Champ213

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.

Oni to Kage is one of my favorite albums of this year. As Champ and Zess both stated in their reviews, their mix of original ideas and blatant copy and pasting somehow comes out nostalgic, yet innovative at the same time. I was into visual-kei for about 5 years before I tried out early Dir en Grey, so I cannot say that their work has really influenced my taste in this scene tremendously like it has many others. However, I really do like their Gauze era, and seeing it revitalized and reimagined is really exciting for me.While it does seem a bit disheartening to have to play ~guess the diru cover~ for each release, Grieva's musical style and style of dress are what I personally consider to be of the best caliber this scene has to offer, and they are my favorite active visual-kei band at the moment. 
 
The album itself has a lot of variety to it that paint a pretty accurate picture of what was happening in Visual-kei in 1999. It mixes gothic rock with some black metal, throws in some poppy songs, a slow song, and then has some tracks there that mush together a combination everything prior. My personal favorite is the second track on the album: "孤独人形症候群." It reminds me a lot of the super aggressive Matina bands like Das:vasser. Second favorites are "中絶" (spin off of La:Sadie's' "setsudan" and is an obligatory song about abortion) and "Kikei" (their more psychotic / gawfy 亡骸を worship). Even if many of their songs are similar to those on Gauze (and even some of the themes in the songs are highly similar, like abortion, rape, etc), I feel Oni To Kage has enough of a personality to really stand on its own and ironically Grieva somehow have enough individuality to really stand out from other 'copy-cat' bands even though their influences are so blatant that I'm not sure how Ains hasn't gotten sued yet.

Well.... nice to see them back in action, I guess? Too bad I never really liked their previous Ura Dorado stuff.
 
 
 
Also, I haven't heard anything from Glamorous Honey in ages. Are they still around? They were so good. ._.

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.

The thing about many western vk fans is that they are rather opinionated about not only "western vk", but western music in general. Yes, many western vk bands also happen to be very mediocre and unorginal at best, but there are many equally mediocre and unorginal japanese vk bands that get a lot more praise and hype. But if you cater to a fandom that often enough very specifically turned their backs on "western music" then obviously you are fighing an uphill battle, even if you try to "disguise" your music as japanese (and probably badly so). It's like trying to sell vegetable-shaped steaks to a bunch of vegetarians.
 
 
A western vk band, with decent talent and equipment would probably be more succesful if they just target the "normal" western underground goth scene.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

If fans influenced what I liked and didn't like, I wouldn't like anything!!
I really don't get caught up in fan communities, I like what I like and that's that. If you're seriously that wrapped up in fan communities that fans make you dislike the thing you like, then step away from the computer and get some fresh air. Honestly I tend to dislike most fans that like the things I like because a lot of them are just so unrealistic. There's one thing about being passionate and loving what you love but when it reaches a point of obsession it's time to step away.
 
I am gonna use this as an opportunity to write my opinion on fan communities but above is basically my overall thoughts on this subject.
 
Visual Kei
The fans are image centric twats that are lieing through their teeth if they say they're only into VK because of the music. It's not a big deal if you just want to fuck the pretty boys in booty shorts or you only like the fashion, that's totally fine. Yet the fans that are pretending they aren't and try to act holier than thou are the grosses kinda people imaginable (WORSE THAN HITLER). My favourite subset of VK is kotekei, I certainly don't want to bone any of the dudes but I definitely appreciate and like that style of dressing. Then the VK fans that become anti-anime are also pretty cringe worthy awful people. They're probably the fans that got into VK because they liked Ready Steady Go from Fullmetal Alchemist and now need to pretend that they're not disgusting weeaboos. This can apply to Kpop fans that start hating Japanese music, probably the same anti-anime retards that just evolved into a Kpop tard.
 
Kotekei fans (VKKK)
This is pretty much my go to favourite subset of VK but shit son, these crazy people view that whole era as some sort of serious underground gothic movement. Yet conveniently overlook the many not so heavy VK bands of that time like Fanatic Crisis or Sophia that were dominating Shoxx covers. I also like how many of them try to present themselves as experts of this era but probably didn't get into Japanese music or VK until they heard Ready Steady Go from FMA.
 
Anime fans
Not so much in relation to music but eh, it's still Japan. It's just the greasy fans that will venomously defend anime as an art form but anything else produced by a Western artist is garbage. 
 
