of glory is to your advantage
wagamama de hatenkou na monogatari
in this unprecedented legend of egoism
kamawanai sa
it is no problem
shujinkou ha kimi no naka ni aru (※dake dakara※)
your hero within is certain (just so)
tadoritsuku saki ga tatoe don na ketsumatsu demo
as an example even if you barely manage to reach your destination
mae wo muite
face ahead
taisetsu na mono ha sudeni kono te no naku ni aru
it is too late to live inside that which you hold important
hanasanaide
part with it
kawaranu jidai ni sewomukete
turn your back on the unchanging epochs
kakageta sono hata
float this flag
buri kazase takaku taiyou ni
aloft high toward the sun
me wo samase
my sight clears up
subete no seimei yo nemureru shishi yo
is all of life a sleeping lion?
sono te ha eikou no tame ni
the hand of glory is to your advantage
wagamama de hatenkou na monogatari
in this unprecedented legend of selfishness
kamawanai sa
it is no problem
kagayaku hibi yo
every day glitters
sou shujinkou ha kimi no naka ni aru (※dake dakara※)
it appears your hero within is sure (just so)
Gu Ren
Original Lyrics
“kane de subete ga kaeru shakai” shugi wa kokochi ga
ii
kyou mo kokoro no kayowanu
yuugi wo saa kono heya de
dore dake karada kasanete mo umaranai kuuhaku ni
kuruisou ni naru boku wa mada
aka wo hoshigaru
kankaku wa kitto
haruka mukashi ni nakushita
dakara ima wa
omoidasenai hazu na no ni
te wo nobashite
risei wo koroshi
yokubou ni mi wo yudanereba
eien ni hirogaru ginshoku no sekai
mada yureru kimi no tomoshibi irodoru kage wo
motome samayou boku wa maru de
minikui honoo
te wo nobashite
risei wo koroshi
yokubou ni mi wo yudanereba
eien ni hirogaru ginshoku no sekai
mada yureru kimi no tomoshibi irodoru kage wo
motome samayou boku wa tada
mou ichido ano goro no you ni
soshite mata uso wo kasaneru yoru
Translated Lyrics
“All the bells turn society over” my doctrine is agreeable
Today my spirit wavers
Come to this room of sports
Only now once again my body is buried in emptiness
I am in total confusion
I desire perfection
I surely sense
the past howling far away
So now I shall put my thoughts into action
My hand extends
My sense of murder
My body desires to devote itself to
Spreading my will all throughout the world
Yet you send light to color my shade
I demand to wander in the circle of an ugly flame
My hand extends
My sense of murder
My body desires to devote itself to
Spreading my will all throughout the world
Yet you send light to color my shade
I demand to wander in the circle of an ugly flame
In order for that time to come again
and also lies depend on more lies
Yuiitsu Ka
Japanese Lyrics
Onaji kao shite onaji fuku kite
Onaji kyoku shite onaji kao shite
Onaji furishite gerogero sakende
Minna issho ni 1.2.3.go!
Watashi ga subete no hitotachi ni
Ataeta “kosei” to iu takara
Subete chigau idenshi wo motsu bokutachi no me no
Utsuru no wa
Tada, hitotsu de aritai
Kurutta sekai de
Tada, hitotsu no boku de itai
Tada, boku wa tada, utau yo
Ima wa todokanai chiisa na koe dakedo
Hyakunengo mo kono koe ga todoku you ni
Akogareteita ano hitotachi ni wa
Kesshite narenai kara
Onaji hito janai kara
Ima wa takai kabe mo
Boku wa boku no yari kata de kanarazu
Koete miseru sa
Tada, hitotsu de aritai
Kurutta sekai de
Tada, hitotsu no boku de itai
Nara sonna koto yamete yo
Kimi wa shiawase na no?
Anata wa mitasareru no?
Tada, boku wa utau yo
Ima wa todokanai chiisa na koe dakedo
Hyakunengo mo sennengo ni mo
Towa1 ni todoku you ni kono koe ga
English Lyrics
Identical heroes wearing identical clothing
Identical situations with these identical heroes
Identical irrational heroes disgust me averting these situations
All together now 1 2 3 GO!
I represent all of the people
Handing out “individuality” as treasure
We all possess different genes and experiences
And they show
Only, we are one and the same
A crazy world
Only, I am the only one that remains
Only, I’m the only one singing
Now reach a little toward that voice
so that this voice reaches out for a century
Yearning to be those people
Never to become accoustomed to
The same people
Now, a tall wall
Is my, my place of refuge
Until I cross over
Only, we are one and the same
A crazy world
Only, I am the only one that remains
If only this would cease
Are you happy?
Are you satisfied?
Only, I sing
Now reach a little toward that voice
For 100 years, 1000 years
For eternity so that you can reach this voice
Mr.HEAVEN
Lyrics: Danchou / Music: Shinkou Shuukyou Gakudan NoGoD
私さえ生まれてこなければ　　
waisae umareta konakereba
When your life begins to fall apart
そう言って少女は目を伏せる
sou iette shoujo wa me wo fuseru
just call my name, hide and watch little girl
平面は相手にしてくれず　
heimen ha aite ni shitekurezu
I'll face your opponent on the field by nightfall
実像に拒絶反応
jitsuzou ni kyozetsu hannou
and answer your refusal to face real life
教室が拷問と思いこむ　　
kyoushitsu ga goumon to omoi komu
Desires and torture crammed together in the classroom
時代を錯誤した背徳
jidai wo sakugo shita haitoku
Mistakes like these at that age cause corruption
死んでも誰も悲しまない　　
shindemo....daremo kanashi manai
and once I'm gone...everyone suddenly becomes hopeless
決め付けて爪を眺める
kimetsukete tsume o nagameru
fixated on those claws
愛される事をどうか恐れないで居て
aisareru koto wo douka osore naide ite
In order to love these circumstances you must learn to control your fear
存在さえも見失った　
sonzai sae mo miushi natta
even if you lose sight of the meaning of life
全ての子供達よ　
subete no kodomotachi yo
all of my children
この声聞えますか？
kono koe kikoemasu ka?
just listen for this voice, OK?
存在価値を与える為　　
sonzai kachi wo ataeru tame
To provide your life with meaning
舞い降りた私は　　「ミスター・ヘブン」*
mai orita watashi ha Mr. HEAVEN
I will descend the mountains as Mr. HEAVEN
愛には終わりがあるけど　　**
(ai ni ha owari ga aru kedo)
ai ni owari warau kedo
(In the end all there is is love but)
Smile because in the end there will be love (and happiness) but
決して無くなりはしない
keshite nakunai na shinai
do not lose sight within the city ***
存在さえも見失った　
sonzai sae mo miushi natta
even if you lose sight of the meaning of life
全ての子供達よ　
subete no kodomotachi yo
all of my children
この声聞えますか？
kono koe kikoemasu ka?
just listen for this voice, OK?
存在価値を否定しては****　　
sonzai kachi wo hitei shite wa
and then I will repudiate the relinquishment of existence
何もかも生まれない*****
nani mo ka mo umare nai
If it is in your nature to then
残せない繋がらない
nokose nai tsunakare nai
tie it up and leave it behind you
存在価値を与える為　　
sonzai kachi wo ataeru tame
To provide your life with meaning
舞い降りた私はそう　　
mai orita watashi wa sou
I will thus descend the mountains
人呼んで　　「ミスター・ヘブン」
hitoyonda Mr.HEAVEN
when mankind calls out for Mr.HEAVEN
* I can swear that he sings wa and not ha, which changes the meaning of the sentence somewhat but I translated it according to the lyrics and not to what Danchou sung.
