seikun

Perhaps having pieces of clothes that can be attached and dettached in order to make an outfit to look different would help reduce the ammount of money spent on clothing.
 
I have the impression the company decided to upload the PV on Youtube to make some extra money through views. almost 10.000 views might not be much but extra money is always welcome.

Wow, I completely take back my prejudices against this song before it was released.
 
Love the music and the melody in KAMIJO's singing.
That blond guitarrist makes it sexy...
 
By the way, Jupiter is totally out of my radar. KAMIJO's work is by far more interesting to me.

What I long for the most is not necessarily the looks but the music. I want more bands sounding like old school Visual kei. There have been some bands that have played that style such as Madieduor, La'veil Mizeria, etc. But my problem with these bands is that they never improved their skills. I mean OK, you can sound ultra indies and inexperienced for up to 3 releases, but then you must show skills and improvement.
 
Fortunatelty, old school Visual Kei is broadly varied (you can play with rythms and speed) but most of the recent bands that have done old school Visual Kei seem to get stuck on an hyper-ultra indies inexperienced sound. No, you must show skills and take the style even further, you must improve the style (O.S VK) after a time without having to transition to another style.
 
Although I must admit this is a good song (personal opinion). I like the soun distortions, the speed changes and all that Visual Kei used to have and that caught my attention. From here they should take the style even further.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyMCU0LO29o

I wouldn't really use "Neo Visual kei" as an actual tag of some kind but i do sometimes use this term to describe well new visual kei. Usually the stuff after say 2010 or so come to mind. With the heavy emphasis on metalcore or electronic influences. The music is heavily altered in the studios and the bands don't seem to have as much control with the type of music they want to make. It feels more like pop music in a sense.
 
Visual kei has also lost some of the shock factor that i once loved. The musicians look more like those host boys of japan today. 
 

 
This is what visual kei is supposed to be.

Not the kind of music I like. I like his vampire-esque music better.
 
It reminded me a bit of Fuyu Tokyo PV, although Fuyu Tokyo is a masterpiece, unbeatable.
 
Anyway, Good Luck, Kamijo-san.

more vids:
 

 

 

What makes them different from other bands today?
Nothing.
 
The singing was way off-key. Generally I have no problem with it though but I don't know... too notorious.
 
Neo Visual Kei is ruining everything!

I love those heavenly inspired ballads that make me see the fragility of life through the pain of a calm sadness.
 
RENTRER EN SOI - Aqua

I like the old preview better. In this new one the vocalist sounds more off key and I cannot scape the thought that the few comments posted on the previous preview made an impact on the band and label when users said the vocalist sings horribly. The more effeminate voice suits better the song and it goes perfect with vocalist's easthetics in the end.
 
I hope their release contains the previous version of that song

Many, many songs and most of them related to the time I embraced Visual Kei back in 2004 and all the good people I met.
 
Dir en grey - Yurameki
That was my first love by Dir en grey when I got their discography and hold it dearly in my heart till this day.

I have been listening to japanese music since late 1998 along with watching anime. As usual, the close relationship between anime and Visual Kei bands whose songs were parts of some Anime's OSTs eventually brought me to Visual Kei.
 
In 2002 I moved to the capital of my country and I started to know some Visual Kei bands, but it was in 2003  that I started to listen to them more frequently because a radio programme started that year and they talked about anime, manga and of course, japanese music.
 
Well, in 2004 a TV programme that showed anime series started to show PVs and anime intros from anime series not dubbed at that time (mainly Visual Kei). One day they showed the PV Torikago by PIERROT and I loved the song and the easthetics of the band members and other day they showed the 2nd intro for Getbackers which is also a song by PIERROT (Barairo no Sekai), I loved it and when I returned to the capital after winter holidays I managed to know people who could share barairo no sekai with me. I met two girls and one of them gave me the whole discography of PIERROT. I was expecting to receive barairo no sekai only, but she was so happy about my request that she felt the need to share the whole discography.
 
After that, I started to know more and more bands. I loved what I was listening to, but also loved the easthetics, dramatism and the attitude of most Visual Kei bands which suited me perfectly since I have always been a bit non-conformist and have some criticism against my society and Visual Kei kind of provided me with a tool to express my non-conformism and critics against it, something I wasn't expecting at first.

How good or how horrible lyrics can be I tend to think it is very subjective...
 
In the meantime I envy those of you who are able to understand japanese lyrics by ear!

How good or how horrible lyrics can be I tend to think it is very subjective...
 
In the meantime I envy those of you who are able to understand japanese lyrics by ear!

Well.... there's DEEP RAVE, who are clearly jumping on the LUNA SEA train.
 

 
I guess their current look is still somewhat oldschool-ish, but a band like that could make pretty much any sort of music nowadays. I wouldn't necessarily expect a LUNA SEA worship band behind that look.
 

 
And there's still the question if and how much the departure of Rumina has changed their sound. I guess we will know soon, they will release a new mini-album next month. (Oddly enough, the new mini-album is self-titled, after their first mini-album having been self-titled as well.... can you get any more confusing? )
 
 
And I recently came across this band (Yes, they have a long-ass number in their name). They have no band photo on their homepage, but the music gives me a strong oldschool vk vibe.
 

1: Don`t worry about others, is Visual Kei a genre, or a scene, or something else, to you?
 