Metal fans
They're mostly all a bunch of over compensating nerds that now think they're tough and a badass because they listen to heavy brutal angry music. Only a nerd would sit around on the Internet debating whether a band is blackened folk core or symphonic viking metal. Black metal fans are pretty laughable and can be easily compared to VKKK fans. OMG THIS BAND IS SO GOOD AND UNDERGROUND WITH THEIR ONE AWFUL DEMO TAPE!! There's a reason why this band is "underground" and only has one demo tape and it's because it fucking sucks balls.
 
Comic fans
I haven't had that many bad experiences with comic fans. I suppose since I create comics my interaction with the community is more with creators than with fans. Creators are definitely fans of comics but I think they appreciate it from a creator perspective, so you don't see as much retardness among these group of individuals. There's definitely retards but I also don't like mainstream comics like Marvel or DC, so my interaction with those communities are pretty non-existent. I know indie comics have a lot of hipster elitism that will make you want to kill yourself. Yet so far my interaction with those types have been limited. I wonder what my opinion of the comic community will be a year from now if I continue to work conventions and make books? HHRRM HHHHHRRRMMM? Also I don't read Homestuck so maybe that's why my opinion is relatively positive???

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

the whole SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS's soundtrack is the best thing ever created for a videogame imo, I love it.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbOnvj9wZKc
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYvwDUlQIV0

A wild doe has appeared!!! D: D: D:

And bringing out the dirty secrets, no less! :D

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

Would say that Tekken 1-5 (+ TTT) soundtracks in the first place (but mostly Tekken 2 tho):




 
also, various nostalgia busters: 






(Stewart Copeland in general is a pure genius )
 

Oh, great idea for a thread Champ!
 
I haven't played too much Skyrim yet, so I can't really say that much about the OST. I agree on Venice Rooftops though, love it!
 
Ratonhnhaké:ton from Assassin's Creed 3: The Tyranny of King Washington is just gorgeous.
 

 
I really liked fighting in the pub as Haytham in AC3 because of the awesome background music Fight Club, so I did that a lot!
 

 
Also Final Fantasy XIII's battle theme was really rad:
 

 
Same with FFXIII-2's paradigm shift theme (horrible game, kick-ass soundtrack):
 

 
I'll probably think of some more later, haha.

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?

Hello people who probably don't know me! I am Manda. My job is to make things look pretty and function on the front end of Deadeyes-star.com (Kai gets the back end, hehehe). Here I present to you my first "Letter from the Designer"!
 
The past couple of weeks I've made huge progress in coding out DS's theme with pyrocms. However, we discovered the hard way that pyro is great for back end development and completely sucks for front end. There is little documentation on how to properly set things up functionally in regards to front end functions so it's been a whole bunch of trial and error and making shit up! So I apologize for my part of things taking a little long ;__;
 
As of right now we have the following functioning:
User login and login forms User registration and registration forms User Profiles and control panel User shoutbox "Featured" slider Articles and all article functions complete Category and site wide tagging system Commenting system Static Pages All of this not including the massive amount of work Kai put into building the custom module for bands. Before we can open to the public we need we need to finish up the following:
 
Index page set up Band profile layout coded Search Function MH to DS user accont integration
Once these features are complete the site can launch in it's test phase and designated staff can begin work on entering information into the database! SO EXCITING!
Adding in these features shouldn't take very long. I estimate less than a month if we can keep up a good pace with only a couple of brick walls to run into. 
 
And now I leave you with screen shots of progress!
 
 
 

 

 

Well, that's the internet for you. It pretends to be a place of tolerance and personal freedom, but the collective hive of the internet is actually rather small-minded, conformist and reactionary.
 
 
Either you conform to a very narrow ideal of appearance and conduct - or you're meme material.

The title of this thread greatly confused me at first.

The thing about many western vk fans is that they are rather opinionated about not only "western vk", but western music in general. Yes, many western vk bands also happen to be very mediocre and unorginal at best, but there are many equally mediocre and unorginal japanese vk bands that get a lot more praise and hype. But if you cater to a fandom that often enough very specifically turned their backs on "western music" then obviously you are fighing an uphill battle, even if you try to "disguise" your music as japanese (and probably badly so). It's like trying to sell vegetable-shaped steaks to a bunch of vegetarians.
 
 
A western vk band, with decent talent and equipment would probably be more succesful if they just target the "normal" western underground goth scene.