Manabu

Somewhat on the one punch man/saitama routine, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and a 3 mile jog (no hair loss yet) Honestly with how much Visual Kei there is to listen to walking/jogging is one of the best ways to digest it.

I can't remember which sets they're in but when I played I used a shiranui deck, focuses on the graveyard and extra summoning a lot with a lot of extra effects, very good for overwhelming opponents. Because it's the steam sale I've been buying a lot of Sonic games (really loving all stars racing) as well as Jet Set Radio

I'd argue that it is quite important because in my opinion there are two vocal techniques that are staples of most forms of Visual kei, those being Falsetto and Vibrato but obviously not every group employ these and during the years when Oshare Kei and the western inspired metal stylings were popular these techniques weren't nearly as popular. I wouldn't call it subpar but visual kei has a far smaller talent pool and with it having such a high disbandment rate it can hard for vocalists to stay in music consistently and improve their vocals. As for some good vocalists, I really rate Chizuru from the group 'Pentagon' (not the k-pop group) Debatable but that's one of his best performances in my opinion, good use of techniques Annoyingly I can't find the song I wanted to show you but Akuta from Chanty has the blessings of having a unique voice and good technique You might have to delve quite deep to find some great vocalists (I'd recommend listening to more of Chanty and Pentagon than just the songs I've posted)

There are a lot of blogs floating around that still have download links, quite a few died but there are some that still have links, drop me a message if you need any of them

I got my votes the wrong way round sadly (I put my best as the worst and vice versa) First and foremost This is a 16 track album as well and Mucc definitely bit off more than they could chew An average experience with no songs that are entirely terrible but very few songs that are worth returning to, most of the songs I found decent sounded like filler and just lacked any form of staying power., There was always a nice phrase, rhythm or melody but they were never enough to make me want to hear the songs again. On the other hand I found that most of the songs I disliked at least had some attempt to stray from being played out metal even if it didn't work out that well. There were a few idea's floating around but none ever seemed executed that well, songs like Sandman were a bit different but felt messy and hastily composed, Overdrive was going for a skate-punk vibe but feels almost too fast with it's short length and somewhat awkward structure ruining the flow of the track. アメリア has a nice chorus and the second half of the song is far better than the first but you're listening to 2-3 minutes of standard nu-metal bounce, Maya fiddling on guitar and Tatsurou just talking to get to it. Both COBALT and スーパーヒーロー feel like the group is on auto-pilot, funnily enough these were two of the tracks I liked more but they're arguably the most forgettable. Then there are songs that have potential yet never really fulfil it, Friday the 13th has the brilliant 1950's diner-esque dance piano running through it but can't capitalise on it meanwhile 海月 offers a lot of dynamics with it's mix of synths, pianos and tones but they can't come together to make a truly great track. Lastly songs like 自己嫌惡 and My WORLD (惡 MIX) although not great at least have a few good parts but are muddied by shoehorned metal that seems to be there just for the sake of switching things up, I can appreciate that but this a technique Mucc use so liberally throughout this album.

I'd argue it's a natural phenomenon and I think it's entirely understandable in small amounts, particularly when a relationship is in it's early stages or the admiration for each other is intense and imo sometimes it stems from how the other person views the time together, if you've hardly seen your partner but you've been out with other people, playing video games etc then I'd understand the jealousy. I think it's something that eventually dies out as both people become more trusting but as Platy said, it's heavily reliant on communication. There also needs to be a line drawn when it's too much, i.e. you're banned from going out, your time away from your partner becomes forcibly limited.

As the title suggests, what are some artists you wish had alter-ego groups? As well as that What genre of music would they play? What would their name be? Would members swap instruments? Would it even have all the same members? My first pick would be 'Develop One's Faculties' under the guise of 'Undeveloped Facilities'. They would play a pretty raw and heavy mix of punk/metal, I'd keep the members the same given Yuuya knows how to shout/scream decently and Johannes is one hell of a drummer

I'll suggest one of the many contributing factors for a high turnover rate is because VK is quite a 'gimmick' genre/subculture and generally gimmicks will only keep people entertained for so long, genre's like the new phase of emo music with groups like MCR and glam/hair metal had their time in the sun and spawned huge subcultures but died out as people grew up and got tired of it and I'd consider both of those as gimmick genre's where if you stripped back the clothing and tone of the groups, it wouldn't have had as much excitement around it. I think as people grow older things like the clothing and look of a band don't matter as much but they were certainly one of the elements that drew me in when I was younger and probably what draws in people nowadays. As well as people tiring of the gimmick of VK, I imagine people move over to K-pop because it's easier to find communities and like-minded people both online and in reality, I live in a very small city and work in a slightly larger town, I've maybe met three people that liked Dir En Grey but I've meant countless people that like BTS, Shinee, NCT etc.