** The little warumono didn't sing what he wrote once again, and this time I can't even translate what he did write so I went with what I heard.
*** I think he means something along the lines of "don't lose hope by what you see around you" but it's not clear and requires personal interpretation I guess.
**** I may have the volume up loud but I'm not deaf. He clearly sings "iki" and not "kachi" although the lyrics say otherwise. Translated according to what I hear.
***** I can hear an extra "ga" in there that the lyrics don't have. Translating with that in there. Goddamnit Danchou stop being lazy and provide us with some correct lyrics >.> I hate it when artists do that.
『Jigokuchou』 (Hell Butterfly)
　　　　Lyrics：団長/Music：【新興宗教楽団NoGoD】
捻くれた理想
hinekurete risou
contrary to your dreams
綺麗に並べて
kirei ni narabete
and juxtaposed to them
水槽の中に浮かべてれば
suisou no naka ni ukabetera ba
is you floating within a fish tank
それで満足かい
sorede manzoku kai
that grants me satisfaction
揚羽蝶の様な
agehachou no you na
Like a swallowtail butterfly
小さいその羽
chiisaiso no hane
with tiny wings
か弱く羽ばたかせているなら
kayowaku habata kaseteiru nara
my frail, scrawny wings are flapping
地に足を着け歩け*
chi ni ashi wo tsukeru ke
to keep pace with the earth
(※デスボ※×３...×２)
(DESUBO)**
生温い風を纏いながら
namanuii kaze wo matoi nagara
As the wind entwines halfheartedly around me
(※デスボ※×３...×２)
(DESUBO)**
鮮やかに踠(モガ)き生き続けろ
azayaka ni mogaki iki tsuzukeru***
I keep pace by flapping my wings brilliantly
この世は地獄と
konoyo ha jigoku to
In this hellish life
お前は蔑む
omae ha sagesumu
you despise
何も背負わずに　(それでも)
nani mo seou wazu ni (soredemo)
what little things burden you (nevertheless)
この獣道を歩き続けるが良い　woo...
kono kemonomichi**** wo aruki tsuzukeru ga ii
Be prepared to continue walking down this path
少し甘やかし過ぎてしまったな
sukoshi amayakashi sugiteshi matta na
Few with a spoiled upbringing make it this far
口で言っても分からないなら
kuchi de iutte mo wakaranai nara
to the gate whose name they call out but do not know
その体に刻んでやろう
sono karada ni kizamundeyarou
this is engraved upon their body
少女はこれから
shoujo ha kore kara
now little girl
足を踏み入れる
ashi wo fumie ireru*****
the scriptures set at your feet show
本当の地獄へ
hontou no jigoku e
the reality of going to hell
想像を超える
souzou wo koeru
let your imagination toy with the thought
これぞ狂気の沙汰　woo...
korezo kyoukinosata
of committing this unfathomable act
(※デスボ※)
(DESUBO)
四肢は引き裂かれ
shishi ha hiki sakere
your limbs burst from the tugging
光を奪われ
hikari wa ubawate
light is snatched away from you
音を無くしても　(それでも)
oto wo nakushite mo (soredemo)
without a sound (but still)
また世迷言
mata yomaigoto
you continue to mutter nonsense
吐く事が出来るか
haku koto ga dekiru ka
accustomed to telling lies in
「この世は地獄だ」　と
[konoyo wa jigoku da] to...
[this hellish world] and....
* what is written isn't sung. translated as to what is sung.
** DESU means death the way it's written and then BO can be construed as a boa or a boar. Death Boa/Boar? It also has nothing to do with what the NoGoD crew are screaming since I can't make it out and I'm just gonna go with what I have here. I'm also going to throw out that Satan was a snake and the title does translate as hell butterfly (and their name is NoGoD)....
Then again...
"Artemis, the goddess of hunting, mountains and forests, is the most closely linked with the wild boar. As a wild and fierce animal, the boar was regarded as a symbol of one side of Artemis' nature, capable of unleashing sudden, violent destruction on humans and property. The Kalydonian boar was regarded as an instrument of her vengeance, sent by Artemis against King Oeneus because he had failed to offer her the first fruits of his harvest. Her sacred buildings were often decorated with images of boars' heads."
So I haven't a fucking clue what it's supposed to mean but at least they tackle all religions, no matter how many deities there may be...
*** I was about to quit over this sentence. The kanji he uses for "mogaki" is 椀, which is slang for "flappers" (like from the 1920's) and then the word iki was written meaning "freshness/stet" but what does that have to do with anything in the sentence?I also seem to notice that Japanese tends to repeat verbs twice in some sentences, especially Danchou when he has to fill out the syllables so I went and combined two of them and then tried to make some sort of coherent sentence that fits, sounds "NoGoD-dy", and still uses half the words in the sentence. I used the flapper connotation as to the motion of his wings and the rest of the sentence just...evaporated on the Notepad page. If anyone can provide a better translation I'll gladly take it but that's the best I could really do for those two lines. Damn obsfucation of kanji....
**** the word he uses translates accurately as "animal trail"
***** fumie means something along the lines of "Christian tablets and scriptures"
Ban Kuro Shinsou Dai Circus
shinda kao shiteru soko no ojousan
This daughter of yours has a face playing dead
sorede iki teitei nani tanoshii n'jai
and because of that lofty freshness it is something enjoyable
kizu darake no ude misebirakasu tatte
even if i'm flaunting this wound drenched in blood
soko ni bigaku nado kanji hashi naize
those aesthetics and so on don't have an impression
sonna anata ni ha misete age mashou
like yours that give rise to
saikou no goraku shikou no ENTATEIMENTO
the best amusement the most supreme entertainment
hajime you tamanori doukeshi (piero) kokoro wo udeshite subete tokihanade
let's start with a pierrot balancing on a ball, his heart quivering up until he is set free
koko de wa omou ga mama ni buranko mo moeru hi no wa mo
At this place you can think of doing what you desire, like swinging into a ring of fire
moujuu tachi mo kyoukugeishi tachi mo subete ha anata no tame ni
or becoming one of those honored beasts, or even a bunch of acrobats! It's all thanks to the
CIRCUS no makuake sa
opening of the circus
hora miagete goran yo hosoi tsuna wo wataroutosuru
everyone try to look at me please as I cross this slender rope
karen na ano shoujo wa maru de darekasan ni yoku iteru
skillfully to that frozen, pretty maiden over there
fuan to kufu de ashi wo fumidasezu ni iru
anxiety and terror for my life clutches my legs as i step forward
me no mae no darekasan to
looking for that person i saw before and...
(lalala~...)
hajime you tamanori doukeshi (piero) kokoro wo udeshite subete tokihanade
let's start with a pierrot balancing on a ball, his heart quivering up until he is set free
koko de wa omou ga mama ni me wo tojite omoideshitara
At this place you can do whatever you like. Close your eyes and remember that
itsudemo e eru yo minna
Everything can always be understood
matteiru
waiting...
sorosoro
slowly...
Dai-CIRCUS no maku wo oroshi te
The large CIRCUS' curtain is lowered
oyasumi
Good Night!
That's about all I can do for you.

