Champ213

Full stream of upcoming Kauan album availible: http://blood-music.bandcamp.com/album/pirut I don't really want to listen to it fully though, until my own copy has arrived, but it's still great that you can. And it has a cello. Anything metal with a cello is an almost guaranteed win for me.

Nope. It being bad makes it bad.

I have a high tolerance when it comes to crappy vk, but those vocals kinda made my teeth hurt. He did sound slightly better in the live clip though. I wonder how it will turn out.... if we are ever going to hear anything from this band. With Kyoka involved they may as well disband before ever releasing anything.

I just started Uncharted 2. What? I'm 5 years behind with my games, you say? That's how I roll!

I liked it. A lot. I didn't like the fact that it essentially only had 3 proper songs (and 2 instrumentals), but those three songs were all pretty amazing (and the instrumentals weren't bad either). I know a lot of diehard metalheads were complaining about the album not being "metal" enough, but that's nothing I really care for. Funnily, I never cared much for their first album. I guess I'm just too untrve for a metal fan, lol. Overproduced? I guess so, maybe that's what you get when you work on the same songs for like 7 years, but that's actually something I enjoyed about it, and I'm really looking forward to Time II. I can see why someone wouldn't like it though.

I just made the mistake to listen to some sample from the vocalist's other project.... D: http://qualia.info/releases/xxx%E9%80%A3%E9%8E%96/

I did listen to the new Falkenbach album a bit ago. It was good, but I will need to listen to it a bit more. I think my favourite song is still Vanadis. And Thyrfing, yes. I wasn't aware they had released something new. I will have to check that out. The sample you linked sounds pretty good to me anyway. I remember a few songs from Mael Mórdha, and they were decent enough. Will check that out as well. I think I was kinda fond of their vocals. Something I'm really looking forward to (and this is only vaguley related to folk metal) is the new Kauan album this December. The music is somewhere between atmospheric/doom metal and post-rock, with folky influences. And the previews for the album sound just amazing. I feel a new masterpiece coming up.

Wow, so you are the mysterious new follower I gained. XD Totally following you back, "mostly landscape/nature photos and ocassional pagan and folk stuff" sounds just like my taste.

Also relevant: years ago I compiled this list of female-fronted vk bands: http://www.last.fm/user/Champ213/journal/2007/06/25/1hq8_female-fronted_vkanguraetc. The list hasn't been updated in years, so no newer bands, and only bands that have a female vocalist. It also includes some angura, goth and metal bands.

Basically, yes. At the concert I helped out with we had maybe 30-40 people in the audience, and I think they were pretty much all teenage girls, save for that one gay guy. (And considering how obscure the band was, the fans were surprisingly devoted - we allowed two girls to come backstage to hand over gifts they had prepared, and they actually started crying when they met the band.) I'm not saying that all of the fans would have been less dedicated if they knew that one member was a girl. But I think there is a core of vk fans in general - usually very young and usually female - that consider the crossdressing thing an important aspect of vk. They should be pretty like girls, but they should not actually be girls. A woman dressing as a woman? Where's the fun in that? As for my personal opinion: it doesn't make much of a difference. It does bring a fresh angle into the genre though. Personally I think the idea of a woman pretending to be a cross-dressing guy is both hilarious and ingenious. Musically it really only matters anyway if the girl happens to be the vocalist. I tend to prefer the lower female singers, like the one from Zig+Zag for example.

Not that many people will care, but the guitarist of the rather obscure Celestia le ciel was a girl. The twist was that she claimed to be a guy. A cross-dressing guy. So basically, she was a girl pretending to be a guy pretending to be a girl. She only whispered during interviews and let the vocalist "translate", so she wouldn't give away her gender by her voice. I know that because I translated for the band at their Germany concert several years ago. It obviously was supposed to be a secret (and quite succesfully so - there was a homosexual guy at the concert that was badly stanning for "him" - which is pretty hilarious, if you think about it XD). But since the band is long disbanded and the members retired from music, there isn't really much harm in revealing it now. Plus, I think they even had less fans in Japan than in Europe. XD Nice people though. That does make we wonder though if there are more women in vk that hide their gender for one reason or another.

Pretty much any restriction they had to impose was because of copyright&royalty laws. I remember when they originally started, there were no restrictions at all. You could upload anything and entry wasn't restricted to the US. And I'm pretty sure TT would have kept it that way, but then the music industry decided that the service was more akin to a radio station and that they had to pay royalty fees like any radio station. Obviously you are allowed to invite some friends to your home and listen with them to music together. But if you were taking money for it, or the event was kinda public (ie. with other random people able to join), you would have to pay royalties. Granted, you could argue that rooms that allowed for up to 200 listeners is more than just "a few friends", but neither TT nor the users playing the music made any profit from it. I think as long as you are not making any money from playing music to others, it shouldn't be charged at all. I don't see how it would be hurting record sales. It's not like people are thinking "Oh hey, I won't need to buy that CD, because I can hear the songs on TT every once in a blue moon". It's ridicolous. So yeah, copyright laws killed another great music service.