Finally up to date on SNK, honestly how the plot has developed has been amazing. It's gearing up to be one of my favourites but it's not without it's flaws, Isayama has a habit of bringing back background characters that were in one or two chapters and use them as plot devices or trying to get the reader to care for them, it has varying degrees of success. Jojolion, I'm going to have to reread this once it's finished, the story is the most bizarre yet but it's been such a slow burner. There's a fair amount of mystery to this one but it's being drip fed, some great fights and cool concepts (still no Japanese rock stand or 'The Smiths' stand though) Dorohedoro, I'm amazed this manga even finished, iirc it went through three different publishers! I'm only on volume 5 but I'm liking it a lot, the art style is really unique and the story is quite interesting, only flaw so far is how inconsistent the bodies are.

Credit where credit is due, your vocals (both clean and scream) as well as the band are pretty good!

Ryou from Luna Sea singing 'prick-ed' instead of 'pricked' in Rosier. I love the song but it bugs me way too much.

This looks very hard to play but I need it

Sadly I haven't heard the original but I really like how your voice has a nice 'breath' quality to it and it suits this ballad. I've got a couple piano pieces written so hit me up when you've got your pop shield and we can collab!

Nikki from Chrono Cross seems quite influenced by VK, he's the guitarist of the band 'Magical Dreamers'

How much did those set you back? Right now I'm on the PS1 kick much like a few users here, going through a lot games with pre-rendered backgrounds, at the moment it's Digimon World and FF7

I think that's their only artist, arlequin aren't listed on their twitter or their homepage anymore.

That leaves Goemon Records with only one active artist, be interesting to see how they continue

I'd heard a lot about these guys and I really enjoyed their first singles and whilst this album isn't bad it doesn't feel like the group have released the best that they could. On one hand it feels and sounds like a throwback to the chunky metal variation of Visual Kei we had between 2007-2010 (not exact) but because of that a lot it feels dated and like we've heard it before, an example 火炎瓶 sounds so strikingly similar to Lynch's 'Enemy' from the opening low riff to the shout before the main theme starts and the actual main theme itself. Songs like 火炎瓶 can have such a creepy and ominous vibe to them yet fail to capitalise on it, SE and track intro's offer melodies and tones that sound straight from haunted house rides yet the band rarely go anywhere with it. There are definitely some good elements to it with songs like おやすみ。that offers a more unique sound than the rest of the album and 「悪人」which shows the band are more than just one note. In terms of individual instruments the vocals are almost like a highlight reel and whilst they do truly show off a variety of styles and techniques they can become really obnoxious with the for lack of a better term child like singing in the verse of 火炎瓶 or the horrible way he sings 'twink' in おやすみ。. Though there are songs like 「悪人」which whilst could be accused of over singing do highlight both a nice falsetto as well as the vocalists natural singing range. The guitar work is serviceable and mostly chord driven, you might hear one riff as a bridge or a light melody in the verse that isn't a chugging chord (although 「悪人」has a great solo and is the only track where the guitar can truly shine) but that's it. The bass sadly gets a bit drowned out but it does have it's moments like in 汚れた豚 where it provides rhythm as well as actual bass lines rather than strictly following the guitar and this style of playing pops up in a few songs. As for the drums, they range from the standard thrashing metal style to completely ruining the rhythm of some songs, it doesn't happen all that often but there are a few instances where there's too many snare and bass kick hits and comes off as sloppy. Overall the release was a bit disappointing, I don't think the band are bad and I actually really like the vocalist but it feels like the release as a whole needed more quality control. What's everyone else's opinion?

Haha it's fairly similar aside from Crash's jumps being a bit different as well as the original on PS1 only letting you save if you completed the hard as nails bonus stages or after specific stages, two is a more fair but challenging experience