I think the world has enough hide tribute albums to last us until Hell freezes over.

I'm determined to spark a shitstorm with my opinions sooner or later.

BABYMETAL isn't the spawn of Satan
 
Sexism at it's finest, really. BABYMETAL has succeeded at doing what the visual kei scene has failed at repeatedly - juxtaposing music and appearance in such a way as to confuse the listener. It's unorthodox, it's original, it's exactly the same reason why plenty of people say they listen to visual kei...and yet they get lambasted for it over and over and over again.
 
BABYMETAL plays the same kind of music that's popular within the visual kei scene, which is deathcore mixed with pop hooks and a ton of electronic influence. I would expect the same people that like those kinds of bands to at least tolerate their existence, if not enjoy them as something familiar yet different. But once again the hivemind takes over. Since one person decided they didn't like it, everyone else hops on the bandwagon without listening for themselves.
 
Inevitably, I come across someone that says that they don't like their style of music, yet has in their collection plenty of bands that use the same formula. Oops. 

True facts right here, if Black Gene For The Next Scene or REALies covered メギツネ (which sounds exactly like what they've tried to do and have failed at for the last forever and a half), I would bet my bottom dollar nothing but praise would be lobbed at those bands for getting back in shape, improving their squeals and writing actual riffs. 

Disclaimer:  BABYMETAL isn't the greatest band to squeal into a breakdown or three. They just get a lot more hate than they deserve because people care too much about what other people think of their music taste and in the visual kei world it's easy to hate "pop music" or anything associated with it.
 

I'm determined to spark a shitstorm with my opinions sooner or later.

BABYMETAL isn't the spawn of Satan
 
Sexism at it's finest, really. BABYMETAL has succeeded at doing what the visual kei scene has failed at repeatedly - juxtaposing music and appearance in such a way as to confuse the listener. It's unorthodox, it's original, it's exactly the same reason why plenty of people say they listen to visual kei...and yet they get lambasted for it over and over and over again.
 
BABYMETAL plays the same kind of music that's popular within the visual kei scene, which is deathcore mixed with pop hooks and a ton of electronic influence. I would expect the same people that like those kinds of bands to at least tolerate their existence, if not enjoy them as something familiar yet different. But once again the hivemind takes over. Since one person decided they didn't like it, everyone else hops on the bandwagon without listening for themselves.
 
Inevitably, I come across someone that says that they don't like their style of music, yet has in their collection plenty of bands that use the same formula. Oops. 

True facts right here, if Black Gene For The Next Scene or REALies covered メギツネ (which sounds exactly like what they've tried to do and have failed at for the last forever and a half), I would bet my bottom dollar nothing but praise would be lobbed at those bands for getting back in shape, improving their squeals and writing actual riffs. 

Disclaimer:  BABYMETAL isn't the greatest band to squeal into a breakdown or three. They just get a lot more hate than they deserve because people care too much about what other people think of their music taste and in the visual kei world it's easy to hate "pop music" or anything associated with it.
 

I'm determined to spark a shitstorm with my opinions sooner or later.

