CAT5

LMAO imma kill you [2] for that first video. I need to spend some more time with that Lianne album. I love her, but that one didn't grab me on first listen. I really think i'll grow on me, though! And YES for suiyoubi. I've seen a lot of criticism about the album, but I loved it personally. Probably because I hadn't heard their earlier material?

Ikenai KISS and Family Party are great picks! Nice GIF usage! [2]

You weren't kidding when you said that you were passionate about newer bands! Most of these I've never even heard before, let alone seen their names, haha. Nice list though, your taste is really distinct!

Lynch.'s 'EVOKE' was one of my favorite tracks of the year! 'm.o.b.' and 'kyuubi' were also standouts for me. It's great to see SCAPEGOAT finally mentioned! They're one of the bands that I've been keeping an eye on over the past year. The vocalist vaguely reminds me of Hizumi from D'espairsRay, who I used to love.

Why am I not surprised to see Lycaon's 'Camera Obscura' as your number one? At any rate, I liked that album quite a bit - especially after not having been into some of their previous output.

Massive list, style! NO WONDER IT TOOK YOU SO LONG [2] Both 17歳とベルリンの壁 and yonige released some really pleasant EPs. That FAMILY PARTY compilation was nice too - tried that one for kiryu but enjoyed the others too. That preview for ホロ sounds like it might be up my alley btw!

develop one's faculties didn't quite win me over, but I think they're really promising. I also agree about the guitar work - there's a riff in the middle of "hope" that I thought was pretty sweet. I also think it's pretty interesting to see a VK vocalist that plays guitar too, does that happen too often? I feel like some of the songs on DOGMA will grow on me when I revisit them in the future, outside of the album's context. That happened to me with their previous album, which I also didn't really take to at first. @seurong raves about PELICAN FANCLUB to me all the time, and I know @Jigsaw9, @fitear1590 @Macro approve too, so I'm gonna have to spend more time with that one! Anyways, good list and a nice mix you've got!

DIV - イケナイKISS Lycaon - Camera obscura vistlip - LAYOUT I can vouch for these! And pshh, your writing is fun to read!

Chanty's "m.o.b." is pretty great. As someone mentioned to me recently, it sounds like a midwestern emo song, and it's cool to hear those kinds of influences in VK, I love it! I also loved Kiryu's "kyuubi". Such an awesome cacophony of sounds. They're a band I plan to try more of really soon. Thanks for sharing your list!

OMG most of your list is super unfamiliar to me, but I tried that DADAROMA mini and '溺れる魚' was my favorite song too! Really hoping to get more in this style from the band. Thanks for sharing!

I'll check it out

You got the Koba power now!

Was defspiral the band that I forgot that I recommended you? If so, I'm surprised - didn't actually think you would try them out! But I'm also glad you did. I was into TRANSTIC NERVE pretty big back in the day, but haven't kept up much with their subsequent releases. Will you be back-tracking through their career and various monikers? I've enjoyed everything I've heard by VANIRU on dub/plug, but haven't actually tried any of their releases yet. sukekiyo I remember being pretty nice. Foster Mother was an especially nice track! seeing THE MORTAL on your list makes me happy. THE MORTAL makes me happy, period. Musicians from two bands that i'm into (downy and MY WAY MY LOVE) are members of the band, so it elates me knowing that they're involved in a project that might receive more attention from overseas fans. It also just shows that J-rock is a whole and not just divided into vk and non-vk. I love it. Plus Atsushi alone is more than worth it! Fantastic list overall, even if I'm unfamiliar with a good bit of it. You obviously put a lot of work into it, so great work, and thanks for sharing!

Most of this is really new to me, but it's super exciting to check out everyone's lists and get a glimpse of their tastes! Vistlip was the only one I'd listened to previously and I recall enjoying it. After listening to your samples, both FoLLoW and Purple Stone caught my ear! Great work on the post btw! I feel your pain in creating it. The Best New Tracks posts we do with the official reviewers takes a few hours to format every month, not counting the time it takes to do blurbs. I almost feel like renaming it, though since "best" probably comes off as arrogant and condescending - when in fact, it's just recommendations. I digress, though XD I really enjoy and appreciate the fact that you took the time to make short samples. I have no idea why that hadn't crossed my mind, but I will certainly be borrowing this idea! Thanks for sharing, Hiroki!

You're letting Koba down

Nice list and format! (still a bit perplexed at how you centered the spoilers) Kind of pleasantly surprised to see Atlantis Airport here. I knew you liked them, but not this much. Good choice, though - they're really promising! Kind of reminds me of mid 00's J-indie-pop bands. You're also right, I'd never heard of Controversial Spark, but they sound pretty pleasant. May have to check them out. Couldn't resist including BENI, huh, @beni? XD Looking forward to your second post!

I'm still pondering whether I should make a list or not. The bulk of my interests feel really irrelevant, but I may give it a shot!

You know I thought I'd tried out a lot of Visual Kei this year, but your list proves that VK is indeed vast and infinite (stole that from GITS)! But anyways, great list! DIV's 'イケナイKISS' was really cool. I enjoyed how they mixed in that EDM-y sound and pulled it off without a hitch. I'm not sure how much I like DOGMA in comparison to Gazette's other work yet, but that album yielded some new favs from the band - like DERACINE and OMINOUS. 己龍/Royz/コドモドラゴン - FAMILY PARTY - This was a great little comp. I'm especially into Kiryu and I'm looking forward to hearing more from them. Those vistlip and SuG albums were my first introductions to these bands, and i was really pleased with them. The former had this nostalgic quality that just really resonated with me, and the latter was just tons of fun. Cheers!

Cool list, @yakihiko! I really enjoyed Lycaon's 'Camera Obscura' and vistlip was a REALLY nice and pleasant listen as well.

Best New Tracks: December 2015 It's our FINAL edition of BNT from the year 2015! We hope you've enjoyed the ride thus far and we hope you find our last round of recommendations useful! Major thanks to all of the ORZ contributors for putting this together every month! I'd also like to thank our guest contributors @emmny and @Lestat for pitching in! And lastly, a warm thanks to everyone that has bothered to check BNT out over the course of the year! We will have much more to come in the new year, so stay tuned! @ShanethVarosa's Picks "White Moon" by 藍 -AI- "Master Key" by D "Wings Flap" by L'Arc~en~Ciel @doombox's Picks "Dead Motel 6" by EACH OF THE DAYS "Before The World Ends" by ENDZWECK "The Greatest Party" by THE BEETHOVEN "The man who leads the mad horse" by Presence of Soul "Collapse" by ぼくのりりっくのぼうよみ(Boku no lyric no bouyomi) @beni's Picks "傷 (kizu)" by 小南泰葉 (Kominami Yasuha) "Where Are You?" by Phew "近未来空想 (kin mirai kuusou)" by 新時あさ美 (Shintoki Asami) "アイノネ (Ai no Ne)" by YEN TOWN BAND "フラスコ (fresco)" by Plastic Tree @CAT5's Picks "Black designer" by ジラフポット (Giraffepot) "somewhere" by The Cheserasera "Wiseguy" by PLAY DEAD SEASON "SKREEN" by 8otto "童謡(わざうた) (wazauta)" by 山本精一 (Seiichi Yamamoto) "End of Fall" by indigo jam unit "烏 (karasu) (feat. KOJOE)" by BUPPON "バイブレーション (vibration)" by nowisee "降下する都市 (kouka suru toshi) feat. sonezaki" by Marmalade butcher See you next time. Happy New Years!

PARTY'S OVER. Hellspawn confirmed: Away with you!

Congratz, chi~ May Koba bless you