Number Girl

This is so awful. Hope Hizumi gets better, I'm sure it hurts him more not to be able to sing then the physical pain he is probably experiencing. Makes me wanna cry.

That was kind of an underwhelming B-side. It wasn't bad or good, it was just eh.

^ The answer is that there are many answers. It really depends on who in the fandom or business you ask.

Never seen any J-bands live, but from videos I see B'z and Gackt have to be some of the best ever.

Two entire cucumbers. I was craving them so badly. . .

SAWASDEE CLAP YOUR HANDS - andymori 1984 - andymori Thank You My Force - Vola & the Oriental Machine MAGIC TANTRIC DANCEHALL - Vola & the Oriental Machine Medicine - D'espairsRay Dope - D'espairsRay Ever - Gackt Fatima - Sugizo Messiah - Sugizo Time Will Tell - Sunsgrind Turn Around - Sunsgrind Will edit in months to come when other albums come out. . .

"Libido" might actually be good, considering Teru wrote it - I always enjoy his songs ^^. Pfffffttt. . ."Glowing Butterfly" gosh, they really out did themselves with the song names this time around.

VOLA & the Oriental Machine - Principle (pre-order) VOLA & the Oriental Machine - Waiting for My Food Blindman - Re-Raise

-double post bump- You can hear samples on Japanese iTunes now. . . (or just buy them if you have a Japanese account). This is probably their least rock-based release yet. It is so heavily drenched in trance/electro, it's not even funny. A few songs remind of songs from Sugizo's solo project (sorry best comparision I can come up with) such as "Thank You My Force." I think there are a few songs I actually see myself not liking though, but of course these are only samples. . . Most of them sound relatively catchy and enjoyable with lots of potential, save one or two. I think "Flag" is the absolute worst song ever written tbh. It reminds me of terrible distortion visual kei bands use, especially the vocals. Annoying things include the autotune and the weird production going on. May be really good, but not their best.

Should I even bother? The last thing I heard from them was "Freesia" and I've barely had any desire to touch Kyutai since I bought it.

Lol, wait until they stumble upon those Gauze-era photographs.

^ Probably enough for a year's worth of rent.

Agreed with Mono2 - there are good and bad artists all around the world. Japan does have wonderful metal bands, but I disagree that Galneryus is the best example to use. The guitars are so interesting after a while and then don't really seem to go anywhere. Versailles has a similar problem. Although, in regards to emotional value . . . back in their early years, I did appreciate Yama-B's vocals and I thought he sang from the heart; that same emotion is also evident in his solo projects . . . though keep in mind this is my opinion only. Wouldn't doubt conflicting feelings about that issue was why he ended up leaving the band after a while. Japanese guitarists have a globally renowned tendency to lose emotional attachment to their work and only make stuff that sounds "cool" at the moment.

Koshi Inaba and Mirai (as already mentioned) Mitsuo Takeuchi is pretty good Manabu Takaya from Blindman Toshi is pretty good and Gackt is getting there

I guess it would depend on their music tastes mostly, so it is hard to say. If they like more mainstream, classic metal - Loudness or Anthem If they like more standard pop/alternative rock - B'z or Luna Sea If they have pretty eclectic/"indie" tastes - Number Girl or Boris If they like the really fast heavy "core" stuff - Sunsgrind or MUCC

There's not really a "first band" and even if there was, it would be extremely debateable considering there are different definitions for what people might consider "visual kei" - especially further back in Japanese rock music before the term was even widely used to describe any bands. There were many glam and hair bands that had visuals people would consider to be similar to what can be found in bands generally accepted as "visual kei," but since a lot of "old skool" J-Rock people hate having their favorite bands arbitrarily being coined as visual kei (for various reasons), there are constant arguments over which ones were "truly visual kei" and which ones weren't. It's confusing to me . . . @__@

@ Gazette argument: Am I the only one who finds it ironic that half the people who bash Gazette like it is the cool thing to do, cite bands in their interests or have bands in their avatars that look/sound remarkably . . . similar to the Gazette?

-Two spots reserved for Anthem and VOLA's new albums set to come out this year since I'm 99.9% sure they'll be awesome <3- Andymori - ファンファーレ??熱狂 (just got into this band recently, so cute!) Sunsgrind - Like a grown-up expressions (surprisingly it was really solid and well put together; I'm happy the old vocalist is back) Blindman - Re-Raise (also an album that is pretty solid and doesn't disappoint) GACKT - Ever (I know it is a single, but it still really stands out to me - nicely disapproves any assumptions that Gackt isn't capable of rocking out) Honorable mentions: D'espairsRay - Monsters (had a balance of good points and so-so points, my opinion is much higher of it than last year's album) Versailles - JUBILEE (although I have yet to hear the entire thing, what I did hear a love a lot)

I couldn't name any off the top of my head, but the country South Africa does have a few bands. Don't know about the other nations.

I liked their music back before they started looking like VK twerps, tbh. WTF, Ban.

Or Shibata-san, or Taiji Sawada, or Takasaki, or Mirai, or Atsuo ^^

The name "Desert Apple" makes me laugh. Really curious about the new single now! Masashi and Teru look beautiful in the new picture.

Lol, I guess this is no longer approriate for the "rumor" section, lol.

Thanks for sharing those; now I feel less like an idiot fan. Oooh, he is a very pretty boy.

Congrats, Masashi! Anyone have a picture of him. . .? I don't think I've ever seen him, lol.