BABYMETAL isn't the spawn of Satan
 
Sexism at it's finest, really. BABYMETAL has succeeded at doing what the visual kei scene has failed at repeatedly - juxtaposing music and appearance in such a way as to confuse the listener. It's unorthodox, it's original, it's exactly the same reason why plenty of people say they listen to visual kei...and yet they get lambasted for it over and over and over again.
 
BABYMETAL plays the same kind of music that's popular within the visual kei scene, which is deathcore mixed with pop hooks and a ton of electronic influence. I would expect the same people that like those kinds of bands to at least tolerate their existence, if not enjoy them as something familiar yet different. But once again the hivemind takes over. Since one person decided they didn't like it, everyone else hops on the bandwagon without listening for themselves.
 
Inevitably, I come across someone that says that they don't like their style of music, yet has in their collection plenty of bands that use the same formula. Oops. 

True facts right here, if Black Gene For The Next Scene or REALies covered メギツネ (which sounds exactly like what they've tried to do and have failed at for the last forever and a half), I would bet my bottom dollar nothing but praise would be lobbed at those bands for getting back in shape, improving their squeals and writing actual riffs. 

Disclaimer:  BABYMETAL isn't the greatest band to squeal into a breakdown or three. They just get a lot more hate than they deserve because people care too much about what other people think of their music taste and in the visual kei world it's easy to hate "pop music" or anything associated with it.
 

Bands heaven in her arms and COHOL have announced that they will be releasing a split CD 刻光 on September 25th through Daymare Recordings. The first three tracks are done by heaven in her arms. The last three are done by COHOL.

1.黒い閃光
2.繭
3.終焉の眩しさ
4.不毛の地
5.木霊
6.疎外
A tour with COHOL and heaven in her arms is also planned. Details should come soon.

I'm determined to spark a shitstorm with my opinions sooner or later.

BABYMETAL isn't the spawn of Satan
 
Sexism at it's finest, really. BABYMETAL has succeeded at doing what the visual kei scene has failed at repeatedly - juxtaposing music and appearance in such a way as to confuse the listener. It's unorthodox, it's original, it's exactly the same reason why plenty of people say they listen to visual kei...and yet they get lambasted for it over and over and over again.
 
BABYMETAL plays the same kind of music that's popular within the visual kei scene, which is deathcore mixed with pop hooks and a ton of electronic influence. I would expect the same people that like those kinds of bands to at least tolerate their existence, if not enjoy them as something familiar yet different. But once again the hivemind takes over. Since one person decided they didn't like it, everyone else hops on the bandwagon without listening for themselves.
 
Inevitably, I come across someone that says that they don't like their style of music, yet has in their collection plenty of bands that use the same formula. Oops. 

True facts right here, if Black Gene For The Next Scene or REALies covered メギツネ (which sounds exactly like what they've tried to do and have failed at for the last forever and a half), I would bet my bottom dollar nothing but praise would be lobbed at those bands for getting back in shape, improving their squeals and writing actual riffs. 

Disclaimer:  BABYMETAL isn't the greatest band to squeal into a breakdown or three. They just get a lot more hate than they deserve because people care too much about what other people think of their music taste and in the visual kei world it's easy to hate "pop music" or anything associated with it.
 

I'm determined to spark a shitstorm with my opinions sooner or later.

BABYMETAL isn't the spawn of Satan
 
Sexism at it's finest, really. BABYMETAL has succeeded at doing what the visual kei scene has failed at repeatedly - juxtaposing music and appearance in such a way as to confuse the listener. It's unorthodox, it's original, it's exactly the same reason why plenty of people say they listen to visual kei...and yet they get lambasted for it over and over and over again.
 
BABYMETAL plays the same kind of music that's popular within the visual kei scene, which is deathcore mixed with pop hooks and a ton of electronic influence. I would expect the same people that like those kinds of bands to at least tolerate their existence, if not enjoy them as something familiar yet different. But once again the hivemind takes over. Since one person decided they didn't like it, everyone else hops on the bandwagon without listening for themselves.
 
Inevitably, I come across someone that says that they don't like their style of music, yet has in their collection plenty of bands that use the same formula. Oops. 

True facts right here, if Black Gene For The Next Scene or REALies covered メギツネ (which sounds exactly like what they've tried to do and have failed at for the last forever and a half), I would bet my bottom dollar nothing but praise would be lobbed at those bands for getting back in shape, improving their squeals and writing actual riffs. 

Disclaimer:  BABYMETAL isn't the greatest band to squeal into a breakdown or three. They just get a lot more hate than they deserve because people care too much about what other people think of their music taste and in the visual kei world it's easy to hate "pop music" or anything associated with it.
 

I'm determined to spark a shitstorm with my opinions sooner or later.

BABYMETAL isn't the spawn of Satan
 
Sexism at it's finest, really. BABYMETAL has succeeded at doing what the visual kei scene has failed at repeatedly - juxtaposing music and appearance in such a way as to confuse the listener. It's unorthodox, it's original, it's exactly the same reason why plenty of people say they listen to visual kei...and yet they get lambasted for it over and over and over again.
 
BABYMETAL plays the same kind of music that's popular within the visual kei scene, which is deathcore mixed with pop hooks and a ton of electronic influence. I would expect the same people that like those kinds of bands to at least tolerate their existence, if not enjoy them as something familiar yet different. But once again the hivemind takes over. Since one person decided they didn't like it, everyone else hops on the bandwagon without listening for themselves.
 
Inevitably, I come across someone that says that they don't like their style of music, yet has in their collection plenty of bands that use the same formula. Oops. 

True facts right here, if Black Gene For The Next Scene or REALies covered メギツネ (which sounds exactly like what they've tried to do and have failed at for the last forever and a half), I would bet my bottom dollar nothing but praise would be lobbed at those bands for getting back in shape, improving their squeals and writing actual riffs. 

Disclaimer:  BABYMETAL isn't the greatest band to squeal into a breakdown or three. They just get a lot more hate than they deserve because people care too much about what other people think of their music taste and in the visual kei world it's easy to hate "pop music" or anything associated with it.
 

