Champ213

I don't think japanese bands are overthinking the matter nearly as much as you do. Pretty much all tapes we are talking about here are from 90s bands. These bands didn't release tapes because CDs didn't exist (they did since the 80s), but because back then it was just cheaper and easier for a band to record a tape. So in the beginning of their career vk bands would often start with a few tapes as demonstration, and when they met with some success, they would venture into making CDs. As such, pretty much every tape could be considered a "demo". At least I have never seen a band say "Okay, we released a few demo tapes, and now we are going to release our first "real" tape!" After some discussion among staff we thus decided that if we are going to have a new "tape" tag, EVERYTHING originally released on tape should be tagged as such. Trying to make a distinction between a "tape" and a "demo tape" just seems like splitting hairs, especially if bands use the terms interchangeably anyway. As for the old "demo" tag... we will probably rename it to "Demo CD" to avoid confusion. But it's a really vague tag. There aren't really any inherent criteria that signify that a CD is a "Demo CD" other than the band calling it such. And apparently you can call pretty much everything a "demo CD", whether it's some unlabeled CD-R given away at lives or pretty much a standard single sold at shops. As such I consider that tag to be rather useless and I myself would prefer it if people used single/live dist/whatever else applies instead.

I guess playing in a host club pays better than being in a vk band? Kind of a shame, I like Zonbi, although not my usual kind of music. Hope the New vocalist is decent.

Just for your info, the "Demo" tag was always supposed to be shorthand for "Demotape". If you go to Grassthread for example and pick any random 90s band (like here) you will see that absolutely EVERY release on cassette tape is labeled デモテープ, which means... "demo tape". If we are now going to replace all "demo" tags with a "tape" tag, do we really need that tag anymore?

Their website is so 1994. XD

The day vk suddenly turned into atmospheric black metal. Definetely interested in this.

I did a similar test a while ago already, and my results weren't any better than pure chance, so yeah. Not an audiophile either. I can usually tell when something is below 128k, but above that, barely. Also, as someone who listens to a lot of old and/or obscure vk stuff, bitrate never really was the main concern anyway because quite often the recording quality is just bad to begin with. There are some songs I love dearly even though they sound like they were recorded in a Port-a-John. You think I would be bothered about the intricacies of sound differences between 192k and 320k? Naw. XD

Yeah, from what I understand it was too expensive and didn't pay off. Anyway, still not liking the round artist images... many band photos aren't really designed to work in a circle and it will screw up a lot of them. Something will always be cut off. Also, nothing else on the site's design is round, except for the artist and profile pictures. Just make them sqare! Other than that it's looks okay with me so far. I would like a personalized siebar back though, and bigger charts on the profile page. Well, let's soo how the finished product will be.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I hope this will put some minds at ease. I can understand that other things may get in the way, but it was the lack of official communications that irked me and other people I talked to. I received my last invoice on 5/11 and paid pretty much within hours after that, yet I hadn't gotten any sort of update until today, and it seems I wasn't the only one. Anyway, thanks for the clarification and I hope things will work out better again in the future. After all my first couple of orders from Rarezhut went pretty smooth.

Ah, to be honest, I kinda forgot about this. XD Seriosuly though, I hope there will be a more accessible release in the future.

Hoping for the extreme metal theme next sunday. I don't want to miss that and I can't be there the weekend afterwards due to work.

Okay, here's the thing. It seems that there are still a lot (most?) of the people waiting for their full shipping quotes being sent to them, let alone the merchandise itself. Which is pretty annoying, since people already paid for part of their order. It's been a month since the second stream now, and even if other things got in the way it's simply not good business to leave your customers in the dark for so long. Since we as a forum are giving you a platform to do your business I feel compelled to ask: Are you already sending out shipping quotes and/or packages with items from the last stream? Is there an ETA when you will send out the remaining shipping quotes and packages? Can costumers cancel their orders and ask for a refund if they don't want to wait any longer?

...only to re-release them as live distro... ;w; Oh well.... time to stalk Yahoo Auctions again, I guess......

It's not just Berlin actually. Berlin is the first but other german cities will follow. As far as major german cities are concerened, Berlin is actually still considered relatively cheap. As they say, Berlin is considered "poor, but sexy". A lot of young people want to move there, but can't afford high rents. If you want to live in the inner parts of Munich for example you need a good income or you're screwed. In Cologne, where I am, it's somewhere in between. I pay around 550€ for 57m², including heating. Which is pretty okay for my city, but I don't live in one of the "trendy" quarters of the city (ie. I live on the eastern side of the Rhine, which is considered with disdain by the locals). XD It's still pretty central though.

That does sound pretty great indeed!

Lol, I kinda like the first sample, it has a nice crappy oldschool feel. For some reason the samples make me think of Sadiesmarry, who were also very, ummm.... special.

When browsing through some older files, I remembered this song. You know, Grieva get flak for ripping off Dir en grey, but these guys here pretty much just took "The Final" and gave it different lyrics. Most blatant rip-off I have ever seen in vk. XD For comparison, here's the original again:

Lool, his rhyme-or-die lyrics are even more idiotic in English than they are in German. XD

We had themes last time, not sure if we are going to do the same this time. Full rules and details will be explained before final sign-up though.

This thread is going to be pun. I'm done here.

When there is enough interest we will post an announcement with all the details how it will work and people can sign up then. It would be nice if we had at least 6-10 participants to make it worthwhile.

For those that are unfamiliar with our last karaoke contest and are worried about "embarassing" themselves: all entries will be made anonymously. Only the staff member in charge of the contest will know who submitted which entry. After the contest you can chose to reveal your identity, or remain secret. Also, there'll be a price for the winning entry.

Whow. I don't think I have listened to Paradise Lost since.... well, since they had a brief Depeche-Mode-worship-period in the 90s (which I thoroughly enjoyed for that matter). But this sounds pretty neat.

English is basically an offshoot of an early medieval German dialect (the Angles and Saxons came from northern Germany after all), but later they got screwed over by french-speaking Normans, which is why there are a lot of words from medieval French as well. Also, at some point the English decided that all those declinations are just not cool and dropped most of them. And while they were at it, they also shifted half their vowels... but I digress. In a nutshell: they are related (both are germanic languages) and are somewhat similar, but have developed quite differently since over 1500 years. I'd say they are similar enough to make it easier to learn one language if you speak the other, but it also can be confusing, because some words may sound similar and even have the same origin, but have developed into very different meanings now.