With they way things were going recently, I was kinda expecting this. I haven't been there ever since they removed the ability to upload your own songs though. Still sad. It was a great place during its prime and I discovered a lot of new music. But then they had to start blocking songs for copyright and presumably had to pay a lot of fees for their catalogue of licenced music. From what I heard the site never really was making a profit. It's messed up. I'm all in favour of supporting artists by buying as much of their music as I can, but if I want to play some songs from my computer to a bunch of friends, I don't see why somebody has to be charged for that. =/ R.I.P. TT

Since Arith and me share some similar fandoms, I can second that! XD (Then again, if Arith is part of that fandom, it can't be all bad?!?!) Seriously though, there's only one time when you have to interact with other fans, and that's at concerts. And I must say, I never had bad experiences at concerts with other fans. Most people were extremey nice. Yes, that includes vk concerts. Then there's fans on the internet. But, well... it's the internet. Everyone is like 10x more asshole-ish on the internet. The good thing: you can easily avoid people on the internet.

I agree that the other topic we had about this was kinda lame, since most people only dropped off a list of names with no explanations. SO. I decided not to merge or lock this thread, although it seems to have a rather similar premise. However I will make it an requirement that people posting here write a bit more than just pure name-dropping. Tell us WHY you miss whatever bands you miss. If you just want to write down a long list of band names, use the other thread.

2013 is nearing the end, so let's talk about the bands we discovered this year! What bands have you come to love in the last 11 months? Note: this isn't limited to bands that started activities this year, or had their first releases in 2013. Rather it's specifically for all bands. Even a band that is 20 years old or long disbanded counts if you only discovered them this year! In which case it would also be interesting to know why you found out about them just now. I'm posting this in J-Rock, but if there is a non-japanese band you have discovered, don't feel restricted by that. I will post my discoveries later too.

Well, I could tell some dirty stories regarding a certain song from Morning Musume, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet.

That "Theme of Jun" from Tekken 2 sounds incredibly 80s, even though the game was released in 1995. XD And yess, lots of good music in Final Fantasy. One song I am particulary attached to is "Ride on", the "airship" theme from FF8. It's just so cheerful and happy and makes you not want to land anymore, lol.

Shameless bump, BECAUSE I NOW HAVE THAT GAME TOO. But yeah, I played SC 2, 3, and now a bit of 4 and 5, and in many aspects 5 is indeed the weakest of them. I haven't played much of the story yet, but the removal of the indivudal story arcs is a bit disappointing and the game has some aspects that I just find outright confusing. I still haven't figured out what I unlock how and when, and how I can use whatever I unlock. Are there different weapons? What do they do? How do I use them? It's just very puzzling and was much more clearer and obvious in older games. Also, when I'm in Offline Game mode and want to do a quick fight, it wants me to play against other player-generated characters? Wat? I thought it's offline? Also, removing Taki and semi-removing Kilik (well, he's there, but he - literally - could be anyone), and replacing them by their obnoxious clone versions Natsu and Xiba was just a bad move. Especially since Taki was always my favourite girl to play. ._. Music is decent, but when the most memorable song is one taken from another game (Venice Rooftops) that's not a good sign. The good things: - Ezio!! (He seems a tiny bit OP though? At least I dashed with him through Arcade mode when I was struggling with others.) - Viola (Hard to control, but much fun! From all the new characters she finally adds a new and unique style.) - Online playing!!!! I only played a bit against Cat the other day, but it was fuuuuun. Much more interesting than fighting against the CPU. I'm not much of an online player, so I'll probably just play against friends, but still... So yeah, I'll probably use SC5 mostly for the online fighting, and SC4 for the offline parts. Also, looking for more people to fight against, if anyone else has the game, add me on PSN and come at me Bro! xD

As the title says, let's talk about our favourite songs from games or game soundtracks in general! I'll start with a bit of an obvious choice, but Skyrim does have some amazing music. "Wind guide you", the main "map" music is just beautiful, especially the middle part. And obviously, "Sovngarde" makes my viking heart shed heroic tears of epicness. XD Other than that, I really like "Venice Rooftops" from Assassin's Creed II as well. I can't be the only one who was doing the checkpoint races over and over again just to hear this song? XD (And well, the races were my favourite sidequests anyway.) And, going a bit further back, the whole Monkey Island Soundtrack was just great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvGZREDSp4 So, what are your favourite songs/soundtracks?

A wild doe has appeared!!! D: D: D: And bringing out the dirty secrets, no less! :D

Ooh, since Nega was just mentioned I just remembered another one. Nega's "Rain Falls". Granted though, I stopped listening to Nega rather early, so I cannot judge their whole discography, but when I think of Nega, this is pretty much the only song I can remember.

Not long enough. There goes any hope to hear the grace of Aska's vocals again.

"Pömpel" ist ein Universalwort für einen kurzen Pfahl oder Stumpf. Das hier sind typische Pömpel: Das Wort wird überwiegend in Norddeutschland benutzt und auch in Ostwestfalen, wo ich herkommen. Aber "Pinörkel" ist definitiv mein ostwestfälisches Lieblingswort, vor allem weil es kein vernünftiges hochdeutsches Equivalent dafür gibt. Alles was irgendwie klein, undefinierbar und annähernd stiftförmig ist, sind Pinörkel! Bockermann ist übrigens der große Zeh und Kopsterbolter eine Rolle vorwärts. Andere schöne Worte aus meiner Heimat: Pölter (Schlafanzug), Plörre (eine geschmacklose, unappetitliche Flüssigkei), Modder (Schlamm/Matsch) und Pillepoppen (Kaulquappen). Und zwei weitere Favoriten von mir: "sich beömmeln" (sich amüsieren) und "friemelig" - das Wort könnte ich nichtmal übersetzen, aber ich habe auf einer Webseite die Übersetzung "feinmotorisch anspruchsvoll" gefunden, was es ziemlich gut trifft. XD Einen Faden durch ein Nadelöhr zu stecken wäre zum Beispiel "friemelig".