I think the world has enough hide tribute albums to last us until Hell freezes over.

Bands heaven in her arms and COHOL have announced that they will be releasing a split CD 刻光 on September 25th through Daymare Recordings. The first three tracks are done by heaven in her arms. The last three are done by COHOL.

1.黒い閃光
2.繭
3.終焉の眩しさ
4.不毛の地
5.木霊
6.疎外
A tour with COHOL and heaven in her arms is also planned. Details should come soon.

wow who would have thought it'd be possible to gather so many shitty bandnames on one album

While listening to the single to write this review, I wrote down three words that jump out at me just based, just from listening to the music. I tried to not think about the context, any expectations, hype, nor previous accomplishments surrounding the music because they would only deter rather than accompany. The results were as follows: celebratory, majestic, and epic. Throughout many points of this song, I get a jubilous vibe from the main guitar melody--a triumphant return is the mental picture I had painted. There's something very 'congratulatory' about this piece, and I'm at a loss as to what it could be. It could be the theme of the song is just very celebratory, since I am assuming it deals with receiving a blessing going off the title alone, in general because it is a Hizaki power metal composition, or it could have a more pointed message--"we lost him." Hizaki has been composing A-sides for Versailles since their 2nd album and they all have the same sort of feel as "Blessing of the Future," but this particular example seems a lot more liberated. The melody seems less forced, the flow seems more natural, and it appears that there has been time dedicated to this song to give it the life that I felt "Philia," and to some extent "Rose," was missing.
 
Maybe the celebration lies within a rejuvenation. The music video for BOTF suggests this since the main story, hidden amidst glamor shots, side views of highly embroidered guitars, and rococo furniture, follows an elderly lady whom eventually becomes reborn as a younger version of herself. To draw clearer parallels, this song is not an example of much change of style--in fact,it very well could be dismissed as "Versailles with another vocalist"--but rather it is a similar style jump started to be exciting and...not new, but nostalgic. The woman in the video becomes 'reborn,' er, rather, de-aged(?): she didn't undergo metempsychosis, but rather she was recreated as herself in a new(er) state. I think this is the point of "Blessing of the Future" and why it sounds celebratory: it is the recreation of an old style in a new(er) representation without the burden of being decrepit and tired weighing it down. Conversely, the shedding of something old to be reborn into a more graceful version of oneself could also be and underlying theme elsewhere, in case there are other people seeing the shade in this single as well. Let's say the album art is a good place to start.
 
This spark is what prompted my other two descriptors: "majestic" and "epic." I'm assuming that if you've listened to this single, you've heard how Hizaki writes songs. That same sort of flashy writing is found here as well: sweeping arpeggios, flourished turns, and slight breaks in speed every so often to recollect and recompose itself as a remind that they are, in fact, still civil and poised metal musicians. "Epic" in this sense comes from the driving chorus, dueling guitar solo, and echoing vocals found in many other examples of power metal--"epic" in the sense of The Odyssey, The Iliad,  or tales of King Arthur, not "epic" like 2009 vomited all over my keyboard. Tales of knights and horses and vampire bdsm princes can still run through my head just as they had in the old band. The bombastic and highfalutin elements of passion that make power metal what it is are all found here.
 
As I listen to this song more, I find that it grows on me. Originally Zin didn't do a whole lot for me, but he's evolved from 'grating' to 'he has potential.' I still feel his voice is very similar to that of Akira from Mirage's, and his vibratto could use more control. The kid has some big shoes to fill, but I think he'll grow into them. I did notice a few Versailles-ism here and there, such as the mild parts in between the chorus and bridges and some of the guitar flourishes, but that is to be expected (and welcomed). There is also one small part in the song where the guitar and bass die down and it is just Zin and some orchestral support (around 4:40) that sounded very Symphony-X inspired (specifically "Masquerade") to me, so I'm glad that the influences are being expanded upon.
 
Overall, "Blessing of the Future," to me, did not change my life in the same way Versailles did, and it would be highly unfair of me to expect that it would. But the more I think about it, the more I kind of view this band like an old franchise. Take Pokemon, for example. That's been around for long enough that the original fandom now has kids who are old enough to enjoy it on their own. Do the parents love everything new that comes out and stay up late with their friends speculating what the 6th gen starters will evolve into? Probably not (much), but they still appreciate the mystery and excitement that might give their children as the show had once given them. In vkei standards, Versailles are fairly old, especially since they helped usher in a new standard for the visual-kei scene that demanded more technical skill and international availability and exposure. For me, that live changing experience isn't going to come again from these guys (whom are 3/5s of that original group), but for new fans to the scene they might find that excitement and passion here as I once did.
 
Moving on:
 
"Aria" is a much airier song in comparison, as it should have been. What I liked most about this song is that it still has some nice riffage while retaining it's melody and not being 200000 beats per minute. If you enjoyed "Desert Apple," chances are you'll also enjoy this song. It is interesting how the guitar parts really aren't all to neoclassical, but there still orchestra parts smattered here and there. It is apparent that this was a first attempt by Hizaki in changing style to be anything but power metal. I really like the guitar solo in this song: it is very spacious with high pitched glissando popping in and out accompanied by a nice bass melody. Very very short in comparison to "Blessing of the Future," so if you're only here for the shredding I'd suggest skipping this song and the next. Overall, I found "Aria" to be pretty tranquil and a very pleasant listen. I feel like this will definitely grow in me over the upcoming months, but if you've been avoiding this band because you're afraid it is all technical wank, then I'd suggest starting here. "Desert Apple" + "Prince" + "Illusion," and you pretty much have "Aria."
 
"Shout Your Desire" is the song I feared the most. With that title, it could not possibly be anything other than a neovisual pop-punk song that any no name, but relatively popular here, band put out. Fortunately, it wasn't. Unfortunately, it was worse. Something about this song just makes me cringe. It sounds like the conglomeration of Deluhi, Taking Back Sunday, and NEW BREED to me: all three of which, when mixed together, cause great intestine discomfort. This song was composed by Teru and this was undoubtedly him trying to write something that wasn't speed metal nor metalcore. Unfortunately, this experiment failed miserably I am hoping that the future blesses us with more genre experimentation that is a bit more fruitful.
 
