Number Girl

Actually, yeah "Setsugetsuka" was great - actually I'd say 2009 was his last "good" year but since then its all been bland, mild-flavored crap from then on.

Been a while since I've visited around the thread.

Actually, I'm starting to hate Gackt now. Can't believe I typed that sentence, but yeah . . .

His new music isn't bad, but a good 80% of it is only a faint shadow of what his music used to be. It just makes his attempts to be relevant, cool, or funny face-palmingly annoying. His fans only make it worse too. I'd just wish he'd stop for a very long time in the least.

And Jesus H. Christ . . . Yellow Fried Chickenz. Nine plus band members and the music still sounds like the same mediocre pop-rock Gackt could make just perfectly fine on his own? Shut the fuck up, please.

Personally, I get the same feeling listening to some Boris music as I do listening to those Dir en grey songs you mentioned. Definitely I'd recommend Amplifier Worship album, "枯れ果てた先," the bonus track off Smile, and some songs of Mabuta no Ura. Although sometimes the tone is more of a calmer kind of atmosphere as opposed to being menacing/intense like Diru (God, nothing quite beats Toguro imho) but still recommended.

But yeah, don't know much other bands like that. I'm more into happy bands, lol.

Hi, thanks for being a part of MH! You sound like a really cool person.

Hello, welcome to MH! Hope you enjoy the community.

Reading the OP and some of the responses has been quite interesting, thank you! Not that I was completely unaware of the stark differences in terms of perceptions that exist between foreign visual kei fans vs. Japanese visual kei fans, but it is always good to read first hand experiences.

I think it's very hilarious a lot of self-proclaimed "hardcore" foreign VK fans know so little about the artists, scene, and history of what they love so much.

Over the past few years, I've noticed weebee media outlets and English "J-Rock" websites/blogs contributes a lot the ignorance and misconceptions. For one most of them just advertise visual kei bands - and usually only certain kinds of visual kei bands (usually leaving out ones probably deemed "too old" or don't fit recent fads and trends). Second, I've seen articles - supposedly written by paid, professional Japanese-reading journalists stating things like visual kei styles and music are completely unique to Japanese culture and many aspects of visual kei (such as cross-dressing) are common in average Japan, visual kei bands are embraced by average Japanese people, and Mana invented, etc. So if that is all newbies have to go by in their search for knowledge I can see why most of them are clueless.

Good god they are milking the shit out of UROBOROS any way they can. I like Diru and I like UROBOROS, but they need to move on after this.

I was about to say the exact same thing. What the fuck.

Should be awesome!

Just got the chance to listen to this today in some down time.

I love "Illusion" - it's a great song all the way through and it doesn't lose momentum for a second. Makes me not want to completely give on this band after all.

The title song doesn't impress me nearly as much, but I definitely see what people mean when they say it is a potential grower.

I had a question about Boris. They released this song for a PSP game back in February, but I haven't seen them release a new single/album whatever. Does a full version of that track exist?

I wonder the same. I have been checking the Boris site frequently for anything about that (and the new commercial song "Revue" they released as well) and there is still nothing so far about any new releases planned or anything. I'm guessing they'll be put on iTunes or a new album in the future, if anything.

I've always thought it would be nice to get a notification if someone quoted a post you made or something like that so it would be a bit easier to keep up with conversations and threads you've made.

an cafe 2 electric boogaloo 8=>

nah its good

I thought the people in the parody sang better.

it sux

Hm, I don't know . . .

Maybe not real, but wouldn't be surprised in any sort of way if it was.

If it is from a favorite band that has always brought me a decent amount of satisfaction or if the description of the band/release sounds like it fits me, of course I almost always at least try out their new stuff.

I think the only new stuff I'm not willing to try out are from bands that have been on an extensive sucky streak or any of the new era VK fad bands. The former for obvious reasons, the second because there seems to be zero amount of improvement or change in the scene for quite a while now and bothering to go through a list of them and listening to each one to see if they are any good has only proven to be a waste of my time.

Hm, not a whole lot. There's probably a few things I haven't caught wind of because I've been rather out of the loop.

Molice's new album came out a couple days ago but I'm looking forward to listening to that.

Luna Sea - whatever it may be

Anthem - they said they were in the studio again but not banking on a 2012 release. Maybe 2013 . . .

Cinema Staff - they have a major debut EP coming out, hope that's good though

andymori - new album in May I believe.

Melt-banana - I could just be completely full of shit, but i think that they have a sticker on their website that says they are recording again. that will awesome!!

I always appreciate it when people who translate lyrics offer their own explanations/interpretations so I say keep it up. I read a bit of what you wrote about Kohaku and I loved it.

If I was a translator, I would attempt to do the same but lately J-Rock writing projects are currently in a long distance relationship. :/

X-japan

I guess now it's my turn to say "Really now?" xD

The X-Japan fandom brings back memories of so much drama and some of the scariest/insane fans in all of J-Rock, lol. But then again, this was only isolated to the internet . . .

In a way, I can see the appeal especially for people who were previously into roleplaying other things like anime. As you said, visual kei bands can adopt their own worlds, plots, and personas and that's probably where the excitement of RPing comes from. Or it could just be the fact that a lot of people like RP's in general and those bands just happen to be popular enough for people to participate hence why Dir en grey still has some RP's around despite not really being VK. I'm pretty sure if I tried to start a Boris RP, the only problem would be getting enough people who like RP's and who like Boris at the same time to join me, not developing the RP itself. Just a little imagination is all it would take.

I used to do chatroom RP's with my own made-up characters when I was younger, but I never got around to RPing visual kei or J-Rock. One big reason was that most of the people who did them were mostly interested in retarded yaoi shit when I could honestly care less.

what is this beautiful masterpiece thing i don't even

Oh thank god gackt's hair looks normal again.

i remember in sixth grade making fun of this song, good memories.

wow. i just realized how full of fail my life is