Hmm, kind of. Visual Kei is very diverse and the sound mostly depends on the bands' particular musical taste. However. I am not the only one who acknowledges Visual Kei achieved a distinctive sound in the mid 90's to early 2000's. Aliene Ma'riage is an example of it. I also give credit to bands like BAISER (early era mainly) for contribuiting to give shape to that sound.
 
 
2: Most of the time can you tell the genre, or if you will like a band based on their look?
 
When it comes to old school Visual Kei, yes, that's kind of easy, but with today's bands it is a bit difficult.You know, many bands dress up dark but sound either poppish or nü-metal.
 
 
3: Do the looks matter to you? If the same band dressed in Jeans and T-shirts with short hair, would you be as interested?
 
Looks matter to me but not more than the music. I like the dramatic performances many old school Visual Kei bands performed on stage. Today looks is more about looking cool and the dramatic performances have been brushed aside. I like to see theatre on stage and most VK today don't provide that to me. After all Visual Kei is about visual performances too, right?
 
 
4: Do you search for music by sub-genre, such as Nu-Metal, Alt. Rock, etc?
 
I don't like Nü-metal or when song are heavily based on it. I specifically like the sound of old school Visual Kei. Although that doesn't mean I might not like some songs like Circus by GUILD. But the sound I am in love with is that of old school Visual Kei (ex: Aliene Ma'riage, Due'le quartz, BAISER, Lar~Mia, CANARY, etc). I like how songs used to change in rythm, style, speed, etc and old school Visual Kei provides that to me so I base my search for music on those aspects.
 
 
5: Do you get annoyed when others label your favorite music as genres which you don`t agree with?
 
Yes I do, a lot.
 
 
Bonus: If a band starts as Visual Kei, even if they change, are they Visual Kei 4 Lyfe?
 
It depends on the change.

I think the name of the thread should be changed. The band is not a mystery anymore xD

In no particular order.
 
1. PIERROT
2. Noir fleurir
3. Aliene Ma'riage
4. Due'le quartz
5. Malice Mizer
6. Baiser
7. Missalina Rei
8. Kagrra
9. Dir en grey (old school times)
10. Verfe~gorl
 
I am not a die-hard fan of any bands although there are bands I like more than others, but it is the sound (old school VK) that I am more attracted to and that I search for everytime I come across a new band. However, these are the bands the I like the most and listen to the most. Although there are some other bands left behind because it is only ten we can list.

LAREINE TRIBUTE
 
01. Dir en gray - The Candy Spooky Theater
02. Tsukiyo no kageki - Moi dix Mois
03. Solitude - Közi
04. Metamorphose - Missalina Rei
05. Fiacailles - Aoi (ex Ayabie)
06. Gerbe - Aliene Ma'riage
07. Grand Pain - D'espairsRay
08. Lillie Charlotte - An Cafe (original members: Miku, Kanon, Teruki, Bou)
09. Fuyu Tokyo - Fatima
10. Saikai no Hana - RENTRER EN SOI

LAREINE TRIBUTE
 
01. Dir en gray - The Candy Spooky Theater
02. Tsukiyo no kageki - Moi dix Mois
03. Solitude - Közi
04. Metamorphose - Missalina Rei
05. Fiacailles - Aoi (ex Ayabie)
06. Gerbe - Aliene Ma'riage
07. Grand Pain - D'espairsRay
08. Lillie Charlotte - An Cafe (original members: Miku, Kanon, Teruki, Bou)
09. Fuyu Tokyo - Fatima
10. Saikai no Hana - RENTRER EN SOI

CANARY - Misty
 
Although I don't know what the lyrics says you can see the telling of a story in the video.

Noir fleurir - Omocha no MIISHA
 
I love this band and the song is being told in the video. It might not be the best production but there's a story here.
For some unknown reason those guys in white take MIISHA away from KENGO and apparently they kill MIISHA...
KENGO always sadly and desperately looking for MIISHA with no good results u.u

It all depends on you and your taste in music and PVs...
 
I love low budget PVs like that of DERAIL.
 
But I might find a similar PV horrible, too.
 
It all depends.
 
I never considered EREMIA's PV a not so good one. Although the woman in it couldn't be more expressive xD. I always paid attention to the vocalist's singing which is a bit similar to the way in which Sakito (Due'le quartz) used to sing. A fried of mine used to say they sing like that because they kind of hear a bit different than the rest of the human population or something lik that, but that is a topic for another thread.

My contribution to the thread.
 
Noir fleurir
 
With makeup.
 
Without makeup.

 
I am looking forward to seeing pictures of members of Lareine. Someone post up some, please!

imo kanji of title track should be "赤い実はじけた(akai mi hajiketa)", i.e. "red fruit is burst" originally referring to "heartbeat for first love"
 
 
the song is described as below:
 
"愛はいつしか、怨みへ変わる。人間の奥底に潜む狂気を表現した今回の楽曲。"
"without noticing that love turns into grudge, and this song expresses the madness that lies deep inside human"

Pop music being crap? That is totally subjective. As for me, I don't like pop music much (although sometimes I enjoy listening to the 90's pop music xD) but when you see a kid suffering from cancer who listens to, I don't know, Rihanna (is that her name?) and her songs bring a smile and a happy moment for the suffering kid, then you start realising you just give too much importance to your personal taste in music...
 
The small personal bubble we sometimes get into...