Now, this song isn't -that bad-, alright? It is listenable, but it is awfully generic and, to me, the kind of song that leaves me feeling uninspired, bored, and wishing I were doing something else that wasn't listening to this. I'm really not sure about a lot of things with this song: why are Zin's vocals so strained at certain points when he "shouts his desire?" Why is the guitar solo so unnecessary? If you've read my blog before, you may recall me griping about unneeded guitar solos and shredding for the sake of "because I can." I feel visual-kei is full of them because it is a marketing tool to flaunt band members and "talent" in an effort to further solidify false identities. As a result, a lot of songs have guitar solos that don't fit in musically because they had to have one. D is the worst culprit when it comes to this. Without much more digression, "Shout Your Desire" has one of those obligasolos (obligatory + solo). They could have gotten away with a variation on the main guitar riff, or just left the first airy section in.
 
"STOP!"
 
All in all, Blessing of the Future was a good single. I only disliked one of the songs on it, which is pretty typical for single releases. Thankfully the upcoming album doesn't have all of these songs on it as filler.
 
Since people here like rating things in numbers and stars, here is mine:
 
Blessing of the Future:
Aria:
Shout Your Desire:
 
4+4+1.5 = 9.5 / 3 = 3.1666666 stars out of 5.

Since I can't stand the Mejibray/GazettE-stanning that's taken over this topic and has gotten away from the original intent, I'm bringing it back. I'm also giving you all something new to talk about since new unpopular opinions have ceased to surface over the last page or so.

Visual kei is not a genre or an aesthetic movement. It's a paradoxical manifestation of an anomaly against the negatives of Japanese culture.

This is closely related to the problem of "what is visual kei?".

Stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia, a genre is defined as
 
 
We can stop right here. Before you start processing the definition, ask yourself "what is visual kei"? We can have a ten page discussion about that in this topic right now and still not come to a consensus. Visual kei is an open-ended, ill-defined term exploited by both us and the bands in the scene to refer to whatever we please. We agree to disagree on what the term is supposed to mean and take it at face value when someone tells us that a band is or isn't visual kei anymore.

By definition, visual kei can't be a genre because we can only define it by what it is not, and very conservatively at that. The difference between newbies and veterans in the scene mostly comes down to context sensitivity determining band classification. What do I mean by this? Well, we can all look at a band or an idol group and very clearly say "this is not visual kei". But if we look at a visual kei band next to a band that uses theatrical make-up and aesthetic elements, we get into murky territory. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Newbies lack the knowledge to make this distinction, and utilize only the looks to say whether or not a band is visual. Then, they get lashed upon by fans of that band who "don't want to associate this band with those bands" for getting it wrong, and they learn. Eventually they learn only to label a band as visual kei if they describe themselves as such or if someone else before them says it first. [1]

The thing is, the newbies have the right approach at first. They get into the scene, they hear that it's a genre, and seek to classify it. But before long they realize that over the span of twenty years, visual kei has birthed bands that sound very, very different. Going off of sound alone, all bands that were ever considered visual kei can't be connected short of a definition so vague it's useless. So then we turn to the costumes and theatrics and claim that as a large component of what makes a band visual. But even there, we can piece together different bands that don't look anything alike - some bands which don't look remotely visual at all - and claim they are all visual kei. Hell, lynch. has looked like a normal band for quite some time and there's still a heated debate to whether or not they're visual kei. On the first page of this very topic, one of the unpopular opinions was that "Dir en grey is still visual". Once again, you now have bands that have very little in common aesthetic wise and short of a very vague, useless definition we have nothing to go off of.

So I've basically run through this problem, haven't given a solution and haven't explained my point (or have I?). What gives?

Well as a fandom we tend to separate visual kei bands based on decades, so let's do that:

- The mysterious late 80's, which most of us like to pretend doesn't exist, full of bands that play some form of rock or metal.
- The music of the 90's, which is usually thought of as bands inspired by Victorian and goth costumes playing...well, whatever they want.
- The 00's, which was populated by lots of flashy costumes, usually subdivided into subkeis to better be able to classify and understand bands but still full of bands playing whatever they want.
- The 10's, which seems to have a preponderance of electronic elements in the music but for the most part still full of plenty of different bands playing whatever they please.

And even here we tend to simplify this as to "80s HAIR METAL, 90'S GOFF MUZIK, 00'S KEI ON KEI ACTION/RAWRCORE, 10'S WUB-WUBCORE", which illustrates the points I made above. As a fan, you get to a point where you realize that the term can't be defined and thus you stop. The working definition is "If a band wants to be visual kei, they'll be visual kei. When they don't, they're no longer visual kei". [2]  So doesn't this describe a movement, which brings together people just as different for a common cause? Let's go through all of the things that should make a movement and see if it lines up.

Well let's see:

- Coordinated group action. Well, visual kei isn't very rebellious or subversive, outside of the low barrier to entry being offensive to some people's ears and the costumes being offensive to some people's eyes. Unless there is this entire "point" they all share that we've missed for forever and a day, I believe that most bands focus on staying functional over staying Stallman-esque in their beliefs. [3] And frankly, I can't blame them. Pragmatism rules. [4]

- A common cause. But what is that cause and do all bands share it? As I said above, we really don't think of visual kei as something as much as we do as an entity against something. But even that "entity" changes over time, reflected by the different forms of visual kei. So do the bands of the late 80's and the bands of today share the same goal? Yes and no. [5]

- People from different walks of life. We can't say too much because we don't know the details of most musicians. Note however that on a macro scale most visual kei bands are Japanese and many tend to gravitate around a few cities on the mainland. We also can surmise that a lot of these musicians are poor or struggling. We also haven't seen the scene take root in any other countries with similar situations. In this sense, it represents a truly Japanese problem - disillusioned youth versus "The System". If it's a movement here, it's on a small scale.

Visual kei is too anti-classification to be a genre and too inconclusive to be a movement. So what is it?

My admittedly semantic description of visual kei is that of a paradoxical anomaly. It exists, full of people perpetuating it unaware of it's purpose, fighting against an issue that plagues the Japanese society whilst embodying almost every characteristic of that society. What is that issue? Well, I believe the issue lies in the extreme conformity and deference to authority found in the society, coupled with high expectations placed upon every member of that society, along with a thirty year recession that has stagnated the Japanese economy and makes it hard to achieve the life every Japanese person feels it is their duty to obtain.

A strictly Japanese problem. [6]

Visual kei exists as an antagonist to everything in that society, even definition, because it refuses to conform. It's piloted by people who know full they may never see success but toil anyway as a gigantic "FUCK YOU" to their society. It's also mostly populated by young people with the drive and ambition to change their surroundings but no means to achieve that change (and older people who exploit these young people for the cash they'll never see, bringing the entire scene into territory so meta it hurts). When those kids grow up and lose their drive, as after years of fighting against this nebulous problem they watch it shift into something new but no less harmful, they give up, slip into the routine, and become working salary men that can't be identified. It's an anomaly that just is, and that anomaly happens to make noise that we like to listen to.

To pigeonhole visual kei into anything else misses the political and cultural significance that caused it's birth.

tl;dr - Visual kei is the Japanese "hippie culture" of the 60's, with no Vietnam War in sight to bring it to an end. [7]

Notes:

Here I extrapolate on points that I wanted to make above and didn't because I didn't want to go on a tangent and not come back.

[1] This is my personal belief behind why revival bands like Grieva and Ru:natic will never see a resurgence. The forms that visual kei took in the 90's was in resistance to the culture and expectations of the 90's. The world is an irreversibly different place and thus visual kei must change along with it. This is also why I believe that visual kei is not an aesthetic - the fashion world moves in cycles much shorter than 30 years. Visual kei hasn't repeated a phase to date. That's why I believe it supersedes such a definition.

[2] Not only does this loose definition work but it reflects a lot of what I get into later in my argument. Most importantly, that it gives an element of control back to the band. I've read in multiple places that the Japanese populace don't feel like they have much choice - they must succeed in school, get into better schools, succeed there, get a good job, start a family, etc. - and then must face a wall of depression when they realize that most can't get to the head of the pack and they didn't. By sticking to this definition, bands can have a say in a core element which defines them.

[3] Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project. Read up on him to see what ideals unbounded by pragmatism really is. Hint: it sounds like crazy.

[4] When bands have no motivation or have run out of reasons to continue they sometimes disband for no reason. On the other side of that coin, some bands are so tight knit that they feel as if they can't function if a member leaves. But at the heart of it all, many bands don't put ideals and beliefs over success. Those that have them use them alongside the visuals and their music - and even then if it becomes too hard they quit or if they become successful they tone it down or cut it out completely. See, NoGoD.

[5] Even more interestingly, visual kei itself tends to conform in ways, which subverts the point of the whole thing. It's like a military group led by a dictator attacking a dictatorial government for its evils. This is why I refrain from calling it a movement, because it itself embodies the very principles it seeks to combat.

[6] Which is why "overseas visual kei" will never take off. The societal conditions are not right for it to spawn. YOHIO and Seremedy are second-order simulacra.

[7] After WWII, Japan isn't allowed to have a real standing army so it isn't in it's best interest to get into conflicts. I meant it literally. In another sense, you could say that the counterculture of the 60's was against "The System" but manifested itself through the War. Once the War ended, the culture had little reason to exist. Since visual kei doesn't have such a clear cut enemy, it will continue on for much longer. This is also why visual kei can't "die".

Since I can't stand the Mejibray/GazettE-stanning that's taken over this topic and has gotten away from the original intent, I'm bringing it back. I'm also giving you all something new to talk about since new unpopular opinions have ceased to surface over the last page or so.

Visual kei is not a genre or an aesthetic movement. It's a paradoxical manifestation of an anomaly against the negatives of Japanese culture.

This is closely related to the problem of "what is visual kei?".

Stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia, a genre is defined as
 
 
We can stop right here. Before you start processing the definition, ask yourself "what is visual kei"? We can have a ten page discussion about that in this topic right now and still not come to a consensus. Visual kei is an open-ended, ill-defined term exploited by both us and the bands in the scene to refer to whatever we please. We agree to disagree on what the term is supposed to mean and take it at face value when someone tells us that a band is or isn't visual kei anymore.

By definition, visual kei can't be a genre because we can only define it by what it is not, and very conservatively at that. The difference between newbies and veterans in the scene mostly comes down to context sensitivity determining band classification. What do I mean by this? Well, we can all look at a band or an idol group and very clearly say "this is not visual kei". But if we look at a visual kei band next to a band that uses theatrical make-up and aesthetic elements, we get into murky territory. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Newbies lack the knowledge to make this distinction, and utilize only the looks to say whether or not a band is visual. Then, they get lashed upon by fans of that band who "don't want to associate this band with those bands" for getting it wrong, and they learn. Eventually they learn only to label a band as visual kei if they describe themselves as such or if someone else before them says it first. [1]

The thing is, the newbies have the right approach at first. They get into the scene, they hear that it's a genre, and seek to classify it. But before long they realize that over the span of twenty years, visual kei has birthed bands that sound very, very different. Going off of sound alone, all bands that were ever considered visual kei can't be connected short of a definition so vague it's useless. So then we turn to the costumes and theatrics and claim that as a large component of what makes a band visual. But even there, we can piece together different bands that don't look anything alike - some bands which don't look remotely visual at all - and claim they are all visual kei. Hell, lynch. has looked like a normal band for quite some time and there's still a heated debate to whether or not they're visual kei. On the first page of this very topic, one of the unpopular opinions was that "Dir en grey is still visual". Once again, you now have bands that have very little in common aesthetic wise and short of a very vague, useless definition we have nothing to go off of.

So I've basically run through this problem, haven't given a solution and haven't explained my point (or have I?). What gives?

Well as a fandom we tend to separate visual kei bands based on decades, so let's do that:

- The mysterious late 80's, which most of us like to pretend doesn't exist, full of bands that play some form of rock or metal.
- The music of the 90's, which is usually thought of as bands inspired by Victorian and goth costumes playing...well, whatever they want.
- The 00's, which was populated by lots of flashy costumes, usually subdivided into subkeis to better be able to classify and understand bands but still full of bands playing whatever they want.
- The 10's, which seems to have a preponderance of electronic elements in the music but for the most part still full of plenty of different bands playing whatever they please.

And even here we tend to simplify this as to "80s HAIR METAL, 90'S GOFF MUZIK, 00'S KEI ON KEI ACTION/RAWRCORE, 10'S WUB-WUBCORE", which illustrates the points I made above. As a fan, you get to a point where you realize that the term can't be defined and thus you stop. The working definition is "If a band wants to be visual kei, they'll be visual kei. When they don't, they're no longer visual kei". [2]  So doesn't this describe a movement, which brings together people just as different for a common cause? Let's go through all of the things that should make a movement and see if it lines up.

Well let's see:

- Coordinated group action. Well, visual kei isn't very rebellious or subversive, outside of the low barrier to entry being offensive to some people's ears and the costumes being offensive to some people's eyes. Unless there is this entire "point" they all share that we've missed for forever and a day, I believe that most bands focus on staying functional over staying Stallman-esque in their beliefs. [3] And frankly, I can't blame them. Pragmatism rules. [4]

- A common cause. But what is that cause and do all bands share it? As I said above, we really don't think of visual kei as something as much as we do as an entity against something. But even that "entity" changes over time, reflected by the different forms of visual kei. So do the bands of the late 80's and the bands of today share the same goal? Yes and no. [5]

- People from different walks of life. We can't say too much because we don't know the details of most musicians. Note however that on a macro scale most visual kei bands are Japanese and many tend to gravitate around a few cities on the mainland. We also can surmise that a lot of these musicians are poor or struggling. We also haven't seen the scene take root in any other countries with similar situations. In this sense, it represents a truly Japanese problem - disillusioned youth versus "The System". If it's a movement here, it's on a small scale.

Visual kei is too anti-classification to be a genre and too inconclusive to be a movement. So what is it?

My admittedly semantic description of visual kei is that of a paradoxical anomaly. It exists, full of people perpetuating it unaware of it's purpose, fighting against an issue that plagues the Japanese society whilst embodying almost every characteristic of that society. What is that issue? Well, I believe the issue lies in the extreme conformity and deference to authority found in the society, coupled with high expectations placed upon every member of that society, along with a thirty year recession that has stagnated the Japanese economy and makes it hard to achieve the life every Japanese person feels it is their duty to obtain.

A strictly Japanese problem. [6]

Visual kei exists as an antagonist to everything in that society, even definition, because it refuses to conform. It's piloted by people who know full they may never see success but toil anyway as a gigantic "FUCK YOU" to their society. It's also mostly populated by young people with the drive and ambition to change their surroundings but no means to achieve that change (and older people who exploit these young people for the cash they'll never see, bringing the entire scene into territory so meta it hurts). When those kids grow up and lose their drive, as after years of fighting against this nebulous problem they watch it shift into something new but no less harmful, they give up, slip into the routine, and become working salary men that can't be identified. It's an anomaly that just is, and that anomaly happens to make noise that we like to listen to.

To pigeonhole visual kei into anything else misses the political and cultural significance that caused it's birth.

tl;dr - Visual kei is the Japanese "hippie culture" of the 60's, with no Vietnam War in sight to bring it to an end. [7]

Notes:

Here I extrapolate on points that I wanted to make above and didn't because I didn't want to go on a tangent and not come back.

[1] This is my personal belief behind why revival bands like Grieva and Ru:natic will never see a resurgence. The forms that visual kei took in the 90's was in resistance to the culture and expectations of the 90's. The world is an irreversibly different place and thus visual kei must change along with it. This is also why I believe that visual kei is not an aesthetic - the fashion world moves in cycles much shorter than 30 years. Visual kei hasn't repeated a phase to date. That's why I believe it supersedes such a definition.

[2] Not only does this loose definition work but it reflects a lot of what I get into later in my argument. Most importantly, that it gives an element of control back to the band. I've read in multiple places that the Japanese populace don't feel like they have much choice - they must succeed in school, get into better schools, succeed there, get a good job, start a family, etc. - and then must face a wall of depression when they realize that most can't get to the head of the pack and they didn't. By sticking to this definition, bands can have a say in a core element which defines them.

[3] Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project. Read up on him to see what ideals unbounded by pragmatism really is. Hint: it sounds like crazy.

[4] When bands have no motivation or have run out of reasons to continue they sometimes disband for no reason. On the other side of that coin, some bands are so tight knit that they feel as if they can't function if a member leaves. But at the heart of it all, many bands don't put ideals and beliefs over success. Those that have them use them alongside the visuals and their music - and even then if it becomes too hard they quit or if they become successful they tone it down or cut it out completely. See, NoGoD.

[5] Even more interestingly, visual kei itself tends to conform in ways, which subverts the point of the whole thing. It's like a military group led by a dictator attacking a dictatorial government for its evils. This is why I refrain from calling it a movement, because it itself embodies the very principles it seeks to combat.

[6] Which is why "overseas visual kei" will never take off. The societal conditions are not right for it to spawn. YOHIO and Seremedy are second-order simulacra.

[7] After WWII, Japan isn't allowed to have a real standing army so it isn't in it's best interest to get into conflicts. I meant it literally. In another sense, you could say that the counterculture of the 60's was against "The System" but manifested itself through the War. Once the War ended, the culture had little reason to exist. Since visual kei doesn't have such a clear cut enemy, it will continue on for much longer. This is also why visual kei can't "die".